ESQUIRE WIRING

[ItsaBass]

Not hard to explain at all. You posted a diagram from Premier Guitar, not Fender. Different sources use different diagrams. But Fender uses 3300 pF at least some of the time, as evidenced by the stock Eldred wiring Esquire that I own. Many online say 4700 pF for Eldred...including Premier Guitar, which claims that Eldred himself chooses that value...and that's fine too. But IME it isn't actually what Fender uses, and Premier Guitar often posts information and diagrams that are flat-out wrong.

Different cap values are fine, but the Eldred mod only sounds like the Eldred mod with low valued caps, not caps in the range that you would use on a typical tone control. You want to mess around with caps that have a "3" as the last number of the numerical code. Typical tone control caps end with a "2." Use those on the Eldred mod, and all you get is the equivalent of running a typical tone control on 0.

Fender does not post, TMK, a diagram of their Custom Shop Esquire Eldred wiring. So everything we read about it online is filtered through additional parties...and hopefully we all know what that does to the integrity of information. But I can tell you that my '02 CS Esquire, which I have owned since new, and is still stock, uses a 3300 pF cap.

Bottom line: Try caps that have a "3" as the last digit of the numerical code, and you will get the intended Eldred effect. The exact value to use is a personal choice. IME, you can't go too wrong within the range of 1000 pF to 4700 pF.

[ItsaBass]

P.S. Since you are doing this for another person, I would rig up a 4-way switch in place of the Eldred cap, hanging out from under the control plate. Each position can go to a different cap: 1000 pF, 2200 pF, 3300 pF, 4700 pF. Have him bring his amp to your shop and choose a cap. Then you take the switch out and hard wire the selected cap in as he waits.

[Gstring]

Many thanks for the responses guys. Appreciate your imput. ItsaBass you made me smile with your reference to my shop! Sadly I am just a person with basic amateur soldering skills who has quite happily helped others over many years.

Your suggestion re the caps makes sense but think I will just go for the 3300 option.

May have my own Esquire project soon. I have just made a sucessful bid on an unfinished project involving a Far Eastern made guitar.. Am thinking about doing something with a 5 way to get both Arlo and Eldred options . Will probably start a new thread on the wiring . A tapped pup might also be nice.

This looks very affordable


http://www.irongear.co.uk/irongear_pickups_015.htm

[ItsaBass]

May have my own Esquire project soon. I have just made a sucessful bid on an unfinished project involving a Far Eastern made guitar.. Am thinking about doing something with a 5 way to get both Arlo and Eldred options . Will probably start a new thread on the wiring . A tapped pup might also be nice

If you don't want to spend the money on a super switch, or the time figuring out how it works, then you want a 4-way blade switch instead of a standard 5-way. The reason is that a standard 5-way is just a 3-way that bridges the outer throws to the middle in positions 2 and 4. In other words, it proves difficult to get five totally independent functions; positions 2 and 4 are always tied to other positions. WIth a 4-way, each position is independent, so with a single pickup, you can easily wire each position to do a certain thing, independently of what you have wired in the other positions.