Esquire Wiring For Brighter Sound In "Neck" Position?

[Bruce Reed]

I have a recent Esquire with a Duncan Antiquity pickup. It was wired per vintage Esquire spec by my tech. In the direct "bridge" position it sounds great, but in the "neck" selector position just sounds muddy and overly bass-y, with no edge to it at all. Pleading ignorance I don't know what cap he used. Is there something I could do to make it a bit brighter?

In my Tele I installed a Duncan Strat Alnico 5 (SSL-1, I believe) and just love it. It would be cool if there was a way I could get the Esquire rhythm position to sound somewhat similar to that. If not, I am toying with the idea of just getting another pickguard, doing a bit of routing, and rewire it like my Tele. You may ask why, but they are two different playing guitars and I love them both, but as-is the Esquire is just a one-trick pony and I would like to use it more. Thanks in advance for any input or advice!

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Esquire Wiring For Brighter Sound In "Neck" Position?

Esquire Wiring For Brighter Sound In "Neck" Position?

On the original 2 pickup Esquire, the switch was as follows:


• Bridge pickup with blend option engaged to allow the neck pickup to be added with no tone control.

• Neck pickup alone with the blend option disabled and no tone control.

• Neck pickup alone with 0.05 μF tone cap engaged and blend option disabled.

So in the “neck” position it’s like having the tone control all the way off. And it’s too large of a cap value IMO.

The middle position is the neck.

Is yours wired differently?

Why not just wire it up like a Tele?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bruce Reed]

Re: Esquire Wiring For Brighter Sound In "Neck" Position?

Sorry, I wasn't clear. By "neck" position I meant the selector switch was in the neck or rhythm, forward location. This Esquire is a standard, single pickup guitar and wired as an early 50's model.

 

[shadowfire90]

Re: Esquire Wiring For Brighter Sound In "Neck" Position?

there are a few esquire wirings that I know of. My personal favorite uses a 4 wire tele bridge pickup to go series , coilsplit and parallel. On the side of the capacitor there will be writing on it. 2A223J , 2A333J, 2A473J being on the usual polyester capacitors I use. You can usually google this so no need for a fancy multimeter. The only time I use that function is if the letters faded off a capacitor.

However take a picture inside the guitar if you can or ask the tech which diagram he used as it can help us out.

if we look at this diagram mentioned here as I can imagine this is what they went with
https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/Fender_Esquire_Basics

One approach I'd try if it was my guitar is getting rid of the capacitors and resistor in position 3 and replace it with just a single 10nf (0.01uf) or 22nf (0.022uf) capacitor. What this does is filters a slight amount of output out of the pickup and gives you an illusion of a neck position.

or try this out, it's another premier guitar wiring , just avoid all the snake oil tone chasing Dirk mentions about which capacitor materials and all that nonsense.
https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/The_Modded_Eldred_Esquire_Wiring

 

[Bruce Reed]

Re: Esquire Wiring For Brighter Sound In "Neck" Position?

Here's how it is wired now. Hope this helps.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Esquire Wiring For Brighter Sound In "Neck" Position?

Hard to tell, but that cap on the switch is killing all the top end on the neck-most switch position. That’s the way the wiring works.

The middle position should be the neck pickup without the tone cap.

Your choices are replace the cap with a smaller value, or rewire the switch like a standard Tele. That will also give you both pickups at the same time. That’s what I would do.

And there’s no reason to use those big orange drops. What are they, like 200 volts? Look how cluttered that is. Just use a 10 volt cap.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Esquire Wiring For Brighter Sound In "Neck" Position?

One of the older “dark” wirings Leo used had an RC network with two .05 caps and a ~10k resistor (or something like that). One cap and the resistor were in series and the second cap was in parallel to that. That version “leaked” treble somehow so you could hear the percussive pick sounds and some of the highest part of the string sound. Playing with your hand position up by the neck sounds like an archtop acoustic jazz guitar. That’s my favorite Esquire wiring.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Esquire Wiring For Brighter Sound In "Neck" Position?

Eldred wiring or Arlo wiring are the most common variations on the "useless to most people" front position on an Esquire.

Eldred discards the stock vintage-style three-component cap/resistor "network," and instead uses a small valued cap straight to ground (about 1/10 the capacitance typical tone cap values, i.e. Eldred would typically use a .0047 or .0033 uF cap). Because there is no resistor, and just a simple cap to ground, Eldred is like running a tone pot on 0 while using a very small valued cap: honky and snarly – heavily treble attenuated, but still middy and full on the bottom. It's an awesome sound IMO, and it's what I typically wire as position three ("front" switch position) in my Esquires.

Arlo has a mid boost (mountain shaped graphic e.q.) effect. It keeps the same basic cap and resistor "network" as stock, but replaces the caps and resistor with different values. As a result, on the high end, you get the same basic idea as an Eldred mod, but to a lesser degree...and on the low end, you get some bass rolloff. It removes highs and lows, but leaves the mids. It typically results in what tends to get called a "cocked wah" sound among guitar hobbyists (whether this description is technically accurate or not).

 

[jeremy]

Re: Esquire Wiring For Brighter Sound In "Neck" Position?

for my esquire i have it wired with a master volume and the switch gives me three tonal options

1- .01 cap. dark setting but not as dark as typical stock wiring, almost cocked wah type tone
2- tone control with .022 cap
3- no tone

i really like the simplicity of my esquire with that wiring. if the .01 "dark" setting is too dark, you could try a smaller cap to let more high end through like the .0047 mentioned above

oh, and you shouldnt need to rout for a neck pup. even back in the day esquires were routed for neck pups.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Esquire Wiring For Brighter Sound In "Neck" Position?

Eldred mod for mine. Almost gives a Jeff Beck sort of honkyness to the tone.

 

[Bruce Reed]

Re: Esquire Wiring For Brighter Sound In "Neck" Position?

Thanks, gents! I am more confused than ever, but will try showing this to my tech and see if he can translate into English for me! He should know what you mean.

 

[hamerfan]

Re: Esquire Wiring For Brighter Sound In "Neck" Position?

In short: Get out the resistor and the two orange caps near the switch. Instead of them use a .003 uF or a .005 uF cap.

 

[Bruce Reed]

Re: Esquire Wiring For Brighter Sound In "Neck" Position?

In short: Get out the resistor and the two orange caps near the switch. Instead of them use a .003 uF or a .005 uF cap.

That makes sense! Will do. I was thinking of adding another pickup (making it a Tele) but will try this first. Merry Christmas!!

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Esquire Wiring For Brighter Sound In "Neck" Position?

Just look up wiring diagrams for Eldred and Arlo mods. There are many posted online, easily accessible via a Web search.

To reiterate:

1. Eldred mod is a high frequency, complete (like tone knob on 0) treble cut. It’s fatter and snarlier than Arlo. It’s a “woman tone” type of setting.

2. Arlo mod is about the same thing frequency-wise, but like tone run down some, not all the way down. Plus it has a complete low frequency cut. It’s a thinner tone than Eldred: no low end, and more high end (even though there is some high end reduction). It’s kind if a “thin wah wah” tone – as if you moved your Crybaby pedal to a thin sounding position along its sweep, and just left it cocked there.

 

[Bruce Reed]

Re: Esquire Wiring For Brighter Sound In "Neck" Position?

Eldred it is!!

There are a few different Eldred Mod diagrams posted so I will sort through them.

Thanks!