Fighting with my interpretation of a Nashville Tele

[56LPC]

Hello all – I got some very helpful advice here (thanks Freefrog!) in the past for a 3-pickup Les Paul wiring that I likely never would have fixed on my own (one pickup had a coil hooked up in reverse internally). I’m on to a new project and am stumped again.

This is my attempt at a Nashville Tele. I am using a 2-pole switch so I can have N+B on position 3, and I am trying 50’s-style tone cap wiring (as I do on all my humbucker guitars). Diagram is oriented for a reversed control plate (sorry if that is confusing at first).



All pickups appear to be active in the proper switch positions, but the output is very low and weak/hollow. I’ve checked for continuity at each switch position as well as most hot and ground points and cannot find anything cross-wired. Measured at the jack, my resistance readings are about half what I would expect at each position:

B = 3.35K
B+M = 2.09K
B+N = 2.08K
M+N = 1.84K
N = 2.77K

It seems like I have a 5K or so load in parallel at all positions but I cannot find it? The bottom of the cavities is shielded and tied to the bridge, and the switch is not making contact with the cavity shield (these measurements are the same when the control plate is pulled out.

Any ideas for troubleshooting this other than tearing it all apart? Thanks in advance…

- 56LPC

 

[beaubrummels]

Are your pickups humbucking/stacked and did they get inadvertently wired in parallel?

 

[56LPC]

Are your pickups humbucking/stacked and did they get inadvertently wired in parallel?

Bit of a false alarm here, I guess. Sorry for crying wolf.

The pickups are Wilde side-by-side rails (L-45S N and M, L-48TL in bridge). They only have three wires, so I didn't mess that part up.

After I posted, I studied the schematic a few more times , then started probing connections on the switch, re-flowing some. I don't know what did it, but eventually the B position started reading right, and then the N position did as well. I kept going for a bit before I remembered pos 3 was SUPPOSED to read lower because I put N+B in parallel (not just the M pickup alone, like on a Strat). Habit got in the way for that!

It is all working correctly now, though I don't know exactly what did it. The connections all had proper connectivity, but merely poking around, re-flowing, and inspecting all spots for shorts moved something just enough? Fingers crossed that it stays this way! The new readings in-circuit are:

B = 8.13K
B+M = 3.23K
B+N = 3.22K
M+N = 2.70K
N = 5.15K

Thanks for looking - last time I was truly up a creek and I thought I was again. Appreciate the helpfulness of the forum, and I can vouch that the diagram I created above works as planned if anyone else wants to use it (haven't seen another exactly like it).

- 56LPC