My 1st Esquire build

Pete Galati

Pete Galati

New member
I decided I should finally put together an Esquire last night. Something I've never done.

This is all parts I've used before on other things. Except for the Stewmac pickguard I had sitting around, and I taped over the pickup hole with black tape, and filled from the back with silicon sealant. But I have an Esquire pirckguard coming from GRguitars, and that should show up this week.

PigglyEsquire.jpg


That's a Warmoth Swamp Thing body, and an Allparts neck. One of those cheap Fender Tele bridge plates from MF. The pickup is a hot GFS '62 Repro that actually sounded about as fat as a humbucker last time I used it. 1meg linear taper CTS volume pot with .001uf treble bleed cap, 1meg audio taper CGE tone pot, and a .05uf ceramic tone cap. And to keep things simple, I didn't wire up the usual Esquire switch system.

If I decide I like the whole Esquire thing, I'll probably upgrade to a CRS Glendale bridgeplate, and a Lollar "Special T Series" Tele pickup. Maybe even look up how to wire an Esquire switch.

Pete
 
Re: My 1st Esquire build

That first set-up always takes time.

How'd you get it to stick to the ceiling like that?
 
Re: My 1st Esquire build

sosomething said:
That first set-up always takes time.

How'd you get it to stick to the ceiling like that?
Click to expand...

I'm just getting my second cup of coffee.

I discovered that these new thermostats have an anti gravity setting. If you just dime that, you'll have twice as many flat surfaces to set things on.

Pete
 
Re: My 1st Esquire build

Pete Galati said:
I'm just getting my second cup of coffee.

I discovered that these new thermostats have an anti gravity setting. If you just dime that, you'll have twice as many flat surfaces to set things on.

Pete
Click to expand...

That's awesome. You get that from Home Depot or did it come with your house?
 
Re: My 1st Esquire build

Hm. I wonder if that's anything like "84 Lumber."

Either way it's a great-looking tele.
 
Re: My 1st Esquire build

sosomething said:
Hm. I wonder if that's anything like "84 Lumber."
Click to expand...

The Nevada Home Improvement store.

This Esquire needs some work. Made a good slide guitar though, even with the strings lowered.

I need to install 250K pots and give that pickup a better chance, but I think this pickup's just going to get on my nerves and I'll have to upgrade it.

This Lollar is pretty high on my list:
http://www.lollarguitars.com/mm5/me...re_Code=LGP&Product_Code=218&Category_Code=PP

I think I'll like the whole one pickup deal though once I work the bugs out.

I need to figure out an Esquire switching system that doesn't send the pickup through the switch too. I don't see any particular need for the pickup's signal to go through switch contacts.

Pete
 
Re: My 1st Esquire build

Pete Galati said:
I need to figure out an Esquire switching system that doesn't send the pickup through the switch too. I don't see any particular need for the pickup's signal to go through switch contacts.

Pete
Click to expand...

How's that??

How can the switch affect the tone of the pickup if it's not somewhere between the pickup and the output jack? I don't think you can get it to filter something through a cap and then relay back to the pickup. It's either straight through to the output and no switch, or through the switch.

Right?
 
Re: My 1st Esquire build

sosomething said:
How's that??

How can the switch affect the tone of the pickup if it's not somewhere between the pickup and the output jack? I don't think you can get it to filter something through a cap and then relay back to the pickup. It's either straight through to the output and no switch, or through the switch.

Right?
Click to expand...

I'm gonna have to sit down and map out the switch and figure out how exactly those two caps and the resistor on the switch, connect.

There might be a reason for running the pickup through the switch that I don't understand yet.
 
Re: My 1st Esquire build

I think to have a switch work at all, you've got to run your signal through it.

You've got one source and one destination.

Pickup ---------------------> Output jack.

Everything else in the guitar has got to sit between those two points in the circuit.
 
Re: My 1st Esquire build

sosomething said:
I think to have a switch work at all, you've got to run your signal through it.

You've got one source and one destination.

Pickup ---------------------> Output jack.

Everything else in the guitar has got to sit between those two points in the circuit.
Click to expand...

Not exactly. I could put the switch between the volume pot, and the tone control circuits, and switch between different kinds of tone control circuits.

I can see what Fender was doing now, and I can't do that without running the pickup through the switch.

In the (what they call the "Fixed treble rolloff") position, they put a .05uf cap between the pickup and the volume control's input, and also a 3.3K resistor and another .05uf cap between the volume control's input, and the ground.

And the only way to do that would be to have the switch between the pickup and the volume control.

No wonder the Esquire wiring always confused me. It doesn't really make sense unles you map out what's happening in the switch.

I guess I can follow what Fender did.

Pete
 
Re: My 1st Esquire build

With the way the Esquire is wired, with the 3-way in the bridge position (full right), the tone pot is out of the circuit. With it in the middle, the tone pot is in circuit. With it in the full left position, the tone pot is out and the resistor/cap combo is in circuit for a darker, bassy sound.

That's a nice looking guitar, Pete. I love Esquires myself and have plans to make a humbucker equipped Esquire next year.
 
Re: My 1st Esquire build

ErikH said:
With the way the Esquire is wired, with the 3-way in the bridge position (full right), the tone pot is out of the circuit. With it in the middle, the tone pot is in circuit. With it in the full left position, the tone pot is out and the resistor/cap combo is in circuit for a darker, bassy sound.

That's a nice looking guitar, Pete. I love Esquires myself and have plans to make a humbucker equipped Esquire next year.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I have sort of a humbucker Esquire, but not with a switching system.

I got my above description a little backwards, sorry. The resistor and the cap are between pickup and the pot, and the cap is between the pot and the ground.

I saw one variation that replaced that 3.3K resistor with a pot (might have been a trim pot) so you could dial in the fixed tone position.

I'm gonna see if I have any unused Oak Tele switches.

My real Esquire pickguard just showed up!
 
Re: My 1st Esquire build

Pete Galati said:
Thanks. I have sort of a humbucker Esquire, but not with a switching system.

I got my above description a little backwards, sorry. The resistor and the cap are between pickup and the pot, and the cap is between the pot and the ground.

I saw one variation that replaced that 3.3K resistor with a pot (might have been a trim pot) so you could dial in the fixed tone position.

I'm gonna see if I have any unused Oak Tele switches.

My real Esquire pickguard just showed up!
Click to expand...

I don't know how I'm going to wire it up. I've thought about one volume and a spin-a-split, or one volume, one tone and 3-way with splitting there or something. I'll be using my Brobucker in it, fixed Strat bridge.

The resistor/cap combo between the pickup and pot come in to play only in the full left position. Full right there's nothing there, just the pickup to the volume pot.

The neat thing about the fixed tone position is that you can taylor it to whatever you want with different caps and resistor values.
 
Re: My 1st Esquire build

This is the closest I'd come to an Esquire before:

WashburnKubickiTele.jpg


But it wasn't really intended to be an Esquire. Just a spare parts guitar that was easy to stick together.
 
Re: My 1st Esquire build

I LOVE it. Bridge plate from a Strat trem for the hardtail, route the Tele bridge pickup slot for a humbucker. That's wonderful. I bet it plays and sounds good too.
 
Re: My 1st Esquire build

That's a nice Esquire there man, good job. You should throw some Callaham knobs on there, they are super nice. :approve:
 
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