Single P-Rail with Tele 4-Way Switch

[Wulfman31]

I’m totally new to this stuff despite over twenty years of playing because soldering gives me anxiety. I want to build a Fender Esquire style guitar with a single P-Rail at the bridge as the guitar’s sole pickup with the Telecaster style selector switch functioning as the coil splitter.

Squire made an Avril Lavigne signature guitar that works like this but they just used what sounds like a stock humbucker so there isn’t much tonal difference between the two coils. I want to improve on this design by using a P-Rail. But as I said in the beginning of this post, soldering gives me anxiety.

So I want to use the Mojo Tone solderless wiring harness with a 4 way switch that moves between the four modes of the P-Rail. I know the Triple Shot mounting ring does this but I’m only going to be using one pickup with this build so the Triple Shot would negate the purpose of the selector switch. Plus I would like the quickness of the selector switch versus the tiny switches on the Triple Shot.

Am I missing something here? Will this work? Can a 4 way pickup selector switch work for splitting coils and going from series to parallel? I asked my Sweetwater sales rep but I don’t think they understood what I’m trying to do. Thanks in advance for any help/info you can provide!

 

[Wulfman31]

Here’s the wiring diagram for the Avril Lavigne telecaster. The three way switch splits the coils on either side, while the middle position engages them both. Is this a normal selector switch? Can they all perform this function? Is a switch just a switch?

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

I don't know how the Mojotone switch is wired, but with a regular 3-way you should be able to get the P90 coil, both coils in series OR in parallel, or the rail coil. Use a Fender 4-way and you can get P90, both in parallel, rail, AND both in series.

Whichever you go for just treat the P90 as one pickup, the rail as another, and follow the wiring diagram you chose.

 

[Wulfman31]

That’s what I thought! I suspect that the solderless kit is wired for that function because Teles often have that 4 way switch mod for the series sound. Thanks for the response!

 

[Blille]

I had that setup a while back in a tele that had only a prails in the neck. Have fun!