Telecaster Superswitch + 2 Push Push Button Wiring, Please Help!

[Shawngs]

Hi all,

I'm brand new to rewiring guitars and to the forum. I've just purchased a 5-way superswitch and a 4 wire humbucker to add to my standard telecaster. I've also purchased 2 S1 Switches to replace the volume and tone controls. Can someone ELI5 how to wire this? Pictures would help since for me this is like a dodo bird trying to translate hieroglyphics from Chinese to Greek. The HB is in the neck position, the middle and bridge pickups will be single coils.

Here is my proposed setup (I think this is the correct order...):
Position 1: Bridge
Position 2: Bridge + Middle
Position 3: Bridge + Neck
Position 4: Middle + Neck
Position 5: Neck

Volume S1: Change HB from full to Coil Split
Tone S1: Change Single Coils from Series to Parallel for positions 2, 3, and 4 (positions 2 and 3 only when HB is coil split)

My goal is to have the guitar be as versatile as possible and I'm open to other setups as well. Again, a wiring diagram would really help.

I've read the Seymour Duncan Guitar Wiring Diploma Course (https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/the-tone-garage/guitar-wiring-diploma-course) but can't figure out my desired setup since its not spelled out for me. Please help!

Thank you all!

 

[Shawngs]

Re: Telecaster Superswitch + 2 Push Push Button Wiring, Please Help!

So I finally got my hands dirty and took the guitar apart. The HB has been placed, lots of soldering done, and.... it doesn't work. The only sound I get is in the first position with the tone S1 pressed and the second position with the tone S1 depressed. The HB gets some very faint static sound when I play in other positions but that's about it I can't tell that the Volume S1 switch works at all. Did I just ruin my guitar?





















AAArrrgggghhhh!

 

[hamerfan]

Re: Telecaster Superswitch + 2 Push Push Button Wiring, Please Help!

Good luck! And try to keep it simple.

 

[Gstring]

Re: Telecaster Superswitch + 2 Push Push Button Wiring, Please Help!

Apologies for late contribution but I am not a daily internet user.

Sorry that your project has not gone smoothly.This can be very depressing. I had several similar experiences when I first started tinkering with guitar wiring around 15 years ago. Sadly , although I have been involved in more wiring projects than I can remember, I have zilch experience of both S1 and super switches so I am very reluctant to give detailed advice. However I strongly recommend that you persevere with checking and double checking your wiring for continuity and shorts paying special attention to grounds. Think 2 wires most of the time to keep things simple. This may not sound that helpful but if you can sort this yourself it will give you great confidence and your learning curve will be steep for future projects..

Your post intrigued me as (a) you appear to have got a super switch into a Telecaster cavity where several before you have failed and (b) your project reminded me of a project I was involved with a few years ago to produce an all options Telecaster with the same SSH configuration . I actually primarily used a 2 pup Telecaster wiring idea that I had previously come up with using an ordinary 5 way to give the usual 3 positions plus both pups with a cap and pups in series plus a push pull to put the bridge OOP. This gave 3 additional sounds OOP , half OOP and OOP in series which are all useable. To benefit from the additional. middle pup I just added another push pull which switched the middle pup on and off. To take full advantage of the neck Humbucker I also managed to squeeze in a mini on-on-on DTDP between the pots to give the bucker series /parallel /coil cut options. Getting the all the wiring in the Telecaster cavity was a bit tight but the owner was over the moon with the result. I mention this to show that it sometimes pays to think outside the box and get away from the usual 3 pups /5 way approach. .

 

[Shawngs]

Re: Telecaster Superswitch + 2 Push Push Button Wiring, Please Help!

Thank you for your encouragement! After it not working I was really discouraged and hadn’t opened it back up to see what the issue was.

 

[Shawngs]

Re: Telecaster Superswitch + 2 Push Push Button Wiring, Please Help!

So I opened it back up to look and...... I have no idea what to do. Anyone have a wiring diagram?

 

[Artie]

Re: Telecaster Superswitch + 2 Push Push Button Wiring, Please Help!

Each of those groups of three terminals is one switch. In at least two positions, you only have one wire connected, so nothing is going to happen there. (The green/white wire, and the black wire.) I can try to come up with something, but I move real slow these days as it pertains to doing diagrams.