The ultimate tele wiring mod, help make dreams become reality.

[333]

Blend: essentially replaces the tone cap with the neck pickup it sweeps from the bridge exclusively through all middle positions finishing at neck exclusively.

Master volume: typical master volume with treble bleed cap.


Series, guitar operates in series

Out of phase, guitar operates out of phase

Parallel, guitar operates in Parallel



(What happens to the series/parallel wiring when the sweep is only set to one pickup? what about the out of phase setting?)

Thoughts/assistance? EDIT: not sure if you can "blend" two pickups in parallel, perhaps just bypass the blend and have both pickups run to the volume in that setting? not sure. I'm not opting for diagrams just basic troubleshooting at this stage.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: The ultimate tele wiring mod, help make dreams become reality.

In my experience, out of phase and pickups in series isn't as useful in practice. Probably why guitars aren't wired that way by default.

The blend however is very useful.

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: The ultimate tele wiring mod, help make dreams become reality.

You're on the right track with your thinking on the blend, but not quite there yet. By the way, I like the idea a lot... has some cool possiblities!

For the blend pot you'll want one of these: http://www.guitarelectronics.com/pr...Guitar-and-Bass-Pickup-Balance-Blend-Pot.html With just a single pot like you're talking about, you'll only be able to blend the neck pickup in... but the blend pot in this link will allow you to blend from one to the other and even has a center detente.

The three-way switch will be a little problematic, as it will be hard to find a super 3-way. I had found a supplier after much internet searching, but when I placed an order for one last week I was told that he was no longer going to carry them. A standard 3-way Tele switch won't work. You can, however, find 3-way mini 4PDT switches that could probably work, but it might look a little funny mounted in the slot (of course you could always just get a blank plate and drill your own holes).

I'd be happy to keep brain-storming with you if you want to bounce any more ideas off me. :fing2:

 

[AniML]

Re: The ultimate tele wiring mod, help make dreams become reality.

Interesting ideas, but....

i wonder if over time the blend becomes one or maybe two favorite knob positions that you'd use regularly and might find you really don't need the full sweep? I dont know and I am just a basement wonker so not sure how valuable the blend is on stage, just thinking out loud.

On my favorite Tele I use a 4 way switch: Bridge/parallel/neck/series and your basic vol and tone controls. But my tone knob is a push-pull with a "cocked wah" circuit which when switched disengages the tone pot and gives a nasal honky sound like (you guessed it) a cocked wah pedal. It is nothing but a resistor and a couple small caps and basically filters the signal to leave the nasally upper mids. I think it is more useful and more pronounced than out of phase, but is best when used with the bridge pup and a decent amount of gain.

 

[Myaccount876]

Re: The ultimate tele wiring mod, help make dreams become reality.

In my experience, out of phase and pickups in series isn't as useful in practice. Probably why guitars aren't wired that way by default.

The blend however is very useful.

- Series by itself isn't that useful with high gain (it can be just the right thing for edge of break up though).

- Phase switching (in the standard parallel) also isn't that useful because it makes an already relatively thin sound thinner.

However, when you combine series and phase switching, you get a very cool and usable tone - especially for leads. You can also wire a normal DPDT switch to throw a standard wiring setup straight into series/OOP wiring, so you won't have the options that you're less likely to use.

To me, the standard modern telecaster switching is great as-is, and a single series/oop switch is a nice addition. The tone control can work wonders on the bridge pickup, the neck pickup solo'd is very clear and smooth sounding while contrasting with the bridge pickup very well, and the middle position is cool for certain clean tones.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: The ultimate tele wiring mod, help make dreams become reality.

I'm no fan of treble bleed caps. I like that the sound gets darker as you roll back and brighter if you go up to ten. It is kind of like a built in "lead boost" if you get your rhythm tones on the amp with the volume rolled back. If you have a responsive amp, the natural behaviour of regular wiring becomes an advantage, so your rhythm tones sit back in the mix where they should be and don't sound thin and reedy. Still it is something you can experiment with and it is easily reversible.
Series...yeah you could always add a switch or a push/pull pot on the tone knob. Leave it down and your guitar will be in stock parallel when both pickups are used. Up and you have some extra grunt from the series.
Out of phase? Yeah...nah.
Blend...Teles have a mind boggling amount of tonal variation purely from where and how you hit the strings with your right hand. I reckon the disadvantages of wiring in a blender ala jazz bass outweigh the advantages. Regular 3 way switching gives you instant access to 3 real nice sounds. Plus, you still have a tone pot. The tone pot is an often overlooked goldmine of tonal variation and versatility if you use it in combination with your amp settings.
The volume and tone controls on a tele are simple, effective, interactive and give you a myriad of tones if you integrate the use of them into your playing. Again, if you set your amp up to accommodate a "rolled back volume" rhythm sound, you can get everything from dark and jazzy to bright and cutting in any pickup position or volume. Adding extra/alternative stuff looks to be the choice of someone who has really not explored the inherent versatility of the original setup.
To be honest, i find that the telecaster probably more than any other guitar with its incredibly simple setup is capable of a myriad of tones, light and shade.

The question that comes to my mind after reading the original post is....what kind of amp or pedal setup are you using?

ps. If you are after some more versatility to add to the original tele sound, have a look at one of the hot tapped pickups. You can use a push pull here, so down sounds like a regular tele, but up will give you a real blazing hot sound from the bridge (or neck as well if that is your thing). http://customshop.seymourduncan.com/53-tapped-tele/

 

[333]

Re: The ultimate tele wiring mod, help make dreams become reality.

I could probably draw and post the diagram myself, it's just there are still questions I need help with..


- It has the modes "series" and "parallel" but don't you need two single coils to be in either of those? what is it "in" if you only have one pickup blended?

- What should the out of phase setting be, out of phase in series or parallel? what happens when you turn the blend knob, would that effect the phase?

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: The ultimate tele wiring mod, help make dreams become reality.

I could probably draw and post the diagram myself, it's just there are still questions I need help with..


- It has the modes "series" and "parallel" but don't you need two single coils to be in either of those? what is it "in" if you only have one pickup blended?

- What should the out of phase setting be, out of phase in series or parallel? what happens when you turn the blend knob, would that effect the phase?

If you only have one pickup, and the other has no magnet, being a dummy coil, what you are blending is the amount of humbucking or hum interference.

If I were going to put out of phase on a guitar again, I would be inclined to hard wire it to be two pickups out of phase with those same two pickups in series.

FWIW - this below was the ultimate Tele wiring for me. I put all the 'stock' Tele options on one guitar. I could make it sound like any Tele from just about any era.

 

[Gstring]

Re: The ultimate tele wiring mod, help make dreams become reality.

- Series by itself isn't that useful with high gain (it can be just the right thing for edge of break up though).

- Phase switching (in the standard parallel) also isn't that useful because it makes an already relatively thin sound thinner.

However, when you combine series and phase switching, you get a very cool and usable tone - especially for leads. You can also wire a normal DPDT switch to throw a standard wiring setup straight into series/OOP wiring, so you won't have the options that you're less likely to use.

To me, the standard modern telecaster switching is great as-is, and a single series/oop switch is a nice addition. The tone control can work wonders on the bridge pickup, the neck pickup solo'd is very clear and smooth sounding while contrasting with the bridge pickup very well, and the middle position is cool for certain clean tones.

Absolutely +1

 

[333]

Re: The ultimate tele wiring mod, help make dreams become reality.

- Series by itself isn't that useful with high gain (it can be just the right thing for edge of break up though).

- Phase switching (in the standard parallel) also isn't that useful because it makes an already relatively thin sound thinner.

However, when you combine series and phase switching, you get a very cool and usable tone - especially for leads. You can also wire a normal DPDT switch to throw a standard wiring setup straight into series/OOP wiring, so you won't have the options that you're less likely to use.

To me, the standard modern telecaster switching is great as-is, and a single series/oop switch is a nice addition. The tone control can work wonders on the bridge pickup, the neck pickup solo'd is very clear and smooth sounding while contrasting with the bridge pickup very well, and the middle position is cool for certain clean tones.

Yeah I would want the out of phase setting to be wired in series, I have reviewed the mod and simplified it, I am no longer using a dual blend pot, just a normal pot which blends the neck pickup in with the bridge, to my limited knowledge I got the basic diagram down but I'm unsure about the final tricky part which has to do with the actual switching, which leads me to ask..

-Parallel
-Out of phase (series)
-Series
Is it possible to wire the 3 way switch like this? (provided the bridge signal still passes through when the neck is rolled off) see below diagram.

 

[Mischa]

Re: The ultimate tele wiring mod, help make dreams become reality.

Hi, I know this post is older than a year but this is exactly what I was after as well and was wondering if you eventually found a way to make this work...

 

[333]

Re: The ultimate tele wiring mod, help make dreams become reality.

Hi, I know this post is older than a year but this is exactly what I was after as well and was wondering if you eventually found a way to make this work...

Yes this is among the simple circuits and works easily, I personally can't remember the details of the setup however any bloke around here could do you up a schematic and if you can't find anyone to do it you may have to mow someones lawn and a professional can give you a full custom schematic here - http://guitarelectronics.com/guitar-wiring-resources/custom-drawn-guitar-wiring-diagrams/

The thing is when I came up with this setup I knew a lot less than what I know now and I currently don't think it's that useful for a lot of reasons.. here is the configuration of my new ideal setup, as you can see the controls are no different from a standard T-style configuration yet each has been slightly improved. (imo)

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: The ultimate tele wiring mod, help make dreams become reality.

Yes this is among the simple circuits and works easily, I personally can't remember the details of the setup however any bloke around here could do you up a schematic and if you can't find anyone to do it you may have to mow someones lawn and a professional can give you a full custom schematic here - http://guitarelectronics.com/guitar-wiring-resources/custom-drawn-guitar-wiring-diagrams/

The thing is when I came up with this setup I knew a lot less than what I know now and I currently don't think it's that useful for a lot of reasons.. here is the configuration of my new ideal setup, as you can see the controls are no different from a standard T-style configuration yet each has been slightly improved. (imo)

View attachment 81670

That's a great solution for a Tele. Basically a treble bleed on the volume and move the tone connection over to the switch for the neck pickup. Although I will say the treble bleed is less necessary if the volume pot is slightly higher value and the pickups are lower output.

 

[Joey Voltage]

Re: The ultimate tele wiring mod, help make dreams become reality.

One thing that might become apparent is that an active blend might be a better solution than a passive one, as both would be better isolated from each other, and then mixed with in the active device, but that would require a little more room with in the cavity for a few things including a battery. Entirely possible to do though. I could post a schematic of how to go about it if youre still interested.

 

[333]

Re: The ultimate tele wiring mod, help make dreams become reality.

One thing that might become apparent is that an active blend might be a better solution than a passive one, as both would be better isolated from each other, and then mixed with in the active device, but that would require a little more room with in the cavity for a few things including a battery. Entirely possible to do though. I could post a schematic of how to go about it if youre still interested.

I'm personally no longer interested in this layout, however while your here do you mind if I ask some questions about potentiometers?

I use a single dirty channel amp and clean up with my volume control, I also am primarily a solo fingerstylist so I have my volume rolled off %90 of the time, hence forth, the way the signal interacts with the volume pot is a huge part of my sound, the problem is a well known one, rolling of the volume muddies the tone, and the best solution I have found so far is a treble bypass cap which I have installed, however like many I find the resulting bright tone rather thin, ideally I would want a pot/circuit that rolls off while retaining the full bandwidth of my signal, that way I could clean up and retain a huge amount of frequency rather than rely on a thin treble bleed to pathetically shimmer over the ensuing mud.

In summary - is it possible to have a fixed bandwidth potentiometer in my guitar? I would opt for it to be passive but I am skeptical of if that may be possible, thank you.

 

[Joey Voltage]

Re: The ultimate tele wiring mod, help make dreams become reality.

I'm personally no longer interested in this layout, however while your here do you mind if I ask some questions about potentiometers?

I use a single dirty channel amp and clean up with my volume control, I also am primarily a solo fingerstylist so I have my volume rolled off %90 of the time, hence forth, the way the signal interacts with the volume pot is a huge part of my sound, the problem is a well known one, rolling of the volume muddies the tone, and the best solution I have found so far is a treble bypass cap which I have installed, however like many I find the resulting bright tone rather thin, ideally I would want a pot/circuit that rolls off while retaining the full bandwidth of my signal, that way I could clean up and retain a huge amount of frequency rather than rely on a thin treble bleed to pathetically shimmer over the ensuing mud.

In summary - is it possible to have a fixed bandwidth potentiometer in my guitar? I would opt for it to be passive but I am skeptical of if that may be possible, thank you.

That's unfortunately a tough one. it's a common problem because as you turn the pot down, you start to increase the effective source resistance the guitar cable and amplifier see, which increases the high frequency roll off due to the cable capacitance and the effective input capacitance of the amplifier. It's more exacerbated when running into a tube amplifier due to the inherent miller effect that's very prominent with hollow state. The larger the pots value the worse it can be, since the source resistance will be at its worse when the two halves of the pot are equal to each other. With a 500k pot it can be as bad as 125k, with the range between 6-9 for most audio taper pots affecting things the most. The obvious solution would be to decrease the value of the pot, and thus decrease the possible value of resistance that can be spewed out of it, but unfortunately such a move would severely load down your pickups making it a moot endeavor. Passively it's a bit of a double edged sword.


The treble shelving only really works because it's essentially getting rid of any attenuation you would normally have via the volume pot at the range of frequencies dictated by the capacitor and the two halves of the pot, it essentially makes it look like the portion of the potentiometer that the capacitor bypasses isn't there for the range of frequencies dictated by the filter, what's more is the intensity of the shelving increases as you turn the pot down, as does the effective loading which lends a very weedy sound. Since the portion of the pot bypassed by the cap essentially is a short for the range of affected frequencies, the pickup is loaded more heavily by the unbypassed portion of the pot.

Unfortunately The easiest solution out would be to utilize an active buffer.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Re: The ultimate tele wiring mod, help make dreams become reality.

...the best solution I have found so far is a treble bypass cap which I have installed, however like many I find the resulting bright tone rather thin, ideally I would want a pot/circuit that rolls off while retaining the full bandwidth of my signal, that way I could clean up and retain a huge amount of frequency rather than rely on a thin treble bleed to pathetically shimmer over the ensuing mud.

In summary - is it possible to have a fixed bandwidth potentiometer in my guitar? I would opt for it to be passive but I am skeptical of if that may be possible, thank you.

Not as fancy as a full bandwidth pot, but have you tried a resistor in parallel with your treble bleed cap? Full disclosure- I'm no expert. But my understanding is that with just a cap, as you turn down more low-treble frequencies are allowed to pass, resulting in harsher tone the lower you turn the control. I believe the parallel resistor keeps the cutoff frequency more constant, leaving your tone more natural through the range of the volume control.

It's been discussed by folks with far more expertise than myself; might be worth looking up. And it would be fairly simple to try.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: The ultimate tele wiring mod, help make dreams become reality.

Blend: essentially replaces the tone cap with the neck pickup it sweeps from the bridge exclusively through all middle positions finishing at neck exclusively.

Master volume: typical master volume with treble bleed cap.


Series, guitar operates in series

Out of phase, guitar operates out of phase

Parallel, guitar operates in Parallel

I came up with something like this once, but then I decided that I dislike the out of phase tone on a Tele and that series didn't work to well with the pickups I was using (Broadcaster bridge, and some Charlie Christian style pickup for the neck).

I ended up doing this:
3- Neck through .01 cap for Jazz
2- Neck and Bridge in parallel using blend pot
1- Bridge alone, bypassing blend pot for a brighter sound

Then I realized how close I was to blackguard wiring. It's funny how forward thinking sometimes takes you back to the beginning...

 

[Joey Voltage]

Re: The ultimate tele wiring mod, help make dreams become reality.

Not as fancy as a full bandwidth pot, but have you tried a resistor in parallel with your treble bleed cap? Full disclosure- I'm no expert. But my understanding is that with just a cap, as you turn down more low-treble frequencies are allowed to pass, resulting in harsher tone the lower you turn the control. I believe the parallel resistor keeps the cutoff frequency more constant, leaving your tone more natural through the range of the volume control.

It's been discussed by folks with far more expertise than myself; might be worth looking up. And it would be fairly simple to try.

Unfortunately That will only some what normalize where the rise frequency of the filter begins to an extent, (puts a limit on how much it can be pushed down in frequency) the other draw backs mentioned above are still very present.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: The ultimate tele wiring mod, help make dreams become reality.

Look up the Kinman treble bleed the cap value is .001uf, in series with a resistor of about half your pot values. That's what I use for my guitar's and it works well.