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Wiring help with unorthodox tele setup
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Wiring help with unorthodox tele setup
Hey all, I could use some help with wiring up my telecaster. I’m fully aware this might be weird, but I thought it’d be a fun side project.<div>
So to get to it, first is the pickups. I plan on having a Staple P90 in the neck, a bill paisley secret agent pickup in the middle, and a normal tele pickup in the bridge. I’d like to have it wired mostly normal on a 3 way switch, where it’s Neck, Neck + Bridge, Bridge. I’d also like the Neck P90 to “see” a 500k pot, and the bridge to “see” a 250k pot.
Now you may be asking where the middle pickup is here, and here’s where it gets a bit weird. The secret agent pickup will be mounted under the pickguard, and wired to an on/off toggle. When off, it’ll be as if it isn’t there, out of the circuit. when on, it’ll be on in any and all positions the selector is set to. I’d like, if possible, for this pickup to “see” 250k aswell. I just thought it’d be kinda fun to do something different, even if it’s a bit nonsensical (though ive quickly become invested in this idea). How would I go about wiring this up, I’m pretty new to this kinda thing, so any help is appreciated!
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10 Replies
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It depends on how many pots/knobs you are interested in having… but if you kept to two pots, you could use a concentric stacked pot with a 250/500K, the first as a dual volume, and the second as a volume/master tone. I would wire the middle pickup to a kill switch and then to it’s own 250K volume, then directly to the output, and wire the neck and bridge pickups the typical way to the 3 way switch. Hope that helps!
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It WILL require 3 pots and one switch minimum. And unlike standard tele wiring the pickups will be wired to the pots first and THEN to the switch. As Nicole mentioned you can do it with stacked pots -2 if you still want a tone control- and a mini toggle between the pots or a push-pull if you don’t use two stacked pots. But yes you can just hook up the secret pickup and pot directly to the output with an on/off switch sitch.
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So im having a bit of trouble visualizing this, apologies. If I were to use a push pull, then I could stick with having just 2 pots, a master volume and tone? How would this work in practice with the toggle, would pulling up the pot/knob turn on the pickup, or the toggle?
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The way i’m understanding it currently is as follows.
1 500k Tone pot, 1 500k Push/pull volume pot, 1 3-way selector. Looking back, i’m guessing the toggle is omitted here in favor of the push/pull. Pickups are wired to the pot first, then selector, then straight to the output(?). Then when the volume knob is pulled up, it “turns on” the middle pickup. How/where would I put a resistor to get the bridge and middle pickups here to “see” the 500k as 250k instead. Apologies if the questions are a bit much, i’m very new at messing with the wiring in my guitar, and am used to just following diagrams for pickups swaps. This is my first venture into trying something new.
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Hey Bryan
This is a little unusual but I think it should be possible.
The bridge and neck are wired to the 3-way as usual. There’s a fixed 470K resistor between the bridge and ground. Using a 500K pot for volume, this means that the pot’s resistance is halved when the bridge pickup is active — it makes the bridge positions only see (approx) 250K. That also applies to the bridge/neck mix but that seems a reasonable compromise unless you want to start installing super switches.
The middle pickup is switched on the push-pull (use a toggle if you want). Pulled up, it’s active and its signal goes straight to the volume (which is effectively a master volume now). Pushed down, the middle pickup is completely grounded and out of circuit.
This works in my head. Hopefully reality concurs.
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Hey, I just wanted to follow up with this and say thank you! I’ve got it wired up now and it seems to work out just how I wanted it! I have run into an issue though that I didn’t expect. The bridge pickup is very quiet. I’m honestly not sure what to do, I’ve tested the pickups on a multimeter, and it read as id expected.
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After fiddling with it for a while, i’ve found that the middle pickup seems to be the culprit. when its connected via the push pull, whether its pulled up or left down, it kills the total output of the entire guitar.
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Just to confirm, you’ve disconnected the middle pickup’s hot wire from the push pull switch and the other pickups work as expected?
Can you post a photo of the wiring? 👍
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Yes
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I’m trying to get this straight in my head but things might go slowly with forum back-and-forths. Are you available to pop on the loothalong at some point in the next few days to talk it through?
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