Wires, wires everywhere...

Home stretch time, kids!

Let's see if I can splain the pixture on the right wit all dem arrows n'stuff.

This is the bottom side of the Tele's control plate. I did a bunch of stuff on here and thought it might be easier to have some text on de pixture to splain instead of saying stuff like "that thing on the right with all the wires is..." and choo would be like "well, dude, dey ALL got wires..." and so on.

Or something like that.

With a standard 'modern' Telecaster (modern being from about 1968 onwards) there is a three-way pickup switch that gives you a choice of neck pick up only, neck and bridge in parallel, or bridge only, for three different tones. There are also master volume and master tone controls.

A very popular modification is to put in a 4-way switch and wire it up to give a fourth selection - neck and bridge in series. This option is a bit louder and fuller - good for chunky power chords.

So I did this, but I also am using a c-c-c-crazy Don Mare tapped "2-speed Stingray" bridge pickup. This is wired so one coil tap is about 6K DC resistance (twangier) and the other tap is 8K resistance (a bit hotter). If you use this pickup, you just need to rig up a way to switch the different coil taps. You could use the standard switch, or you could do like I did, and put a push-pull switch combined with a potentiometer on it. This is a switch on the tone control (you could do it on volume, I just chose tone...) when in the "down" position, is the 6K tap, and when pulled up, is the 8K tap.

Since the two taps are on the bridge pickup, both options are there anytime you've selected the bridge pickup, so ve now haff seven (!) different tones, from front to back on the 4-way switch:

1. First position of switch: Neck and Bridge (6K) in series
2. First position of switch: Neck and Bridge (8K) in series
3. Second position of switch: Neck pickup alone
4. Third position of switch: Neck and Bridge (6K) in parallel
5. Third position of switch: Neck and Bridge (8K) in parallel
6. Fourth position of switch: Bridge alone (6K)
7. Fourth position of switch: Bridge alone (8K)

The pixture identifies all the junk that makes this happen.  You can see the coil tap switch - it's literally a DPDT switch on top of a potentiometer.

I also have a 'volume kit' filter wired on the volume pot - its a 220K resistor in parallel with an .001 microfarad capacitor. This prevents the high end rolloff you get when you turn the volume pot down.

The neatest thing about all this, imho, is the fact that from the outside, the geetar looks like a standard Tele...no extra switches at all. Sort of a sleeper Super Tele.

The piece of resistance might be the way cool pearl pickguard I got from Warmoth Guitars. The standard pickguard on the 60s MIM body is the usual 'mint green' and I wanted something a little different.

Even a bozo like me can put one of these different pickguards on...it's just 8 screws. Whoo hoo!

And guess what...?  Warmoth has tons of colors and shapes to choose from.  I'm already thinking ahead to the Tele thinline I'm gonna build this winter...



Here's a sorta-beauty shot after it's all done.  I'll have to get it outside soon for some better pictures, but you get the idea.  The new bridge, pickguard and control panel look totally killer.