Help for a friend's Tele wiring project

[Simon Barden]

I'm hoping someone like Weirdy will come along and see if anything's possible to make this circuit fit into a standard Tele cavity. My friend has an early 80s JV Fender (not Squier) Paisley Tele (so he doesn't want to do any body mods or anything that can't be reversed) but wants to try and get some more sounds from it.

He's messed about with the Jerry Donahue circuit, decided some of the options didn't do anything for him and whittled it down to the selections listed on the diagram. He's drawn it out to work using a 5-way superswitch, but the switch isn't going to fit into the normal Tele cavity without body mods - which he won't do. So is it going to be possible to do what he wants with say a 4-way switch (which will give him the series pickup mode), and a push/pull pot?

BTW, he's got a Strat pickup in the neck position (fitted to a replacement scratchplate) so there's no problem just swapping the wires around as there's no grounded cover to consider.

I used to be able to work this sort of stuff out myself, but now I just get confused.



Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Marcel]

If it were me I'd wire a normal 4 way switch and then add the old 5way pos#3 (OOP+cap+68k) on a pull switch.

[WeirdBits]

I have a couple of thoughts, I'll sketch them out and see if I can make them work.

[WeirdBits]

A superswitch would have been the ideal choice, but it can be made to work without one.

A Tele 4-way with a push/pull will give you the position 1, 2, 4 & 5 sounds with the push/pull switching the bridge + neck parallel to the OOP-cap-resistor option. The down side is that due to the way the 4-way has to be wired any position that includes the neck pup will be affected whenever the push/pull is up (including the neck by itself). That's fine if you don't mind having those extra sounds, but they may not be that useful and it would potentially mean having to play with the push/pull a lot more than you want to.

What may be a cleaner and more effective option is to have a Tele 4-way for the position 1, 2, 4 & 5 sounds and then use a 250K Fender S1 switch with a Tele knob for the volume. The trick would be when the S1 is 'up' you'd get the normal Tele 4-way sounds, but when it's pressed 'down' it would bypass the lever switch entirely and directly connect your position 3 OOP-cap-resistor + bridge combo to the volume. That would allow you to go from any setting to the OOP setting with just one press. I sketched it out quickly this afternoon and I think it will work as described and should fit without any need for cavity mods... if you can source the switch and matching knob.

The tone switching can be done with a push/pull for the tone pot so that should have everything covered.

If you want I can draw up a layout for you when I get some time.

[Simon Barden]

Thanks all for looking at it for me. I'll pass the S1 switch suggestion on as it sounds very workable. Weirdy, I'll let you know if he needs a diagram; he's normally keen to work these things out for himself if he can - he's just a bit limited on knowing what guitar-style switches are out there.

[Simon Barden]

OK, he's sorted it himself and passes on a heartfelt thanks to you, Weirdy.

[WeirdBits]

Happy to help.