Tele 4 Way Switch

Hi guys,

I would like to put a 4 way switch in a Tele. The guitar will have a Tonerider P90 for the neck and a Tonerider single coil for the bridge. I started reading up online and they are mentioning a 3rd wire that is connected to the base plate of the P90.
Some are contradicting it saying it's not needed because it has a plastic cover not metal.
I've done heaps of wiring in kits. Sometimes I understand how switches and push pull switches etc work and sometimes I just follow a wiring diagram wondering how does all this manage to work.

Has anyone done this mod with Tonerider pickups and what are your thoughts for the 3rd earth wire?

TIA, Rod.

Some P90s have metal covers, but in this case, it’s plastic one. But the metal base plate is grounded, and you don’t want the signal connected to it or it will get really noisy. P90s aren’t the quietest of pickups to start with. The base plate is normally either grounded by directly soldering it to the braid of the output cable, or sometimes a metal clip soldered to the braid which is screwed to the baseplate. Not the easiest of jobs to separate the two and add a separate ground wire.

So you could swap the signal and ground wires on the bridge pickup instead, as it’s normally just a matter of snipping a wire from the ground to the baseplate (if you don’t want to desolder it). Just a slight modification to the switch wiring.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Some P90s have metal covers, but in this case, it’s plastic one. But the metal base plate is grounded, and you don’t want the signal connected to it or it will get really noisy. P90s aren’t the quietest of pickups to start with. The base plate is normally either grounded by directly soldering it to the braid of the output cable, or sometimes a metal clip soldered to the braid which is screwed to the baseplate. Not the easiest of jobs to separate the two and add a separate ground wire.

So you could swap the signal and ground wires on the bridge pickup instead, as it’s normally just a matter of snipping a wire from the ground to the baseplate (if you don’t want to desolder it). Just a slight modification to the switch wiring.

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Thanks for the info Simon. You are right about trying to seperate the earth wire from the braided wire. I just saw a side view of the P 90 online. I don't want to stuff up a good pick up.
I'll look into to your 2nd suggestion. Thanks Simon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Some P90s have metal covers, but in this case, it’s plastic one. But the metal base plate is grounded, and you don’t want the signal connected to it or it will get really noisy. P90s aren’t the quietest of pickups to start with. The base plate is normally either grounded by directly soldering it to the braid of the output cable, or sometimes a metal clip soldered to the braid which is screwed to the baseplate. Not the easiest of jobs to separate the two and add a separate ground wire.

So you could swap the signal and ground wires on the bridge pickup instead, as it’s normally just a matter of snipping a wire from the ground to the baseplate (if you don’t want to desolder it). Just a slight modification to the switch wiring.

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Would the 2nd idea be switchable Simon?

Another thing I just thought of, would the Tonerider TRT 2B Hot Classic and Tonerider HOT 90N for the neck be compatible for noise cancelling in the middle position of a 3 way switch?
More searching came up with nothing..

My only thought is that they make the pickups in RWRP sets (so the individually sold pickups should also be the same), so a Tele bridge pickup and P90 neck pickup should have one pickup as RWRP compared to the other.

Note that with very different coil constructions, RWRP won’t be as effective on a Tele bridge/P90 combination as say on two Strat pickups, but better than not having it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Note that with very different coil constructions, RWRP won’t be as effective on a Tele bridge/P90 combination as say on two Strat pickups, but better than not having it.

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I will keep you posted Simon.. ;)