Five way pickup selector for a 2 pickup tele?

[Derek82]

Hey guys,
Is it possible to wire a 2 pickup tele with a five way selector to get the following tones?

1- bridge
2- bridge and neck (series)
3- bridge and neck (parallel)
4- bridge and neck (out of phase)
5- neck

I'm not fussy about order wiring if it's the difference between possible and not.

Thanks,
Derek.


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[chrissyinbkk]

got to be possible... how i have no idea..

http://www.jacksinstrumentservices.c...rol-plate.html

[Simon Barden]

It may be easier to get a 4-way Tele switch (which normally gives Bridge/Bridge + Neck in parallel/Neck/Bridge + Neck in series) and have the volume or tone pot as a switchable pot for the out-of-phase mode. (Just seen that this appears to be what the pre-wired plate Chrissyinbkk's link does). This will give the option of having both pickups in serial and parallel mode but out of phase as well as in-phase. True out of phase operation does sound really thin, so you may not like it after a while, which makes a separate switch for that mode quite useful as you can just leave the pot in the normal position without any risk of hitting a really weak thin sound if playing live.

One of the pickups will have to be modified (it's normally the neck pickup) so that the metal cover is disconnected from the pickup's signal ground and has its own ground wire added. This is necessary for the serial mode wiring as well as any phase switching. So you'll need to be reasonably good at soldering.

To get all the wiring on a 5-way switch, you'll probably need a 'super-switch', which normally has 4 sets of poles and is a lot chunkier than a standard switch. You may have trouble fitting one within the narrow confines of a standard Tele control cavity as they are more commonly used on Strat-style guitars where there is a bit more room in the cavity.

[Rossc0]

I was thinking of doing something similar and found this, have not tested it so not sure if it works.

[Derek82]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Simon, yeah I'm also questioning whether such a thin sound will be useful much of the time, so a push pull pot may be better.

I'm tossing up between vintage plus or hot classic toneriders. It'll probably be more useful with the hotter pickups, but I'm not sure whether the hotter pickups are better for me. Time will tell!

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[WeirdBits]

Late to the party, but as everyone has already said the 4-way plus push/push is the better, cheaper and easier option. It gives you the 6 settings instead of just 5 and is generally more flexible. I've wired several builds this way and it works well.

[Simon Barden]

Personally I like a hotter neck pickup. Most standard Tele bridge pickups are pretty loud anyway, but a classic neck pickup can be a rather underpowered in comparison. This has often been mentioned in magazine reviews of Teles. An overwound neck (in comparison to the Bridge) gives a better overall balance IMO.

The more powerful Tele bridge pickups generally knock off a fair bit of the top-end so they aren't as bright, so less of a Classic Tele sound. I've got a Seymour Duncan 'Hot' bridge pickup in one of my Teles, and it is quite powerful, but it is less of a Tele sound and more like a Strat bridge sound.

The sound of Tele pickups has varied over the years. Some have been very bright (over-bright IMO) to give that standard 'country' sound, whilst others have been thicker and rockier sounding. My own suggestion would be for a Vintage Plus bridge, plus a Hot Classic neck combination which (should) give (what is for me) a nice balanced combination. But in the end it's what you'd like.

[Derek82]

Personally I like a hotter neck pickup. Most standard Tele bridge pickups are pretty loud anyway, but a classic neck pickup can be a rather underpowered in comparison. This has often been mentioned in magazine reviews of Teles. An overwound neck (in comparison to the Bridge) gives a better overall balance IMO.

The more powerful Tele bridge pickups generally knock off a fair bit of the top-end so they aren't as bright, so less of a Classic Tele sound. I've got a Seymour Duncan 'Hot' bridge pickup in one of my Teles, and it is quite powerful, but it is less of a Tele sound and more like a Strat bridge sound.

The sound of Tele pickups has varied over the years. Some have been very bright (over-bright IMO) to give that standard 'country' sound, whilst others have been thicker and rockier sounding. My own suggestion would be for a Vintage Plus bridge, plus a Hot Classic neck combination which (should) give (what is for me) a nice balanced combination. But in the end it's what you'd like.

Interesting. I am after a country sound, but I'd certainly take versatility if I could too.

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