Telecaster replacement pickup wiring question

[Adam Barnes]

Bit of a side question on this, if you had a 4 wire hunbucker and used a on off on switch. Which would have one on as humbucker and the other as coil split with the off as a kill switch and have no vol or tone pots just go straight to the jack plug. What would happen. Me being not a great musician ive only ever had everything wound up on 10. If you want to hide bad playing turn it up louder 😂

[WeirdBits]

Bit of a side question on this, if you had a 4 wire hunbucker and used a on off on switch. Which would have one on as humbucker and the other as coil split with the off as a kill switch and have no vol or tone pots just go straight to the jack plug. What would happen. Me being not a great musician ive only ever had everything wound up on 10. If you want to hide bad playing turn it up louder 

In practical terms, pots ‘bleed’ some brightness/highs away from your signal. The larger the value pot, and the fewer pots in the circuit, the less ‘brightness’ is lost.

250K pots are used for single coils as you want to lose some highs and warm the signal up. 500K pots help to retain some brightness for the warmer sound of humbuckers, and 1M pots are used to keep all the ‘highs’ you can. If you continue on with the ‘larger value is brighter’ idea then an infinite value pot (infinite resistance) would have maximum brightness... and inifinite resistance is the same as having no connection at all, or taking the pot out of the circuit. ‘No Load’ tone pots and ‘Jackhammer’ style volume pots do just this at ‘10’ by disconnecting the pot from the circuit to give you max signal.

So, just having the pickup and a switch would give you maximum volume and brightness... and minimum subtlety. That doesn’t necessarily mean it will sound good though, as the combination of pickups and pots and caps all contribute to the overall sound of the circuit and guitar. The only way to know is to try it and let your ears/neighbours tell you.

[Adam Barnes]

In practical terms, pots ‘bleed’ some brightness/highs away from your signal. The larger the value pot, and the fewer pots in the circuit, the less ‘brightness’ is lost.

250K pots are used for single coils as you want to lose some highs and warm the signal up. 500K pots help to retain some brightness for the warmer sound of humbuckers, and 1M pots are used to keep all the ‘highs’ you can. If you continue on with the ‘larger value is brighter’ idea then an infinite value pot (infinite resistance) would have maximum brightness... and inifinite resistance is the same as having no connection at all, or taking the pot out of the circuit. ‘No Load’ tone pots and ‘Jackhammer’ style volume pots do just this at ‘10’ by disconnecting the pot from the circuit to give you max signal.

So, just having the pickup and a switch would give you maximum volume and brightness... and minimum subtlety. That doesn’t necessarily mean it will sound good though, as the combination of pickups and pots and caps all contribute to the overall sound of the circuit and guitar. The only way to know is to try it and let your ears/neighbours tell you.

Thanks scott great info