Yeah. I guess the usual middle position is in series. This puts them in parallel like a big humbucker.
My CV tele rebuild thread.
- Thread starter Mark Wein
- Start date
Knox in Box
Rustbelt refugee.
Curious about that bridge. I love the intonated brass barrels I have on my one guitar and wilkinson makes a top loader like that as well, which is just what I would need.
sunvalleylaw
Yep.
Here is a guitar with the same BG's I have. Cost for both the neck P90 and rock wind bridge was about $130 if I remember right.
Might be an option for you.
It does not show them running in series in the fourth position, but I really like them that way. The extra position is the neck and bridge in series.
Chad
Slender Hobbit
ellengtrgrl
Guitar Old Timer
It depends - do you want the "both pickups wired in series" capability a 4 way switch will provide? My 60s Baja Tele has a 4 way switch, and while I only occasionally go over to the 4th position for humbucking mode, it does come in handy for me.
I didn't realize that you
Actually you have that backwards. Middle position is in parallel, whereas for humbucking mode, the coils are wired together in series (I've wired up many a humbucker, with 4 lead wires (which gives them coil splitting capability).
Elias Graves
Common misfit
Opposite. Normal is parallel. Fourth position is series for more output.
I can never keep that shit straight in my head. I've never had a guitar where there was an option for parallel/series switching.
sunvalleylaw
Yep.
Sure, why not? then you can see what 3 vs. 4 way does when you put the rest in.
Dogsinplastic
avuncular to no one
Mark I was thinking about this thread last night and how interesting it is that two of your primary guitars were a Suhr Strat and Tele. Now you've got a Squier Classic Vibe Strat and Tele that you either have or are modding to have available and use for gigs.
I know they aren't you main instruments (shout out for McFeeley's), but that speaks so much to the musician and not their gear being the key. It's all about whatever allows you express yourself. And it's obviously completely valid if that is a $20,000 Benedetto, a $5,000 Custom Shop Strat, a $2,000 production Les Paul, an $800 Reverend, a $300 Squier, or a $100 acoustic.
All of this also speaks to improving quality of imports and diminishing returns on instruments at either certain price points or skill levels (or both).
I know they aren't you main instruments (shout out for McFeeley's), but that speaks so much to the musician and not their gear being the key. It's all about whatever allows you express yourself. And it's obviously completely valid if that is a $20,000 Benedetto, a $5,000 Custom Shop Strat, a $2,000 production Les Paul, an $800 Reverend, a $300 Squier, or a $100 acoustic.
All of this also speaks to improving quality of imports and diminishing returns on instruments at either certain price points or skill levels (or both).
Elias Graves
Common misfit
I was gonna do it to a tele until I realized the pickup I had needed wire surgery to make it work. I didn't feel like clipping and moving wires on the pickup itself.
You must have a separate negative wire and base ground wire and mine were integrated into a two lead setup. It's not hard to do, I just didn't want to risk screwing up an expensive pickup with my jack soldering skills.
Yeah...I did see that when I was investigating the 4 way. I didnt think it would be too difficult.
Elias Graves
Common misfit
Shouldn't be. I just wimped out for fear of ruining a Fender custom shop pickup.
Actually the Suhr tele never got played much. I bought it when I initially quit gigging in 2007 and I sold it because while it was a great guitar it spent most of its life hanging on the wall of my office. It just never really excited me enough to play on a regular basis and it was an expensive guitar. I don't have the budget to have a ton of nice high end gear (although I do have a few nice guitars still) so I'm trying to fill out what I need to work with instruments that are serviceable if not pricey. And I agree that the quality of the low end has really improved to the point where I can consider doing this. 10 years ago I wouldn't have even tried it. And with solid body electric guitars it is much less important than in an acoustic guitar or an archtop. While I think my Epiphone Joe Pass is a good guitar for the price it doesn't sound anywhere close to what I want tonewise -I'm not sure a pickup swap would remedy that either. There are also some strange resonances with it (possibly loose bracing?) that drive me nuts when I play the guitar unamplified. When I am in a position to upgrade to a higher quality guitar in this case I definitely will.
Chad
Slender Hobbit
I almost bought those yesterday. I decided to go with something else though. I should have everything but the neck by the time I get back from vacation next Friday.
sunvalleylaw
Yep.
That (my lack of soldering skill) was the reason I went with the solderless electronics in my tele mod when I switched pickups and added the 4 way. It cost a little more, but when you figure in the costs I would have incurred for getting some better soldering stuff, and the cost of me trying to figure out how to do it, and stress about doing it wrong, it was worth it to me to buy that Santellan solderless kit. About 30 or so more than Mark is spending. But if you can solder, no big deal.
PunkKitty
Horny bag of electric meat
It's not complex surgery. I've done it several times. If you use an uncovered neck pickup, this isn't necessary since there is no cover to ground. I prefer the sound of an uncovered pickup.
I can solder and I have a pretty decent setup to do it, but I was looking at the Santellan kit anyway.
Neat stuff.
Neat stuff.
So I went to work today and dropped the pickups in. I went in circles for a bit because the original pickups had yellow and black wires for the neck and white and black for the bridge pickup. New pickups had the colors reversed and I must have resoldered the fucking switch 10 times before I figured it out. Once I got it together with both pickups working the neck pickup wouldn't come on in the middle position but I was out of time to mess with it anymore so I'll take it to my gig in this condition. I have the new controls coming next week and I'll fix it then.
It sounded pretty cool through my deluxe, didn't seem to like the Suhr as much but I'm going to give it a spin through by live right tonight and see how it does in the real world.
I'm bringing a McFeely and two Classic Vibe guitars to my gig tonight
@help!imarock! Is this a different kind of "rocker joint"?
It sounded pretty cool through my deluxe, didn't seem to like the Suhr as much but I'm going to give it a spin through by live right tonight and see how it does in the real world.
I'm bringing a McFeely and two Classic Vibe guitars to my gig tonight
@help!imarock! Is this a different kind of "rocker joint"?