Baja Classic Player Mod Problem/Challenge!!!

OK, so I want to turn my American standard tele into a Baja Classic Player, with a twist. I want a TBX tone knob instead of the regular 250k tone pot.

For those who don't know, a Baja CP has 4 way blade switch and s1 volume knob that switches like so:
Pickup Switching
4-Position Blade Switch and 2-Position Push/Push S-1
S-1 Switch Up:
Position 1. Bridge Pickup
Position 2. Bridge and Neck Pickups (In Parallel)
Position 3. Neck Pickup (Standard Tele)
Position 4. Neck and Bridge Pickups (In Series) (Fatter Tone Than Position 2. and More Output Than Position 1., 2., or 3.)
S-1 Switch Down:
Position 1. Bridge Pickup
Position 2. Bridge and Neck Pickups (In Parallel)-Out of Phase
Position 3. Neck Pickup (Standard Tele)
Position 4. Neck and Bridge Pickups (In Series) Out of Phase

There is a problem. :confused:I don't have an S1 switch. I have a 250k push/pull pot for the volume, and a 250k TBX tone knob for the tone.

I have tried merging two separate mod diagrams, the classic player diagramwith the TBX factory diagram, :shock: that did not bear fruit. I have tried all the ways I can think of, short of actually learning what those purdy wires actually are doing. Hey, I'm a guitar player, not a rocket surgeon.

There isn't a single diagram of this mod anywhere on the net. I was hoping that someone would be awesome enough to take a stab at making a diagram, as I cannot read electronic schematics.

There are other ways to accomplish this I am sure, but I must McGuyver this using the parts I have:

A tele 4 way switch
A push/pull pot
A fender TBX tone knob

If anyone can help me do this, I will name the mod after your glorious personage, and sing songs of your modding skills from river to dell. Seriously, there's an great dell three counties over, great for singing praises.:roll:

You can't do the Baja switching with a DPDT push-pull switch. You need at least 3 poles on the switch to make all of the connections. You need an S-1 to do it.

I'm having the same issue and I think its the frets. I have checked or changed everything else and nothing but jacking the action super high solves it. I have divots as well.

I'm having the same issue and I think its the frets. I have checked or changed everything else and nothing but jacking the action super high solves it. I have divots as well.

W-w-what?!

OK, Featherhead's weirdness aside, I guess I need to rethink my goals.:neutral:

I know people replace their S1 knobs with a push/pull, I've seen that mod floating around. Phostenix :cool:has informed me that a push pull cannot do what an S1 does. Then what does a S1 do that a push pull knob can't?

I got my 4 way switch and dpdt push/pull installed with a regular old tone knob. I got the tele to make cool tones, and it seemed to do something close to what the Baja CP does. Then I noticed the tone knob doesn't do anything (wonk). Then after I noticed that, something went awry and I got weird buzzing noises whenever i touched the strings with the push/pull knob pushed out.

I know, I know. I am going to write down my current wiring and start anew. But I am learning. Slowly.:roll:

So, two questions, I guess.
1. S1 vs push/pull. What's the diff??.

2. Can anyone point me to a diagram of a 4 way switch with a dpdt push/pull knob for volume and a regular old tone knob? I can get the rest from that point, I believe.

Thanks for everything, guys. Loving the forum!

You might have noticed that series and parallel out of phase are wired differently on the Baja.
Series OoP is pure OoP wiring. Parallel out of phase, they added a capacitor to add back some bass, and make it sound a bit less OoP, sort of an approximation of a strat in between position. Phostenix has a variant he calls 'half out of phase' that is pretty similar.
With a normal push pull, you can have one of these options (let's calk them 'out of phase' and 'half out of phase'), but not both. Phostenix had a bunch of goods diagrams, check out his site!

http://blueguitar.org/new/articles/blue_gtr/gtr/tele_mod.pdf

I found this after I got off the forum yesterday. I have been using this above diagram, and am almost through soldering it up.

Does this look like it will work?

I looked through phostenix's diagrams (that dude abides); however I didn't find a 4 way--push/pull--TBX combo. He does have a lot of tasty looking mods, though! And he and a lot of other Tdpri users have been awesome answering my Barely legible questions

That drawing from Steve Ahola should work fine for you.

With a push-pull pot, you can reverse the phase of one of the pickups and have them out-of-phase when they're on together.

Pickups in parallel and out-of-phase are very thin sounding. The Baja with the S-1 down gives you what is commonly called half out-of-phase instead. That's not a technical term, it's more of a description of the sound - it sounds somewhere between in-phase & out-of-phase. HOoP on a Tele gives a sound similar to a Strat "in-between" sound.

Pickups in series and out-of-phase can be a cool sound with distortion. It's the sound of most of Brian May's leads.

In my drawings, a TBX tone is wired up differently than Fender wires them. What I do with TBX tone pots is designed to give you bass cut from the center detent to fully clockwise. You'll see people say that the TBX does that, but it really doesn't the way Fender wires it up. What you end up on the Fender TBX at fully clockwise is something very close to a no-load tone pot. That's all you probably need with most Teles or Strats.

My TBX mod was designed for thinning out the sound of humbuckers. A Tele with bright single coil pups is not a good fit for my TBX mod, IMO.

If you don't want to buy any other parts, go with Steve's drawing.

I am having trouble with the diagram. lots of the wires are "implied" within the drawing to make it clearer.

Phostenix, I have used your wiring diagrams twice before, and I prefer them to any other, including Fender's diagrams. Your diagrams show the wires and their colors and beginning/ terminal points.

QUESTION1
I also don't have all the caps and resistors he is asking for. Can I just use a wire instead of a cap/resistor?

QUESTION 2
Does anyone know of a good "Complete Idiot's website" to reading/ understanding guitar electronics? Serious baby steps style? Like terminology, what a blade switch does from position to position, what cap values mean, whats going on inside pots and DPDTs.

I am a reasonably smart person, I do my own taxes and pick out my own clothes everyday.
So if someone could show me a site like that, I think I would bother you guys less!!

Thanks everybody!

I put this drawing together. I did not include Steve's treble bleed circuit nor the ground isolation cap, since I'm not comfortable with the safety aspect of it.

https://sites.google.com/site/phostenixwiringdiagrams/teles/2-pickup-teles#Tele4-WayOoPTBX

Awesome on a stick!

Phostenix, I would name my first born after you if I had one. Thanks, brother.

I am heating up my soldering iron, and I will post results when finished.

Yeah, phostenix is in my opinion the number 1 authority here on wiring diagrams.

Yeah, phostenix is in my opinion the number 1 authority here on wiring diagrams.
+1 and thanks for all your trouble Phostenix:smile:

Thanks, guys. Glad I can help. I'd love to make some guitar wiring 101 videos on youtube, but I can't even get to the pickup demo videos I want to make. :lol:

I soldered my tele according to Phostenix's beautiful and illuminating diagram. And, drumroll......

SUCCESS!:mrgreen:
Tone central.

Phostenix is, in the parlance of our times, the MAN.

Position two, with the push/pull out and the TBX treble side all the way up, sounds like Brian May strangling a duck!!!
I play heavy funk, so that TBX is like a flux capacitor for Funk overdrive. Very cool.:cool:

The neck pickup is sweet and buttery and thick. I have no words for its awesomeness.

I can go from Wes Montgomery to John Fruscante in 2 seconds flat.

Thanks to TDPRi, and of course, Phostenix. If you are ever in So Cal, I owe you lunch.

Glad it worked out for you. Enjoy!

I soldered my tele according to Phostenix's beautiful and illuminating diagram. And, drumroll......

SUCCESS!:mrgreen:
Tone central.

Phostenix is, in the parlance of our times, the MAN.

Position two, with the push/pull out and the TBX treble side all the way up, sounds like Brian May strangling a duck!!!
I play heavy funk, so that TBX is like a flux capacitor for Funk overdrive. Very cool.:cool:

The neck pickup is sweet and buttery and thick. I have no words for its awesomeness.

I can go from Wes Montgomery to John Fruscante in 2 seconds flat.

Thanks to TDPRi, and of course, Phostenix. If you are ever in So Cal, I owe you lunch.

Id love to hear a sample of what that TBX tone control can do if you have any samples if its range through all pup combos.

I recently modded my Baja's stock tone into a "no load" push pull pot to switch between standard and 50's wiring.