Installed 4 way switch but neck p/u seems to be on all the time

Hi all,

I'm pretty much a novice to tele tinkering, but I'm currently upgrading a cheap no name tele cos I like the colour of the body. I've put in some Irongear steel foundry pickups and and a pre-wired Axerus 4 way control plate. Wired up as per the diagram, which included soldering a new earth wire to the neck pickup cover. To do this, I broke the existing earth connenction on the earth wire at the bottom of the pickup and added a third wire. So I have one earth that goes to the switch and one to the back of the volume pot, alongside the earth from the bridge pickup.

What I seem to be getting with the four way switch is what I would expect except that in position 1, I'm not getting bridge only but bridge and neck in parallell, which is identical to position 2. Positions 3 and 4 seem fine.

What am I doing wrong!!
Any one out there that can help me?

the levers on 4 way switches tend to require a longer swing than 3 or 5 way…. the switch slot in many control plates is not long enough to allow for the switch to complete the full swing... this prevents the contacts from clearing completely….

a judicious positioning of the switch will, in most cases, resolve the problem. or lengthening the slot a little on each end will do it too.


Ron Kirn

Aha! Excellent advice Ron and spot on, I removed the switch from the control plate to make sure I was getting the full throw of the switch and sure enough all is good and well as far as the wiring is concerned. I now need to work out how to position it or lengthen the slot to keep it working on the guitar. I'll post back and let you know how I get on, thanks again - this forum is so great for all the knowledge - really useful for a novice :)

Hey Ron, all is sorted with the 4 way switch so many thanks for the tip, I'm much obliged to you. If anyone else with no experience reads this watch out for the switch tip being too low on the shaft of the switch as that can also affect the throw of the switch and lead to the first position not engaging correctly too! Boy, I have so much to learn!!