FREAK wiring

OK, I've got a "Strat" pickup type of wiring scheme on my 3 pickup Telecaster...

Actually, it's not wired YET. I do have a control plate with 3 knob holes drilled in it.

What I'd like to do is have three volume controls, one for each pickup, and have the switch select a "dark tone" via a tone cap (ala the '52 Telecaster).

This would give me the option to blend in any pickup I want and/or run them all at once... I rarely use the tone control, so a set "dark" position is fine with me (or even no tone control at all).

The bridge pickup is a Lil '59, so that pot is a push/pull.

Any suggestions on how to get this done?

I'm out of the Tele 3-way switches I think... hmm, I don't think it'd work for this anyways...

you can try http://www.guitarnuts.com/ for some instructional schematics. good luck !

You can do that fairly easily, but it would be very slow to use if you wanted to switch from bridge to neck, say, quickly. If you want that, it's just an expansion of the Jazz Bass wiring scheme - it's all over the internet, but Seymour Duncan has a particularly clear diagram.


But instead I would suggest a three way switch between neck, neck+bridge, and bridge. Master volume that push/pulls the bridge split humbucker. Neck volume. And then a totally unswitched middle volume so you could add the middle to any of the switched selections. Either the neck or the middle volume could be a push/pull for the preset tone control.

As far as the preset tone control goes, I wouldn't just wire in a cap. I'd wire in a 500K linear trimpot attached to a large cap (.047uf) so you could tweak the trimpot to find exactly the amount of global rolloff you wanted. It would cost a dollar extra and give you more ability to fine-tune the circuit.