51 Nocaster wiring question

Greetings from London Ontario Canada! I am a happy owner of a CS 51 Nocaster Relic and since I am more a strat player than a tele player, I don't know much about the wiring of a tele. Here is a pic of what is under the control -plate........

http://theteahaus.netfirms.com/Julia-2005/nfpicturepro/albums/userpics/10001/UnderControl.jpg

My questions are:

1. What exactly is that huge yellow cap between the two pots? Previous owner apparently replaced the original and put in this thing......

2. It seems to be soldered from the first contact of the volume pot (the contact is bent backwards and soldered to the underside of the pot) to the middle contact of the tone pot. Is this the correct way to set the wiring? I notice that there is not much of a tone change until you rotate the pot all the way and then you get a real 'wah' effect as the highs are rolled off.

3. What would be the period correct wiring schematic for a 51 Nocaster?

Thanks for looking and for any help!

Pretty sure thats all normal it should have the blend control unless someone changed it to modern wiring.

Here is the diagram of the blend compare it to yours.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=broadcaster_blend

Where you describe the large changed capacitor being hooked up...would be more inline w/ modern wiring, and not the blend control..Mark linked you to, as you can see by the schematic.

Thanks for the schematic Mark! My Nocaster doesn't seem to fit that wiring scheme though.........mine only has the capacitor between the volume and tone pots; there is no cap or resistor on the switch itself. Also, not sure if this would make a difference but the volume pot reads 250K and the tone pot reads 500K. Any idea what that big paper cap is?

Someone has changed the pots at least the tone one. Stock they are both 250k CTS pots. Ya looks like its the modern wiring scheme that big cap is how the old ones looked in the 50's its just a .050 cap but looks different than the new ones that kinda look like plain M&M's.

Id just leave it as is and enjoy it as long as it sounds right.

Someone has changed the pots at least the tone one. Stock they are both 250k CTS pots. Ya looks like its the modern wiring scheme that big cap is how the old ones looked in the 50's its just a .050 cap but looks different than the new ones that kinda look like plain M&M's.

Id just leave it as is and enjoy it as long as it sounds right.

I think you're right about the pot being changed. I will probably leave it as is since the guitar sounds great! All three positions are excellent; I had been wondering why some say the neck position is 'muddy'; mine is an excellent tone reminiscent of a good strat neck pup. Love it! The CS Nocaster pups really are great.......so good that I just ordered another set for the Poe T-body that I won in the TDPRI draw before Christmas. The only thing I miss is a little more variety in the tone knob; as mentioned, it doesn't do much when you adjust the knob until the very end and then it really drastically scoops all the highs away........very much like a wah pedal effect!

The way most Tele tone controls work for me is full counterclockwise a bassy muddy sound. As you turn it clockwise at about 1/4 of a turn you hear some treble start to bleed thru and it doesnt have that speaker covered with a blanket sound. Just a little higher than this is where I usually keep mine the sweet spot. As its turned up more there isnt alot of difference until almost all the way up the last 1/4 adds in the max treble.

So for my ears anyway the middle part of the tone control doesnt do THAT much there are slight differences but no where near as different as all the way up or down.

On my Gibsons they have much more of a range of different tones each number on the knob gives me a different sound. Ive never been able to figure this out but its what my ears are hearing.

I think you're right about the pot being changed. I will probably leave it as is since the guitar sounds great! All three positions are excellent; I had been wondering why some say the neck position is 'muddy'; mine is an excellent tone reminiscent of a good strat neck pup. Love it! The CS Nocaster pups really are great.......so good that I just ordered another set for the Poe T-body that I won in the TDPRI draw before Christmas. The only thing I miss is a little more variety in the tone knob; as mentioned, it doesn't do much when you adjust the knob until the very end and then it really drastically scoops all the highs away........very much like a wah pedal effect!
Just pulled my Nocaster apart for the first time since i had it. Tried to take pictures for you but they are super blurry. Yours has definately been modded, possibly back to "modern" setting or whatever they call it. The reason some complain it's "muddy", which mine still is, is it has the original "dark" neck settings. This was necessary back in 51 before Leo had perfected the electric bass. 52 tele's have it standard as well. However, when you get either a CS51 nocaster, or a 52 tele, you get a kit to change it to your setting, which converts it back to a standard tone knob instead of blend, and Bridge, Bridge/Neck, and Neck settings. Strange that the pot is a 500k. Mine are both 250's. To summarize, i think you said it's sounds great. So, problem solved! Anyways, first post and all, hope i said something vaguely in-TELE-gent. Boom tish!

Can anyone explain the function of the 15K resistor shown on the Seymour Duncan Broadcaster with blend diagram?

Much obliged.