4 way switch wiring problem

[Scotland]

Thank you everyone and a particular thank you to Deaf Eddie. The pickup is defective and Bruce immediately offered to replace it. I will change the 4 way to a three way on this guitar. Thanks again to all.

[J.Rodney]

I believe the in series tone of a 4-way switch has spoiled me.At band levels my Teles just seem to open up and sing in the 4th position.There is just something about playing with both pickups on and having that fatter/hotter tone that turns me on.I have gotten to where I rarely switch off of this position.I have 2 teles with the 4-way and 1 with the S-1 switch and they all sound best in this position to me.

[xjazzy]

So, I had the 4 way switch with the Keystone pickups with no trouble, but now I want to have the stock neck pickup along with the 4 way.
I've tried to do the changes in the pickup hading another wire and cutting the jump but it doesn't work!
In the picture you can see how the wiring of the PU looks like. I cutted the jump and added a red wire to the other end of the jump. Then the red goes to the volume pot, the white that was the cover ground goes to the switch and the blue is on the switch has the hot.
What am I doing wrong?

(Yes, I was lazy to take out the strings...)

[Deaf Eddie]

I haven't seen a stock pickup with that color leads, but from what you've said, I've edited your picture to show a correction.



If YOU say red is the ground/shield for the cover, it should go to ground on the back of the volume pot. It LOOKS like you may have tied it to the wrong end of the jumper you cut. It should be soldered to the tab of the cover, not the eyelet for the coil's ground lead (you say white).

You say the white is the old ground lead, so it should go to the 4-way. The 4-way mod works by switching the neck pup's ground lead, not its hot lead.

YOU say the blue is the hot, so it should go straight to the volume pot's input lug.

[xjazzy]

Hey eddie, thanks a lot.
I've just found another pic where the red wire (the one I added) goes directly into the PU cover! How is the right place for it?


Before the mod, the blue wire was connected to the switch and the white was on the volume pot.
I'm using the Rob DiStefan wiring diagram.

[xjazzy]

Quick update: I followed your advice, Eddie and now it's working.
Thanks a lot.

[Deaf Eddie]

Glad you got it working.

For everybody following along, yes, you can add the cover's new independent ground/shield lead to any of the three tabs. Most of us just find it easiest to solder it to the tab near the leads, where the jumper was, because that tab is already "tinned" and ready for solder.

The one last thing to consider is, with the unusual color code, there's a chance that the stock neck pup might have been out of phase with the aftermarket bridge pickup. The symptom for that would have been thin and nasally tone in the series and parallel throws on the 4-way. The remedy for that would have been simply to reverse the destinations for the blue and white wires - the blue wire becomes the coil's ground, and would go to the 4-way, and the white wire becomes the coil's hot, and would go to the input lug on the volume pot. The red independent ground/shield for the cover does NOT move - it stays grounded on the back of the volume pot.