Help with circuit for 3-pickup tele please?

[Megi]

Hi everyone, this is my first post on this forum. I'm based in the UK, and am currently building a tele partscaster, and thinking about the best circuit to use for the pickups. The guitar will have the standard tele pickups (a Tonerider Hot Classics set) plus a middle strat type pickup, which is RWRP to the neck pickup. So the neck plus middle, and neck plus bridge combinations will be hum-cancelling. I have fitted an extra mini-switch (an ON-OFF-ON, double pole, triple throw) to the control plate, in addition to a standard strat type 5 way switch.

I would like to be able to get all 7 possible parallel pickup combinations i.e. the normal 5 "strat" ones, plus neck and bridge, and all 3 pickups together. But there are 2 more I would like to have if it is possible: neck plus middle in series, and neck plus bridge in series.

So I'm wondering if anyone has a way to achieve this? Any ideas or help would be gratefully received - hope this is not too technical a question to start my life on the forum! Assuming I get through the building process in one piece I hope to post a pic or two of my tele when it's complete.

Thanks for reading, cheers!

[Megi]

I guess this was maybe not such a good question! I've been thinking about it myself, and can't come up with an easy answer. I may look at fitting a 5-way super switch to expand my options - I'm pretty sure with this I could get what I'm after in terms of pickup-switching. It is a bit bulky though, so I may have to carefully remove a little wood from the side of the control cavity. I'll have a think though, and cheers to everyone who took the time to read my question.

[Pajama]

I have my Tele wired w/ 3 pickups. The neck and bridge are wired w/ a 4 way switch so I can get them in series or parallel. The middle pickup is wired to a separate vol. pot so it can be blended w/ the other pickups or used on its own. It can only be combined in parallel. I guess I could have used a push/pull pot for a series option but I'm not crazy about them and 9 useable tones is enough for me.

PJ

[Megi]

Originally Posted by Pajama

I have my Tele wired w/ 3 pickups. The neck and bridge are wired w/ a 4 way switch so I can get them in series or parallel. The middle pickup is wired to a separate vol. pot so it can be blended w/ the other pickups or used on its own. It can only be combined in parallel. I guess I could have used a push/pull pot for a series option but I'm not crazy about them and 9 useable tones is enough for me.

PJ

Thanks for the reply - that sounds like an excellent setup you have, probably very versatile I would think. I'm not mad about push/pull pots either, hence the fitted mini-switch. 9 good useable tones should be enough I do agree, and I don't want to get overly complicated, despite how it may sound! I did want especially the neck middle in series option though, as I feel this may give a little thicker/warmer sounding option, which I might like since I play a bit of jazz.

I'm sure I'll figure something out though, given time, cheers!

[jefrs]

The usual wiring for a Nashville is to use a strat 5-way selector and standard tele vol+tone 2-knob controls.

There are many variations and options. One such is to swap middle and bridge connections so you get
neck
neck+bridge
bridge
bridge+middle
middle

Do note that tele pickups ate opposite wind/pole to strat pickups, so you need a neck or bridge strat pickup, not a middle strat pickup on a tele - to give the hum-cancelling effect of the strat's RWRP middle pickup on a strat.

[Pajama]

Originally Posted by Megi

Thanks for the reply - that sounds like an excellent setup you have, probably very versatile I would think. I'm not mad about push/pull pots either, hence the fitted mini-switch. 9 good useable tones should be enough I do agree, and I don't want to get overly complicated, despite how it may sound! I did want especially the neck middle in series option though, as I feel this may give a little thicker/warmer sounding option, which I might like since I play a bit of jazz.

I'm sure I'll figure something out though, given time, cheers!

The neck and bridge in series is great for jazz w/ the tone rolled almost all the way off. A Tele player needs to mess w/ that tone knob if he or she wants to get the most out of the instrument! The Tone Knob is your friend, repeat when necessary.

PJ

[Megi]

Originally Posted by jefrs

The usual wiring for a Nashville is to use a strat 5-way selector and standard tele vol+tone 2-knob controls.

There are many variations and options. One such is to swap middle and bridge connections so you get
neck
neck+bridge
bridge
bridge+middle
middle

Do note that tele pickups ate opposite wind/pole to strat pickups, so you need a neck or bridge strat pickup, not a middle strat pickup on a tele - to give the hum-cancelling effect of the strat's RWRP middle pickup on a strat.

Thanks - I didn't know that trick with swapping the connections, useful to know about. Regarding the pickups, I'm using a strat neck pickup (made by Voltage pickups in the UK, in case anyone is interested) and have already tested it for correct phase and to give RWRP with the tele neck p'up. I did think about just going for the standard 5-way selector options, but I really want the guitar to be a tele first and foremost, so it must have the neck plus bridge combination available.

Originally Posted by Pajama

The neck and bridge in series is great for jazz w/ the tone rolled almost all the way off. A Tele player needs to mess w/ that tone knob if he or she wants to get the most out of the instrument! The Tone Knob is your friend, repeat when necessary.

PJ

Thanks PJ, that really does make me want to get the series sounds in there - I suspect both neck/middle and neck/bridge would be useful for jazz from what you say. I've not had a tele before (in 30 odd years of guitar playing) so I do look forward to playing this guitar, when I finally get it built. Use the tone knob... got it, cheers!

[Mojotron]

What I did on one of my builds is sort of the Brent Mason Tele approach - to just use a 3-way strat/tele switch and then wire up the middle pickup through an additional 500k pot straight to the output of the switch. That way the amount of the middle pickup is dialed in and that works really well to get the most from the 3 pickups in parallel. I suppose you could add a switch to put the 2 tele pickups in series with that config as well.

Here's a snazzy schematic from Terry Downs that I used on mine:
http://terrydownsmusic.com/archive/b...lel_wiring.PDF
Don't be confused by the series/parallel switch - you can leave that out with a standard strat pickup for the middle. Just add a series/parallel switch for the outside pickups.

[Megi]

Originally Posted by Mojotron

What I did on one of my builds is sort of the Brent Mason Tele approach - to just use a 3-way strat/tele switch and then wire up the middle pickup through an additional 500k pot straight to the output of the switch. That way the amount of the middle pickup is dialed in and that works really well to get the most from the 3 pickups in parallel. I suppose you could add a switch to put the 2 tele pickups in series with that config as well.

Here's a snazzy schematic from Terry Downs that I used on mine:
http://terrydownsmusic.com/archive/b...lel_wiring.PDF
Don't be confused by the series/parallel switch - you can leave that out with a standard strat pickup for the middle. Just add a series/parallel switch for the outside pickups.

Thanks for that - I'll give it serious consideration. It's different from what I had envisaged, but it could be a serious contender! Very interesting...

[robbo1422]

thinking out loud here, and i'm no wiring expert, but could you possibly do a five way strat normal circuit with the neck pickup on a push pull pot so you can pull it up to turn it on when your in the bridge position (thereby getting neck and bridge) and then putting a push pull on the tone pot for series/parallel wiring?

[Megi]

Originally Posted by robbo1422

thinking out loud here, and i'm no wiring expert, but could you possibly do a five way strat normal circuit with the neck pickup on a push pull pot so you can pull it up to turn it on when your in the bridge position (thereby getting neck and bridge) and then putting a push pull on the tone pot for series/parallel wiring?

Cheers Robbo - it's definitely possible to do a 5-way circuit, and just add a switch to put the neck position on regardless of the position of the main selecter. This allows you to get all 7 possible parallel pickup combinations. It's just getting the additional series options I mention that seems trickier. But there may well be a way to achieve something like you say - I'm still thinking and looking at circuits on websites anyway, I'm sure I will be able to come up with something to suit given time.