Bakersfield CBS Era TELE WRING - "1-Meg" Volume "250k" Tone

[Don Mare]

CBS Era TELE WIRING - "1-Meg" Volume "250k" Tone

Maybe some of us have been missing the boat?

part of that overlooked later 60's brighter / twangier tone would have been this one meg pot and the treble bypass cap on the volume..

AWESOME! I'm going to recommend this wiring to customers seeking that era of Tele tone!

[tele salivas]

Holy Frijolis Mr, Mare, you may have stumbled upon my holy grail,,this is just incredible, I think I know what I'll be doing today! Thanks mang...

[spankdplank]

To each his own, but this one is not for me. I LOVE what this does to the neck pickup when wide open, but the bridge pup can be a bit harsh. My biggest problem with this set up is it is hard to use at a gig because the taper of the 1 meg volume pot is so abrupt. If you take out the .001 cap, it is almost like an on/off switch, if you leave it in, when you roll back the volume the treble stays in the tone but the bottom and middle diminishes with with the volume roll off. This gives the perception (to my ears anyway) of sucking the balls out of the tone without dropping volume that much.

My sollution is to put a .220 resistor in parallel with the .001 tone cap, from the middle to outside lug of the volume pot. With this set up you get all the spank and openness of the 1 meg pot, but the volume knob behaves in a more usable way, especially for quick changes on the fly, with a less abrupt taper and less percieved tone sucking.

[Don Mare]

OK, I finally tried this out and thanks for the GREAT TIP on the resistor too.

the volume swells are perfect now!

I've never played a Tele that could twang like this - dreamed of owning one - but now the dream is a reality - I used my new Road Worn Tele for the test pilot -
it was already Twangy - thanks to the OEM Factory installed steel barrel saddles! and they were raised way up high - so the twang was already great -
but this wiring put it in Bakersfield Country Hog Heaven!
I also used Pure Nickel Ernie Ball .11's -
next I wound up a Staggered AlNiCo 5 / 6.7k Relic Bridge pickup / and a AlNiCo-5 / 6.15k Neck in a Nickel Silver Cover

it was too late to crank it but MAN_O_MAN did this TWANG and REEK Of Country TELE For DAys! -- can't wait to crank it thru the Twin nice and clean and LoUd! Yippie_

BTW.. not harsh at all here - I understand Machine wind pickups do the harsh thing pretty easily - but a Hand Wind with a nice wind pattern eliminates any harshness to start out - and I took it up to 6.7k to be safe - just in case the One Meg was the culprit - but its perfect here - I'm truly amazed- can't wait to offer this on my web site as another style of a Bakersfield set up & wiring mod.. for guys to try out..

[Amby]

Nice looking guitar Don - enjoy it.

[tele salivas]

Great Don! That's what I am hoping to hear out of my tele.I'm still waiting on a 1meg pot , but that road worn looks beautiful, I think out of all the 'relic' guitars, they have done something special with this line...I just may have to ring you up...

[Wardpike]

My 1966 Fender Esquire has 250k pots for volume and tone. I always thought this was normal and unchanged from 1950 to present day. Am I wrong?

[spankdplank]

Starting in '68 or so Fender started puting 1 megs on the volume, with a .001 treble bleed cap. Then by late 68 or 69 they went to 1 megs on both volume and tone. This lasted until the early 80's.

[Don Mare]

Originally Posted by Wardpike

My 1966 Fender Esquire has 250k pots for volume and tone. I always thought this was normal and unchanged from 1950 to present day. Am I wrong?

I know its on 1968's for sure -- we need to check with 67 owners and we can find the start date of 1meg use.
the end date would be of interest too..

I do remember that every now and then a 68 would knock my socks of with Tele Twang that would warm a country pickers heart!

[spankdplank]

For what its worth, I have an all stock maple cap neck 68 with an October neck stamp, no diagonal wiring chanel, a pearl backed pickguard and all cloth wiring. From these indicators, I believe it is a very late 68. It has two 1 meg pots ( w/ '66 date codes) and a .001 teble bleed cap. The bridge is 6.3 DC and the neck is 6.8. No wax potting. A twanging monster of Bakersfield tone, with one of the spankiest neck tones I have ever heard. I kept the .001 cap but added a .220 resistor in parallel with the .001 cap. It made it so much more usable live.

[KingOfTheRoad]

Hey All,

Do you guys mean 220k for the resistor?

Cheers

[Don Mare]

I've seen values from 120k to 300k on the resistor used "Kinmans Pickups" under "perfect Guitar" used to describe what values do what..

this is Stew Macs kit pictured

[spankdplank]

Sorry--I'm a pretty dull tool on the electrical tech stuff. I thought it was a .220 resistor I used, but you are right, it was 220K. I wired mine in parallel with the .001 cap, as in Don's dagram.

[Don Mare]

Originally Posted by spankdplank

Sorry--I'm a pretty dull tool on the electrical tech stuff. I thought it was a .220 resistor I used, but you are right, it was 220K. I wired mine in parallel with the .001 cap, as in Don's dagram.

me too- I was measuring resistors at midnight and flipping the meter settings trying to locate a .220 - hehe!

also the cap can go from 0.001 to 0.003 range

Humbuckers and 250k to 1 meg pots may require some experimenting

I'm sure mine is a 150k with a 0.001 cap it really sweeps well - I can do nice pinky volume swells without any jumps

[1962guitargeek]

I have a silly question Don - is the 1 meg audio or linear taper?
Thanks

[Don Mare]

Originally Posted by 1962guitargeek

I have a silly question Don - is the 1 meg audio or linear taper?
Thanks

good Q "not silly at all"
looks like they come in both

EP-0088-000

1 MEG CTS
SPLIT SHAFT
LINEAR TAPER
POT
EP-0088-000
CTS 1 meg linear taper potentiometer. 6mm split shaft with 3/8" long threaded bushing. Includes nut and dress washer. For tone control only. Requires 3/8" mounting hole.
$4.69

EP-4988-000

1 MEG CTS
SPLIT SHAFT
AUDIO TAPER
POT
EP-4988-000
CTS 1 meg audio taper potentiometer. 6mm split shaft with 3/8" long threaded bushing. Includes nut and dress washer. For tone or volume controls. Requires 3/8" mounting hole.
$4.69

If you tried to use a linear taper pot as a volume control you would be most unhappy with its performance. The sound level would go from nothing to almost full volume in about the first ten degrees of rotation and the rest would have almost no audible effect. This is because the ear responds to sound logarithmically rather than linearly. That's why sound engineers use the decibel which is a logarithmic function of power.

I do take all my pots apar - by bending 4 tabs - and I clean out the orange looking grease - because its so waxie that it stalls rotation and prevents the pot from being used for Pinkie Swells - once I remove that grease the pot swings like Roy Buchanans on a good day! hehe

[robt57]

Originally Posted by Don Mare

me too- I was measuring resistors at midnight and flipping the meter settings trying to locate a .220 - hehe!

also the cap can go from 0.001 to 0.003 range

Humbuckers and 250k to 1 meg pots may require some experimenting

I'm sure mine is a 150k with a 0.001 cap it really sweeps well - I can do nice pinky volume swells without any jumps

Which 1 meg taper pot did you wind up with, or did you say and I missed it? ;)

[bosstone]

Does doing all this take away from the guitar having good blues and rock sounds?

[e-merlin]

Originally Posted by bosstone

Does doing all this take away from the guitar having good blues and rock sounds?

For all practical purposes, Country is guitar with a high power amp for clean headroom.

Blues is a guitar with a lower power amp so you can overdrive the power tubes for some grit.

There are exceptions, of course.

[1962guitargeek]

Thanks Don I just happen to have a couple of 1 megs lying about. (audio taper)