4-way switch

[jebbo]

I have been reading a little about 4 way switches lately, and I was wondering if it will work in my tele's setup. I have seymour duncan hot rails in the bridge with a push/pull tone pot for coil splitting. I have a standard tele neck pup. I plan to take it to a tech to have the neck pup replaced with a fender vintage noiseless. Will a 4 way switch work with this setup ? I've read that the 4 way allows you to have the neck and bridge wired in series. Some people say it gives it a humbucker like sound. Is it even necessary to use a 4 way switch since I already have the hot rails ? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks...

[jebbo]

Anyone ?

[jlindseyjr]

It would give you 2 more tone options.

[andrenighthound]

IMO the 4 way in the position of the of pickups in series gives it a thicker and louder but not really a humbucker tone. More of a over the top single coil It really depends on how hot your pickups are to because your putting two pups in series the voltage doubles like ohms law.

[soulman969]

Yes it will work in your Tele and I think it's one of the more worthwhile mods you can do. As andrenighthound above says it's not a true humbucker but, it does thicken and darken the tone so it may so it may sound more like a humbucker than typical single coil pickups do. You'll also get a boost in output when they're combined in series.

It should make your Hot Rails even more effective as far as driving your amp is concerned. I don't use it as a full-time position but I find it pretty useful for solos or when you want to thicken power chords. Wired as the 4th position on your selector it's very easy to shift into and out of. Personally I think Fender should just make them this way. It's a very useful option.

The switch will run you about $15-$20 and you may want to consider putting in a high pass filter on your volume pot too. It keeps the highs from rolling off when you reduce volume and it costs about $2. You can get both through AcmeGuitarWorks and several other vendors as well.

[jebbo]

Thanks for the replies. This helps a lot. I think I'll go for it. The more tone options, the better. Once again, thanks.

[Bubbalou]

Originally Posted by andrenighthound

IMO the 4 way in the position of the of pickups in series gives it a thicker and louder but not really a humbucker tone. More of a over the top single coil It really depends on how hot your pickups are to because your putting two pups in series the voltage doubles like ohms law.

After thinking about it that makes perfect sense. Since you are tieing the bridge and neck (reverse polarity from bridge) pickups in series they cancel noise which is what the name Humbucker implies but the two coils are not next to each other as in a humbucker so the tone would not be quite the same but they are bucking hum (in series mode as long as each coil is opposite in polarity). The degree of bucking depends on how close the bridge and neck pickups are in impedance (Closer = more noise cancellation).
andrenighthound is correct about it be over the top as the two pickups combined are hotter than the typical humbucker pickup.