4 way switch problem

[oldiebutgoody]

I am a novice! I have a 06 standard tele MIM. I put a seymour duncan hot rails in the bridge and left the standard fender pickup in the neck. I also installed a fender 4 way at the same time. After numerous call to seymour duncan they said I should solder the red and white wires together and ground the black and bare wires to the volume pot and green would be hot. The switch now works like this. #1 position neck, 2 and three really do nothing and 4 is the bridge. After another call they said to unground the bare and hook it to the green. Could someone please help! Remember I am a rookie so maybe you could make it simple. By the way the metal side of the 4 way switch faces the bridge pickup and I did unground the neck pickup and solder a new wire to the pickup cover and grounded it to the volume pot.
Thank you!!!!

[PhatTele]

So, assuming the Duncan PUs have a common wiring scheme, think of the Hot Rails like a split coil humbucker. What you're trying to do with the 4-way switch is get rid of the split coil aspect of the PU and get it so you have one hot lead and one ground lead (the bare wire is the shielding for the lead casing and will always go to ground). Take a look at this wiring diagram:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support...lor_codes.html

It shows how a split coil Duncan humbucker is wired. If you're trying to create one big coil out of the PU you need to tie them together. See that the white and the red leads become the tie. If you solder these two together, then the overall PU will now have one hot lead (black), one ground lead (green), and one shield lead (bare wire...which goes to ground).

With these leads now established, use the wiring diagram you have for the 4-way switch to finish out the mod.

BTW - That #1 position (all the way forward) is going to be really hot sounding with that Hot Rails (sizzling hot). To get any clean out of it you're going to need a volume kit (see link below...you can get the components at Radio Shack):

http://www.fralinpickups.com/images/phazrev.jpg

[oldiebutgoody]

Remember I told you I was a rookie so am i to understand that the green and bare wire get soldered to the volume pot and the black gets soldered to the switch? Thank you so much for you help!

[Deaf Eddie]

Tell us EXACTLY what happens in throws #2 and #3 - no sound? Thin sound? Neck only? Bridge only? Neck and bridge together?

As for your advice from Seymour Duncan, you may have slightly misunderstood them, or they didn't quite understand your question. Here's another take on it:

Seymour Duncan pickups are manufactured opposite phase (reversed phase) from Fender pickups. So...

In a typical Fender axe, with stock Fender pickups, replacing one with a Seymour Duncan requires that you install the S-D pup phase-reversed so that it will play IN PHASE with the Fender pup. That's why they've told to you to use the GREEN as the hot, and the black as the ground (which is the opposite of the way S-D pickups are usually wired).

IMPORTANT! The BARE WIRE always stays soldered to ground (back of the volume pot) - it doesn't "move" with the colored leads - and, just moving the bare wire (which it sounds like you did) has NO EFFECT on the phase of the pickup - in fact, moving it MAY only serve to increase the noise and hum. Solder it back to ground on the back of the volume pot and leave it.

IF you currently have a PHASE problem in throws #2 and #3, which will give you a nasally, thin tone (possibly your self-described "next to nothing" tone?), then you need to swap the green and black leads back to the NORMAL S-D setup, where black is HOT and green is ground.

WHY is it out of phase, if you've followed S-D's info? Perhaps your Fender neck pickup is now wired out of phase, or it is NOT the stock Fender neck pup. My first thought is that you probably wired it out of phase when you installed the 4-way. Easy fix... BUT!

DO NOT reverse the phase of BOTH pickups -you'll be back in that same out of phase boat! Just reverse the leads - and therefore, the phase - of ONE pickup ONLY, and that will put them back in phase.

NEXT:
ONE of the common problems for "rookies" and the 4-way mod is that they leave the neck pup GROUNDED somewhere, rather than having its ground lead routed ONLY to the 4-way. The only lead that goes to ground from the neck pup in the 4-way mod is the NEW ground/shield lead from the cover - which should NOT connect to (or have continuity with) the pup's (old) ground lead, which ONLY goes to the 4-way, NOT to ground.

It seems like this issue comes up about every couple of months...

Here's a thread about 4-ways which I participated in, it has some GOOD INFO and troubleshooting advice...

4-way switch wiring problems

Let us know if this is any help...

[PhatTele]

oldiebutgoody - In a word..."Yes"

[oldiebutgoody]

Switching those 2 wires fixed it!! Thank you

[banjovi800]

I just wired my 1975 tele pickup set into my american tele with a standard 3-way. The bridge pick up is reversed polarity and I believe the neck is also but the middle pos. is thin like out of phase thin. Any suggestions? Or wiring diagrams.
Thanks

[Deaf Eddie]

Reverse the leads on ONE of the pickups.