Baja wiring with a 3 way switch

[Berserkr]

I have a friend with a Baja Tele and he loves all the tones he gets out of it… but he hates the way the selector switch is so close to the volume pot. He’s looked at various options that people normally use to combat this issue with Teles and he likes the idea of the Gibson style 3 way toggle switch.

As I have done wiring on plenty of guitars and have the necessary kit, he has asked me to see if I can look in to this for him. Unfortunately I tend to follow fairly standard diagrams usually and this is a bit out of my league!

I am wondering if it would be possible to use the 3 way switch, plus a push/pull tone pot or separate DPDT switch for what is usually position 4 on the selector (both pickups in series).

If this doesn’t look possible, does anybody have any other options to keep all the Baja functionality with a 3 way switch?

Thanks for looking!

 

[waparker4]

I think this should work with a 3-way toggle...

image removed


DPDT switch does two things
(1) The input to the "bridge side" of the 3way toggle switch gets switched between bridge hot and neck hot

(2) Neck negative lead gets connected to Ground when bridge pup is connected to the toggle [normal mode], and gets connected to bridge hot in the other position [series mode]



Another option would be a reversed control plate, the switch gets put at the end next to the tone pot and the volume pot is more accessible.

(image removed)

 

[Berserkr]

Thanks for the response, that's an interesting idea! Would that work with the S1 switch though? Or could I use another push/pull pot to take it in and out of phase?

We did think about flipping the plate around but he uses the tone pot a lot too so it would just be moving the problem.

Thanks again.

 

[soulman969]

You should be able to just replace the 4-way with a 3-way and then wire a push/pull tone pot for the B/N Series setting. My "Nashcaster" is wired this way and if you need it I probably have the wiring scheme somewhere on this computer.

But, I have no experience with the wiring of the S-1 circuit. That part you'd need to look at another diagram or get some advice from waparker or another whose more familiar with it than I am.

I can tell you that having it wired to the tone pot isn't really any more of a problem than having it on the selector switch. My Nashville uses the same approach to add the middle pickup to any other single pickup or pickup combination.

 

[Berserkr]

You should be able to just replace the 4-way with a 3-way and then wire a push/pull tone pot for the B/N Series setting. My "Nashcaster" is wired this way and if you need it I probably have the wiring scheme somewhere on this computer.

But, I have no experience with the wiring of the S-1 circuit. That part you'd need to look at another diagram or get some advice from waparker or another whose more familiar with it than I am.

I can tell you that having it wired to the tone pot isn't really any more of a problem than having it on the selector switch. My Nashville uses the same approach to add the middle pickup to any other single pickup or pickup combination.

Thanks! If you could find the diagram that would be great, I'm trying to see what options are available and this sounds promising!

 

[sjtalon]

I have a Strat S 1 series I drew up one time:


Tonight I can work out a Tele one if you want to go that way.

 

[waparker4]

You want one switch to do the neck pup phase and another to do series? Am I reading right? s1 volume for phase? Push pull tone for series?

 

[Berserkr]

You want one switch to do the neck pup phase and another to do series? Am I reading right? s1 volume for phase? Push pull tone for series?

That's what I was hoping for, although I'm now thinking of separate volumes for each pickup and master tone with two push/pulls, one for series/parallel, one for in/out of phase.

Do you think that would work?

Thanks!

 

[sjtalon]

thought I had drawn up a s 1 to do series but no, so look at this diagram to get series with a s 1:

(link removed)

 

[soulman969]

Thanks! If you could find the diagram that would be great, I'm trying to see what options are available and this sounds promising!

Here's a couple of diagrams to work from. The lower attachment is the wiring of my Nashcaster which sjtalon did the work on so this is his diagram. Gotta give credit where credit is due.

The other is another option I garnered from the Phostenix website. Although it shows it with two P90s the wiring would be the same for a standard Tele set.


image removed

 

[moosie]

Here's how to have a 3-way switch, and a series toggle that only affects position 2. The third pole on the S-1 is required to do this. This was the stock wiring on my 2012 Deluxe Tele.

I didn't address phasing. Did you want that on a second push-pull?

 

[moosie]

The diagram I posted above is my rendition of the Fender diagram attached below. It's how my Deluxe was wired. As I said, I thought the S-1 was necessary. EDIT: and I just now looked at soulman/sjtalon's approach, which is very similar. Doh...

I've changed my mind. This new drawing seems to be as good, or better way of doing series/parallel on a 3-way switch, but using only a DPDT push-pull or mini-toggle. I've also added a phase switch DPDT, but that's not necessary to make everything else work.

What was Fender smoking? They wanted to "need" an S-1 because it was a Deluxe?

 

[Berserkr]

Thanks so much for all the diagrams, you guys are awesome! Lots of options to choose from.

Do you think I'd be able to do the same with separate volume pots for each pickup and a master tone?

 

[moosie]

Thanks so much for all the diagrams, you guys are awesome! Lots of options to choose from.

Do you think I'd be able to do the same with separate volume pots for each pickup and a master tone?

I *think* this should do it. I thought about my Gretsch 6120... But I've never done a Tele this way. Someone have a look, please?

 

[Berserkr]

Thanks moosie, I think that's exactly what I've been looking for!

 

[moosie]

Thanks moosie, I think that's exactly what I've been looking for!

Great! By the way, the little 'v N+' and 'v N-' labels help me think about it. After phase switching (or not), these are 'virtual N+' and N-. Swapped or not, they act 'as if'. If the labels confuse, just ignore 'em.

 

[Berserkr]

Great! By the way, the little 'v N+' and 'v N-' labels help me think about it. After phase switching (or not), these are 'virtual N+' and N-. Swapped or not, they act 'as if'. If the labels confuse, just ignore 'em.

Everything confuses me!

Sorry to be a pain, do you think this would work with a Gibson style toggle switch? I can't get my head around how I'd wire it up.

 

[moosie]

Sorry to be a pain, do you think this would work with a Gibson style toggle switch? I can't get my head around how I'd wire it up.

I've only ever done simple, stock Gibson wiring with those 3-way toggles, never tried anything fancy, but no, I don't think it's possible to do this job with a Gibson switch.

The Tele 3-way (upper left) is a 2 pole, 3 throw switch.

The Gibson 3-way (lower) is analogous to having positions 1 & 2 on the Tele switch, plus you can balance it in between, at 1.5, and both positions are live. But there's no equivalent position 3. I'm not even sure the Gibson switch is this flexible -- are the commons hardwired together?

 

[JD0x0]

Why not do the old trick of reversing the control plate and then swapping positions of the tone and volume knobs? You can keep the 4 way, which IMO would be simpler to operate, on stage, rather than having a separate switch for the series position.

Just my $.02

 

[moosie]

Why not do the old trick of reversing the control plate and then swapping positions of the tone and volume knobs? You can keep the 4 way, which IMO would be simpler to operate, on stage, rather than having a separate switch for the series position.

I agree. I was asked for a scheme, so I complied, but I prefer a 4 or 5 way to incorporate Series. Still a toggle for phase.

This might help, (link removed)
(link removed)