Esquire Conversion - I'm Confused

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^^^ Eldred mod is good, but I found I liked the Arlo Cocked Wah mod better

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thank you Sir..

 

I can't make out the details in the newer pics of the switch - but in the picture of the populated control plate you showed in post #16, it looks like the positive (white pushback wires) are not run to the right contacts on the switch. The one going to the volume pot needs to connect to the two outside lugs and the one going to the tone pot needs to connect to the second lug. (or third lug?)

I could be wrong, I'm no expert. I wanna do what I can to help before rehearsal tomorrow night!!
Good luck!

 

Glad you got it up and running!
How's it sound?

(congrats on the new soldering iron too - I may need to trade in my harbor freight $3 special to get me some LEDs!)

 

Happy to s another Esquire convert , you should never go back !! Enjoy that Esquire to the max !!

 

Cropper brings me here ... one day I will be at this destination. There's just *something* about single-PU guitars. Love yours!

 

Glad it's working - but it's not a traditional Esquire. This is the original Esquire wiring:






And this is the Eldred mod:


There are other mods you can do to make an Esquire more practical, as the standard 3rd position is essentially mud (even a single fixed cap like your prewired rig produces a muddy tone that was meant to take the place of a bass or "double" an upright bass). Your prewired setup tries to remove some of that by using a .02uf tone cap, but that has little - if any - effect at the upper end of the control's travel. It simply limits how much treble can be removed if you roll the tone control all the way back - which would make little sense anyway.

But I'll ask this - do you understand what cap values mean in a tone circuit and what affect there is on the position of the tone control (related to sound?)

There are excellent stacked-coil pickups found on eBay (Q pickups makes ones with excellent clarity that are inexpensive; I've had poor luck with Duncan's stacked Tele bridge pickups, which IMO have a dull tone).

You can use a 4-way switch and/or a push/pull or toggle to give you a much wider range of tones than the stock (or your purchased) wiring.

Also note that the switch on your prewired rig is different than the one on the vintage Fender diagram. One shows a Centralab (arranged the same as an Oak Grigsby) switch; the Mike Eldred mod shows a modern Fender switch - note that the positions of the tabs on each side of the switch are reversed.l And, as you found, the cheap inline switch is completely different!

This is why it's important to understand physical differences between switches and be able to read schematics. If you can read a schematic it makes no difference which type of switch you have at all.

And you could have saved a bunch of money by wiring it up yourself - a new control plate (the cheap imports have differently spaced holes), upgraded switch and two new full size pots (the tiny ones are poor quality) - plus a few caps and resistors and a little wire cost FAR less than a prewired setup. Plus you learn how t actually work on your guitar, not just install a prefab bunch of stuff you don't understand.

There are plenty of books you can buy that explain guitar wiring - but I'd suggest learning basic electronics first so you'll comprehend schematics - "diagrams" are limited and won't get you very far, especially if you ever decide to work on your own amplifiers.

Good luck!

 

can i ask what that little cap does from the switch grounded to the pot? thanks

 

I'm a very recent convert to the Esquire club. I took the easy way and had one of James' Home of Tone super neat wiring harnesses. I'm constantly surprised by the range of sounds available. Including a reminder of the variety from basic stuff like picking at different points of the string.

 

Of course the easiest way to do it is to simply cut off (at the solder points) the neck pickup and you will then have a kill switch option. You will have the bridge pickup working. Between the tone pot and the amp you should still get a variety of tones. Then add an Esquire pick guard and you are in business for little or no cash added.

 

Yes, this was my first step, to see how I got on. Didn't even unscrew the pickup for the first few days until I got a new scratchplate.

 

I Love the Eldred Esquire circuit and have used it on a couple of my Esquire parts casters. On one of them I’ve made things a bit more versatile by using a pickup tapped at about 7k and 14k via a pull/push switch on the volume control.0