Nashville Wiring Mods

[seymour625]

Hello. I have a Nashville Telecaster with a switch that is in need of replacement. It works fine, but I feel the need to tinker. Being a bit neurotic, I'd like to try this mod. Replace the 5-way with a 4-way to give me Bridge, Bridge-Neck parallel, Bridge-Neck series, and Neck. I would also like to add an on/off toggle to accommodate the middle pickup. I've already tinkered with the wiring (switching the bridge & middle positions on the selector), so I feel comfortable for the most part in completing the task without burning the house down, and more importantly, not burning up the guitar. Are there any diagrams out there or someone who can explain what to do/how to wire such a switch for the middle pickup? Many Thanks!

 

[memorex]

I can't give you what you want, but here's the wiring diagram of my two Nashvilles. I had to use miniature caps to fit this in a Tele control cavity. I also used the RockRabbit angled switch plate for both, reverse oriented, and drilled my own hole for the mini-toggle, slightly closer to the middle hole, which RockRabbit does not offer.

 

[dlew919]

Seymour Duncan has a lot of mods for strats. Try there.

 

[Tuxedo Poly]

This should work

 

[telel6s]

This Tele I did up with a 4-way switch on the BN pickups, and then using a volume knob instead on the middle pickup and that went direct to output. So I could then get just the middle pickup by turning down the BN volume. (Looked for but can't find the wiring diagram I had for it.)

 

[seymour625]

Holy Crap. I've been reading the forums on here for a few years, and just joined up today to make my post about the desired mods. Thank you guys for chiming in.

Tuxedo Poly: Thanks for the diagram. This is pretty much what I had in my mind for the toggle switch option.

Telel6s: I've had this option in mind as well. I've been trying to see how close I can get the bridge's tone to that of the middle with the tone knob. I don't see myself using the middle that much on its own, but I sure hate to lose access to it. I seem to change my mind with each new sunrise. From your experience, is it possible/ok to run from the additional volume pot into the tone knob and then to the output?

Thanks again everyone for your input!

 

[seymour625]

After giving much thought, I came up with <possibly> my own modification. I want to wire the 4 way selector for the Bridge and Middle pickups, and wire the Neck to a toggle switch. I'm also planning on running from the selector for the bridge & middle to a 2nd toggle. This should let me turn those two pickups off and allow for the neck to be run solo, and also add the neck to all 4 positions of the selector. I'm a bit confused with some of the grounding that diagrams show. If I'm not wiring the bridge to the 4 way, do I still need to adjust the ground in regards to the pickup cover? Would I then need to do that step for the middle pickup? I've also seen an additional ground wire from the bridge. The diagrams show the ground wire from that pickup, and when I dig into the control cavity, there are two wires from the bridge pickup (hot & ground). Would I need to add an additional wire? Since I couldn't find a diagram for what I want to do, I tried my best to create my own in a spreadsheet. The Red Check Marks describe current wiring that I believe I would not need to alter. Any advice from those with more experience than me? My experience with this sort of thing is practically zero! Hopefully, my pdf for the wiring mod has attached correctly.

 

[seymour625]

After giving much thought, I came up with <possibly> my own modification. I want to wire the 4 way selector for the Bridge and Middle pickups, and wire the Neck to a toggle switch. I'm also planning on running from the selector for the bridge & middle to a 2nd toggle. This should let me turn those two pickups off and allow for the neck to be run solo, and also add the neck to all 4 positions of the selector. I'm a bit confused with some of the grounding that diagrams show. If I'm not wiring the bridge to the 4 way, do I still need to adjust the ground in regards to the pickup cover? Would I then need to do that step for the middle pickup? I've also seen an additional ground wire from the bridge. The diagrams show the ground wire from that pickup, and when I dig into the control cavity, there are two wires from the bridge pickup (hot & ground). Would I need to add an additional wire? Since I couldn't find a diagram for what I want to do, I tried my best to create my own in a spreadsheet. The Red Check Marks describe current wiring that I believe I would not need to alter. Any advice from those with more experience than me? My experience with this sort of thing is practically zero! Hopefully, my pdf for the wiring mod has attached correctly.

Also...would I need to do ground wiring for the toggles?