Tele 4 way wiring w/ Humbucker Neck pickup ?

I doubt it, but what state is the neck humbucker in position 3? Series or parallel?

Perhaps use the 4-way in typical fashion, Neck, Series, Parallel, Bridge, and then a toggle or push-pull to switch the neck coils between series and parallel. That's definitely doable.

 

I don't think it's possible, then. But to clarify, in case someone else wants to take a stab at it, what do you want for position 3? Neck coils in parallel, or series?

 

As long as you have 2 separate ground wires going to the neck pickup (1 is normal ground, the other can be grounded to the cover or back of housing), you should be able to do that.

I attached a diagram, hope it helps.

 

So, for a 4 wire pickup aren't there two modes:

1. "center" wires connected (floating)
2. "center" wires both grounded

For scenario #1, connect as per the diagram, and of course, there's no tele neck cover wire to run to the back of the pot.

For scenario #2, my semi-educated take is that you treat the pickup like #1, but you'll have to have a secondary switch to run the two connected wires to the same ground that your "2-wire" ground runs to - the right-most, lower tab in the wiring diagram above.

If anyone has a better idea, I'm all ears.

... Thom

 

As long as you follow the diagram, you should get that in position 4 (toggle all the way to the left). Position 2 will give you combined parallel (1 click left of all the way to right).

 

Dude, that's just a standard 4-way. He's trying to do something different. Namely, instead of a parallel position, he wants the neck humbucker alone - with the coils in parallel.

Though it's still unclear what he wants for the both-pickups-in-series position - whether the neck humbucker is parallel or series wired.

 

Four-wire humbucker can be wired lots more ways than that. Think of them as two separate single coils. How many ways can you wire a standard Tele?

To get the coils in parallel mode, you're correct another switch is needed, but it's not to ground both coil-end leads. One must be grounded, one must go to hot.

But he wants no extra switch, so ... I think that's it then.

 

Ah my bad - I must have glossed over that. Well, the standard 4-way wiring will give him 3 out of 4 of those things he wants. As far as having the humbucker by itself with the coils in parallel, I can't imagine the sound being that special or much different from a split coil to go thru the trouble of overcomplicating it. But I've never heard a humbucker wired like that before, so I can't say for sure.

Personally, I'd much rather combine it with the bridge pickup in parallel, as you would get in position 2. The combined positions on a tele can be downright magical - that's the point of having that bridge pickup in a tele.

I guess it's possible to keep the 4-way wiring standard, and just substitute a push-pull pot for the volume or tone control to activate "parallel coils" while in position 3.

 

Yep, I suggested that in post #2, but he ain't bitin'...

You don't hear that spoken out loud too often .

I'm in the same camp. Neck, or middle (parallel) for me. Bridge, VERY rarely.


Might be because I play at home. In a band, bridge might sound better. More cut, less "oh my god that's so bright".

 

With the volume rolled down to attenuate a little high end, the bridge pickup is actually really tasty in a bitey way. I know the tone knob helps dull it too, but it's different. Sometimes, when the band is climaxing and you need to scream over everything else (especially the cymbals), I'm definitely thankful for the bridge on 10.

You might like an overwound bridge pickup if you haven't tried those yet. Or a Broadcaster pickup (A3, 43 awg wire, wound hot).

With treble on the amp set all the way down, it's really cool too.

 

I haven't tried it myself, but often I've read that things can be pretty muddy, id est, hb series with a single coil.

But, that would depend on the pickups one is pairing (how bright they are to begin with) so I guess only one way to find out.

I always say, YOUR geetar, YOUR ears.

Happy pickin'

 

You can't get exactly what you are after with a 4 way but...

The 1st is my typical SH tele 4-way in my builds. Everyone who plays it loves it

The 2nd goes to a 5 way option using a Schaller Megaswitch M. You can do it with a 5 -way superswitch as well but I don't have it drawn out & schaller is easier to me
This one is excellent as well.



Eric

 

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There is a wiring diagram for using a 500k volume pot with a 250k switching option that puts a fixed 500k resistor in parallel with the pot.

The other option you could use is a 3-way on/on/on switch for the humbucker to give parallel/single/series and then a 4-way blade switch for the usual Tele way.
SD sells those pickup rings with an integrated mini switch to do that if you didn't want to add holes in the guitar.

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This is what I described in post #2, plus the resistor on the bridge pickup. Because the series/parallel switch is separate for the humbucker, you have both those possibilities available in all three positions where Neck is active.

And like jvin, I too like the on-on-on toggle for adding a coil split to your coil manipulation options.

 

In your situation, I'm leaning towards 500k pots and .047uf tone cap because of the neck humbucker and your bridge broadcaster pu (I'm assuming A3 wound hot?). It's easier to take away treble than to add treble. 500k is typically for humbuckers and .047uf is typically for single coils, so you've got a little compromise there. If you find out you want a little more warmth, you can swap to a .022uf cap easily.

The 500k pots will also help keep clarity when you combine the neck and bridge in series (especially because of the humbucker).

 

Here are some alternatives that will NOT give you a mudfest. Some of these use a standard 5-way, some use a 4-pole 5-way.