Fender Telecaster 4 way switch

preston61

So I am a very happy Fender Nocaster owner, however in my search for a little more beef I have come across the Fender 4 way switch. 

From what I understand it gives you the standard 3 way switch option plus an out of phase version which is a bit like a humbucker??

Can anyone who has this mod tell me how they find it? I am particularly interested in how the extra setting sounds with overdrive

citizen68

I have a 4 way in mine - I don't think the 4th position is out of phase but it is a bit like a humbucker - it's the 2 singles connected in series. It gives a noticeably fatter tone that (on my guitar anyway) verges on being a bit too bassy. It also loses a bit of treble compared to the stock positions. 

Works well with overdrive if you haven't too much bass dialled in on your amp. I suppose the bass could be tamed by dropping the neck pickup a bit but I didn't want to mess with my stock sounds - that's my experience anyway

octatonic

Yes, 2 single coils in series but it doesn't sound like a 'proper' humbucker- just approximately close.

I've stopped using 4 ways in tele's myself- if I want a bucker then I use a bucker.

skay

Tried it twice on my other Tele, ripped it out twice, it doesn't 'add' anything, more like 'gets in the way' imho.

The big jump in volume and aforementioned eq shift makes it almost unusable alongside the regular settings unless you re-eq your amp every time you switch pickup, plus at home it sounds too loud in comparison when you switch to it, and it completely messes up the simplicity of the switch when playing live as you never know 'where you are' on the pickup selector.

I have a nocaster and have kept it stock wiring; love the clear and biting bridge pickup, the open chimey neck pickup and the cool blend feature, adding a 4-way switch would be a crime on this guitar :-O

octatonic

skay said:

The big jump in volume and aforementioned eq shift makes it almost unusable alongside the regular settings unless you re-eq your amp every time you switch pickup, plus at home it sounds too loud in comparison when you switch to it, and it completely messes up the simplicity of the switch when playing live as you never know 'where you are' on the pickup selector.

Agree.

shuikit

I have a 4 way switch in my partscaster and find it very useful, don't get a massive volume boost but enough to boost to flick between lead and rhythm. I have Texas specials pups which probably makes a difference..

octatonic

shuikit said:

I have a 4 way switch in my partscaster and find it very useful, don't get a massive volume boost but enough to boost to flick between lead and rhythm. I have Texas specials pups which probably makes a difference..

They are already quite hot so yes- and it is more noticeable on clean sounds, because of compression characteristics of high gain tones.

crunchman

I've put a 4 way switch in mine, but I don't use it much.  Not sure if I'd bother again, but not worth the hassle of taking it out.

koneguitarist

This works better for a 4 way. http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7440801/Guitar Wiring/Tele4-WayCW.jpg

dean111music

Bringing back an old thread but sounds like the classic 3 way is best route to go. Videos I have seen arent that impressive but anymore experience? It was a few years ago!

fnpt

I had a 4 way in my tele which sounded muddy, never used it and made it fiddly to get to the neck position as it wasn't the last position in the switch any more. 

menamestom

I've nothing against the sound but find I never use it.  I'd rather have a 3 way switch, but it's not worth changing.    I guess one use is a small volume boost from the guitar, which could be handy.

Jalapeno

koneguitarist said:

This works better for a 4 way. http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7440801/Guitar Wiring/Tele4-WayCW.jpg

Ooooh Ta for that - might give it a go.  I agree 4 way means the neck pickup isn't the fully "up" position and can be annoying/confusing.

CasperCaster

I've used many of the mods above, though mostly with a 5-way superswitch. The series is too boomy for me, so I tried a cap at the series link junction which makes it a bit more P90 like and tames the volume leap, though ultimately I ditched it for HOoP.

Not keen on the Eldred mod, just takes a bit of treble off. My tone control works better! The Arlo/Woodman mod is better but as it also takes bass out it significantly lowers the volume. I have a tapped bridge pickup which I intended to use with it i.e. standard output most of the time, but introduce the extra windings just when selecting the Arlo/Woodman mod, in order to compensate for the volume drop. However, I found I just like the sound of the two outputs, so I ditched the Arlo/Woodman filter entirely!

I haven't looked in detail at the diagrams above, but Fenders diagram for the 4-way switch has some shortcomings since the neck hot pickup collects the other signals from the switch (whether neck is active is determined by earthing, or lifting the earth to the neck pickup). This works fine for all but the bridge only selection where the neck earth is lifted and the neck pickup acts as an aerial introducing noise. Easily resolved by tying neck hot and earth together when bridge pickup is selected, so both ends of the neck pickup are at the same potential.

Also remember that one or other of your pickups must be 3-wire (typically the neck pickup for most of the published diagrams). If it's a standard 2-wire neck pickup the cover would constitute part of the pickup when in series and that would be very noisy.

Gagaryn

https://sites.google.com/site/phostenixwiringdiagrams/teles/2-pickup-teles This site is worth a look, I stumbled across it when exploring options for a 5 way superswitch - has pretty comprehensive wiring diagram library

thermionic

I'm thinking of doing the series mod to my Jaguar (as the Johnny Marr Jaguar) but using the slide switches. I think it would work better on a Jag because you have the strangle switch to cut the bass, similar to @koneguitarist's suggestion above.

noisepolluter

Used to have a 4-way in the tele when it had two singlecoils. I hardly ever used the both-in-series position because it sounded muddy compared to the others, and a boost pedal gave a much better result.

I had to change back to a 3 way anyway when I put a mini HB in the neck. I prefer having the neck p/u position fully forward, and even though it's a humbucker in the neck, the in-between setting has much more clarity than two singlecoils in series.

dean111music

4 way not getting much love! Can I get the neck pickup with 3 wires, use a 3 way switch still? I was thinking push pull to get the series sound?

dean111music

I prefer the ease of the 3 way I think!

OilCityPickups

I have a four way in my ash Tele with the Wapping Wharf tapped bridge pickup and HonkyTonk Angel neck ... and absolutely love it ... the volume boost can either be used for fat leads, or the bridge pickup tapped to normalise the volume and EQ when in series. Loads of different sounds depending on volume and tone settings.

Alegree

4 way always.
I don't understand the mentality of 'I don't like having choices'.