Esquire wiring help

fatboi

Hi, I have searched for an answer to this, but to no avail.

I recently picked up a telecaster that has been "esquired", with a single Kent Armstrong hot rail type pickup in the bridge position.

It is wired so that its full humbucker in all 3 positions. I wanted to have it so that its, humbucker in position 1, single coil (tapped) in position 2, and the eldred mod thingy in position 3.


Any ideas where I could find a suitable wiring diagram?

Thanks in advance!

SteveRobinson

Just connect the pickup to the volume control. Black to the outer non-earthed leg and green/bare to earth. 

On one side of the switch connect the wiper lug to earth (back of volume pot). Connect the red/white wire to the middle of the remaining lugs on the same side. Connect a 0.0047uF capacitor between the black pickup wire at the volume to the unused lug on the switch between the two you've already used. 

You can use the other side of the switch to control whether the tone control is in circuit if desired. Or, if you want the Eldred plus split together, you'll need to use one pole for each function.

fatboi

Thanks for the reply! Any chance you could draw a diagram of this for me? I can read a diagram but that's just gone over my head.

SteveRobinson

Do you want the tone control available in each position?
Do you want the Eldred position to be on the humbucker or split?

fatboi

yes to the tone control, and tbh im not sure which would be best....so either

SteveRobinson

Okay, try this. It's untested of course

If you want the front position (Eldred) to be humbucking, disconnect the link indicated by the red arrow. With the link, the coils are split in middle and forward positions.

If you want the tone control active only in the other two positions (it doesn't make much sense for the Eldred mod) disconnect the 0.047uF capacitor from the back of the tone pot and connect it to the two unused tags on the right side of the switch. That will connect it to earth (activating the tone control) in middle and rear positions only.

fatboi

Are the colours of the pickup wires definitely the colours of the Kent Armstrong wires or is that just an example?
Thanks so much for taking the time to do that for me. Very much appreciated. You're a top bloke!

koneguitarist

https://sites.google.com/site/phostenixwiringdiagrams/teles/esquires
All the esquire drawings you could want here. 

fatboi

Thanks very much, I'll give that a look if the first way doesn't work

SteveRobinson

fatboi said:

Are the colours of the pickup wires definitely the colours of the Kent Armstrong wires or is that just an example?

Good point. The colours are Seymour Duncan style as I used their diagrams as a basis.

For Kent Armstrong swap the black and green and keep the bare earthed of course, but it'll work either way, you just end up with the other coil when split.

http://www.kentarmstrong.com/schematics/KA_Wiring_Instructions.pdf

fatboi

Awesome! Thanks again!!

fatboi

In the diagram above....are the two capacitors different sizes? Or is it just a different way of writing the same size?

SteveRobinson

They are different. The tone control capacitor is 0.047μF (microFarads) and the Eldred cap is 0.0047μF, one tenth the capacitance. This means it just takes off the very top frequencies, giving the middy nasal sound.

PM me your address and I'll send one of each.

fatboi

I purchased a couple different types off eBay the other day. Just can't work out which is which. One is 4.7nf and the other is 47nf. Are these what I need? 
Thanks for the offer!

SteveRobinson

Yes. 47nF (nanoFarads) = 0.047μF and 4.7nF = 0.0047μF

fatboi

Ahhh, so what I've done.... Is accidentally bought exactly what I needed
thanks again for the help

fatboi

Having some trouble with this....

I've wired it as shown in the picture, but I'm only getting sound in the middle position. The tone knob works fine, but the volume knob doesn't work until it's half way around. 
I've tried swapping the black and green pickup wires (as suggested due to the differece between KA and SD pickups), but this just changes whether I get sound on the first position or the middle position.
Any help appreciated?

fatboi

Oh and yes, it has took me over a year to get around to doing this

ICBM

fatboi said:

Having some trouble with this....

I've wired it as shown in the picture, but I'm only getting sound in the middle position. The tone knob works fine, but the volume knob doesn't work until it's half way around. 
I've tried swapping the black and green pickup wires (as suggested due to the differece between KA and SD pickups), but this just changes whether I get sound on the first position or the middle position.
Any help appreciated?

Sounds like you may have a damaged volume pot, and that something in the pickup wiring is shorted or the switch is wired wrongly. Where does the bare wire go to? If you swap the green and black, the bare wire needs to go with the black and remain connected to the back of the pot.

Can you post a pic of it?

fatboi

Yes, I left the bare with whichever wire was grounded to the back of the pot. I can’t get a pic right now, as I’m not with the guitar. But it’s wired exactly as the diagram shows. I’ve checked it 10 times lol

Funkfingers

fatboi said:

it’s wired exactly as the diagram shows.

Er, you have not stated what exact selector switch you are using. This could be significant. SteveRobinson's schematic diagram assumes the use of a CRL switch. Any other switch design will require translation from the supplied diagram.

For example, there is a Japanese-made switch that places the poles on the "wrong" sides, compared to a CRL. (The obvious identifier is that its terminals are offset differently.)


Some switches have all eight terminals in a single line. If you number the eight-in-line terminals 12345678, the translation to CRL layout would look like 5678 / 1234.

Thus, in Steve's diagram, there is a jumper wire between terminals 8 and 1. The "Eldred Mod" filtering capacitor is connected to terminals 1 and 4. (Hope this makes sense.)