Telecaster wiring fluff up

munckee

I have just replaced a non original bridge pick up in my 76 telecaster.  When I checked the wiring against an original wiring diagram it wasn't as it should have been, the replacement pick up was much hotter than the neck so I figured it was something to do with that.  At the same time I changed a 500k non original volume pot for a 250k, so I put the wiring back to how is should have originally been.

Put it back together and both pickups work great and there is no noise.  The inbetween position is significantly lower volume and sounds weedy.  Have I dislodged a ground or wired the bridge pick up wrong way round or something else?

I will open it i[ later so can take pictures while I'm in there but what should I try when I'm in there?

The wisdom of the board massive is greatly appreciated as always!

poopot

If the neck is fine and the bridge is fine… and the middle position is thin and weedy… flip the hot and ground on one of the pickups..

SteveRobinson

Yes it does sound like they are out of phase.

When you reverse the wiring on one of them (neck is probably easiest) be sure to transfer the earth link that connects the cover (or baseplate on the bridge pickup) to the other wire. 

One issue flipping the polarity of Tele pickups is that if the pole pieces are not insulated the inner windings may make electrical contact with them. These are normally closest to the earth side but flipping polarity will put them on the live side. This may mean that when your strings (which are earthed) touch the pole pieces or the cover the sound cuts out as you've shorted everything.

poopot

Just a quick one.

has the bridge pickup got a base plate? Also assuming standard tele neck with a cover?

munckee

Neck pickup is original bridge has a bass plate. 

How do I change the earth link to the base plate?

SteveRobinson

This link wire need to go to the yellow/white wire (assuming it's currently connected to the black one).



If your soldering iron isn't up to the job, just snip it off and use a separate earth wire trapped under the bridge plate.

ICBM

SteveRobinson said:

This link wire need to go to the yellow/white wire (assuming it's currently connected to the black one).

If your soldering iron isn't up to the job, just snip it off and use a separate earth wire trapped under the bridge plate.

... which is a better and more reliable method of making the ground connection anyway. (But complicates assembly slightly, so Leo saved a miniscule amount of worker labour time by doing it via the pickup.)

The 'correct' way to fix this is to remove both the yellow and black (with link) wires from the pickup eyelets and reverse them, but I would not recommend this unless you're very experienced working on pickups as there's a risk of breaking the coil wires.

In fact, if I have to do this I prefer to do it on the neck pickup since the solder joint to the cover is then not on the wrong side, but I am unusually fussy . But if it's a valuable vintage guitar and you want it to be 'right' inside if anyone else looks, that's how I would do it.

And yes, Fender did reverse the polarity of their pickup magnetisation more than once over the years, so both pickups may be correct and original and still out of phase, if they're not from the same era.

Funkfingers

All of the above comments assume that the non-original bridge/Treble position pickup is a single coil. Is this correct?

munckee

Funkfingers said:

All of the above comments assume that the non-original bridge/Treble position pickup is a single coil. Is this correct?

Yes it’s a standard tele single coil.