From esquire to tele with a five way switch and gold foil

Neilybob

I wasn't happy with the neck or position 3 on my non Fender esquire so I had a chat with Marc at @Mojopickups and I decided (with advise from Marc) to loose the SD quarter pounder in the bridge and go with a gold foil in the neck and a Oil City nocaster pickup (already had this) in the bridge.  

As I currently own a nice selection of teles ('84 Fernandes standard tele and '07 black Fender Aerodyne tele with P90 in the neck) I wanted this guitar to be different so I ended up with a Bloodstone 5 way wiring harness http://www.bloodstoneguitarworks.com/shop/telecaster-wiring-loom ;

This gives me switching options of 

1. Bridge
2. Bridge and neck in parallel
3. Neck

4. “dark tone” 
5. Series/humbucker mode in position 5

Bought a cheap 3ply black tele with humbucker sized hole pickguard from nAmazon. The tele body is already reliced so I decided to relic the pickguard by rubbing it will 000 gauge wire wool and scratching it a bit.  Then install the gold foil into the pickguard. First issue was the gold foil screws where to long and hit the bottom of the pickup cavity. Grabbed my Dremel and chopped them down but they still didn't fit. So ended up routing out the neck cavity slightly deeper which resolved the issue. Next issue the plate on the Nocaster pickup didn't fit in the bridge cavity so I routed that with the Dremel, sorted. Then I went to install the harness onto the tele control plate and I quickly realised the CTS pots have a wider neck than the previous pots did. Dremel to the rescue again by making the holes wider. 

Then I had an argument with myself whether to have a go at soldering the pickups in or not. After some time I decided to go for it. Bloodstone made it very easy as the harness came marked where I needed to solder to and a paper diagram showing what I was soldering where. Only thing I wasn't sure about was where to put the earthing wire at the bridge. After a quick internet search I found the easiest solution is to wedge it between the body and the bridge.

Plugged it in and all is working perfectly. Wow the clarity of the gold foil pickup is amazing! 

Neilybob

Couple more photos along the way. 

Funkfingers

If your bridge position pickup is wired conventionally, the bridge assembly is already grounded via the pickup elevator screws, metal baseplate and the output conductor in black insulation.

I am thinking of making similar modifications to a Telecaster with an Alegree Magma Plume WRHB-alike in the neck/Rhythm position. Problem is, I can not decide between the compact or "vintage correct" variants.

All good fun, I'm sure.

PEDANTRY CORNER

• Nocaster is a registered trade mark of Fender. OCP uses another name to evoke ideas of the sound palette of his pickup. Probably Honky Tonk Angel or Copperfield.

• Quarter Pounder is a registered trade mark of McDonald's. Seymour Duncan prints the name of his pickup models on the packaging and, still, people manage to spell them wrongly. 

I despair of the human race some times.

Neilybob

Thank you @Funkfingers ;

You mean there isn't a tFb buddy who lives local to you that could help you out? My local shop charges £60 notes to swap a set of pickups 

Funkfingers

Why would I want help with soldering? I've been doing it for forty five years. My eyesight is not completely shot and the lead fumes have not entirely twisted my few remaining brain cells.

Neilybob

Funkfingers said:

Why would I want help with soldering? I've been doing it for forty five years. My eyesight is not completely shot and the lead fumes have not entirely twisted my few remaining brain cells.

Lol apologies I think I made a big fat assumption. I blame my Friday afternoon beer.