How would you go about wiring this config on a Tele?

lovestrat74

Instead of a switch, you have a pot. Not sure if this is just a standard pot used as a blend pot or some sort of varitone switch, but I quite like the idea...

Dave_Mc

Isn't that how the original Tele was wired?

https://www.fralinpickups.com/wiring-diagrams/broadcaster-wiring-diagram/

That's not exactly what you're asking for, but it does suggest it's an idea worth considering... EDIT: I think you need a no-load pot for the blender.

Funkfingers

Tedious but necessary questions:

1) How many pickups in your hypothetical guitar?
2) What type(s)?

lovestrat74 said:

Instead of a switch, you have a pot.

So, is that a total of three pots?

The John5 two volumes, no tone circuit springs to mind.

With a suitable control plate, it would be easy to have a Jazz Bass style VVT circuit.

lovestrat74

2 pickups and yes 3 pots (probably humbuckers). 1 acting as the switch and the others, a vol and tone pot

Funkfingers

A PRS-style rotary selector would govern the pickup coil permutations without getting in the way like a lever switch seems to do for some players.

This would have to be the earlier wafer type. The PCB version will only fit into the control cavity of a Thinline.

lovestrat74

Wafer you say eh!

EDIT: Gotcha https://www.axesrus.co.uk/ARUROTSWI-p/aruswitchrotary.htm

ICBM

I may be in a minority, but I find blend pots a complete waste of time - even on basses, and always on guitars. There are still really only three sounds - either pickup or both - the useful range of 'different' tones (or 'subtle shades' as some people call them ) between the equal mix position in the middle and where one pickup or the other becomes essentially inaudible is tiny, and also fiddly to dial in in any situation where you can't take your time and hear the guitar clearly. Good luck finding any of them reliably in a live situation.

Funkfingers

Pretty much what ICBM wrote.

On guitar, blending is only really useful when combining a centre pickup with whatever the neck and bridge ones are doing. (In this example, phase reversal of that central pickup can result in some distinctive but usable sounds.)

ICBM said:

Good luck finding any of them reliably in a live situation.

Even if you can dial 'em in, what proportion of the audience is going to notice, let alone care?

The Fender Broadcaster Blend circuit and Stratocaster Quarter Blend circuit are worth trying … but only if you only carry one type of guitar to gigs.

lovestrat74 said:

Instead of a switch, you have a pot.

Why - apart from quite liking the idea - would you want to do this?

I appreciate that some guitarists dislike having the selector switch in their strumming area. (Reverse the control plate, if you must.) I appreciate that some guitarists would prefer a toggle selector switch to the lever. (Third party custom control plates are available.) 

If you just want to be different, I suggest the following options:
1) For traditional single coils - Schaller Megaswitch M, circuit SS3.
2) For 4-con + shield humbuckers - 2502N special five-way switch, DiMarzio/Ibanez circuit.

Bridge HB, inside split coils, both HBs, neck HB (parallel coils), neck HB (series coils).

lovestrat74

You are both talking blend pot but I am thinking rotary selector. I am not interested in coil splits etc so a 3 way rotary would work I think

ICBM

lovestrat74 said:

You are both talking blend pot but I am thinking rotary selector. I am not interested in coil splits etc so a 3 way rotary would work I think

You did say pot .

lovestrat74 said:

Instead of a switch, you have a pot. Not sure if this is just a standard pot used as a blend pot or some sort of varitone switch, but I quite like the idea...

In which case I still wouldn’t bother, unless the sole reason is that you often knock a switch by accident and you want something purposely more difficult to use .

Or you really do want a set of combinations which are difficult to achieve with a standard switch, eg like the Gibson L6-S.

Funkfingers

I have the bits to assemble such a switch. They were given to me by a CB radio enthusiast. These are so skeletal that you can choose how many wafers and how many click stops it will have.

Obviously, you have to solder on the jumper and output wires according to your requirements.

ICBM

Funkfingers said:

I have the bits to assemble such a switch. They were given to me by a CB radio enthusiast. These are so skeletal that you can choose how many wafers and how many click stops it will have.

I’ve got an old Radiospares (pre-RS Components) kit like that somewhere. The only problem is that it’s unlikely to fit in any guitar other than a large hollowbody...

Funkfingers

RS 7444, Made In England?

Dave_Mc

ICBM said:

I may be in a minority, but I find blend pots a complete waste of time - even on basses, and always on guitars. There are still really only three sounds - either pickup or both - the useful range of 'different' tones (or 'subtle shades' as some people call them ) between the equal mix position in the middle and where one pickup or the other becomes essentially inaudible is tiny, and also fiddly to dial in in any situation where you can't take your time and hear the guitar clearly. Good luck finding any of them reliably in a live situation.

I pretty much agree, though I find on a bass if you have both pickups on equally often the neck pickup overpowers the bridge one and having the ability to balance them slightly better can be helpful. Though arguably separate volumes is easier to balance them I guess, since you normally only have to roll one volume off very slightly to get there... whereas getting there from the slightly-off-centre position of a blend is a faff.

Funkfingers

lovestrat74 said:

Wafer, you say, eh!

My mind had wandered back to Sporky's biscuits of the world Discussion.  

lovestrat74

ICBM said:

lovestrat74 said:

You are both talking blend pot but I am thinking rotary selector. I am not interested in coil splits etc so a 3 way rotary would work I think

You did say pot .

I don't know what I am talking about that's why I am here

lovestrat74

Funkfingers said:

I have the bits to assemble such a switch. They were given to me by a CB radio enthusiast. These are so skeletal that you can choose how many wafers and how many click stops it will have.

Obviously, you have to solder on the jumper and output wires according to your requirements.

Hmm, interesting... 

ICBM

lovestrat74 said:

I don't know what I am talking about that's why I am here

The important question is what do you want to achieve - blending pickups, unusual pickup combinations (eg series or out-of-phase) which aren’t easy with a standard switch, to make the switch harder to knock by accident, or something else?

That will probably dictate what the best solution is.

A ‘pot’ is a potentiometer - a rotary variable resistance control which can be used for changing the amount of signal (volume or blend) or part of it (tone). A rotary switch is exactly that - a switch, but with a rotary physical movement rather than a toggle or lever. They’re more complex than toggle switches*, but you can now get lever switches which come close, at least up to five positions - a rotary can have up to twelve with the standard construction.

(*There’s a very clever modern toggle switch called the Freeway which Funkfingers knows much more about than I do.)

Funkfingers

That'll be the 3B3-01 six-way selector switch. Two "banks" of three sounds. TBH, the Bank 2 permutations would be of limited use with side-by-side coils hum-cancelling pickups.

I enjoyed this switch in a modified Squier Silver Series Telecaster with single coil pickups (since traded with HarrySeven). 

The same switch would not drop into the control cavity of a Fender AVRI '52 Telecaster. (Hence, the Schaller Megaswitch M.) The 3B3 switch chassis caught on the rounded end of the rout. 

Fortunately, some modern T types have a slightly squared off end to the control cavity that allows the 3B3 to fit neatly. Alternatively, there are control plates with the switch slot cut at an angle. 

The rotary wafer switch mentioned yesterday occupies too much space to fit inside a solidbody T-style guitar without extensive wood mangling but would fit inside either mark of the Thinline (after shortening). 

Dave_Mc

Funkfingers said:

That'll be the 3B3-01 six-way selector switch. Two "banks" of three sounds. TBH, the Bank 2 permutations would be of limited use with side-by-side coils hum-cancelling pickups.

I enjoyed this switch in a modified Squier Silver Series Telecaster with single coil pickups (since traded with HarrySeven). 

The same switch would not drop into the control cavity of a Fender AVRI '52 Telecaster. (Hence, the Schaller Megaswitch M.) The 3B3 switch chassis caught on the rounded end of the rout. 

Fortunately, some modern T types have a slightly squared off end to the control cavity that allows the 3B3 to fit neatly. Alternatively, there are control plates with the switch slot cut at an angle. 

I just about got the 5-way lever one (the SSS/HSS one) to fit in my Fret-King Tele, which has a slightly bigger plate than a normal Tele and has an angled switch. I think I had to use a little bit of insulation tape to stop the edge of it grounding out. Though maybe neater soldering may have meant I didn't have to do that...

Funkfingers

Hmm. Difficult to comment on mechanical fitting issues in anything other than general terms unless or until the OP specifies the make and model of guitar on which he is working.

I am vaguely aware of some of his guitar projects, as mentioned on this forum. There are changes that I might suggest for the Tele-'bird that I would not wish upon a HH Telecaster … and vice versa.

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If you just want the selector switch out of the way, it could go in the John5 position on the upper bout, like a Telecaster Deluxe. It could go in the Johnny Marr Jaguar position, on a metal plate or suspended through the pickguard like the old Roland G505 synth controller guitar. (Either of these options would be easier to rout and drill.)