Recently bought this esquire which was wired up as
https://ibb.co/4V8yh7HBlack lead to the centre (red/white tapes) with caps either end of the 3 way switch really bassy in the neck and really trebly in the bridge position .
I I have tried wiring it up as a series / parallel but couldn't really hear any difference in the sound.
Is there any other recommended mods on an esquire with a lil 59 pickup, looking for something a little more restrained and more in keeping with a telecaster tone but still having the humbucker option.
All made difficult with the import switch I need to swap out at some point.
Thanks
Comments
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Series/single/parallel wiring via a three-way lever selector switch is easy enough. IMO, the sounds produced are dark/noisy/weak.
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Your initial Esquire wiring intrigues me. A typical choice would be:
1) volume pot only or direct to jack.
2) volume and tone pots in circuit
3) volume pot and capacitor/resistor network.
The network could give the faux "bass guitar" tone of Leo Fender's original circuit or the so-called Eldred mod (a wah-like honk filter).
The round brown capacitor is also a bleed but it is difficult to understand what it is contributing without knowing how or where the selector switch body is grounded.
It could conceivably be doing the Roy Buchanan thing. On the other hand, some of the necessary jumper connections are absent from your guitar.
Would it be worth wiring it as a eldred mod to get the additional tone.
If you don’t hear a difference between series and parallel, something is wired wrong - they should be dramatically different.
Personally, my favourite switching mod for an Esquire is the ‘empty slot’ mod…
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
https://i.imgur.com/RNexhSU.jpeg
The image just shows the principle of how to wire it i.e the black boxes are the commons for their respective poles, whilst the open circles are the terminals for each switch position - for any given switch you'll have to map the image to the actual connections on that switch. A jumper instead of 'R' is a straight coil split. Using a resistor instead of a jumper will give you a partial coil split such as PRS use i.e. the split retains a degree of hum cancelling and a more robust tone. If you use a resistor then smaller values of 'R' sound more single coil like, whilst larger values of 'R' sound more humbucking. Most people typically use something in the range of 1.5K Ohms to 5K Ohms. If you were to use a potentiometer rather than a fixed resistor then values below about 7-8K tend to sound single coil like (but increasingly warmer with increasing resistance). Values over 10K tend to sound inherently humbucking with some added single coil character (single coil character decreases as resistance continues to rise). By the time you get to around 30-40K the effect is done - it's just fully humbucking by then so adding more resistance has no sonic effect.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/89942/caspercaster#latest
Where did you find a CRL-style three way lever selector switch with its common/collector terminals at the same end of the switch body?
They are usually diagonally opposed.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/89942/caspercaster#latest