Tele Tone Wiring

[wiringn00b]

Hi everyone!

I'm building a custom tele, made of mahogany and with strat contours. We'll see how it turns out!
I have a P90 for the neck pickup, and I was thinking of old teles, and how they had a cool middle position, due to the fixed tone roll-off in the neck. I was thinking of wiring a tone switch for the neck pickup, so I cab turns that on and off whenever I choose. The rest of the wiring would be standard tele. I could just use a tone knob, but I find that switches get a better tone when rolled off.
My question is: how could that wiring work? Can I just put it exactly as I would a pot, or is there some funky magic I have to do to get it there?
The other question is: would this even sound good If you think it's a bad idea, let me know!

Thanks,
wiringn00b

Stay Tuned!

[big_teee]

Hi everyone!

I'm building a custom tele, made of mahogany and with strat contours. We'll see how it turns out!
I have a P90 for the neck pickup, and I was thinking of old teles, and how they had a cool middle position, due to the fixed tone roll-off in the neck. I was thinking of wiring a tone switch for the neck pickup, so I cab turns that on and off whenever I choose. The rest of the wiring would be standard tele. I could just use a tone knob, but I find that switches get a better tone when rolled off.
My question is: how could that wiring work? Can I just put it exactly as I would a pot, or is there some funky magic I have to do to get it there?
The other question is: would this even sound good If you think it's a bad idea, let me know!

Thanks,
wiringn00b

Stay Tuned!

Hi Noob:
I make pickups and have a Tele customer that I do work for a lot.
What he likes is just 2 Pots.
a 250k Volume Pot.
A 1 meg tone pot with a .047uf tone cap.
The 1 meg tone pot allows more roll off of the cap.
Works great.
If you keep the P90 on the low to medium Resistance DCR level that should work well for it too.
The cap on a switch would need to be a small value I'm thinking.
The big 1 meg Pot gives a broad range.
The same player always has me to Flip the Lid.
That means to turn the control plate around, putting the switch at the rear the tone in the middle, and the volume in the front.
That allows the Roy Buchanan volume swells.
Try it. YMMV
Terry

[wiringn00b]

Hi Noob:
I make pickups and have a Tele customer that I do work for a lot.
What he likes is just 2 Pots.
a 250k Volume Pot.
A 1 meg tone pot with a .047uf tone cap.
The 1 meg tone pot allows more roll off of the cap.
Works great.
If you keep the P90 on the low to medium Resistance DCR level that should work well for it too.
The cap on a switch would need to be a small value I'm thinking.
The big 1 meg Pot gives a broad range.
The same player always has me to Flip the Lid.
That means to turn the control plate around, putting the switch at the rear the tone in the middle, and the volume in the front.
That allows the Roy Buchanan volume swells.
Try it. YMMV
Terry

Thanks for the reply!

Would this work if I hooked that tone pot up to just the neck pickup, then wired another tone pot for the ovetall tone?
I've Lready bought the P90, so I don't hve much choice on the DCR

wiringn00b

[Mark Hammer]

Another option might be to consider a 4 or 5-position pickup selector switch, wired up to bring in tone-shaping...or not. Here, one set of contacts (or two, depending on yur needs) would handle the pickup switching, while additional sets of contacts would connect/disconnect tone-shaping circuits.

[Mick Bailey]

Don't overlook that you can put a rotary switch in the tone position and have multiple fixed switching arrangements, depending how many poles you use. You can even wire it with a small series cap to do bass cut as one of the options (Burns 'wild dog' sound). There's just enough room to install a standard switch, though you may need to slightly relieve the sides of the rout - depends on your particular guitar.

They come in poles/ways that multiply up to give 12;
1 pole 12 way
2 pole 6 way
3 pole 4 way
4 pole 3 way.

An adjustable stop can be used to limit rotation. I really like switching-in fixed 'sweet-spot' caps. You can use this idea to act on a single pickup or combinations - each pole/way relationship acts as in independent switch. And you get to keep your Tele knob.

[wiringn00b]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the replies! I've thought about the idea that Mark had, and it seems good, but I'd like the tone roll-off on the bridge separate just for convenience purposes in my head, but failing that, I think I might do that.
Mick, your idea is very interesting, but I think it's more complicated that I really need. A tele never really needs to be too complicated anyway! I just liked the idea of having both sorts of teles in one guitar.
In regard to the switch, how would it be wired, if I wanted to do my idea? There's nothing really online about wiring a two-point switch for tone. I basically just need on/off, but I figure it's a little different than wiring a pot.
Can anyone shed any light on that?