how to blend in neck p/u on a tele?

[daz]

I want to retain my tele's traditional wiring of B/B+N/N. But i don't need my tone control and wondered if theres a way to blend the neck pickup into the bridge when in the bridge position OR when in the middle be able to dial the neck in and out as much as i want. All this WITHOUT affecting the bridge pickup, because i can't see how to do that w/o the blender pot affecting the bridge pickup's ground resistance. Maybe a dual pot, but these are the kind of thinks i just cannot wrap my head around. I just go blank and become homer simpson.

[big_teee]

You can do two volumes.
Wiring Diagram
Or wire it like a J bass with blend, just leave out the tone, and add the swith between the pickups.
Wiring Diagram
T
**edit
I would start by trying this 2 volume layout.
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-tech...blend-pot.html

[daz]

Thanks, but i don't want a 2 volume setup and i want to retain the 3 way so when the blender is all the way down everything works as normal.

[Richard]

What switch are you using? I think this will work.
Not exactly the best drawing but I think it gets the idea across.

[daz]

What switch are you using? I think this will work.[ATTACH=CONFIG]37586[/ATTACH]
Not exactly the best drawing but I think it gets the idea across.

I thought of that but wasn't sure it would work sine it's just series resistance which might create some weirdness in the tone of the taper. But i thought of doing it a little differently, using a no load pot and just putting the lead to the pot right from the neck pickup's hot tab on the switch. That way everything would be fully out of circuit when at the off side of the pot. But i've never seen anyone do it like that and i figured the reason why is thats it's just series resistance. on the other hand it may be good because all i really want is the ability to add small amount of the neck to the bridge to get a sort of middle tone but not one that changes so radically from bridge alone. just thought i'd ask before i try any of this in hopes that someone had a solid way to do it. i don't think there really is one tho, at least not w/o messing with my 3 way and single volume.

[ThermionicScott]

I want to retain my tele's traditional wiring of B/B+N/N. But i don't need my tone control and wondered if theres a way to blend the neck pickup into the bridge when in the bridge position OR when in the middle be able to dial the neck in and out as much as i want. All this WITHOUT affecting the bridge pickup, because i can't see how to do that w/o the blender pot affecting the bridge pickup's ground resistance. Maybe a dual pot, but these are the kind of thinks i just cannot wrap my head around. I just go blank and become homer simpson.

Fun historical fact: the first dual-pickup Fender guitars didn't have a tone knob, they just blended the two pickups together.

The Two-Pickup Esquire Wiring

[daz]

Fun historical fact: the first dual-pickup Fender guitars didn't have a tone knob, they just blended the two pickups together.

The Two-Pickup Esquire Wiring

Thats what triggered me to post this ! Not the diagram, but i was watching a youtube video with greg koch and he mentioned the early teles having a blend but I wasn't sure how it was done and figured it was likley not something very good. I will have to study that and see how it works, but if the blend affects the bridge alone when the blend is all the way down, it won't be something i want. If it works w/o affecting it then i may give it a shot, tho i was hoping i could keep the B/B+N/N switching, and i would never use the 3rd position with the neck with a cap. Thanks.

EDIT: i'm not sure what to make of it because i don't know the theory behind some of whats going on. But like the diagram richard posted it seems like the blend pot is acting like a series resistor, but theres also a 15k in series with the neck's hot lead befor it goes to the blend. May as well just try a no load blen as i mentioned above and it's out of circuit when rolled all the way one way.

[daz]

I tried what is basically a simple version of the early wiring by doing as i said above. I used a no load so i could take it out of circuit at full rotation. 250k pot. It worked fine, tho it was a more subtle difference than i thought it would be. But still i found at a certain rotation i liked it. Got that bridge sort of tone but with a bit of that diffused twang the B/M has. In other words, pretty much a sound in between bridge alone and B/M but closer to the bridge.

Being that the point at which i liked it is the only place i'd use it, i'm going to put the circuit back the way it was (with tone pot used as variable treble bleed) and get a push pull to replace it using the pull to send the neck lead to the volume pot input via a resistor of whatever value i find when i measure the current pot's position where i liked the tone. So i'll have the stock setup with one additional tone when on the bridge p/u. I always felt that for certain things the bridge was too trebly but the bridge/middle too soft and twangy. I wanted just a bit of that B/M tone added to the bridge and this works.

[Fluoroscope 5000]

A no-load pot will not be of use with this type of blend.

It can be wired to only be active in the middle toggle switch position if you wire the pot from the middle switch lug to the neck PUP + lead lug. You can add a resister in series with the pot if the neck PUP seems overbearing when fully blended. You can also wire resistors over the open individual PUP position lugs to compensate the lack of the tone knob resistance in the circuit. FI, with a 250k volume pot, you'd generally wire a 200~250k resistor from each PUP lug to ground, or use a 100~150k over the bridge PUP for a sweeter bridge sound. Whether you'd need that lower value depends largely on the PUP inductance and your cable capacitance. More options are of course available with a Super Switch, like swapping the blend knob to a tone knob for each individual PUP position or whatever else you might dream up.

The advantage of the series pot blend is that it offers much more sensitive blending than if wired to another voltage divider (volume knob), which would quickly drop the blended PUP volume below the other PUP from 10~9 on the knob. The series pot blend works in reverse, blending the PUP in from 10-1 on the knob, and some interesting changes happen between 1~7.

[Richard]

Get a 5-way Super switch and we can really have some fun! You could have the bridge, bridge and blended neck, bridge and neck in series (possibly blendable!), bridge and neck in parallel, and neck only. Maybe be able to blend a little bridge into the neck position. A couple of push pull pots and the possibilities are endless.

[daz]

A no-load pot will not be of use with this type of blend.

Why? From the full clockwise position the neck is totally out of circuit which is what i want. I don't want any effect at all of the neck when in bridge position unless i want that. then the no load allows it as soon as i start turning it. So heres exactly what it does right now...

full clockwise: no different from stock wiring because i cut the the resistive track on that side. Bridge, bridge/neck, and neck, it all sounds exactly like stock.
full counter clockwise: bridge position sounds exactly like the switch is in the middle position

Anywhere in between gives variable results between the bridge alone and bridge/neck. So how is that of "no use"? It's doing exactly what i wanted.

[big_teee]

I don't see any advantage of a blend over two volumes with the pickup wired to the wiper.
I have my basses wired like that, & love it.
A volume for each pickup, and a 3 way switch.
You can play each pickup independently, fade, or blend them together.
Blending Tele P'ups: 2 volume setup better than blend pot? ... - Telecaster Guitar Forum
This looks perfect to me, and the tdpri group agrees.
Also if you want a bit of a tone cap wired on one pickup you could do that at the vol. Pot.
T

[daz]

I don't see any advantage of a blend over two volumes with the pickup wired to the wiper.
I have my basses wired like that, & love it.
A volume for each pickup, and a 3 way switch.
You can play each pickup independently, fade, or blend them together.
Blending Tele P'ups: 2 volume setup better than blend pot? ... - Telecaster Guitar Forum
This looks perfect to me, and the tdpri group agrees.
Also if you want a bit of a tone cap wired on one pickup you could do that at the vol. Pot.
T

Thats a 100% subjective thing. It would be no different to say i don't know why you don't like (name a food here). One of the things i hate about gibsons is the volume per/pickup. I like one master volume, and when i have gibson style guitars I actually mod them to have one volume and 3 inactive knobs ! I have my reasons that have to do with my playing style but thats unimportant. It's exactly what i wanted now.

[big_teee]

Thats a 100% subjective thing. It would be no different to say i don't know why you don't like (name a food here). One of the things i hate about gibsons is the volume per/pickup. I like one master volume, and when i have gibson style guitars I actually mod them to have one volume and 3 inactive knobs ! I have my reasons that have to do with my playing style but thats unimportant. It's exactly what i wanted now.

So did you get your blend all done and perfected, or still working on it?
I want you to do it however it makes you happy? :<)
The Double vol. just is so simple.
As Burger King used to say, "Have it your way"!
I'm Done, have Fun!
T
** Name here?
Asparagus

[daz]

So did you get your blend all done and perfected, or still working on it?
I want you to do it however it makes you happy? :<)
The Double vol. just is so simple.
As Burger King used to say, "Have it your way"!
I'm Done, have Fun!
T
** Name here?
Asparagus

It works as i want, but as i said i want the setting i like on a push pull after i measure the pot where i like it and use that value inb a set resistor. So no, not done till the push/pill i ordered on ebay gets here. Till then i'm just using the tone pot to blend it where i like it. I may also use a trim pot rather than a resistor so if after a time i feel i should have set it a little more one way of the other i can just pull the plate and tweak it further.