4-pickup Telecaster mod

[manifold]

Hello all,

I have a vision for modding my 3-pup Telecaster Plus; but it's a little bit scary!

Here are the mods:

1) Replace std Tele bridge with a Fishman Piezo bridge; this would NOT use the Powerchip preamp.

2) Replace the standard Tele bridge pup with the amazing Ubertar hex pup (not a midi, but 6 individual mag pups, one for each string; you can see it here:
www.ubertar.com/hexaphonic/ ). This would require drilling a hole for the 7-pin DIN output jack... scary! This is an incredible recording (well, or performing... ) tool, as you can assign different analog effects/settings to each individual string.

3) Keep the std Tele middle pup and neck pups; well, maybe replace with some Seymour Duncan equivalents... but later for that...

4) The Fishman piezo bridge, the middle and the neck mag pups get wired to a stereo TRS output jack; Tip= the 2 mag pups, Ring = the piezo, Sleeve = ground.

5) Replace the standard Tele control plate with a blank plate. Drill 4 holes
into the blank plate. Each hole would accommodate a dual concentric pot with push/pull on/off. That is, pulling up on the center control would turn the pup on and serve as volume; the bottom control would serve as tone.

6) By using this configuration, any combination of pups could be turned on or off, without the use of a blade switch to combine pickups.

I think the key to this is finding the proper pots. I believe that I've found one option, here: www.mec-pickups.de/modules/products/product.php?katID=15049&cl=EN ... scroll down to the last pot... and gasp at the price!

So this is my vision! But I'm new to this level of modding/wiring, and I'd appreciate any thoughts/suggestions/warnings anyone may have!

Thanks!
-manifold

[ashcatlt]

Edit to add- Welcome a'board! You obviously nutz already, so you should fit in just fine.

Most of this is pretty simple and straight forward wiring wise. Two things though:

1) you'll be running the piezo passively out of the guitar and using some sort of outboard preamp? Not the best choice for noise reasons, but it will probably work. I'm not completely sure how the piezo will respond to passive V and T controls, or what proper values would be. JohnH and others have more experience with these than I.

2) the ubertar pickup is actually 6 pickups in one. If you want to maintain the hex nature of the thing you won't be able to control it the way you've described. It would reqire that each of the two concentric knobs actually control six pot elements, and the switch part would need six poles. You're not going to find that in a passive control. You could maybe use something like a 6P4T rotary switch as a stepped attenuator to get three (preset) volume levels and off. This switch would be both deep and wide, and would be a tight fit in a tele cavity. We could probably work out an active system to control all six from two knobs and a single switch, but that's gonna take some thinking and some space.

[newey]

manifold-

Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!

As ashcatlt noted, some potential issues with this scheme, which is fairly complex.

Pots like you want are hard to find- and I'm not sure the ones you linked to are what you want. First of all, there is no data sheet, so no way to tell what the shaft diameters are. They don't list any knobs for these, so you need to be sure you can get a set of concentric knobs to fit these pots.

Second, it would appear that the DPDT switch is designed to be wired to a PCB as it has pins to solder to, not lugs. While this can certainly be used without a PCB, it may prove very tricky to solder to those pins.

Finally, this is a triple-ganged pot- the top (inner) shaft apparently controls one gang, while the outer shaft controls two gangs, for use as a balance pot. It doesn't indicate whether there is a center detent on those gangs, either. While you can certainly use it for a tone pot, it may not be ideal for that if it has a center detent.

I'd check with the company before you order, perhaps they can point you towards a product data sheet with the dimensions and further info.

[yakkmeister]

I'd be looking for cheaper pots too.
The blokes I deal with from New Zealand have reasonable prices and quality gear:
www.guitarparts.co.nz/cart/Results.cfm?subcategory=151

A lot of their stuff comes from allparts:
www.allparts.com

I would be looking for a pre-amp for the piezo.
Something like this could be useful?
www.allparts.com/Bartolini-Buffer-for-Piezo-Pickup-p/pu-1271-000.htm

[manifold]

Thanks for your comments; I appreciate them!

1) Perhaps for the Ubertar Hex pickup, I could do without the tone function (and thus the lower concentric ring); instead, would it be possible to have the 6 wires from each individual pickup routed to each individual pin on the Ubertar output jack, with just a single push/pull rotary switch acting as a master volume?

2) There is a PowerChip preamp for the Fishman piezo bridge... but it requires the addition of a 9v battery - and the control compartment is already pretty packed. Any suggestions as to the best way to do this without carving up the Tele too much? Perhaps a small space could be routed out under the pickguard (though that makes changing batteries a pain).

3) I need to learn more about how pots work and are specified!

Again, thanks for your comments!

[newey]

it requires the addition of a 9v battery - and the control compartment is already pretty packed. Any suggestions as to the best way to do this without carving up the Tele too much? Perhaps a small space could be routed out under the pickguard (though that makes changing batteries a pain).

JohnH had a scheme a while back for using a stack of watch/calculator style "button" batteries. This can potentially save cavity space.

3) I need to learn more about how pots work and are specified!

"Potentiometers- A Beginner's Guide" by Rod Elliot. This is a good general explanation, although I can't vouch for his statements about varying the taper, never tried it.

[cynical1]

Apr 7, 2012 10:21:52 GMT -5 manifold said:

...Ubertar Hex pickup...

Which is a nice pickup, but have you looked at the GraphTech Ghost system? Modular, expandable and the saddles can retrofit most bridges out there.

Any suggestions as to the best way to do this without carving up the Tele too much?

Yes, back route with a cavity routing template: www.ebay.com/itm/Controls-Cavity-Routing-Template-/310172544747?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item4837b96eeb

I bought a few templates from aiguitars and they've always been first class, heavy duty and accurate. The one above is going for $12.00. You get the cavity template, the lip template and the cover template all in one set. Beats trying to hog it out with a Dremel tool...

You can use pickguard material for the cover, or carve up an old black plastic office garbage can...laugh now, but it works and no one ever notices...

Happy Trails

Cynical One

[manifold]

And perhaps this is another solution to the preamp-in-the-guitar problem...

www.till.com/articles/PreampCable/

?

-manifold

[newey]

JohnH's JFET Buffer cable

[manifold]

Paul Rubenstein (of Ubertar fame) suggested that this might be a solution for
the Hex Pickup volume pot...

www.potentiometers.com/series389.cfm

The six-stack would be great... except that it would be deeper than the Tele. I could split the Hex pickup vol control into 2 three-stack pots; or have the six-stack pot control come out on the edge of the Tele, next to the strap plug and in-line with the control panel... but that seems... somehow goofy.

But with this and the preamp cable, there may yet be a solution!

-manifold