Fender Classic Player Baja Wiring

[ChrisK]

Classic Player Baja Telecaster®

4-Position Blade Switch and 2-Position Push/Push S-1™:
(Or a DPDT push-pull pot or switch is all that is needed.)

“Custom Shop Designed” Neck Plate, Ooooohhhh shiny!!!!

4-Way + 2-Way S-1 Switching,
Custom Shop ‘69 Pickups

S-1 Switch Up:
Position 1. Bridge Pickup
Position 2. Bridge and Neck Pickups (In Parallel) In Phase
Position 3. Neck Pickup (Standard Tele)
Position 4. Neck and Bridge Pickups (In Series) In Phase
(Fatter Tone Than Position 2. and More Output Than Position 1., 2., or 3.)

S-1 Switch Down:
Position 1. Bridge Pickup
Position 2. Bridge and Neck Pickups (In Parallel)-Out of Phase and wimpy.
Position 3. Neck Pickup (Standard Tele)
Position 4. Neck and Bridge Pickups (In Series) Out of Phase


This is very simple wiring Q.E.D. (hints are in italics.) and a fixed subset of the TeleBlender design.

[UnklMickey]

what a waste of an S1!

they could get:

• Bridge
  
• Bridge + Neck
  
• Bridge * Neck
  
• Bridge * Neck OoP
  
• Neck
  

all from a 5-way.

of course that would mean they'd lose that precious B + N OoP!

i could see expanding on things if you had a couple of HBs, and wanted to split them.

you would need more than a 5-way to get all the good stuff there.

then if you had an extra space you had to fill, include "the wimpy one".

.................well, i've said enough to rile up anyone who likes parallel OoP.



unk

[ChrisK]

Achshully,

parallel OoP

is much better if you couple the neck to the bridge thru a 0.047 series cap (not as much low freq cancellation).

[UnklMickey]

well that certainly sounds like it would sound better.

does Fender do it that way, in this thingie?

[ChrisK]

Dunno, but I've heard that the the Jerry Donahue does.

I see a 0.01 uF cap in there on the Baja!
www.fender.com/support/diagrams/pdf_temp1/telecaster/0141502A/SD0141502APg2.pdf

Still don't need an S-1 tho.

[UnklMickey]

well, they you do need some kinda switch, to get 6 choices from a less than 6 position lever switch.

so i guess if they're Fender, and they have the S1, they might as well rub our noses in the fact that we don't.

[sumgai]

Chris,

From your linked Baja layout diagram, I see that in Pos 2, with S1 up, the negative side of the pair goes straight to ground. Yet when S1 is down for oop, it sure looks to me like there's a 0.01µfd cap between the negative side of the pair and ground. And this helps the tone how? Wasn't it already wimpy enough?

And check me out on this, has Fender left the Neck hot hanging in Pos 1? (Exact pickup polarity dependent on the setting of S1.)


sumgai

[ChrisK]

A series cap in OOP will limit the common freq cancellation on the lower freq's from the thus coupled pickup (in parallel, the cap is in series).

It will be less wimpy on the lower end where most of the common (fundamental) freq lives.

I actually don't have an issue with a hanging pickup. Even tho there will be an AC voltage divider from a common connected frame perhaps, the internal resistance of the pickup is in our favor in pre-loading the coil itself, and since higher freq's will couple easier thru this AC divider, I'll take all the extra harmonics that I can get for free anyway.

[sumgai]

Chris,

First you say "there will will be a voltage divider", then you qualify it with "perhaps". So which is it, is the divider present or not?

Also, which coils are you referring to in "... the internal resistance of the pickup is in our favor in pre-loading the coil itself..." The hanger, the in-circuit pup, or one upon the other?


sumgai

[UnklMickey]

hey Sumgai,

i'm gonna stir the pot, a little here.

Chris made a statement that made it sound like ONE of the parallel OoP pickups should have a cap in series with it:

chrisk said:

Achshully,

parallel OoP

is much better if you couple the neck to the bridge thru a 0.047 series cap (not as much low freq cancellation).

but that doesn't seem like what's happening here at all.


this thing looks pretty bad to me!

either the guitars AREN"T wired like this, or they sound REAL wimpy when they are in parallel OoP.

i took a second look at it.

the bridge is wired straight to ground. so it DOES have the cap in series with the neck only.

and i'm with you on the hanging from hot issue. it does.


unk

[sumgai]

unk,

Oh, I picked up on that pair versus single pup's lead to ground via a cap, make no mistake there. However, my guardian angel is taking the weekend off, so I'm treading very lightly here, attempting to peel back one layer back at a time, instead of blasting ahead into a full-scale trap!

First we pin him down on the voltage divider, then we rabbit-punch him with cap-on-one versus cap-on-both pickups. The coup-de-grace can be the pre-loaded coil delivering free harmonic content, that sound like a plan to you? ;D


sumgai

[UnklMickey]

looked at it again.

it's not as bad as i thought.

bad, just not as bad.

[ChrisK]

For a hanging pickup to have any effect (other than as an RF antenna loading coil) it must have a completed circuit. Since it is hard connected to the output (pre-volume), it then must have the path completed to common.

The only way that I can see this happening is thru capacitance in the wiring to shield (if existing and connected to common) or wire to frame capacitance (if such exists as in a traditional humbucker).

Many schemes, including the Mike Richardson ones, have things "hanging aboot". Of course, I tend to use noise-canceling pickups.

IMHO, without any significant empirical testing, that is.

If I ever put the MIM Nashville Power Tele back together, this would be a fair place to test this since I can use any pickups most easily, and the ToggleCaster uses coil shorting (which I can do to the hanging neck pickup).

guitarnuts2.proboards45.com/index.cgi?board=schem&action=display&thread=1138841439



I'll be a'beach for a while, out of contact with most humanity. I may come back.