Wiring help 5WS for telecaster

[brogh]

Hello First post for me

I was wondering if someone can give me a little bit o help for a wiring that i want to do on my telecaster.

It's a 52, but the tele has been modded to the "modern" wiring, what i want to do is a sort of going back .. with a 5 way switch.

What i want to achieve is the following :

Position 1 - original neck "bassy" telecaster 52
Position 2 - Neck pickup
Position 3 - Neck + Bridge
Position 4 - Neck + Bridge out of phase (or series/parallel thing)
Position 5 - Bridge

I think i will need a superswitch to do this thing, can anyone give me a help with the schematic please ?

Thank You very Much !

[asmith]

Hey brogh, welcome to GN2. I just have a few questions on your desired scheme to clarify our goals before we start working.

Jan 21, 2013 15:47:12 GMT -5 brogh said:

Position 1 - original neck "bassy" telecaster 52

Is this the neck pickup, in parallel with a capacitor, to remove treble from the pickup's output?

Position 3 - Neck + Bridge

In parallel, as normal, yes?

Position 4 - Neck + Bridge out of phase (or series/parallel thing)

I don't mean to piss on your parade but two pickups in parallel and out of phase is known as poop for a reason. In series and out of phase gives a stronger sound, is this acceptable?

Cheers

[brogh]

Hello Asmith thank you for the welcome and the answer !

Is this the neck pickup, in parallel with a capacitor, to remove treble from the pickup's output?

Yes, the "bassy" sound with which came the 52 Reissues before 2012, afaik the new ones comes with the N - N&B - B wiring on, i'll have it wired this way, i'd like to keep it but i also really dig the "bassy" one and i love to have it without losing this "modern" wiring which is really handy.

In parallel, as normal, yes?

Yes as said it's very handy

I don't mean to piss on your parade but two pickups in parallel and out of phase is known as poop for a reason. In series and out of phase gives a stronger sound, is this acceptable?

No problems i'm open to suggestions eventually.

the thing i'm looking for is this


The out of phase thing is something i like, i had it on my lp, but if i have to choose i prefeer the series thing which gives me that fatter sound like in the video, i just wrote both in case one of the two is undoable.

I also have another doubt, i'd like to keep the original plate as is and buy all new parts for this wiring including the plate, just to keep the original parts original, i was wondering about the caps i know that there are some ""vintage"" caps around like the bumblebees etc, should i go for that ? or would the normal disc caps be fine ? As I have to buy plate, pots etc, i would eventually consider in buying these caps, what do you think ?

Thank you for your help !

[asmith]

Jan 21, 2013 17:10:16 GMT -5 brogh said:

the thing i'm looking for is this

"Position 4 - Neck in series with Bridge" is easy-peasy. No trouble.

i was wondering about the caps i know that there are some ""vintage"" caps around like the bumblebees etc, should i go for that ? or would the normal disc caps be fine ? As I have to buy plate, pots etc, i would eventually consider in buying these caps, what do you think ?

To cut to the chase, the idea of "vintage caps" is horsesh*t. The whole board will be more than happy to tell you -- numerous times -- that almost always, "vintage" is a buzzword used to trick unsuspecting customers into paying more. It's dishonest business, plain and simple.

Just buy the regular caps, there's no difference in the effect they give.

Now, your diagram. I'm currently working out whether you can cleverly use a stock five-way switch, or whether you'll need a superswitch. If you do need a superswitch, you'll need to buy a thin one that fits in your Tele's cavity.

[brogh]

Hello Asmith Thanks again !

About the caps, i thought it was in someway as you say, i've been a hi'fi enthusiast for a period, and people in that field spend bunches of money in cables, i've tried out some with the help of a friend who lend them to me, but (obviously if you change something in a chain something is gonna change) i couldn't find the "miracle cable". i think that a good cable is just a good one. Same things for caps, I will go for the normal ones which are also realllyyy cheaper, and smaller

Thank you for helping me out with this schematic ! the link doesn't work by the way, but , i'll have to buy some other stuff (i think i'll go with stevemac), buying a super switch is no big deal

Thank You again really a lot !

Cheers !

[asmith]

The link seems to work for me.
Edit: This is probably due to the edit our resident ninja Newey made to my post to doubtless cover up a mistake of mine in the url.

Like I said, don't go buying any old superswitch, you need a specially thin one to fit in your Tele.

I've looked at doing this with a standard Strat-style five-way switch and it doesn't seem possible. I'll draw a superswitch diagram up.

[brogh]

Ouch, who knows what i've clicked before Lol !

I see what you mean, didn't know this website, i'll give it a nice deep surf in it !

Thank You !

[newey]

brogh-

Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!

I fixed asmith's link to the narrow Superswitch. You will definitely need one of these to do this wiring (unless asmith can work some magic . . . ). And you don't want to be gouging out the wood to get a regular Superswitch to fit in there.

I don't think StewMac has these, AFAIK the link is the only source for these.

On the subject of "vintage" caps, well let's just say that, while I had to edit some of asmith's rowdier sentiments, I agree with what he had to say. Save your money.

A capacitor has a certain electrical property called, errrr . . . "capacitance". There are not different "flavors" of capacitance, there is only a numerical value for the capacitance. And, there is a "tolerance range", such as ±20%. This range measures the amount by which the capacitance can vary from the nominal, stated value, and still be considered within specification.

Capacitors built to a tighter tolerance, say ±10%, will vary less from the stated capacitance value.

Now, it is remotely possible that one may hear a difference using a "vintage" capacitor because the capacitor has degraded over time, and is no longer exhibiting the capacitance value it once had. It may have become "out-of-range", so to speak. But, if such is the case, we have only identified a difference based on a differing capacitance, not based on any sort of supposed aging of components, or type of "vintage" construction, or other magic mojo.

I use the green poly caps, these are reasonably well made and not too expensive. These are the ones that look like a green chiclet piece of gum.

I avoid the tan, round ceramic caps; there's nothing wrong with these in terms of capacitance, but they seem to be less well made than the poly ones. They are, however, even cheaper than the poly ones.

EDIT: And while I was writing this up, I was ninja'd by asmith. Yes, it was indeed I who edited.

[asmith]

By the way, you can do:

Position 1 - Neck x Bridge
Position 2 - Original neck "bassy" Telecaster 52
Position 3 - Neck
Position 4 - Neck + Bridge
Position 5 - Bridge

with a standard "Strat-style" five-way switch, if you're not bothered about the order of pickup selections.

[newey]

asmith-

Whether brogh wants that scheme or not, please post the diagram for us in the schematics. I assume this is a variation on the Deaf Eddie HB + SC Tele wiring?

[brogh]

Hello Newey

Thank You for the welcome and also thank you for the explanation !

So the thing about these "vintage" caps is just about degradation of the values over time passed by, i was wondering at this point what the "replica" of these caps do, i suppose that it's just a mojo and "really good looking thing" at this point.

Thank You for clearing this out !
I've surfed a bit the toneshaper website, it has a lot of interesting things in there !

I think i'll will ask later on about some hints for my gibbo 333 in another post, but let's do the tele first

Thank You !
Cheers !

[brogh]

Edit: This is probably due to the edit our resident ninja Newey made to my post to doubtless cover up a mistake of mine in the url.

EDIT: And while I was writing this up, I was ninja'd by asmith. Yes, it was indeed I who edited.

Lol, for a second i thought i was dumb LOL, so you use black magic over here ! haha

By the way, you can do:

Position 1 - Neck x Bridge
Position 2 - Original neck "bassy" Telecaster 52
Position 3 - Neck
Position 4 - Neck + Bridge
Position 5 - Bridge

with a standard "Strat-style" five-way switch, if you're not bothered about the order of pickup selections.

Uhm, i think that it will need me some habit to go for this "strange" order, i really love to have it in a more ordered way, i've seen the switch is about 17 bucks, no big deal for me to get this, i think my 52' deserves something good, and compared to the cost of the instrument i think i'll be fine.

I've also seen that they have a telecaster kit with all good grades materials, cloth cable and cts pots, i think i'll go directly with them, i just need the new plate, but i can find it easely everywhere.

Asmith Don't get mad on it, don't wanna keep you up at night in doing this for me on the fly i'm not in a hurry

Cheers !

[asmith]

Brogh, bro, I'm not going to get mad. I just offered one path of many. For what it's worth, were I in your shoes I'd be purchasing the superswitch too.



Newey, I've posted it here. I don't know whether it's similar to Deaf Eddie's work or not. Do you have a link to his schemes?

Edit: Nevermind, I googled. I think they share similarities -- the " Bridge - " wire to a common lug and the " Neck + " wire sharing two poles -- but there's plenty of difference between the two. Anyway FWIW I drew it up from scratch.

[brogh]

Hey Asmith !

i'll go also for the superswitch, i got some pups & stuff at home, maybe if not used one day when i decide to make a partcaster it will eventually come handy if i don't use it for this one

As soon as the schematic is ready i'll order all the pieces

Thank you !

Cheers

[asmith]

The diagram is drawn as if the guitar's neck is to the right.

In your head, label the lugs of each superswitch pole from 1-5, from left to right.

Pos.	Selection
1	Neck + Cap
2	Neck
3	Neck + Bridge
4	Neck * Bridge
5	Bridge

[newey]

goldang, asmith, that's a thing of beauty! But, one gripe- it needs a truth table to be "self-contained", so one doesn't need to read back over the thread to see what's intended.

But I love the SS graphic!

[brogh]

WOW !!

man that's amazing ! super graphics also !!

Thank you a bunch ! i owe you a beer !!!!