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Post by rosewoodash on Oct 3, 2017 9:58:54 GMT -5
Hi, I have this Teisco Hollowbody I picked up very cheap, and it turned out there was just a loose wire to the input jack. Now that I have it opened up and verified both pickups are working, I was wondering if anyone can offer some suggestions to add a some extra tones to the wiring? It would be great to be able to get this guitar to do what the Baja telecaster does with the s1 switching. But I wonder if it is possible with the amount of room in the control cavity? There is enough room in the cavity to add one more pot, and maybe some mini switches. The guitar has 2 single coil pickups, each with an ON/OFF switch, and a master volume and master tone. The pots are 500k and the tone cap is a .03. The switches are a little noisy but work. My ultimate scheme for this would be to give it all the options that the Baja Telecaster has with the s1 switching, but just adding another pot for independent volume control for each pickup, and the ability to switch between series and parallel wiring would be great as well. Thanks for any advice you may have, I have a basic idea, but not sure how to implement it. If you have a better idea than this please let me know!
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Post by reTrEaD on Oct 3, 2017 12:24:16 GMT -5
Hello rosewoodash,
There are some changes you could make just using the current parts. Maybe we should discuss those and you could consider them before moving on to a more complex upgrade. If you need more, of course the discussion could progress onward.
Your slide switches appear to be DPDT. That's good. You could design around a concept of - Both in parallel - Bridge only - Neck only - Both in series as the four possible switch combinations.
If you never use your tone control, you might choose to repurpose that pot as a pickup volume control. The master volume control you currently have could be assigned to just one pickup. That would give you independent volume controls but you wouldn't have a tone control.
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Post by rosewoodash on Oct 3, 2017 15:02:38 GMT -5
Thanks for the reply reTrEaD,
I want to go as far as I can by adding one more pot and maybe 1 or 2 mini switches? I guess that probably opens up a lot of possibilities, but in the end I want to have a series / parallel option, individual volume control, and maybe some phase shifting although that is of lesser importance.
I have a bunch of CTS Push-Pull SPST pots lying around - Could I do everything I am looking to do with 2 or 3 of these or would I also need to add some mini switches?
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Post by reTrEaD on Oct 3, 2017 18:43:29 GMT -5
I just realized that I've been leading you down a bad path. Your pickup wiring has single conductor with a braided shield. That outside shield connects to one of the two wires of the pickup winding but it also connects to all the exposed metal. That means if we connect two pickups together, the exposed metal of one will be connected to the series link.
You'll get some unwanted hum. A ton of unwanted hum if you touch that metal with your hand.
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Post by rosewoodash on Oct 4, 2017 9:36:50 GMT -5
Ok, no problem, I don't understand these thing that well, thanks for pointing it out! How do you suggest I proceed?
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Post by reTrEaD on Oct 4, 2017 11:42:36 GMT -5
There really isn't much to proceed with. Because of the way those pickups are cabled, the most you could do is add separate volume controls for each pickup. Not much of an upgrade.
Teisco guitars are somewhat collectable these days. You might want to do some research on the value of your guitar before doing any serious change that might affect its value in a negative way. Perhaps the best path might to be just hit the switches and pots with some contact cleaner and put it back together. Maybe sell it for a profit and use the money to buy something you can more easily modify to get where you want to go and put a few buck in your pocket at the same time. idk.
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Post by rosewoodash on Oct 4, 2017 12:09:52 GMT -5
Ok cool, well thank you, saved me a bunch of headaches! I already found the exact same knob as is found on this guitar off of Ebay so I am going to add the extra volume just for the hell of it.
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Post by newey on Oct 4, 2017 20:49:01 GMT -5
OK, rwd, just hold them thar horses for a second . . . As RT noted, this may have some vintage value which should be considered before you drill a hole for another pot. This would appear to be a Model 7 from the late '60s, probably 1968-69 or thereabouts. You should definitely look at some values before you make any irreversible alterations. Second, many old Teiscos with two pickups were wired in series, not in parallel. I'm not tooo familiar with the hollow bodies, but most of the Teisco solid-bodied electrics were series wired. This makes installing a second volume control somewhat of a fraught proposition; it certainly can be done, but further discussion thereof is in order- but first we need to verify whether the pickups are in series or not. If you have a multimeter, we can check this pretty easily.
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Post by reTrEaD on Oct 4, 2017 23:47:39 GMT -5
OK, rwd, just hold them thar horses for a second . . . As RT noted, this may have some vintage value which should be considered before you drill a hole for another pot. This would appear to be a Model 7 from the late '60s, probably 1968-69 or thereabouts. You should definitely look at some values before you make any irreversible alterations. I agree, 100%This is very important. I was not aware of that. I know that Danelectro guitars were famous for having pickups wired in series but I hadn't heard that about Teisco. akshully . . . if the pickups are in series (I kinda doubt they are) life would be so much easier. Separate volume controls behave much better in a series configuration than they do in parallel. And if the pickups are in series, they will have two conductors (one to each end of the pickup winding) in addition to the ground braid connected to the metal of the pickup. That opens many other possibilities. But back to your initial statement . . . NO NEW HOLES in this guitar before its collector value has been determined!
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Post by rosewoodash on Oct 5, 2017 9:38:25 GMT -5
Hey guys, thanks for your continued input into this project, and concern for the guitar!
I totally understand where you are coming from, but this specific guitar is the result of many years of buying, selling, and trading - many Teisco's included along the way, and this is one of two I have kept from everything that will NEVER be sold.
So this guitar is staying with me, and for use in my studio. As far as what to do with this guitar, I do want to add a second volume control, If possible, and maybe just bypass the switches and use the volumes as on/off, or is this not recommended?...
I do have a fluke multimeter, how should I test these pickups before proceeding?
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Post by newey on Oct 5, 2017 10:54:29 GMT -5
To test the pickups, plug a cable into the output jack. Apply the leads of your meter to the sleeve and tip, respectively, of the other end of the cable. Set your meter to read resistance. If it is not auto-ranging, use the 20KΩ setting.
Turn the V and T controls to max. Take a reading of the neck pup, then the bridge, then both pups combined. Report back with your readings.
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Post by reTrEaD on Oct 5, 2017 12:05:31 GMT -5
Yes, that's possible but it requires wiring the volume controls 'backward'. They don't function as well that way and tend to affect the tone as well as the volume when they're at partial volume. But you are probably aware of this limitation because your guitar with the foil pickups has its volume controls wired backward. To avoid drilling an additional hole, you could convert the pot used for your tone control as one of the volume controls. Or you could get a concentric pot and have both volume knobs stacked. Or two concentric pots and have separate volume and separate tone controls for each pickup.
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