Telecaster Four-Way Switch Mod

It took me very little time to go for the mod. I was hoping that wiring the pickups in series would give me the crunch sound that the humbuckers on my Les Paul give me. I ordered the Tritan four-way switch from Guitar Parts Resource. Warning to those who choose to buy this lever switch - the slot on the plate is not long enough. I had to use my Dremel tool to lengthen the slot so that the switch could go all the way to position one.

I used the wiring diagram from Rothstein Guitars. Both pickups normally have the negative leads grounded but one of the negative leads has to go to the switch. The neck pickup seems logical to me because the metal shield is grounded. The Rothstein mod instructs you to disconnect the wire on the shield going to the negative lead on the pickup and adding a wire to the shield to run to the back of the volume pot. The only problem I had wiring was starting it with the switch backwards. I had to study the wiring diagram and the switch to find the common pins. Other than that the diagram was easy to follow. I tested the wiring before I mounted the switch to the plate. Everything was fine.

I recommend plugging a cord into the output jack and testing the resistance while switching through the positions. The bridge pickup has a higher resistance than the neck. Wiring them in parallel will read less than half of the bridge pickup and more than half of the neck pickup. Wiring them in series will read the sum of both pickups.

I mounted the switch and put the guitar back together, plugged it into my amp and was disappointed with  positions one and two sounding the same. I did the resistance check and found position one measured what position two did (both pickups in parallel.) I lifted the plate and discovered the switch could not go all the way to position one. Fortunately I had a Dremel tool and with a little labor and a couple of broken wafer discs I got the switch to work. Looking closely at the picture above, the plate was nicked in the process. Consider it the start of my relicing project. :)

Fender also makes a four-way switch at over twice the price of the Tritan. I could not tell you if the switch or the slot is the problem but other than this problem the Tritan works fine. I have one more mod I want to implement. It requires a push-pull switch/potentiometer and a .001uF capacitor. This is my own design for adding a "cocked wah" sound usually done to Fender Esquires (Telecasters with just the bridge pickup.) Esquires have the same three-way switch that Telecasters do but it is used to modify the tone. I will post the results in the future.

Testing the mod, both pickups in series did not give me the humbucker crunch but did give me a stronger midrange sound. It does add to the versatility of the guitar and sitting at switch position three I can play rhythm and go to position four for leads. I'm not set up to provide a sound demo. I hope to in the future.

New Guitar - A Review

Time flies and I've stayed away from my blog despite a lot of rants I wanted to post. I probably will post about the shooter who shot Congresswoman Giffords but for now I will write about a guitar I bought after Christmas.

The guitar is a Fender Squier Classic Vibe '50s Telecaster.

That's not a great picture but it is a great guitar. I can't afford to buy my dream guitar (a Gibson Custom Shop VOS 1959 Les Paul Reissue, which can be bought for < $6000) so I look for good guitars for a heck of a lot cheaper. Before I go on, I can understand if a non-musician says to me "why if you don't make money playing the guitar?" but a musician asked me that question when he knows the difference between a cheap instrument and an expensive one. I don't ever care if I make money playing the guitar, that guitar is my dream guitar. Back to the Fender.

I decided on this guitar based on word-of-mouth. I visit the TDPRI Telecaster Forum regularly and I listen to people at Guitar Center or wherever I go. This guitar was the most talked about because for the price, people were saving from buying the more expensive Made in America Fenders after playing these. I needed a guitar to perform with that would allow me to play standard tuning. Since I started playing guitar again I played with a tuning that reflects my banjo skills (Bb, F, C, G, B, D) and due to string gauges (.012 - .070) I couldn't just retune to standard tuning much less spend the time doing so at a gig. When it was time to look I decided to get the Squier CV50.

Back in 1993 I bought a Fender '52 Reissue Telecaster and owned it for twelve years. I didn't cherish it - I thought it didn't have great pickups and acoustically it didn't resonate well. I thought all telecasters were like this. I had it until 2005 when I totally stopped playing guitar. I actually sold it for more than I bought it but that is how guitars value. I don't see this Chinese-made lower end guitar doing the same but this guitar may be the exception. So my review of this guitar will be based on comparison to the '52 RI. Overall, it is the best out-of-the-box guitar I've bought since 2008 and possibly the best ever.

First, the plusses:

The fretwork on this guitar is better than any guitar I've ever owned. The frets are dressed perfectly and were leveled. Guitars made at this level will usually sacrifice this much quality in the manufacturing process.

The intonation and neck bow was perfect out-of-the-box. I just had to lower the strings at the bridge.

The acoustic resonance was remarkably well. There must be something to pine and maple as the choice woods for this guitar. The ash/maple on the '52 RI didn't sound this good.

The bridge pickup is hot and tone-wise good. I can't compare it to boutique pickups but my other electric pickups don't sound this good and the '52 RI didn't either. The magnets are Alnico IIIs.

The neck pickup is not as hot but also sounds good. I must say that the resonance of the guitar is probably adding to the pickups to make them sound good. I will not be replacing the pickups.

The volume and tone potentiometers are made by Alpha and have a great feel and quality.

The tuners are solid. I've had to buy tuners for Chinese made guitars before.

The nut is synthetic bone and was cut perfectly at the factory.

Now the minuses:

The pickguard looks cheap. Being wintertime I had a pickguard static issue. I fixed it by placing a drier sheet under the pickguard. I can't blame the pickguard for that but it did make me notice how much better my other guitars' pickguards looked and felt. The '52 RI had a bakelite pickguard, which I find superior to all plastic pickguards.

The saddles on the bridge are low quality. The screws to adjust the height are too tall and can grab one's hand. With the good intonation I won't bother to replace it.

The bridge pickup route is exposed slightly on the side of the bridge plate. This is me being nit picky but I never noticed it on the '52 RI.

These minuses are not major. I will replace the pickguard only because I want a white one.

Finally, where I have no opinion (yet):

The input jack and cup - People have had problems with flimsy jacks and cups. They are buying Switchcraft jacks and Electrosockets to replace them. I have not had a problem yet. I will consider this in the future if necessary.

The switch - I am replacing it with a four-way switch because I'm adding a mod (surprise). The switch is fine.

Knobs - they're fine.

The only other thing I will say is that these guitars only come in the cream color with black pickguard. The cream varies by guitar from white, to yellow, to slightly green. Mine is more yellow and I like it a lot.

Keep in mind that guitars vary in quality off the assembly line. In America flaws are caught more often than in Asian countries. One person complained that the frets were really bad. Others have had pickups fail. Don't judge this guitar by the words of a few because a vast majority rave over this guitar. Replace bad ones with another CV50.

The mod I mentioned will be posted in the future.