4 or 5 way Telecaster Switching

On the Seymour Duncan website you can see a variety of schematics, I know they have the Tele 4-way there. That's a great switch.

 

www.acmeguitarworks.com has the 4-way switching on their website.

 

Here the SD 4 way sw:

http://www.acmeguitarworks.com/pdf/WiringDiagram_Tele_4-Way.pdf

 

Be aware with the 4-way wiring that you have to lift the ground for the neck pickup, and add a separate ground wire from the pickup cover to the back of the volume pot.

Normally the cover is connected to the negative coil of the pickup. If you don't change that the series position won't work.

 

Clip the sire that goes from the pickup ground (usually black) then solder another wire to a lug on the cover and run it to the control cavity. Here is my favorite 4-way diagram - it's a little fatter than the stock one you find on the web. I swap the .022 cap with a .047 PIO cap on mine.

 

I had a 4 way with my Tele. It was great to run the neck and bridge in series as well as parallel. Series is a big sound. I swapped the neck pup to a minibucker so now I'm back to a 3 way.

 

I've got a 5 way, 3 p/u T style. Has a bunch of possibilities.

Here's a vid of Don Warren showing it off some of the tones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paVkxccb2v8

 

The 4-way will get you series, which usually sounds good.
Out of phase tone are only worth adding, IMO, if you are actually going to use them. They fall into the 'special-interest' category for me and clutter up the wiring.

 

+1 to the amen chorus for the 4-way ... i totally dig mine wired that way .. much beef in the series position

be sure to heed the caution about the neck cover ground being separate ... you do not want that in the circuit acting as a noise gathering antenna

t4d

 

Thats cool. Can you use a Vintage Type Humbucker with that schematic or does it need a 4 wire modern type?

I have a tele I'm putting together and that 4 way looks awesome.........but I have a older cloth covered PAF I'm using in the neck.