5 way switch in a Fat Tele?

I guess you mean the "US Fat Tele" diagram in Mr Gearhead.

That is not a standard Strat switch, it's a 2P5T switch like this one: http://wdmusicproducts.com/Merchant...WMPI&Product_Code=WDE5DL&Category_Code=SWTCHS

The colour code used in the diagram for the humbucker is:

- Green is hot
- Black and white are the two you solder together (as in the red and white in a Seymour Duncan)
- Red is ground

Make sure that whoever is winding your humbucker makes the coil closest to the neck rw/rp with respect to the bridge pickup. That way you will have hum cancellation in position 2.

 

Deaf-Eddie will get you going.
http://www.deaf-eddie.net/fatties.html

 

...also it's not very clear in the diagram but the thing that you have to "wrap with shrink tubing" (a 270k resistor according to the parts list) goes between where the bridge pickup hot connects to the switch and ground. The pots are 500k, normally used with humbuckers, so what that resistor is doing is making the load on the positions that include the bridge pickup appear as if the pots were 250k.

 

Correct, if you're happy with the bridge pickup tone as it is, you don't need the resistor.

I've given it some thought and it is possible to use a normal Strat switch like this one: http://wdmusicproducts.com/Merchant...e=WMPI&Product_Code=WDE5&Category_Code=SWTCHS

The only thing is that the order of the positions will have to be as follows:

5th (all the way up): split neck hum
4th: split hum and bridge
3rd: neck hum
2nd: hum and bridge
1st: bridge

I guess that's the reason why Fender used the special switch, to have the full humbucker in position 5 which is more logical. Anyway, here's the instructions in case you're happy with that order:

As a reference, take the diagram for the Deluxe Nashville Tele, where the switch, a standard 5-way Strat one as above, looks like this (the * are the lugs):

* <- 1
2 -> *
* <- 3
4 -> *
* <- 5
6 -> *
* <- 7
8 -> *

The connections would go like this:

1 -> Bridge hot
3 -> Neck hot
5 -> Neck "middle" wire (the two wires you solder together)
7 -> To vol. pot
2 -> Not connected
4 -> Not connected
6 -> Connected to 1
8 -> Connected to 5

 

There's another possible scheme using a standard 5-way that goes like this:

1 - full neck HB
2 - neck single-coil (coil closest neck)
3 - both pickups (not quite in normal parallel - the bridge pickup is in parallel with one coil of the humbucker, the other coil is in series with both)
4 - neck single-coil (coil closest to bridge) and bridge pickup in parallel
5 - bridge pickup

... which is almost exactly what you want.

5-way switching for humbucker & single coil

Good range of sounds, and if you arrange the right magnetic polarites for the pickups, you can make all the settings except the two individual single-coils hum cancelling.

You'll have to work out which coil is which on the neck pickup from the wiring diagram you get with it. The 'coil split' is the junction of two wires as Carlos mentioned above.

 

John just used the "normal" numbering of positions, which is 1 to 5 going from neck to bridge. Confusingly, Fender numbers them the other way round. Just ignore the numbers, the all up will be neck and the all down bridge.

 

Yes that's the right one.

No, usually they have 5. The bare wire connects to the metal casing of the pickup and should be connected to ground.

 

Try guitarelectronics, they have a good selection of printable diagrams.http://www.guitarelectronics.zoovy.com/category/wiringresources/

I can't get the link to work, so you'll have to copy/paste it. Sorry.

 

Please see my first message on this thread.

If you look carefully, the black and white wires are effectively tied together.