What’s happened to my Tele?

ICBM

Funkfingers said:

When I tried the pickup in a Telecaster copy with an all brass bridge, it still sounded shrieky and horrid.

That's what brass bridge saddles sound like, so no surprise there .

Funkfingers said:

This morning, in the process of diagnosing a weak signal problem on my Fender AVRI '52 Telecaster, I discovered that the cause was the 4-way selector switch. 

Quick change to a three-way selector and everything is back as it should be. 

Well, apart from that being the correct response to a 4-way switch...

Oak Grigsby 4-way? I think they're the only company that makes them. I've come across a lot of Oak switches (of all position numbers) with poor contact between the terminal 'fingers' and the rotor - a little corrosion and you get a weak or no signal. Bending the tips of the fingers inwards carefully with the tip of a screwdriver will fix it.

Funkfingers

The unsprung switch I was (ab)using came in Fender packaging. I know about the contact problem. 

Ideally, I would like a four-pole three-way lever selector switch. One half could do the Tele sounds. The other half would run the full output of the tapped bridge pickup through an Esquire/Eldred type circuit.

jpttaylor

Think this thread might have pushed me over the edge and convinced me to change the pickups in my MIM Tele. Had it for 10 years and the bridge treble response never bothered me, until I started running just a few pedals rather than my whole board. There's something in the really high frequencies that means it's hard to balance the sound when using both pickups.

Funkfingers

jpttaylor said:

it's hard to balance the sound when using both pickups.

Balancing two pickups is a screwdriver job. 

jpttaylor said:

Think this thread might have pushed me over the edge and convinced me to change the pickups in my MIM Tele.

Take a look under the pickguard. You may find the large one-size-fits-all neck/Rhythm pickup cavity common to more recent MIM Standard Telecasters. 

Tele, Strat, humbucker, P90, Filter'Tron. All are possible with just the purchase of a replacement pickguard with the correct hole cut out of it.