Having recently done this on my test bed tele I had to butcher the lever by notching the sides out so that the first position would slot into the detent properly. Wasn't happy having to do this and it was down to the slop (ie. backlash between the lever and the sweeper). Anyway, I've decided to bin off the 4 way and replace it with a 3 war CRL switch and put a microswitch between the tone and volume knobs to override the 3 way to select series. This way you can just use it as a normal tele for the most part and occasionally when you need the series you can just flip the switch. Has anybody done this because I need a wiring diagram of how to do so. I found one but it doesn't look right to me or it's confusing to see exactly how they've wired it up. I need one proven to work from somebody who's done it.
Ian
Lowering my
expectations has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
Comments
Wire it like this -
'Up' is series on that diagram, so if you're using a pull-pot and you want the pulled position to be series, do it with the pot body at the top of the pic.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Ian
Lowering my expectations has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/89942/caspercaster#latest
Ian
Lowering my expectations has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
Ian
Lowering my expectations has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
Circuits exist to provide the half-out-of-phase sounds via a five-way, four-pole Superswitch.
The side to side “bank” switching on my Freeway 3B3-01 switch just failed.
On the other hand, if pressing on a switch cap is sufficient to mess up the internals of the switch, you have to wonder whether it is robust enough for a live performance environment?
Meanwhile, for the benefit of the incurably curious, here are pics of the innards of the Freeway 3B3-01 six-way selector switch.
The PCB tracks.
https://i.imgur.com/qFbRiqK.jpg
Lever positions, labelled as per the official NSF/Freeway schematic diagram.
1 - Bridge pickup only
https://i.imgur.com/HUG2XWW.jpg
2 - Bridge and Neck, in parallel, in phase
https://i.imgur.com/dSAsZud.jpg
3 - Neck pickup only
https://i.imgur.com/YaPG1kK.jpg
4 - Bridge and Neck, in parallel, out of phase
https://i.imgur.com/O9ZjdGx.jpg
5 - Bridge and Neck, in series, out of phase
https://i.imgur.com/IVm7GMI.jpg
6 - Bridge and Neck, in series, in phase
https://i.imgur.com/FUfYOZs.jpg
I won’t ask you to take the mechanical section apart! I suspect that might be a bit risky if you ever want it to work again.
The PCB etch reminds me of a Sinclair calculator circa 1979 .
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
UPDATE: Freeway switch still working properly despite efforts to provoke it into failure.
I've only tried 4 way switching with the series option. I used a 4 way Oak Grigsby which was useless. Too much slack in the switch meant I had to notch the blade to get it to drop into the detents for 1 and 4 positions and it was hit and miss even then. Binned that idea off and was going to use a DPDT between the Tone and Volume but in the end I listened to @ICBM and opted for a 3 way CRL and a CTS push pull pot instead. I quite like the series selection and it gives a bit more grunt as expected.
I was surprised when I opened up the tele that the neck was routed to take a humbucker so at some point I'm going to have a go with one of them but other stuff to try on the SS config.
It's actually not a bad guitar now. I put copper shielding foil throughout. I also took the neck off sanded it and tru-oiled it and it's miles better now. I levelled, dressed and polished the frets and replaced the tuners with some Kluson DeLuxe vintage tuners. I've obviously lost the headstock decal now and don't know whether to put a Squire one back on or just put a partscaster or something else on it when I next change the config and then nitro over it. Anything but a Fender Telecaster decal on it anyway because then it becomes a fake. It's obvious if you know what you're looking at that it isn't but if I ever move it on I wouldn't want someone trying to sell it on as a Fender Tele. My plans to put it back to standard at some point have now gone out of the window as a consequence. Ah well. It only cost me £70 in the first place and it was as in 'unplayed' condition.
Ian
Lowering my expectations has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.