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electronics for a custom tele

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vtpcnk

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on a tele, if i have a humbucker on the neck and the traditional tele single coil on the bridge and the typical tele volume, control and a three position pickup switch, like :

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Fender-Custom-Artist-Series-Albert-Collins-Signature-Telecaster-Electric-Guitar?sku=510184

what pots am i going to use? 250k, 500k?
 
Lol are you seeing if we can guess? Which ever you want! If you wanna blow some windows out while you shred away, I'd do the 500's
 
sorry if i phrased it the wrong way.

i would really like to know what pots to use in such a configuration.

i think the neck position will already be "warm and fat" even with the 500k pot.

if i use 250k, then will it not become muddy?

if it try to use 500k pots, will the tele bridge not become too bright/hot?
 
for a good tele cool tone, I'd stick with 250k.. 500 is more for humbuckers IMO.. I could be way off and will be corrected I'm sure..
 
It won't matter too much - go 500k. Use the tone control if it's too bright -that's what God (I mean Leo) put it there for.
 
or maybe 300k?

i had a couple of gibsons with humbuckers where the pots were 300k.

i swapped them for 500k. but i think i still have those 300k.
 
I have the same deal... Duncan 59 in the neck, Barden T-bridge in the bridge. I have 250k pots in there right now. The neck is nice, warm, and clear. Awesome jazz tone, but it also has just enough bite to work for blues and rock. It's surprisingly not at all muddy.

Of course, this is all going to vary with the pickup you use. But I wouldn't be afraid to try the 250k first, then change if you need to.

I still might change the volume to a 500k, but if I did, I'd plan on putting a 500k resistor in parallel with the bridge pickup, so that it would see the same overall resistance as a 250k pot. (This will change the taper of the pot action though.)

My favorite position with this setup is the combo of neck and bridge though, which has warmth and meat from the neck, but clarity and bite from the bridge. That sound is the reason I might keep the pots as is, because I can get everything I want between those positions.

I would like to try a 4-way switch though, so I can have neck+bridge in series. Might be interesting...
 
One reason it's not muddy is because the pot values don't matter all that much. If you change them all to 1 meg, you'll notice it's a little bit brighter, maybe you'll turn down the treble on your amp just a hair, or maybe you'll like it better. What can it hurt?
 
>I have the same deal... Duncan 59 in the neck, Barden T-bridge in the bridge

what wood is your tele made of?
 
Walnut with Rosewood neck. I was really worried about the neck pickup being muddy, but it's not.

http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=7097.0
 
tfarny said:
One reason it's not muddy is because the pot values don't matter all that much. If you change them all to 1 meg, you'll notice it's a little bit brighter, maybe you'll turn down the treble on your amp just a hair, or maybe you'll like it better. What can it hurt?
Click to expand...

I'm with Tim here. I switched from 500k volume/500k tone to 500k volume, 250k tone, and I noticed -0- change in tone. Is there a difference? I'm positive there must be...but it's nothing I would ever notice.
 
the standard tele control plate cannot accomodate two volumes (500k and 250k) and a tone (250k) right? i hope the routing can.

would it be possible to get a customized control plate?
 
vtpcnk said:
the standard tele control plate cannot accomodate two volumes (500k and 250k) and a tone (250k) right? i hope the routing can.

would it be possible to get a customized control plate?
Click to expand...

There is plenty of room to put a third pot between the 2 normal ones. You'll just have to drill the hole in the plate for yourself. I'm not sure if 3 normal-sized pots will fit---they probably will---but worst case you can just use a mini pot. You might want to get some smaller knobs though, as the standard volume/tone knobs would probably be a pain to operate that close together.
 
The other option, of course, is to leave it at two pots, but get one that is normal, and the other concentric, so that the outer ring would take care of one pup, and the inner ring would take care of the other.

I've found a difference between a tele / humbucker combo with 250 K versus 500 K pots, but it is minimal.  My favorite combo, which I mentioned before, is the tele bridge, and a strat type neck single coil, with a four way switch running into 500 K pots.  It makes it slightly brighter and hotter, but also brings out the warmth when in humbucking mode.

Remember, what you're doing is a compromise, so decide which you want to bring out more, the humbucker side or the single coil side.  Personally, the moment you slap on a humbucker, I'd go up a notch to 500K, and wouldn't look back.

No worries man.
 
is it possible to have one volume and still have both 250k and 500k pots underneath and based on the pickup selector use the right pot?

likewise with the tone knob?
 
this according to fender is the electronics for the albert collins tele :

Cap CD 680 pf  1000V 10%

Cap CD .05uf  100V 20%

250k solid shaft potentiometers. CTS

Standard tele 3way switch.

 
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