Question about old Fender Esquires.

anorakDan

anorakDan

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I recently saw a pic of an authentically "road worn" vintage Fender Esquire. So there's the single bridge pickup, one each tone and volume pots in a familiar Tele control plate. Why is there a switch? Did Leo rout Esquires as Teles and just screw an Esquire pickguard on to the guitar? I can understand not wanting to purchase an entire run of plates without switch holes, but I don't understand installing a non-functioning switch.

Can anyone enlighten me? Thank you.

Also, I want to wish the joys of the season to all my Unofficial Warmoth friends. May 2017 be better than 2016.
 
As I remember, the switch allowed the player to choose some extra circuits that rolled off the treble.
 
The Esquire came before the Telecaster Broadcaster. Different tones is why there's a switch.

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http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/Fender_Esquire_Basics

Don't know how the reissues are wired, didn't some come with a spare pickup and scratch plate for simple telecaster conversion?
 
I like the way the 3-way switch is wired on it. It sounds like a good thing to do. I may have to try that some day. Thanks for the diagram, amigarobbo.
 
I've seen folks use the esquire wiring kind of like an overdrive.  Get a good tone with amp/guitar with the switch in the 'neck' position, then flip to the 'bridge' position for a full throttle lead sound.  I've seen Kenny Vaughn do this with a fender Princeton. 

.... of course that guy can probably make a sack of potatoes with rusty strings sound good.
 
Awesome! That sounds really cool. I'm a big fan of single bridge pup layouts and I may have to try that one of these days...

Thanks for the replies!
 
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I believe the early Telecasters had something similar,  tone rolled off neck pickup only at position 3, neck only on 2 and bridge at 1, you couldn't combine the two pickups on the original ones.

Not that I've ever played, owned, or even handled one of course.  :tard:
 
My understanding of the Esquire wiring is that the "neck" position utilized one or more capacitors to approximate a "jazz" sound (most describe it as dull or muddy), the middle is volume + tone and the "bridge" is volume control straight out with no tone control.  One interesting take on updated wiring is known as the "Eldred" mod, (or even better - the modified Eldred mod) which puts a much smaller value cap into that "neck" position for a "cocked wah" effect.  I did the modified mod version on my Esquire build and absolutely LOVE it.  Don't even bother with the other positions normally.  You really have to experience it for yourself to truly understand the difference.  It's pretty amazing.
 
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