Official Luthiers Forum!

In my spare time, I tinker with my instruments so they give me more awesome results. This describes one of those mods.

I have a great playing 2-pickup Squier Telecaster (made in Korea). The 3-way switch is OK but I wanted to soup it up for more tonal options.

Last month, I replaced the stock control plate with one that I got on eBay designed for a standard Telecaster with two single-coil pickups. I searched for "upgrade fits your 2 pickup tele" to find it. The solderless installation made the upgrade easy. For me it just "dropped in." (see before-after picture)

It came with Bourns pots mounted to a printed circuit board with Treble Bleed to keep the brilliance from getting "muddier" as the volume is dialed back.

It has three mini toggle switches instead of the stock 3-way blade switch. Two of the switches are on-off-on and control each pickup by turning it Off or On (in either normal-phase or reverse phase.) The third (middle) on-on switch puts the pickups in either parallel or series circuit. The switch layout is simple and intuitive. The end result is an instrument that goes beyond the three stock pickup tones.

After the upgrade, I have six pickup tones. I still have the stock three sounds, but the extra three sounds are distinct and useful. Putting both pickups in series (and in-phase) gives me a strong jazz-like humbucker sounding tone, something that I could not get from my stock Telecaster. And hearing those additional two new intense and more intense out-of-phase country twang tones (switched in either parallel and series) gave me goosebumps. These are glass-shattering tones that can punch out windows at 30 paces.

I'm happy with the upgrade because it gives me three additional pickup tones.

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3df1b8_d7183858d1034b6c8ec2ff7eff513f18~mv2.jpg

I have to chuckle when I read your two posts. A few years ago my son put together a guitar and asked me to wire it for him. It was sort of a LP Jr thing - solid body with two humbuckers. He got these cool little pickup rings from Seymore Duncan with two little slide switches - different switch positions allowed him to put the coils in series, parallel, split (and something else, maybe reverse phase). Anyway, four combinations for each pup. The guitar had the standard neck-blend-bridge switch and volume and tone for each pickup. He also added a bridge with some little piezo crystals that were supposed to give him some sort of "acoustic" tone. Separate vol for the piezo and brought it out with a stereo jack so it could be blended at the amp.





I hooked it all up for him and played if for a few days. Personally I hated the "acoustic" sound and really didn't care for many of the options with the little switches, I kept coming back to neck pickup with the coils in series - just a normal humbucker (duh).

I recently asked my son about that guitar, he said he never plays it, would I like it? I said not particularly.

Glad you are having fun and I hope you find what you are looking for.