Pick-Ups

The following pick-up tips are excerpted from the website Tech Tip 1 From the Custom Shop (Schematic to follow) This tip comes to us from Steve Metcalfe, artist relations representative for Aria (UK), Seymour Duncan's UK and Republic of Ireland distributor. I needed a really versatile guitar. I decided a three-pickup Strat® configuration would suit my purpose best. I also wanted the guitar to look right cosmetically - I prefer the look of three single coils rather than a full-size humbucker and two single coils. With the hard but warm sound of a '59TM humbucker in mind, I fitted an SL59-1b Little '59TM in the bridge position; I wanted a Strat sound, so in went an SVR-1n Vintage Rails™ in the middle; and I wanted a "big single coil" sound, so I put an SCR-1n Cool RailsTM in the neck. Using a Schaller 5-Position "Mega-Switch" Switch (Ref. No. 105S), I was able to get the following set-up with the following sounds. Position One: Full Little '59 bridge humbucker sound of a Les Paul® Position Two: Split Little '59 (front coil) with full Vintage Rails rear notch position of a Strat. Position Three: Split Little '59 (rear coil) with full Vintage Rails "warm but bright" Tele middle position country sound. Position Four: Full Vintage Rails and full Cool Rails "big warm Strat" in the front notch position. Position Five: Full Cool Rails "big Strat" and if the string is played at the neck, you get a nice warm P-90 sound, "just perfect!" The Little '59 is connected to the lower tone control to warm the pickup further, if necessary. The upper tone pot is not wired up, as I don't like using the tone control on a Strat type sound. Have you a really cool use for an unused tone pot?

Tech Tip 2 From the Custom Shop
The "Joe Wilson" wiring for Telecaster®
(Schematic to follow) This wiring was designed for one of our sales reps in the Southeast, Joe Wilson, who wanted to add some extra versatility to his Tele®, while retaining the stock look. For this scheme, we use our "tapped" Hot Lead (STL-2T) and a Vintage Rhythm (STR-1) pickups. We used a special 4-pole 5-way switch in place of the standard 3-way switch. In position 1, you'll get a hotter Tele lead sound. Position 2 will give a traditional Tele lead sound. Position 3 gives you both the rhythm and "traditional" lead sound in "parallel" (the typical Tele wiring). Position 4 gives the rhythm and "traditional" lead sound in "series," a warmer and fuller sound for smooth jazz runs. Position 5 gives you the rhythm pickup by itself. We also put in a push-pull pot on the tone control that reverses the phase of the neck pickup. This gives a nice, chiming, James Burton-esque sound in positions 3 and 4. Make sure that you cut the short bare wire between the cover and the black wire on the rhythm pickup. You must then run an additional wire from the cover to ground, so that the cover still shields the rhythm pickup. The 5-way switch we show here is Yamaha's 4-pole 5-way switch. The value of the push-pull pot should be 250k. Take your time wiring this one, and always take your guitar to your local technician if you are not comfortable wiring your own instrument.

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