Telecaster wiring for odd pickup combinations

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olegmcnoleg
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Telecaster wiring for odd pickup combinations

Post by olegmcnoleg »

I just acquired a lovely Tele with a Filtertron / TV Jones pickup in the neck position and a traditional (but hot) Tele bridge pickup. The wiring harness is Obsidian, with 500k pots for vol and tone (and a treble bleed mod). Not surprisingly, the bridge pickup seems to object to this arrangement.

What would you do?

Change the bridge pickup to a virtual vintage model (essentially a humbucker but sounding like a single coil) so it works better at 500k?
Fit stacking 250k/500k pots, so there is a separate 250k and 500k loom in the guitar (might be a bit tight)
Revert to 250k pots and suck it up for the Neck pickup?
Do something clever with resistors to fake the pot mismatch?
Something else entirely?

Note, I want to keep the Neck pickup, so reverting to a standard single coil at the neck is not an option.

Advice gratefully received.

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Re: Telecaster wiring for odd pickup combinations

Post by Mattallica »

Do the magic resistor thing

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TmcB
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Re: Telecaster wiring for odd pickup combinations

Post by TmcB »

olegmcnoleg wrote: Do something clever with resistors to fake the pot mismatch?
Take a 470k resistor – solder one end to where the hot wire of the bridge is soldered to on the switch.
Solder the other end to a ground point. Not sure where obsidian do theirs – often the back of a pot but likely not in your case

Job done – neck sees 500k, bridge sees 250k (approx) meaning the neck is keeps the brightness and the bridge gets its brightness toned down.
GrantB wrote:Tony, your taste is, as always, very refined. Or as HG would say, "bloody awful".
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Re: Telecaster wiring for odd pickup combinations

Post by olegmcnoleg »

TmcB wrote:
olegmcnoleg wrote: Do something clever with resistors to fake the pot mismatch?
Take a 470k resistor – solder one end to where the hot wire of the bridge is soldered to on the switch.
Solder the other end to a ground point. Not sure where obsidian do theirs – often the back of a pot but likely not in your case

Job done – neck sees 500k, bridge sees 250k (approx) meaning the neck is keeps the brightness and the bridge gets its brightness toned down.
Good advice, and only two drops of solder needed, cheers Toany!

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Re: Telecaster wiring for odd pickup combinations

Post by TmcB »

Glad I'm not burning myself regularly for no reason
GrantB wrote:Tony, your taste is, as always, very refined. Or as HG would say, "bloody awful".
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