This is a corrected version of the Modified 4-way Telecaster mod. In this mod, the order of the switch controls is changed to be more intuitive placing the Series and Parallel positions next to each other.
Thank you very much for your well thought out and professional tutorials. I have accessed them on many occasions for Strat and Les Paul applications. But, I am currently converting three Telecasters to all CTS pots and 4 way switching. I did one using Stew Mac wiring scheme, one using Mojotone wiring scheme and one using your modified 4 way scheme. Yours is by far the best, now I am going back and changing the other two. Sorry it took so long to thank you, you are an invaluable resource.
Just followed this vid to a T when installing my newly acquired Seymour Duncan Gilly Tele Stack Bridge Pickup. While I have installed pick ups in my teles and strats before it’s all been basic standard switch setups, I’ve never done anything in this complex. I’m not the greatest with a soldering iron but following along and taking my time everything went really well. thanks much for the great video, the pickup sounds terrific and this order of switching makes so much more sense to me.
I am sooooo grateful for this information; a lot of the other more flashy guitar work channels make videos that purport to explain this information, but then completely neglect 90% of the necessary info, making the videos only useful for people who already know most things about wiring guitars.
Dude! This is hands down the best and clearest of any wiring setup videos I've seen to date. I actually feel like I can do this now. THANK YOU! I’d love to see a video on a 5-way tele where position 5 is out of phase.
Tried other 4 way mods and ran into the exact issue you were talking about with the switch.pickup positions. Decided to try it last night, stripped down a Thinline I had, gathered some parts I had from other builds and went to town. Put on a Roasted maple neck, Fender Custom Shop Texas Specials and put together this 4 way. Thank you so much for putting this up. Liked the idea of a 4 way but not the positions, you certainly fixed that problem and I'm happy to report that this thing absolutely screams the way it was supposed to. Love the full sound that 4th position provides.
Thank you for this mod. I've used the "classic" wiring, I use to swap a lot from neck to bridge and your mod is a lot better and useful. Your way to make an instructional video is great too.
Thank god for you dude. Wiring up a mod for the first time and felt like i had no idea what was going on. Even though I might not use your configuration, just you walking through the though process was plenty enough to get me confident in what I was doing. Thank you!
Thank you for posting this video and providing such a great, thorough and detailed explanation. I had never re wired a guitar before and recently started my first project guitar. I planned on changing the pickups and all the electronic parts when I bought it and was just going to change the 3 way switch to a nicer 3 way switch. After finding out about the 4 way mod on line, I decided that would be better for me. Then while researching it I found the way the switch would be set up as a 4 way, was not to my liking. Your way of jumping and rewiring so the positions make sense and follow the pickup order, was exactly what I wanted. I was able to get a 4 way switch and follow your instructions. Successfully rewired and put new pickups in. They sound great and work as I wanted. I would not have done it without this video. Thank you.
Awesome video! I am working on this exact mod right now. I haven’t seen anyone try do it this way which makes way more sense to me. Thanks for the great video!
Great video! I was able to install a 4-way switch on my Epi T310. I first followed the previous video and didn't like have the series setting was in the last position. So glad I discovered this one. I do like having series and parallel in the middle.
I really appreciate your videos. I was able to develop my project thanks to them. As I don't use the bridge pickup, I wanted to try the original 3-way switch but with the following configuration: neck / neck + bridge (parallel) / neck + bridge (series). And it worked! The bridge pickup of my telecaster is a bit weak compared to the neck one, so I did not achieve a noticeable difference, but anyway, I had to test it.
This mod seems logical to me. Having the series and parallel mod in the middle just feels natural. Thanks for figuring it out. I'll be changing mine...now. Thanks again.
I reversed my control plate and ran the output wires from the switch to the volume pot with no problem and extended the neck pickup wires by an inch so now all four tones and the volume/tone pots w/.047uf orange capacitor function as they should...both PU's in series provides a fuller sound I like a lot!
I've just done that on one of my Squier Teles and I like it much better than the "regular" wiring, it actually makes more sense this way and it's easier to use... Thanks :) :) :)
Great tutorial, thank you. I just picked up a Mini Humbucker for the neck, so I'm going to try this but switch the switch closer to the bridge and swap the Tone and Vol Pots so when I strum the first thing after the down strum is the Vol Pot. My 3 way is setup like this, this to, to me is more intuitive.
Breja, thanks for this. I always wondered why the original wiring for a 4-way was so unintuitive. I tried a wiring scheme by Frailin before yours. His did not work. All but position 1 had some of each pickup. This schematic works great! Thanks again.
I ended up buy a new set of Seymour Duncan Little 59"s for my Tele. And I wired to this setup. It is working great. I prefer this also. Makes more sense. I used a 100k pot for tone, with a .047 cap. And these Pu's still put out a lot of highs.
The original wiring is organized by tone, going from thin/bright to full/dark. This mod organizes by location, from bridge to neck. I personally don’t care where the pickup is, it is all about what sound it gives me.
I love your videos, brother! They are a great source of information for the tests I make in my guitars! THANK YOU!!! Can I suggest you a 5-switch Telecaster Mod video?
Your mod is more logical! I would like to use it but with nobs and swith in a different place. Volume, tone and the switch at the bottom. This would easily permit rotating sound nob while playing or the tone to get that wa-wa sound. Searching for the schematic to do it. Thank you for your tuto! :)
I like the traditional 4 way, it maintains the classic bridge parallel neck scheme.....all the way up is your turbo switch......having series and parallel in the middle positions strike me as being tricky to navigate on the fly in a live setting. Nice job though, super clear diagram!!!!
Hi Don! Your vids are great, very informative and crystal clear info. I had a question regarding the third wire needing to be added to the neck pickup. I realize that this is needed if you have a covered Tele neck pickup, as the metal cover needs to be grounded for the series circuit to work. But if, say, one was using a Firebird of LP Deluxe Mini Humbucker, or a full-sized Gibson humbucker with a cover, is it also necessary to unsolder the cover from the plate and run the third wire? Similarly, if a Strat pickup, P90, or Jazzmaster pickup was used in the neck, the second ground wire is not needed due to the plastic case, yes? Sorry if the questions seem silly, but I'm pretty new to the realm of guitar wiring. Hope you have some insight to offer. Thanks!!! :)
under my ASAT neck MFD there is a black wire screwed to the body that runs to the volume pot ground. After this mod, I hear a clicking and buzzing sound. Maybe I’ll try grounding the mfd plate and see if that fixes it
Thanks for all the clear and informative tutorials 👌🏻 I have a question, but it’s not really about this mod but the one I did. I made a new plate for my Tele and wired it so I’d have two volumes and no tone cause that’s why I love Gibson wiring, so now I have Fender sound with Gibson style switch and wiring. The question I have is should I add treble bleeding and what is the right way of doing it? Hope you could help because I was unable to find anybody else doing that
Your tutorials have taken me from never using a soldering iron, to confident in wiring and rewiring my projects.Thank you, and keep up the great work! Here's one for you though. I have a tele project that has a humbucker in the bridge position, and a p90 in the neck position. It is currently wired with a 3 way selector, a master tone and master volume. It has a push pull on the tone pot to split the humbucker when in the out position. What I want to do, is bypass the tone pot for the bridge only, so that the tone pot only serves the neck p90. The bridge humbucker is quite dark anyway, even when split, so I never use the tone pot, so want it to go "straight out" via the volume. I also like the tone on a les Paul when you turn down the tone on the neck pickup but not the bridge when both pickups are engaged. Is it possible to do this, and retain the coil split using the the existing components?
I just completed the wiring per your video and hoping all goes well. Would like the additional idea of adding a push/pull if using a humbucker- possibly a stacked neck.
Just did the mod as per instructions- came out great, and I love the new position! Really fat and responsive clean, and beautiful saturation as I increase drive. I will be doing this to the middle and bridge of my Strat as well. There was one difference- my neck pickup (from a Chinese Affinity) has no cover ground. I wonder if it would be worth putting a ground wire on it? I also have a treble bleed jump on my volume pot, and it seems to be compatible. Would it be possible to wire it Neck/Parallel/Series/Bridge? That seems even more intuitive to me.
This is great ! I already have this mod done on my Tele, but I came across this video as I’m trying to learn more about guitar wiring and come up with my own diagrams. The way you explain how the switch operates and how the signal flows is great ! Not sure you’re still active as most answers are a bit old, and maybe this is a stupid question but here it goes: When the switch is in position 1, lug A1 is connected to A5 and B1 is connected to B2. But since B2 and B3 are jumped, how come the neck pick up is not active in this position ?
I like when you show on the switch how the signal moves through to the output. This one would have been good since the wiring is slightly more confusing then standard tele wiring.
Hello, I thank Don for sharing his knowledge in wiring and so on. After watching his video about modified 4-way Telecaster Mod, I wonder whether the community has got an idea how to wire a familiar constellation. I got a Stratocaster having a bridge and neck single coil only, one volume- and two tone pots. Now, I wish to install a 4-way switch to put the two pickups in series like the telecaster as seen in the video. How do I incorporate the second ton pot into this? Can someone advice how to achieve that? Thanks everyone and happy new year!
Do you have any instructions on how to do this mod on a Baja Telecaster that has the S1 switch? I compared the wiring on the Baja with the wiring in the video and it looked completely different. Great videos - thanks!
Hey Don, thanks for explaining that 4-way wiring scheme. Love it! I've done it on my Tele with a Humbucker in neck position. Wired the Humbucker with a Coil-split over a push/pull switch at the tone pod. As George Roselliv mentioned earlier I also got a dull signal from the Humbucker when the switch is in bridge position only. The coil-split also affect the tone of the bridge pickup single-coil, even in bridge switch position? Any Tips? Thanks Boris
I tried this mod and works perfectly. You didnt mention which switch did you used. It seems to be different. I just rotate mine but yours seems to be different because of the position of the spring.
Thx ,u putting these schmatics up is the difference between me doing this and not. Iv done this mod a few times n like it better this way.( neck on 1 end bridge on the other of the switch. Fairly new to doin this kinda thing, so glad uv drawn a picture , LOL Iv bought a tele style that has independent volumes n 1 tone, of course my ? is how would i add the 2nd vol pot and hav working independent volumes. Thx for any help.
Hello Breja Toneworks! I love this diagram, I have put it on two of my own Teles, with a reverse control plate, one with coil-split, another with out-of-phase, and 2 of my clients' guitars as well. (I have a repair business, Harlem Fret Works, here in NYC). My question: I have a client who would like to add a .05 cap for the old Tele Dark Circuit on a push-pull. What's the best way to add this to your diagram? Thanks!!
When in series mode, as I understand it, the signal goes through the bridge pickup first then the neck. What if you were to reverse the order? Would the sound change and how?
I realize that this is an old video, but I like the way you have configured the wiring. I also want to switch the entire control plate around so that the 4-way switch is on the bridge side of the plate and utilize a coil split on the neck mini humbucker. The humbucker only has three wires + ground. Positive, negative, coil "ground", and well, another ground. It's basically grounding one of the coils, bypassing the other coil. Would it be possible to wire the neck positive and negative up as you have shown in the video, run the coil "ground" wire to a push-pull and then on to the same place where the negative wire goes, essentially bypassing one of the humbucker's coils?
Thank you! This was very helpful! I was wondering if there is a way to do this but in a standard Strat 5-way switch? I have a Tele with a humbucker on bridge and single coil on neck, I want to use the "in between" positiosn to get coil split or other options, Is this possible? Google did not give me any wiring for this.
What mod should I do if I’d like series in position 2 so that 1:B 2:B+N series 3:B+N parallel 4:N? I find this even more intuitive because I usually do leads on the bridge so I’d like the bridge side for heavier stuff and the neck side for clean rhythms. Thanks!
I found your video while looking for wiring methods for a 4-way switch for my Telecaster. It's a 92 Mexi-Tele. I started having issues with the switch several years ago and just kind of put it away and left it untouched, always meaning to "get to it some day". Well, the day is finally here. I've ordered a kit from StuMac that should be arriving early next week and I wanted to learn about how to wire the controls before it gets here. I'm an electrician by trade and have a basic understanding of all of the parts and pieces. I understand the wiring scheme and how the switch works with a traditional tele 3-way wiring scheme, but I'm having a bit of difficulty understanding the circuit flow in each of the 4 positions wired the way you've outlined it. Would it be possible for you to do a companion video to this one where you explain current flow in each of the 4 positions? That would be very helpful for me. I realize that I can simply follow your instructions and get the outcome I'm looking for, but my brain will always be trying to figure out how those electrons are flowing through the circuit when I choose another position. Thanks for the video, I plan to use this wiring scheme as the logic behind the switch positions makes better sense to me, and thanks in advance if you are able to do the companion video.
Hey there. I was wondering if you can use this wiring for the baja s1 style with the push button phase switch? I have found so many diagrams I can't determine what is what!
Obsidian Wire has the prewired kit that is a virtual drop in except for ground to neck pickup cover soldering, but not in the intuitive positions as you've described. I wonder if that prewired kit can be altered to operate the way you've suggested, or if other companies sell them prewired in that order? On 2nd thought, maybe that defeats the ideal of the kit being a simple drop in mod.
Have you ANY other 4way wiring diagrams? I'm thinking that putting the series pair at position 1 (the opposite of Fender) would be better for me OR @least position 2... Any thoughts on this?
Yes - you could using this wiring for a Keith Richards style tele. The HB might overpower the SC though in Series mode but that's why we are modders - so we can find out. :) Let me know how it works.
I have a couple questions, first is it possible to wire it to be neck (1), parallel (2), series (3), bridge (4)? next can I wire it as suggested above, then flip the whole switch around before attaching it to the pickups or volume/tone so as to reverse that order? I would like it to be bridge (1), series (2), parallel (3), and finally neck (4)? I know it sounds backwards but I rarely use the neck by itself and it's way easier to switch around the front spots.
Wondering if you could help me out... I apollogize because maybe i don't have I clue what i'm talking about cause honestly i never tried moding a guitar, but still I had to ask... is it posible to have single coils in series (position 2) in standard telecaster 3 way selector???
Do you have wiring diagrams for wiring this as reversed control plate with volume, tone and then switch? The switch would be from neck to tail as neck, parallel, bridge, series? Have dealt with other directions that just aren't working properly.
I love the 4-way switch on a telecaster! One advantage of having the series connection at one end of the switch is you can throw it there to jump into a lead run without thinking which position you are going to. The one I've used has an extra jumper to help lower noise potential, would be interested in seeing where the jumper would go in your schematic or if a jumper is necessary in yours (perhaps already protected against)? Reference diagram is on Phostenix's site, link: dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7440801/Guitar%20Wiring/Tele4-WayNeckShunt.jpg
