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’re not comfortable wiring your own instrument.