Howdy folks,
First off, I know effectively nothing about guitars, but I am an otherwise experienced electronic tech.
A friend brought me a '72 Telecaster Custom' which he says is more correctly a 76. It has a humbucker neck pickup and single-coil bridge pickup, with 2x Vol, 2x Tone and one 3-way pickup switch. He provided me with 4x 500K(A) pots to replace the originals. He stated that this was an upgrade.
The current pots were all 1M(A). Looks like all but one are factory original parts - 3 are identical, one is slightly different. All are out of range and/or totally jumpy and do need to be replaced. Both Tone pots have a 22n cap attached.
After the replacement work, things are weird. The Tone pots seem to do little to nothing, while the Vol pots seem OK, except that one will cut in & out if you push on the shaft. This may just be a defective part. Also, when the switch is in the dual-pickup position, the Vol pots seem to have a very strong interaction.. odd.
So what is this thing supposed to have? There are many diagrams out there, and they don't agree! Experience tells me that Vol pots should be (A) taper and Tone pots (L) taper - generally speaking.
Either way, it seems that the current setup is defective. Is it mostly just a matter of 500K vs. 1M? That seems doubtful - it might make it sound a little darker - but it shouldn't act all defective, though?
Any help, many thanks.
First off, I know effectively nothing about guitars, but I am an otherwise experienced electronic tech.
A friend brought me a '72 Telecaster Custom' which he says is more correctly a 76. It has a humbucker neck pickup and single-coil bridge pickup, with 2x Vol, 2x Tone and one 3-way pickup switch. He provided me with 4x 500K(A) pots to replace the originals. He stated that this was an upgrade.
The current pots were all 1M(A). Looks like all but one are factory original parts - 3 are identical, one is slightly different. All are out of range and/or totally jumpy and do need to be replaced. Both Tone pots have a 22n cap attached.
After the replacement work, things are weird. The Tone pots seem to do little to nothing, while the Vol pots seem OK, except that one will cut in & out if you push on the shaft. This may just be a defective part. Also, when the switch is in the dual-pickup position, the Vol pots seem to have a very strong interaction.. odd.
So what is this thing supposed to have? There are many diagrams out there, and they don't agree! Experience tells me that Vol pots should be (A) taper and Tone pots (L) taper - generally speaking.
Either way, it seems that the current setup is defective. Is it mostly just a matter of 500K vs. 1M? That seems doubtful - it might make it sound a little darker - but it shouldn't act all defective, though?
Any help, many thanks.
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This wiring diagram seems to be the closest match to what I have here, though it's labeled for a Telecaster Deluxe rather than a Telecaster Custom. No idea if there is a significant difference. The main difference I noticed is in the pickups - the diagram shows two humbuckers, whereas this guitar has the single-coil type for the bridge pickup.
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Ack, no help yet, eh?
Meanwhile, I noticed an error in the diagram - the tone pot for the bridge pickup (green cable) is miswired. The white wire from the bridge vol pot should connect to pins 2 & 3 on the pot, with the 22nf cap on pin 1 & case.
So the cap is installed correctly but the white wire should be moved from 1 & 2 to 2 & 3. Compare this to the neck pickup tone / vol wiring, the two should be identical. As it's shown, turning the bridge tone pot has no effect. The bridge tone circuit is always in the full CCW mode, or "low" tone.
Meanwhile, I noticed an error in the diagram - the tone pot for the bridge pickup (green cable) is miswired. The white wire from the bridge vol pot should connect to pins 2 & 3 on the pot, with the 22nf cap on pin 1 & case.
So the cap is installed correctly but the white wire should be moved from 1 & 2 to 2 & 3. Compare this to the neck pickup tone / vol wiring, the two should be identical. As it's shown, turning the bridge tone pot has no effect. The bridge tone circuit is always in the full CCW mode, or "low" tone.
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Despite the lack of replies, I feel the need to add a little more info - as it seems that I've gotten this figured out.
This particular model of '72 Tele (which is a '76, whatever that implies) uses 4x 1M audio taper pots, so both the vol and tone get a 1M audio. But when I tried it out, it really seems like it would prefer linear pots for the tone controls.
That is, the control resolution on tone is.. crap. Everything audible seems to happen within about 10 degrees of control rotation.
And that's all I know, +shrug+.
This particular model of '72 Tele (which is a '76, whatever that implies) uses 4x 1M audio taper pots, so both the vol and tone get a 1M audio. But when I tried it out, it really seems like it would prefer linear pots for the tone controls.
That is, the control resolution on tone is.. crap. Everything audible seems to happen within about 10 degrees of control rotation.
And that's all I know, +shrug+.
https://p4.zdassets.com/hc/theme_assets/549136/200076499/013-7500C_SISD.pdf
Notice that Fender use 250k Pots NOT 1M.
Notice that Fender use 250k Pots NOT 1M.
That's normal in all types of audio circuits. Tone controls are always linear, with the exception of TMB tone control stacks in guitar amps.
Sent from my phone with Tapatalk. Please excuse any typpos.
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