Wiring

More bark, more bite, more licks for your tone. Get your custom wound pickups from "Mutt's dog house", our resident hound and luthier extraordinaire...

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muttley
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Re: Wiring

Post by muttley »

Hey JD,

Apologies again for the delay on getting this sorted. I'm afraid what with the house build and other work I've shunted you to the back of the queue this month.. :redface:

I am just about done though and have come up with a connector system for the pups that should be relatively painless. If it all works as expected you will become my main tester for Telecaster recipes..;) I can just stick the connectors on the pups and you can swap them about as you like.

I have also got a new pickguard that will fit. Can you let me know where those earth tails fixed to the body if you want them? You dont need them as there is no shielded paint on there..

I will get them in the post this week. PM your address again to save me scrolling through hundreds of pm's..
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JD01
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Re: Wiring

Post by JD01 »

muttley wrote: Tue Nov 12, 2019 5:19 am Hey JD,

Apologies again for the delay on getting this sorted. I'm afraid what with the house build and other work I've shunted you to the back of the queue this month.. :redface:

I am just about done though and have come up with a connector system for the pups that should be relatively painless. If it all works as expected you will become my main tester for Telecaster recipes..;) I can just stick the connectors on the pups and you can swap them about as you like.

I have also got a new pickguard that will fit. Can you let me know where those earth tails fixed to the body if you want them? You dont need them as there is no shielded paint on there..

I will get them in the post this week. PM your address again to save me scrolling through hundreds of pm's..
Cheers, mate - would be nice to have them for the weekend.
The earth tails fitted in the screw holes in the cavity - they're shown on the black painted areas in the pic I put up, think its the previous page, or maybe page 2 of this thread. Will PM you my address now.
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JD01
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Re: Wiring

Post by JD01 »

They've arrived!!!
20191123_094622.jpg
But I had to leave for England for the weekend about 10 minutes after they arrived. Bugger.
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Re: Wiring

Post by JD01 »

OK, finally got time to put this together last night.
Didn't take me long at all - the "solder-free" connections worked great and it was easy.
All simply labelled by Mutt so I could just put it together without having to worry about anything.

Haven't had chance to plug it in yet though!
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20191125_201304.jpg
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Re: Wiring

Post by WhiskeyJack »

WOOHOO!! dude that looks cool. +1 on the solder less connections. I didn't think that would ever be a thing but it's more common than i thought! My Epiphone i believe is solderless.

Stoked to see how it sounds man. I just watched a video on the new American Ultra Tele. Sounded pretty good.
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Re: Wiring

Post by muttley »

Hey mate, I got your txt and just checking this. Ive had a few more days without the interwebz so still behind the curve. Hows it going?
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Re: Wiring

Post by JD01 »

muttley wrote: Wed Nov 27, 2019 10:48 am Hey mate, I got your txt and just checking this. Ive had a few more days without the interwebz so still behind the curve. Hows it going?
I've litterally just plugged it in and had a test of it.
Few connections that needed a wiggle but its working great now - quiet too.

Most importantly - sounds fucking great. Really good.
The 4 way option is pretty impressive really and they all have their unique sound.
I'm working at the moment so I don't have time to record tones - I was just plugging in for a quick test and I was grinning playing it.

Hopefully I'll have chance to record some rough and ready tones later at the end of the day.
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Re: Wiring

Post by muttley »

Cool, thats a weight off my mind. As I said in our PM it was a real PITA to get done.

You can push those spade connectors in half way and they will hold. If you intend to take them out again I would just cover them over with a pinch of electrical tape. If you intend to leave them permanent then you can shrink wrap them with the tube I included.

As mentioned I do intend to send you another neck pup at some point because I think I can get closer to the Strat twang you were after. The one you have is quite a vintage wind but it balanced well when I tested it... Let me know...
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Re: Wiring

Post by JD01 »

muttley wrote: Wed Nov 27, 2019 11:10 am Cool, thats a weight off my mind. As I said in our PM it was a real PITA to get done.

You can push those spade connectors in half way and they will hold. If you intend to take them out again I would just cover them over with a pinch of electrical tape. If you intend to leave them permanent then you can shrink wrap them with the tube I included.

As mentioned I do intend to send you another neck pup at some point because I think I can get closer to the Strat twang you were after. The one you have is quite a vintage wind but it balanced well when I tested it... Let me know...
How was it a PITA? Just 'cos of the slightly complex wiring coupled with the spade connectors?
One thing - its now very, very cramped in my little control cavity. Had to apply a little pressure to get the plate flush with the body.
Suppose the spade connectors take up more space and are inflexible compared with normal wiring.

First impressions of the neck pickup are that its stratty... but thicker. But not dull/muffled sounding like a normal tele bridge. I might try lowering it a bit later on.

I hope to post up some tones later, so have a listen and see what you think.
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Re: Wiring

Post by JD01 »

Initial tele tone test here:
First Tele Tone Test.mp3
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Re: Wiring

Post by Greg_L »

JD01 wrote: Wed Nov 27, 2019 12:20 pm Initial tele tone test here:
First Tele Tone Test.mp3
Pretty good! :coolstorybro:
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Re: Wiring

Post by JD01 »

Greg_L wrote: Wed Nov 27, 2019 1:57 pm
JD01 wrote: Wed Nov 27, 2019 12:20 pm Initial tele tone test here:
First Tele Tone Test.mp3
Pretty good! :coolstorybro:
I think I need to make sure adjustments of heights and stuff, but I'm happy with it so far.
Sorry for the running commentary style of tone testing, but I couldn't be arsed with recording a bunch of different tracks and uploading them all separately. I also had no idea what I was going to play or what pedals I was going to go for until I actually pushed them.
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Re: Wiring

Post by Minerman »

JD01 wrote: Wed Nov 27, 2019 11:52 am One thing - its now very, very cramped in my little control cavity. Had to apply a little pressure to get the plate flush with the body.
Suppose the spade connectors take up more space and are inflexible compared with normal wiring.
This is just all the more reason to learn to solder man... :biggrin:

I've thought about going the solder-less route, I even talked to Mutt about putting Gibson style quick connectors on some p'ups for my SG, but really, soldering for me isn't really a big deal...
JD01 wrote: Wed Nov 27, 2019 11:52 amFirst impressions of the neck pickup are that its stratty... but thicker. But not dull/muffled sounding like a normal tele bridge. I might try lowering it a bit later on.
Clips sound pretty good Jdude, I like the tele, I've been wanting one for quite a while now, but I've been on an amp mission for what seems like forever...I think I'm finally good to go with my amp stable, so another guitar (maybe 2) may be on the list before long...

Sounds good, congrats!!!
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Re: Wiring

Post by muttley »

JD01 wrote: Wed Nov 27, 2019 11:52 am
muttley wrote: Wed Nov 27, 2019 11:10 am Cool, thats a weight off my mind. As I said in our PM it was a real PITA to get done.

You can push those spade connectors in half way and they will hold. If you intend to take them out again I would just cover them over with a pinch of electrical tape. If you intend to leave them permanent then you can shrink wrap them with the tube I included.

As mentioned I do intend to send you another neck pup at some point because I think I can get closer to the Strat twang you were after. The one you have is quite a vintage wind but it balanced well when I tested it... Let me know...
How was it a PITA? Just 'cos of the slightly complex wiring coupled with the spade connectors?
One thing - its now very, very cramped in my little control cavity. Had to apply a little pressure to get the plate flush with the body.
Suppose the spade connectors take up more space and are inflexible compared with normal wiring.

First impressions of the neck pickup are that its stratty... but thicker. But not dull/muffled sounding like a normal tele bridge. I might try lowering it a bit later on.

I hope to post up some tones later, so have a listen and see what you think.
It was pig because I was working blind. Normally I have the route in front of me so I can trim wire to the right length, run them and tape them shrink wrap them at the pressure points (like I did on your end jack). I also dont like like Fenders way of grounding with the screw fixings to shielding paint. Its a bit hit and miss when you need to rework stuff. They no longer use the vintage style cloth wire except on premium stuff so its easier to get thinner wire in the routes. You now have cloth wire so vintage and also harder to fit in the route.

I guess when I say PITA it is combined with the many other stresses I have going on right now and not wanting to get it wrong for you or leave you hanging..

The neck pup will be Strat like because of the wind and the magnets but I recon I can it more so if you want. How is the balance? Thats a nice set you have there, pretty much what I have on my working tele.. The deal is you can now swap out for some thing else if you wanted to. I think with the route you have on that model you may even be able to get a strat pup in there if I got a blank pickguard and cut it for you...
First impressions of the neck pickup are that its stratty... but thicker. But not dull/muffled sounding like a normal tele bridge. I might try lowering it a bit later on.


I think that maybe because you now have a true tele neck pup in there. What you had before was the horrible cheap ceramic bar type and they are really crude and quite frankly terrible. They are that bad I even sent your old ones back to you..;)

Let me know how you get on going forward and when you are happy I will bill you for the pups and parts. I will listen to the tone clips when I can but I'm down to one half decent set up right now in my office due to the ongoing building work down at Mutt Towers.. It will be interesting to hear what you do with them because I have very similar and its a recipe I like a lot.
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Re: Wiring

Post by JD01 »

Cool. I need to check the heights a bit and make a few adjustments but I think I'm just about there or thereabouts.

I have an old song written that I've rearranged (shortened) and it's gonna be Tele one side crimson the other so should be a great test piece for your pups.
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Re: Wiring

Post by WhiskeyJack »

JD01 wrote: Wed Nov 27, 2019 12:20 pm Initial tele tone test here:
First Tele Tone Test.mp3
3:13 is a really great sounding tone [mention]JD01[/mention] that is awesome!!! I quite like that! Just a little bump in the guts.
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Re: Wiring

Post by muttley »

WhiskeyJack wrote: Wed Nov 27, 2019 4:41 pm
JD01 wrote: Wed Nov 27, 2019 12:20 pm Initial tele tone test here:
First Tele Tone Test.mp3
3:13 is a really great sounding tone @JD01 that is awesome!!! I quite like that! Just a little bump in the guts.
I was gonna say that after a cursory listen but only on small monitors so held back. From around 3.00 its very "Clash" - Joe Strummer. I love that bite and punch only a Tele can deliver. It just walks right up and punch you in the ears until you pay attention....
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Re: Wiring

Post by WhiskeyJack »

muttley wrote: Wed Nov 27, 2019 5:08 pm It just walks right up and punch you in the ears until you pay attention....
That. exactly that. Great way of putting it. Even the cleans have that punch. I don't know what it is that makes a tele sound the way it does. Pick ups? Scale length or something? What gives a telecaster it's bang?
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Re: Wiring

Post by JD01 »

Mutt, when you have a mo can you explain to me what each switch position is supposed to do and how I can test it?

Now, the pickups obviously sound great. But I'm not sure the switch is doing quite what I expected.
Normally to see if a pickup is on, I'd just tap the pole pieces.
Don't know quite how to test this with a tele neck pickup. Is there a simple way?
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Re: Wiring

Post by muttley »

The only thing different from a standard telecaster is that position 1, is bridge and neck in series. so...

1. Bridge neck, series
2. Neck
3. Bridge and Neck, parallel
4. Bridge

If positions 2 and 4 are working then the pups are OK. If you think there is a problem elsewhere that could be the hook up..
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