Hey friends!
Lately I have been doing a few various mods on my Tele, as well as a few friends' guitars. I thought I'd make a thread to show off my handiwork; and for any other modders to show off their work, as well as post diagrams and ask for help/advice on future mods. I think a thread dedicated to modification and repairs could be a great resource to have on the Lounge.
So everybody, feel free to contribute!

_________________
Check out my new FB music page!

https://www.facebook.com/TheDevilandMe.Music

I'll start off with my buddy AJ's Tele. It started life as an '04 MIM Tele (unsure of the exact model) in Agave Blue. I removed the stock single-coil pickups and replaced them with a Dimarzio Tone Zone T (single-coil-sized humbucker) in the bridge position, and a Seymour Duncan Jazz in the neck position. I gutted all the other components (switches, pots etc...) and their wiring and replaced everything with shiny new parts. I wired a push-pull volume pot to split the pickups (to the inner coils). It came out great and sounds incredible on the neck pickup with the coils split.

The finished product :


Edit : I Also installed Fender Locking tuners on AJ's Tele.


Edit x2 : I wired this guitar according to this ( http://www.dimarzio.com/sites/default/f ... _3wtel.pdf ) wiring diagram sourced from the good folks at Dimarzio; I referenced a diagram on the seymour duncan website to make sure all wire colors were the same.

_________________
Check out my new FB music page!

https://www.facebook.com/TheDevilandMe.Music

And then there's my Tele. It started life as a Deluxe Blackout Tele and has gone through a few small changes to get to the point it's at.

From This :


The first thing I did to it was reversing the control plate. I wanted to have my volume knob closer at hand and I was getting tired of knocking the selector switch out of position during more vigorous playing. It was pretty simple to reverse the controls except for having to chisel wood out to make the rearmost section of the cavity deep enough to accommodate the selector switch and having to solder in a jumper so the wires from the neck pickup could reach.



The next thing I did was removed the metal covers from the neck and middle pickups. This made a huge difference, especially on the neck pickup. It is very simple to remove the metal covers and requires only bending up four metal tabs and taping the exposed coil of the pickup after careful removal of the covers.



The final...or shall I say current stage was just one more small change. I removed the middle pickup altogether and replaced the black/white/black pickguard with a sexy red tortoise pickguard. For now I shall let it rest.

To This :



My next project is installing a Tele neck pickup in my buddy Ralph's acoustic that he uses for slide...should be quick and easy.

_________________
Check out my new FB music page!

https://www.facebook.com/TheDevilandMe.Music

Very cool Tim, I like to mess around with guitars and hot rod them as well. I have a tele that was fotted with a humbucker n the neck and a B. Lawrence single rail in the bridge before I got her. I then reversed the control plate and installed a bigsby on her. I designed a col circuit for my buddy Zack for one of his strats. The guitar is ugly as sin, but sounds really cool. He wanted a humbucker in the bridge, that's where the wring fun came in. I wired it with a master tone/ master volume. the third (bottom) knob is now a "blend" for coil-tapping the humbucker. I also put in a switch so you can toggle the neck pup and have all 3 blaring at the same time. Alot of the guys gave me some flack on here because the guitar is an eyesore, but a fun circuit I think.

By bobrox24 at 2011-04-19

By bobrox24 at 2011-04-19

Here's my modded strat as she sits now. I ordered a new guard with a reverse angle bridge pup. I relocated the volume and tone pots, and removed the third tone and switch. Then relocated the vol/ tone and used the Jazzmaster diagram for master controls. I have each pup on a mini toggle. Right not, She's being taken apart, I have 2 terrible cracks on the back of the body. So, I have a new body to work with, and I will be moving the configuration around again. Going to remove the mid. pup, and place a 3-way toggle near the lower horn. I'm debating adding the JAZZMASTER upper controls and circuit to her as well.

By bobrox24 at 2011-01-14

Nice work fellers. My strat goes into surgery Monday provided i get all the parts i ordered. Got new pups coming (CS69's) and a no load pot. Plan is to put the new pups in and replace the toggle switch i currently have for adding in the bridge pup, with a blend pot where the first tone control is and make the second tone control a master tone using a TBX pot i have. Might swap a push button switch in where the toggle is and make that be a kill switch for the Tone to remove from circuit completely rather than have a hole in the pickguard. Also adding a volume kit. Hopefully it turns out every bit as cool as it is in my dreams.

_________________
YMMV

Chont's Mustang Presets

Howdy!

Cool thread! Tim, I'm digging the reversed controls on those Tele's. Good stuff!

I'll make sure I have my camera ready when I next mod my CP60's. It's ripe for the new Big Hairy S-1 switch wiring I've been drawing up.

Cheers!

Andy

_________________
Pending Greatness

Nice stuff Bobrox! I like the uh... shall we say StratoMaster? Pretty cool idea on that one



Thanks Andy! After reversing the controls on my Tele, it's a must have feature for me.

_________________
Check out my new FB music page!

https://www.facebook.com/TheDevilandMe.Music

G'day Tim, I did the same thing years ago to my Hohner Resonator. The scariest thing was cutting the hole in the body. It turned out well, and sounds great.



I have since broken the neck and the Reso is currently getting a makeover that may shock some

Goodonya ....Mark.

My Pups are out for delivery according to FedEx. Yay! After doing tests yesterday to determine what I want to do I've leaned a few things.

1. Futzed around with the TBX pot i had and though it seemed to fatten up the sound (think that was just my imagination) I just didn't seem to notice an audible difference from detent to 10 so I'm bagging that for the regular tone. I've read it works better with Humbuckers anyway so perhaps it doesn't apply to my scenario. Or maybe i wired it wrong but i followed every spec diagram i could find and various configs. Or maybe the pot is just bad... its 15 years old.

2. My idea of using the toggle switch for disabling the tone was just plain silly. I can substitute No Load pots if i have to have the tones out of circuit.

3. I did like the blender pot. But I decided to just go back to my toggle switch for activating the Neck Pup when using the bridge. I found that I either had it all the way on or all the way off anyway. So I'm going with a jumper to get Tone control of Bridge and middle pup with Tone 2, and Tone 1 will control Neck Pup.

4. Radio shack 22 gauge solid single conductor wire works totally fine. And I bet the ceramic disk capacitors i bought to test with are the same little beige bastards fender uses.

5. Adding a volume kit... in all of the research I've done, that, the jumper for bridge and mid pup tone control and the switch for activating Neck pup in Bridge position seems to be what suits me best.

6. Most importantly... this wiring stuff is fascinating. Is there such a thing as wiring GAS? It was very tedious swapping out components to hear the affect they had with having to loosen strings and remove pickguard each time but very educational. I'm moderately handy with a soldering iron so hopefully this will turn out good.\

c

_________________
YMMV

Chont's Mustang Presets

Howdy!

Isn't it just!


Yep! I've had it for a few years now. Best to keep it in check before it all gets Big and Hairy...





Enjoy!

Andy

_________________
Pending Greatness

What does the IC do?

_________________
Rated "M" for meaty.

eff me that's some nice work ... maybe i won't post a pic of mine when its done Its in surgery now... pups arrived... boy are they nice. Taking my time to do as neat a job as possible so may not finish today. I'll try and post a pic of my job monday. That pic is a hard act to follow though... nicely done.

_________________
YMMV

Chont's Mustang Presets

I've no idea what that thing is laddie, perhaps that robot Data knows
Borg

Howdy!

Its a rare Wilkinson Mid Boost Pre-amp...



...And it awesome! If I could find more I'd honestly stick one in every guitar I own!


Thanks man!

And please post some pic's of your work once your done! I for one very much enjoy all things wiring related!

HA!

Quality!

FYI: Its currently wired up to a set of Hot Noiseless and does the following:

Fender Pre 2010 Dlx S-1 switching.
Bridge on/off S-1 Switch
Mid Boost on/off S-1 Switch
And your standard 5 way switching we all know and love!

Enjoy!

Andy

_________________
Pending Greatness