“Nashville” Tele Wiring . . . in a Strat?!

Written by

Nashville Tele + Strat = ? — What do you get when you cross . . .

I’ve been coveting one of those “Nashville-Style” Telecasters — you know, the hot-rodded, three-pickup versions popularized by Nashville session superhero Brent Mason, and now a regular Fender production model.

Then it dawned on me: Since some of Mongrel Strats I’ve been playing with have strong Tele tendencies, why not flip the equation? Instead of a Tele that acts like a Strat, why not a Strat that thinks it’s a Tele?

The Fender version replaces the usual Tele 3-way switch with a 5-way, as shown in this wiring diagram, though many players prefer to keep the 3-way switch and add the middle pickup via a blend knob, as in this other wiring diagram.

I took the latter approach, and I am flipping out over all the new tones it unlocks. Check out this little video demo:

The disadvantage of the blend-knob version is, you no longer have access to the sound of the middle pickup alone. (As if I care — it’s the most boring sound on a Strat!) One the other hand, you get the splendid sound of the outer pickups together — something you can’t obtain on a standard Strat. Better still, you can adjust the amount of middle pickup added to the combined settings, unlocking many cool shadings unavailable on a conventional Strat. You can also dial in the sound of all three pickups together, another combo unattainable on regular Strat. (Generally, this setting doesn’t do much for me, though I love it when using a Tele-caster style bridge pickup, like the Seymour Duncan Twang Banger I have in this guitar. (The neck pickup is a Duncan SSL-1. The middle pickup is also an SSL-1, but reverse-wound, reverse-polarity version.) All that in exchange for sacrificing middle pickup alone? Such a deal!

Aside from the sounds, I dig the concept of this wiring scheme. Now I think of the “out of phase” sounds not as pickup-selector positions, but as a character accessible at all times. With the middle knob turned left, you get sharp, crisp Tele/Strat tones. As you rotate it to the right, the colors get softer, prettier, and more diffuse. As I mention in the video, it reminds me of the focus and aperture controls on a high-end camera. It makes me think differently and play differently — and those are almost always good things. 🙂

Brent Mason control custom DIY Duncan SSL-1 fender mod Nashville Nashville-style reverse rwrp seymour strat Stratocaster Tele telecaster tone twangbanger wiring

Comments

48 responses to ““Nashville” Tele Wiring . . . in a Strat?!”

June 4, 2012

Sam Geese

Hey Joe
Another great article and demo.
I was wondering what that component is on both the 3-way and the 5-way switches.
Thanks.

Reply
June 4, 2012

joe

Thanks, Sam!

Do you mean, what switches do I use? I’m really into the Schaller Megaswitches, available from Stew Mac.

Reply
1. June 5, 2012
  
  Sam Geese
  
  Actually, what I meant was; if you look in both the wiring diagrams, you see some sort of component (resistor, diode,ect) soldered to lugs on the switches. Just wondering what those might be.
  
  Reply
  1. April 14, 2016
    
    jon philpott
    
    That had me confused too, i believe it’s the spring seen on some of these switches
    
    Reply
June 4, 2012

David

I made a tele/Les Paul hybrid using the Megaswitch. I don’t have an option to blend the middle pickup, and only use it in the 2 and 4 positions.

Reply
June 4, 2012

el reclusa

Hmmmm… wired my lone Strat with a blend pot to mix neck & bridge pups, but I’m intrigued by the idea of the blend adding in middle instead. Could be cool…

Reply
1. June 4, 2012
  
  joe
  
  Well, it’s a fairly easy mod. And the good part is, it requires no new parts — just some switching around.
  
  Reply
June 4, 2012

David Fung

Love the sound of this guitar, and really love your riffing on this. The outer pickup tone is great, and I really like the tones with the bypass middle pickup rolled in when the tone is down. Two interesting questions- how do you wind a pickup to encourage the Tele squawk? Is it less low end? I thought the boingy tone was coming from the big Tele bridge plate distorting the magnetic field

Also, wouldn’t you rather use the RW/RP pickup at the neck? Then it will hum cancel with the bridge pickup (or at least partial do so if they don’t match electrically).

Another brilliant and cool schematic!

Reply
1. June 4, 2012
  
  joe
  
  Thanks for the nice stuff you said, David! 🙂
  
  Yeah, I love the outer pickup tone too. There are a lot of way to get that. One of the easiest is install the Strat Megaswitch that simply replaces the position #3 with outer pickups together.
  
  I believe the Twang Banger — and other pickups of its type — rely on a metal bottom plate similar to the ones on Tele bridge pickups. And the more I play it, the more I think twang and squawk aren’t quite the right words to describe it. To me it’s a metallic clang, like an iron gate slamming shut.
  
  Reply
June 5, 2012

Sergio

Joe this wiring seems to be what i was searching for a very long time , outer pickup position is really interesting and that tone control is very effective . I’ve just a few questions : if i put the middle pickup volume all the way up , can I still obtain the hum-cancelling effect typical of 2-4 position in a regular Strat wiring?And what about putting the middle pickup volume at half or less?
Oh , just one more thing : you’re amazing !

Reply
June 5, 2012

Phil Ockelford

My main gigging guitar has an HSH configuration allied to a 5-way switch. The bridge is a PAF-style pickup, wired to an on-on-on switch that gives parallel/single/series sounds; the neck is a fantastic Seymour Duncan P-Rails, wired as suggested to give the rail/P90/humbucker sounds. Once I’d installed these, it struck me that there are some great tones to be had from the ‘outer’ positions, as so ably demonstrated by Joe in his video. I therefore wired the tone control up on a push-push switch, so it stills functions as a tone control should, but the switch engages the bridge pickup regardless of where the 5-way is set. Obviously, in positions 1-3 this makes no difference to the sound, but position 4 gives you all pickups on, and position 5 gives you neck and bridge. Dial in the three sounds that each of the humbuckers can produce, then add in the middle single coil, and you have 31 possible combinations. Of course, some are just subtle variations on a theme, but the outer sounds are fantastic. It’s ideal because I play in an Elvis band, so I need twang, and then in a rock band where I need grunt; thanks to these wiring mods, this one guitar has it all covered.

Reply
June 5, 2012

Oinkus

Didn’t the Stellacaster just come up recently ? Let me find and scan the schematic I got for that thing just for fun. My HM Strat has been heavily modded , now it is HSH Anderson pups and it has Floyd Rose instead of the kahler. But the one thing I really use alot is the blend knob in the last spot it really opens up some great sounds and allows you to focus the pickups any way you might like. Very cool Joe we like it alot ! :stupid:

Reply
June 5, 2012

Oinkus

Ok try this one?

Reply
June 5, 2012

JH

Wow! that guitar sounds great!

Reply
1. June 5, 2012
  
  joe
  
  Thanks, JH! Your words mean more than you might imagine, since that is, in fact, the first guitar I’ve ever assembled myself from scratch. Sure, it’s just a “parts Strat” of the sort any experienced builder could slap together in an hour. But it was pretty nerve-wracking for me! 🙂
  
  Reply
June 6, 2012

Oinkus

Makes a million times better since you did it yourself !

Reply
June 16, 2012

JTCM

A couple quick questions. Could you put in a 4 way switch, allowing you to get both the outer pickups in series, without changing anything else? Also, you mentioned that this setup doesn’t let you get the middle pickup by itself. For those few of us that like the middle pickup sound (we do exist), could we add a push/pull that turns the outer pickups off? Or just turn the main volume knob to 0 and turn the middle pickup blend knob all the way up? Just wondering.

Reply
August 15, 2012

mngiza

This gentleman has been selling Strat rewire kits and preconfigured switches off his website for years: lots of info here.

https://deaf-eddie.net/

Reply
October 1, 2012

Oystein

Is it just me, or is there something wrong with the link to the second wiring diagram? I get a “page not found” message.

Reply
1. October 2, 2012
  
  joe
  
  I just tried it, and the link seems to work. Maybe something was screwy on the Duncan site, where it resides?
  
  Anyway, if you can’t download it, email me (joe_at_tonefiend.com), and I’ll just send you a copy. 🙂 :ban:
  
  Reply
October 1, 2013

pj

I have 3 pickups in my tele and have the neck and bridge wired to a 4 way switch for series/parallel options and the middle wired to its own volume pot. This makes for an extremely versatile instrument and I initially came up with this wiring because the tele was my only guitar. The series option with the middle blended in sound pretty cool as does all three pickups in parallel.

P

Reply
1. October 1, 2013
  
  joe
  
  Hi pj!You know, I’m still addicted to that wiring scheme, or variations thereof. Overall I have far more experience with Strats than Teles, but I’m relating to my Strats much more with Tele-type wiring.
  
  Reply
November 28, 2013

Vivek

Hey Joe,

I just discovered your website/blog and am really digging it. A question – I love the idea of blending in the middle pickup as in this wiring but want to keep the five way switch my Strat came with. The plan is to make the middle knob a blend knob and keep one master volume and tone.

Anything useful I could use the extra two positions for?

Reply
1. November 28, 2013
  
  joe
  
  Yes, it would work — but with some quirks. The idea with the blend wirings is that the middle pickup bypasses the selector switch, going directly to its own volume pot and then the output. With a five-way switch, that would mean you’d get normal strat operation with the blend knob all the way up/ But when the knob is down, you’d have silence in position 3, and positions 1 and 2 and positions 3 and 4 would sound identical. But the biggest drawback of that approach is you’d miss out on the great outside-pickups-together setting, one of the main reasons for the change. Alternately, you could convert one of your tone knobs to a push/pull pot that leave the bridge always on. That provides all seven possible settings, but wouldn’t let you blend.
  
  Here’s a relevant thread from the Strat Talk forum. Hope that helps!
  
  Reply
July 23, 2014

Kingsley Durant

Joe, this seems essentially similar to the Strat wiring I learned from Steve Kimock and which I use on two of my three Strats. You mentioned not being able to get the middle pickup alone — why not? Couldn't you just roll the main volume off and roll the second (middle p/u) volume up? That's how mine work, anyway. I kinda like the middle pickup alone sometimes, especially on my Strat that has lipstick pickups.

Reply
August 1, 2014

Karl Krueger

Thanks for sharing the videos and the wiring diagrams. I'm going to be brave and try a project soon. I've messed some s**t up in the past, and I'm down to 2 strats at the moment. One is "gold", with dual Dimarzio PAF Joe's and a treble roll-off, and nobody better mess with it. The other is a basic MIM partscaster. I have the Twang-banger ready to go in, just pulled it from a project that was aborted a parts were sold. I'm thinking I might try to pick up a Squire really cheap, practice on that before I attempt the mod on my good strat.

Reply
August 1, 2014

Karl Krueger

Wow! Really? People actually used the middle pickup by itself. What for?

Reply
1. July 31, 2014
  
  joe
  
  Hee hee.
  
  Reply
August 1, 2014

Karl Krueger

Do you have a diagram for the mod you did on those? I might like to have the option of the middle pickup alone, since I use it every once in a blue moon for some gritty lead.

Reply
December 14, 2014

th0mas

Want Guitar Upgrades that give You Incredible pickup tones “to die for.”

We have high performance upgrades for your Stratocaster, Telecaster and other brands that will give you all of the pickup tones that are silently “hiding” in your electric guitar or bass. Now you can get more pickup tones from your stock instruments.

Recent customer comments:

* “Can’t put this guitar down, definitely different. I like it.”
* “Amazing tones from this switch! Love it!”
* “After installing this upgrade in my Stratocaster, I stayed up all night playing it.”

Here is what Merle Haggard’s guitarist Redd Volkaert says on his website at https://reddvolkaert.net/default.html
(click his “Hot Links” choice to see his comments about AweSome-Guitars products)

What You Get

Our Easy-Install upgrade products Give You Amazing Tones Without Changing Your Pickups. This is like an artist finding several dozen more colors of paint to work with. After upgrading, your six strings will never sound the same.

Do you want the ultimate guitar with ALL the possible pickup tones you can get? Our upgrades will let you break out of “pickup tone prison” and Free You from those puny few pickup tones your instrument manufacturer gave you.

Now you can get a Grand Canyon Wide range of pickup tones on your upgraded guitar. You can get:
Blues, Jazz, Metal, Surf, intense Country Twang, Glass-Shattering pickup tones that will punch out windows at 30 paces…

as well as give you the Signature Sound of every Guitar God since the 1940s.

Stop sounding exactly like millions of wannabes. Get incredible pickup tones that NOBODY has ever heard before. Get unique Signature Tones that you own.

Our career-boosting high-performance Pickup Switch Upgrade™ products and electric guitars will give you the ultimate “Holy Crap” experience!

Check us out now. Get an edge with the greatest electric guitar and bass upgrades ever to be created in the last 100 years.

AweSome-Guitars.com

Reply
1. December 14, 2014
  
  joex
  
  Hi Thomas! I’m delighted to provide free promo opportunities before an audience of skeptical readers, so long as the marketing materials are as extraordinary as yours. This particular page from your website caught my attention:
  
  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
  
  Incredible New Discovery: Your Hidden Pickup Tones May Have Seductive and Aphrodisiac Qualities
  
  Detroit, Michigan, April 1, 2013
  
  Here is a very exciting story that all guitar players (and builders) will find interesting.
  
  Just released – A new discovery that finds many of the hidden pickup tones in your electric guitar appear to have a seductive and aphrodisiac-like effect on audience females. Preamble
  
  Numerous customers of our Pickup Switch UpgradeTM products are reporting that all the previously hidden pickup tones – to which they now have access after their upgrade – appear to be exerting a noticeable seductive and aphrodisiac-like effect on the women in their audience. They say those extra new pickup tones are clearly having a noticeable and positive effect on the mood of many female patrons by making them more attentive as well as putting smiles on their faces.
  
  We originally dismissed the initial customer reports about this observation as fanciful. But constantly increasing customer comments was compelling enough for us to take a much closer look at this effect.
  
  This white paper is the result of this preliminary investigation. Although deliberately short, it contains a summary of these reports, looks at the reasons for this effect, and tells you how you can benefit from this incredible new discovery.
  
  Overview
  
  It is a scientific fact that color and sound can affect people both physically and emotionally. Regarding color, in 1979 professor Alexander Schauss conducted an experiment where subjects were gazing at a piece of cardboard painted with a certain shade of pink. This was found to physically weakened even strong men. Soon after publishing his findings, many day care centers, psychological wards and locker rooms of visiting football teams were painted with what became known as “drunk tank pink” – because it was also used on the holding cells by police stations where they put the drunks being held overnight.
  
  Drunk tank pink is an example of the unexpected hidden influences – in this case color – that subtly shape the way we see, think, feel and act. The color red is another example of the influence of color. Red affects the part of the brain that responds to color by increasing heart rates and blood flow. This also reveals just how often our thoughts and actions are unknowingly hijacked by color and sound.
  
  Likewise, the scientist community recognizes that music is a specialized language that can readily influence others. The right music can make you happy, angry, sad, and can produce many other emotions on demand.
  
  Guys like Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Luther Vandross, and numerous other singers have caused women to “swoon” with just with the tone of their voices. Although this is not a new observation, nobody has ever taken a closer look at exactly WHY these singers had this profound effect on women.
  
  After guitarist George Ward upgraded an inexpensive Squier Stratocaster with one of our products he made a startling new discovery. He said that when he uses several of the “hidden” pickup tones that are not available using the stock 5-way switch – and when these pickup tones are used in a sentimental music context (e.g., Moonlight in Vermont vs. Jumping Jack Flash) – it has a romantically erotic and seductive effect on women. Further, they seem to be spellbound by this effect.
  
  He noticed that before upgrading his guitar, the hallway outside his condo door had little traffic while playing his guitar. After the upgrade, there was a constant parade of women walking back and forth while he was using those hidden pickup tones combined with sentimental music.
  
  Switching back to one of the factory stock tones caused the opposite gender foot traffic to dissipate. When he alternated several times (using the stock pickup tones, then using the hidden pickup tones) with the same result, he concluded that this effect is both repeatable and predictable. Based on this observation, George said, “This incredible upgrade has turned my guitar into a ‘chick magnet’.”
  
  It seems that these hidden pickup tones can both grab attention as well as create a certain mood with women in the audience – a result that cannot be achieved with the factory stock guitar pickup tones. It’s like having a dog’s ears “go up” when they hear a certain sound that instantly grabs their attention.
  
  It’s The Combination!
  
  It appears that Mr. Ward has identified two of the three key components; sentimental music and hidden (i.e., different) pickup tones – body language is the third component – that when combined produces a subtle romantic and seductive mood that most factory stock guitar pickup tones cannot duplicate.
  
  The common denominator of this effect involves using any one of the numerous hidden pickup tones. And when one of these hidden pickup tones are combined with a sentimental music context (i.e., Moonlight in Vermont Vs. Jumping Jack Flash), it appears to have a seductive and aphrodisiac-like influence on all of the women in the audience. This effect is something that anyone can easily verify and observe by using the right hidden pickup tones on their upgraded instrument along with any music with a sentimental flavor.
  
  The Reason for This Difference
  
  The obvious question to ask is, “Why don’t the factory ‘stock’ pickup tones also produce this effect?”
  
  It turns out that over the last 40 years, the same boring three or five factory stock pickup tones have been used by virtually all of the manufacturers to offer the same tones as the competitors. These same pickup tones have been used for decades by millions of players. Even worse, everyone has heard these same dull pickup tones both on stage, as well as on the radio/CD/whatever for so long that they are no longer moved by them.
  
  Since the early 1940s, all of the smart guitar gods (Les Paul, Neil Young, Jimmy Page, John Cipollina, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana and many others) heavily upgraded their guitars – with some of their instruments containing a “forest” of mini toggle switches. And they didn’t upgrade their guitars to look cool; they did it because it gave them a career boosting edge with unique and hidden pickup tones that no one else had – pickup tones that immediately put them on the fast track to fame.
  
  The entire catalog of Les Paul’s musical instruments that were auctioned off after his passing contained no less than four hundred heavily modified electric guitar and bass instruments personally upgraded by him during his several decades long career. You have to know that he made these upgrades to give him a clear market edge with unique tones. There is lesson here for people who understand.
  
  These guitar gods no doubt also noticed the subtle seductive effect these new tones had on the women in their audiences; an observation they understandably were not willing to readily share with others. By keeping this finding secret, they had a unique and exclusive advantage that turned audience females into fans and customers – getting a big edge on their competitors who were clueless about this benefit.
  
  Even the smart female performers can benefit by having their band members upgrade their guitars and exploit this discovery to attract additional female fans in a way that they never thought possible.
  
  Going Viral?
  
  As everyone learns of this incredible new discovery – and the astonishing potential that these additional hidden pickup tones offer – it will change everything forever. And the changes this discovery brings will be something that smart electric guitar and bass manufacturers simply cannot afford to ignore.
  
  As a guitarist, having access to several dozen new and unique pickup tones gives you an incredible edge in today’s fiercely competitive market. How can you stand out and be different if you have the exact same three or five anemic pickup tones as millions of wannabes? Put simply, you can’t!
  
  Our incredible upgrade products give you access to ALL of the additional pickup tones that have been silently hiding in your instrument. You can combine these fresh new pickup tones with sentimental tunes to project an enhanced romantic mood – one that can give you new fans and paying customers.
  
  Our Pickup Switch UpgradeTM products focus on what everyone else is overlooking:
  
  Pioneering an easy-to-use, high-performance replacement of antiquated pickup switches
  
  Offering a new 21st century pickup switch standard to benefit customers and manufacturers
  
  Giving everyone access to more pure analog pickup tone power than any imitator can offer
  
  Discovering that hidden pickup tones appear to have seductive aphrodisiac-like qualities
  
  Our insanely great products give all electric guitar players incredible new benefits. They will let you break out of your “Pickup Tone Prison” and find your unique signature sound. Now you can have an exciting impact on your audience by influencing them in a positive and profitable way. Our simple and innovative upgrade products put the control in the right place – at the end of your fingertips.
  
  When you have access to more pickup tones, it’s like starting with a crayon box with only 8 colors and then getting a box with 128 colors to be more creative. Once you install our amazing upgrades, you simply cannot go back to your stock tones because all these new tones are like a “Tone Drug.” Our upgrade products give you access to all of those hidden pickup tones to transform your upgraded guitar into a chick magnet. This is truly an incredible leap forward for all guitar players and manufacturers.
  
  More Supporting Evidence
  
  Scientists acknowledge that music has a certain influence over our emotions and thoughts. Here is a general definition of sentimental.
  
  sen·ti·men·tal [sen-tuh-men-tl] adjective
  Expressive of or appealing to sentiment, especially the tender emotions and feelings, as love, pity, or nostalgia: a sentimental song.
  
  In taking a close look at Frank Sinatra (aka: the chairman of the board), you can see that virtually EVERY hit song had a “sentimental context.” And that – plus the “tone” of his voice – was the secret to his success. Think I’m kidding? Here are some of his best songs. It is you decide if our upgrade products plus a sentimental music context has strong merit to put your flailing career into orbit.
  
  A Foggy Day [In London Town]
  All Or Nothing At All
  All The Things You Are
  All The Way
  Angel Eyes
  April In Paris
  Autumn In New York
  Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered
  But Beautiful
  But Not For Me
  Dancing On The Ceiling
  Darn That Dream
  East Of The Sun
  Easy To Love
  Fly Me To The Moon
  Fools Rush In
  Getting Sentimental Over You
  Ghost Of A Chance
  Here’s That Rainy Day
  How Do You Keep The Music Playing?
  How High The Moon
  Old Blue Eyes
  I Concentrate On You
  I Get A Kick Out Of You
  I Won’t Dance
  I’ll Get By
  I’ll Never Smile Again
  I’ll Take Manhattan
  I’m A Fool To Want You
  It Had To Be You
  Lady is A Tramp
  Moonlight In Vermont
  More Than You Know
  My Old Flame
  New York, New York
  Night And Day
  One For My Baby
  Polk-A-Dots And Moonbeams Stardust
  Strangers In The Night
  That’s Life
  The Song Is You
  What’s New
  Where Or When
  Witchcraft
  You Go To My Head
  You’ve Changed
  
  Although you can also create your own sentimental songs, some other “sentimental” songs include:
  
  Moonlight In Vermont
  My Foolish Heart
  Our Love Is Here To Stay
  Smile
  Summertime
  Prisoner of Love
  Moon River
  Tenderly
  Try A Little Tenderness
  
  To get an idea of how some of these sentimental song standards sound on guitar, go to John Amato’s website at: http://www.chordmelody.org.
  
  Do You Believe This?
  
  Music is also used to influence the length of time that you stay in a mall. Stores that target older shoppers play “elevator” type music at a lower volume, while stores that target a younger age group will use more upbeat music played at a higher volume. This is deliberately done to enhance the likelihood that shoppers will stay and spend more money in that store. If music did not affect a person’s mood, they would either play the same music in every store, or would not play music at all.
  
  During the Christmas season people listen to Christmas music at the mall. This helps them stay in that state of euphoria all month long and brings them back to happy memories of when they were children who still believed in the miracle of Santa Clause – singing songs of eggnog, mistletoe, candy canes, and snow – while deliberately increasing the likelihood of staying longer and spending more money.
  
  Music is a complex acoustic and temporal structure that induces a large variety of emotional responses in listeners. Put simply, music can affect a person’s behavior and mood. Scientific investigations show that basic human emotions; such as adulation, happiness, anger, fear and sadness can be created by musical stimuli. This also reveals just how often our thoughts and actions are deliberately seized and taken over by others using subtle tone and color “cues” for manipulative and agenda-driven purpose. Now that you are aware, you also can use this insight to deliberately influence people in a subtle way.
  
  Some Additional Facts
  
  The ongoing erosion of the guitar’s dominant clout by new trend genres like dance, electronica, techno pop, rap and hip-hop is putting pressure on smarter guitar players to get a defining edge on everyone else. In addition, the influx of millions of new wannabe players is glutting an already crowded market.
  
  In the last decade, the guitar and bass player market has become crowded with more players (and wannabes) than ever before. These are hard times, with everyone struggling with shrinking gigs, lower pay rates and fewer recording contracts. How can you stand out and be different if you have the exact same puny few three or five pickup tones as millions of other people?
  
  To ensure your survival as a professional guitarist, you want something that makes you “different” in an increasingly crowded guitar player market. And now more than ever, you need to have something that will help you tower above the crowd to sound Better, Unique and Different. Don’t you agree?
  
  Are you one of those really smart players who can see the value of standing out from everyone else and sounding Truly Unique?
  
  A recent psychological study conducted by the University de Bretagne-Sud in France concluded that “Women are attracted to men with guitars.” Although this study is insightful, you also need to have the right upgrade products on your instrument to influence female audience attendees. Our Pickup Switch UpgradeTM products will give you this game-changing and attention-getting difference in spades.
  
  Even the “F” company gives legitimacy to parallel/series pickup configurations with their S1 switch. But their switching system will only gives you no more than 10 pickup tones, and is unlike our high performance Pickup Switch UpgradeTM products that will give you all the pickup tones ever created.
  
  Our upgrade products will give you performance that is light years ahead of any wimpy and obsolete “custom shop” instrument. So why would you want to upgrade your instruments with our products?
  
  Put Simply: To get a HUGE edge in the already overcrowded and fiercely competitive player market.
  
  A customer recently asked us which pickup tones are the ideal ones to use. We cannot give them a direct answer because everyone is using different pickups. In addition, pickup “tone” is a matter of personal preference that only you can define. You must upgrade your instrument and then experiment to see which specific tone(s) produce the desired effect.
  
  Who We Are
  
  AweSome Musical Instruments has a growing family of over 50 ultra high performance patented Pickup Switch UpgradeTM products that will give you access to all of the additional pickup tones that are silently hiding in your electric guitar or bass. These incredible products will let you upgrade almost 200 Fender electric guitar and bass models, as well as models of all other manufacturers, to give you up to 76 pure analog pickup tones from your stock instruments.
  
  Your upgraded guitar will give you the sounds of all those guitar gods of every headliner group since the 1940s. Now you can have it all on one guitar: Blues, Jazz, Metal, Surf, Country and more.
  
  These incredible 21st century upgrade products are proudly made in the U.S.A. – and they will give you amazing tones without changing your pickups.
  
  Get more information about these amazing products at: http://www.AweSome-Guitars.com ”Our products are the Swiss Army Knife of pickup tones.”
  
  We’re not just light years ahead of everyone; we are completely in the next galaxy.
  
  And now the first U.S. Company to offer 3D printed guitars.
  
  (Permission is granted to distribute this document unaltered.)
  
  That sounds totally credible, especially since you back up your claims with science! Just a few quick questions:
  
  1. Does this present a potential problem for heterosexual female guitarists? Do they have to fend off a lot of unwanted attention from other women? I’m not saying that in an anti-lesbian way or anything. I just mean in case they’re not into other chicks.
  
  2. Say I’m a guy who digs guys. Is there any trick that can make it work the other way? Maybe like a phase-reverse switch, or something? Does it work with transgendered women? What about ultra-feminine gay guys?
  
  3. How about on a left-handed guitar? Will that lure only dominant women? What about a reverse-strung righty? (I don’t mean to split hairs here, but I’d by lying if I said I didn’t foresee possible complications.)
  
  4. Any advice for metal and punk players who may not know the changes to “Moonlight in Vermont?” Do you need to play a complete chord-melody arrangement to achieve the desired effect? Or would it be enough if you just learned the melody from tab? Is it okay to use distortion? Can I still scoop my mids?
  
  5. You emphasize that it’s the “hidden sounds” that produce the effect. In your experience, are some more effective than others, or are all the non-standard settings equally potent? (If a few are particularly useful, I can imagine a “light” version of your product, with fewer wiring permutations, but an emphasis on the most advantageous ones. You can use that idea if you like — no charge!)
  
  6. Does it work with any sentimental music? Or just “Great American Songbook” numbers from the ’30s and ’40s? Have you tried it with sentimental non-jazz numbers, like “Beth” by Kiss, or Bobby Goldsboro’s “Watching Scotty Grow?” I know both of those.
  
  7. What would happen if you made an impulse response of one of your “hidden” settings, and then ran a conventional tone through it so the spectrum matches your product? Is that a plausible workaround, or does it have to be analog?
  
  8. How do dropped tunings affect the results? Do they attract chunkier chicks? How about when you play with a capo?
  
  9. What effect does pickup height have? Is the effect stronger when the pickups are closer to the strings?
  
  10. What about pickup output? Do pickups with a stronger magnetic pull exert, um, a stronger magnetic pull? (I’d assume so, but I figure it’s worth checking with an expert.)
  
  11. What if my “target audience” doesn’t like sentimental music? Say she’s really into Throbbing Gristle and Sunn O))). Will it still work? Will it make her a jazz fan?
  
  12. What happens after your invention becomes a hit? Will it still be possible to distinguish oneself after every other schmo has unlocked those “hidden” sounds? Or is it simply better to be an early adopter and milk it while you can?
  
  Wait, I almost forgot!
  
  13. Some people online say you never really hear your guitar at its best until you put in $100 capacitors. Other people say all caps sound the same. So my question for you is: Do you know where I can buy some of those $100 caps?
  
  I know my readers will have questions too. Hope you can stick around to reply.
  
  Thanks for sharing! 🙂
  
  Reply
December 14, 2014

Neuro Linguistic Programming Institute

You don’t need pickup “switch”, just good pickup “lines”.

Reply
December 15, 2014

Bebah Palulah

I put a phase switch on the middle pickup of an SSS Yamaha guitar with individual toggles per pickup. So I got 3 new tones, not including the coil-tapping switch (which gives a softer, brighter tone to all settings).

2 of the 3, in addition to being humbucking were so bright that they’d rip your head off for anything other than a special effect thin sound. The third one, with all pickups on, was nice and gave a scooped-mid kind of sound.

The problem with some of these hidden tones is they deserve to be hidden. And can you imagine dealing with 6 toggles in performance?

Reply
March 17, 2015

Nwahs

Pickups shmickups, what a beautiful piece of music and fine playing. I got here researching Nashville Teleisms, but I think I’ll just try to practice some more. Was that in DADGAD? Cheers.

Reply
1. March 17, 2015
  
  joe
  
  What a nice thing to say, Nwahs! Much appreciated. I seldom use DADGAD, but I’m in dropped D 90% of the time.
  
  Reply
June 21, 2015

Philip Clyde

Joe, I first saw this in your article on the "3 must-have mods" and I fell in love with the sound. I hope this thread isn't dead – gotta question. I would figure it out myself except:
a) my Strat currently consists of an Ebay (Kramer) neck, a set of Rose pickups (in a box) a Bladerunner bridge (in a box), and some strings, no body yet.
b) My Godin uses humbuckers, so is not eligible for this experiment.
c) As you might have guessed from the low-cost parts listed above, my budget is tight.
My question is this: It seems to me that with an appropriate toggle switch (on-on-on 3PDT or 4PDT) you could easily route EACH of the pickups into the blend control in turn – as in: Position 1: PUs 1 & 3 – Nashville, PU 2 – blend; Position 2: PUs 1 & 2 – Nashville, PU 3 – blend; and Position 3: PUs 2 & 3 – Nashville, PU 1 – blend.
In your opinion, is there anything of potential sonic interest here?

Reply
August 15, 2015

John C.

Joe, I really love the Twangbanger in the bridge. Is it possible to get some of this sound by adding the copper coated plate to the bottom of any pickup? For example, a Duncan SVR-1 with the plate? Would that create a humcanelling version of the Twangbanger? What do you think?

Reply
1. August 15, 2015
  
  joe
  
  Wow, great question, John! I guess it should in theory. But then, theory can be pretty slippery.
  
  Has anyone tried anything like this?
  
  Reply
August 16, 2015

Terry Relph-Knight

The steel plate on the bottom of some Telecaster pickup was, I suspect, placed there by Mr Fender for screening purposes. So yes it was intended to reduce (electrostatic) hum pickup. The Telecaster bridge as a unit has the steel baseplate with the clip on cover screening most of the bridge pickup. The baseplate just continues this screening as much as possible across the bottom of the pickup. Fender plated the baseplate first with Zinc and then switched to Copper as a rust preventative. The steel bridge also had to be copper plated before being nickel plated, so it made sense to plate all the steel with copper and drop the original zinc plating.
In later years and depending on the model, Fender often dropped the Tele baseplate or used a brass baseplate. One problem with the plate is that it needs to be well sealed to the bottom of the pickup with wax, otherwise it can vibrate and cause unwanted feedback. Which is why Fender often dropped it as players started to use more gain.

Because the baseplate is steel it focuses the magnetic field from the magnets a little more. It also increases the pickups inductance and adds a little capacitance, causing the pickups self resonant frequency to drop a little and thickening the tone. Adding a steel plate to the bottom of any single coil pickup does not make that pickup into a hum-canceler or humbucker, although it may slightly reduce hum pickup. The SD SVR-1 is a humbucking pickup with two side-by-side coils and (because the magnetic circuit on humbuckers is more of a closed loop) adding a steel plate to the bottom of humbuckers has a lot less effect than it does to single coils and it doesn’t make a huge difference even to those. I have tried measuring the increase in inductance due to an added steel plate and it usually doesn’t increase by much.

Reply
1. August 16, 2015
  
  joe
  
  Basically, Terry always knows. 🙂
  
  Reply
June 20, 2016

George Agerbeek

Joe, is the blend pot a “normal” pot or a special blend pot?
Does the blend pot alter the sound of the other pick ups as well, i.e. does it influence the volume of the other pickups? Or when you fully turn down the volume of the middle pickup, can you still hear the others?

Reply
1. June 20, 2016
  
  joe
  
  Hiya, George! An audio taper pot works best. The volume level remains remarkably equal regardless of setting (assuming you have pickup height properly set). With the middle pickup volume. With the blend pot all the way down, you hear the outer pickups as normal, as on a Tele. That’s because the middle pickup is wired directly to the output. That means you have no tone control over the middle pickup, but it just seems to work better that way.
  
  Reply
June 30, 2017

Mike

Hi,

Please find enclosed the wiring for the “Nashville” mod in strat
Using 3 ways switch

Regards
Mike

Reply
February 24, 2018

Roland

Hello Joe,

I really enjoy your mod work.

I have a few question about this particular ‘middle blend’ Nasville Tele mod, please:

When the bridge/neck pickups are in the middle 3-way selector position – i.e. they are combined in parallel – doesn’t that mean that when the middle pickup is introduced, that the middle pickup is wired in parallel with the parallel combination of bridge/neck pickups? Two questions arise from that:
1. isn’t that selection a very weak output?
2. isn’t that a selection that is totally impossible to achieve on a Strat or any common Strat mods?

One other thing; if one wanted the option to combine the middle pickup blend in series, as well as parallel, what would be the best or easiest way to achieve that?

many thanks
Roland

Reply
1. March 9, 2018
  
  Terry Relph-Knight
  
  Yes the middle pickup is in parallel.
  
  No it is not a weak output – consider that when the neck and bridge are combined in parallel the output is not weaker than either one of those pickups alone. Adding the middle in parallel also does not make it any weaker. Parallel combinations result in the output voltage remaining the same. On the other hand any series combination of pickups will add the output voltages and the signal will be hotter.
  
  Yes it is normally impossible to achieve all three pickups in parallel on a Strat. With the S1 switch on the American Deluxe and now the Elite one of the possibilities is all three pickups in series. Fender keep changing the way the S1 is wired so there may have been a parallel combination at some point on some model.
  
  A parallel or series wiring with blend requires that the blend pot be switched from in series with the blended pickup for the parallel wiring to in parallel with the blended pickup for in series wiring. I think that can be done with a 3 pole 2 way toggle switch.
  
  Reply
March 10, 2018

Digital Larry

This is really interesting… I recently got an HSS Squier Strat for $200. I really don’t like the bridge-only “wide open” mode in any situation. And I like the 2/4 quack settings. I like the neck only for that sound you get playing above the 12th fret.

In this circuit, with the volume all the way up, the middle pickup is loaded by the tone circuit just the way it would be had it been connected to the other pickups directly. But when the volume knob goes down, the middle pickup is less loaded by the tone circuit and more loaded by the volume pot.

Reply
March 11, 2018

Dale

There is a third option: 5 way switch, with no-load tone pot reprposed as a blender linking N and B pickups across the switch. This lets you get all the Strat-y sounds, and blend N into B or B into M depending on the lever position. In the B position, if pickup outputs are relatively the same, a little bit of series ersistance helps back the neck pickup off in the N+B blend, and gets you a lot closer to a Tele sound. Both of my Strats have this setup.

Reply
August 23, 2019

AngelSBunny

LOL 😀
the Resister or whatever in the diagram is ….
THE SPRING of the switch

Reply