Flipped Control Plate For Telecaster®

For October, we will take a break from the usual electronics mods! (Whew.) Instead, we will focus on a more practical mod for your Telecaster. Lindy first saw this mod being used by Bill Kirchen and soon used it on all of his Telecasters. Introducing the Flipped Control Plate. This mod gives you easier access to your Volume Pot for volume swells.

Within a few steps, you can perform the Flipped Control Plate mod for a whole new world of functionality under your fingertips. Let’s dig into the mod and see how to perform it:

THE MOD:

The Flipped Control Plate modification requires a little more than simply unscrewing the plate and flipping it around. It requires you to re-order the pots and flip the switch. More often than not, a good wiring job has nice, short leads between connections and a nice, clean look. This presents a few problems to this modification: you might not be able to simply “flip” the switch, and your Neck pickup lead might not be able to reach the switch in the first place.

If you’re interested in this mod, I recommend stripping everything off of the control plate and starting from scratch. It will make your job a little easier. It also might be a good idea to have some extra Cloth Wire handy, your soldering iron hot, and a little patience!


WIRING DIAGRAM

Please note that the Volume Pot will be closest to the Neck pickup in this drawing, and the Switch will be closest to the Bridge.

Flipped Control Plate - Fralin Pickups

HOW IT WORKS:

Your first knob closest to your neck pickup will be your volume pot. You can easily grab this with your pinky finger to create some awesome-sounding volume swells a la Bill Kitchen and Danny Gatton.

Your Tone Knob is next in line. Nothing has changed about it, so, you know what to do.

Your Switch is still intuitive. Position 1 is your Bridge, and Position 3 is still your Neck. In other words, your Blade Switch will point to the pickup it’s selecting like it always does. It’s a relatively simple mod to perform, but if you don’t want to get your hands dirty, grab a Prewired Tele Control Plate from us, and we’ll wire it up how you like it!

Well, that’s about it. It will take some time to get used to, but I have found this mod very useful. Lindy got me hooked on it, and we’re sure you’ll also love it. Let us know if you do anything different in the comment section below, and happy modding!

Written By:

Tyler Delsack

👋 I'm Tyler Delsack, the Manager of Fralin Pickups. I've been a guitarist for 26 years, and along with managing the shop and working on this Website, I love tinkering with things!

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