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3-Way, 4-Way, 5-Way, Toggle, Blade, Rotary – There’s a lot of switches available for your electric guitar. Some come in a variety of designs and can introduce some new functionality […]
Is This The Ultimate Telecaster Wiring Mod?
Hey all – we’re back with an exciting and super useful Telecaster mod – the Fralin Blend-Tone Pot!
Conceptualized by our very own Derek Harwell, we designed a Telecaster push pull modification that is truly the most versatile one we’ve come across. With one Push Pull Pot, you can achieve a traditional Tone Control and a Blender Control – all in one convenient Pot!
Table of Contents
What You Need:
To achieve the Blend-Tone mod, you first need a Fralin Push Pull Blender Pot.
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Lindy’s Push Pull Blender Pot gives the player a whole new tonal palette to choose from, and new wiring combinations! Check out some of the wiring combinations you can achieve with this mod.
Hear The Blend-Tone Mod Here:
In the Down position, the Blend-Tone pot is a simple Tone pot – just like you’d have on a normal Telecaster setup.
In the Up Position, the Tone pot is deactivated (imagine your tone on 10 – it’s brightest setting). Once deactivated, you now have a Blender Pot, which allows you to gradually blend the Neck and Bridge pickups.
Blend-Tone Wiring Diagram
Here’s how to wire it up with a Traditional Telecaster setup:
Explanation Of The Wiring
Overview
We envisioned the Blend-Tone control on a standard Telecaster tone pot. It uses our Push Pull Blender Pot to give you two modes: tone control (down) or pickup blender (up). Internally, the pot is split into a “Tone Section” (green wire and capacitor) and a “Blender Section” (red and blue wires). The green wire and cap behave exactly like a normal Tele tone circuit, while the red and blue wires tap into the switch lugs for neck and bridge pickups.
How It Works
When the push-pull is in the down (normal) position, the pot’s commons connect the green wire to the cap, so turning the knob rolls off treble just like any Telecaster tone pot. The blender pot wires disconnect so you get the familiar tone sweep from full treble to a darker sound.
Pulling the knob up reroutes those commons to the red and blue wires instead. By removing the tone cap out of the circuit, the pot becomes a blender pot. One “end” of the blender sees the bridge pickup and the other sees the neck. Turning the knob now cross-fades between neck and bridge, giving you infinite pickup blend!
Other Uses for the Blend-Tone
Can you use the Blend-Tone mod in other guitars? Sure! This modification will work anywhere where you want one pot to achieve both a Blender Pot and a Tone Pot. Study the diagram above – the pot’s wiring is self-contained – simply connect the Blender Wires to the switch.
If this looks a bit too daunting for you to wire up, no probem! We offer it as an upgrade to our Telecaster Control Plates here:
Let Us Wire It Up:
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Prewired Telecaster Harness
Mod, Drop In, Plug In, Play
Customize and upgrade your Telecaster instantly with our Prewired Telecaster Wiring Harness! With over 150 combinations available, you can select your options, and we’ll wire it up just how you like it. Installation involves soldering a few wires into place. As always, we only use the finest-quality USA-Made parts we can find.
Customize This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
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Do you have a wiring configuration for a HSS vol, blend three way?
Will the push/pull, blender/tone telecaster mod work with a filtertron type pickup in the neck position? Also, will the blender/phase inverter push/pull mod work on a telecaster with a filtertron neck pu?
Thank you
Hey Roy, yes it would work.
Does this blend system cause both pickups to be full in the middle portion of the pot or are each pickups at 1/2 volume in the middle of the blend pot? It sounds like it doesn’t gradually add one pickup to the other at a stationary volume.
How does the selector switch work when the blender is activated? Is it also deactivated like the tone?
Thanks,
Ron
What does a 4 or 5 way switch do for a tele. I bought a 1951 reissue new and not sure I care for the tone also the switch seems flimsy and the top hat keeps falling off. I want more of that twangy tone I hear on the radio. What say you? Thank you, Albert
A 4 way switch allows you to put the pickups into series – this is not a twangy tone, but more of a fat humbucker-type tone. Personally, I would recommend replacing your 3-way switch with a new 3-way switch – they wear out, and replacing it with something quality like a CRL® will last many years.
Is there a way to combine the Blend Tone wiring (using the Fralin blend push-pull pot) with the telecaster 4-way switch wiring to allow you to have the parallel / series combinations of neck and bridge, along with neck and bridge alone?
Is it possible to do the Tone Blend wiring AND use a 4-way switch to do the NECK-BRIDGE-parallel-series selections along with the tone blend pot advantages.
My question is this: Is it possible to make a connection like this, but when you lift the push-pull, the pickup selector is disabled, leaving only the bridge pickup with this function?
If so, could a fixed resistor be added to the neck pickup to make its tone darker and the mix more interesting?
Is there a way to do this mod with a 6 pin push/pull pot, and if so can you provide a diagram?
This isn’t possible with a standard Push Pull pot. You would need this specific Push Pull Blender.