4-Way Switching With A Push-Pull Pot
Recently, we’ve heard that certain 4-Way Switch manufacturers are not 100% compatible with the Fender Telecaster Control Plate. We’ve found that the switch swings too wide, getting blocked by the Plate itself. This prevents the switch from making full contact to all terminals, and thus not working correctly. Our 4-Way Switching mod will solve this problem.
We’ve done some brainstorming and research. We’ve found that the 4-Way Switching with a Push-Pull Pot modification is a great option for those looking to get the Series / Parallel modification, and still keep their 3-Way switch. Let’s check out some benefits of this mod:
Table of contents
BENEFITS OF 4-WAY SWITCHING WITH PUSH-PULL POT
There are a few benefits to 4-Way Switching With A Push-Pull Pot:
- Keep your 3-Way Switch – no 4-Way switch needed
- Achieve the Series sound in any position
- Once done with Series sound, simply push down and you’re back to your original position
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View ProductHOW 4-Way Switching With A Push Pull Pot WORKS
This mod works like a normal Telecaster, except, pulling up on the Push-Pull pot engages Series wiring. What that means is that you can be on any position, pull up, and BOOM – Series. Pushing back down on the Tone Pot disengages the Series wiring, and you’re back to the 3-Way switch, in the same position you left it. Pretty cool.
TOOLS / PARTS NEEDED
- 250K (or 500K, whatever your guitar already has) Push-Pull Pot
- Neck Pickup (with cover ground separated)
- Rosin-Core Solder
- Soldering Pencil
- Fender Cloth Lead
- Soldering Kung-Fu (no purchase necessary)
A note on the image above: The Push Pull Pot wiring is on the left, the regular Tone Pot wiring is on the right. I wanted to draw it up so it’s clearer and less jumbled. There’s only one Push Pull Pot.
That’s it! Follow the instructions above, and you’ll have a “Series Switch”. Pretty awesome, right? Yeah. It’s awesome. Happy modding!
P.s…If you don’t want to get your hands dirty, let us do it for you with our Prewired Telecaster Control Plates! Just choose the mod under ‘push-pull mods’.
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The neck pickup cover is grounded to the earth wire as shown with that small jumper that the video creator said to cut and run a separate wire to ground/earth. I did not do this as I wired my switch based on my previous electrical experience. It seems to be working fine, but I bet there’s some interference that I’m not noticing out of sheer ignorance. looked at schematic trying to figure out the reason why, but I couldn’t see a reason why it would matter for just a 4 way (however it is wired), vs. a regular 3 way setup, which leads me to believe that it is always best to run a separate ground from the pickup cover. I dunno. I was hoping for a breakdown of why the separate ground, and what issues it causes when not grounded separately.
Hey Mike, since you’re putting pickups in series on this modification, you want to make sure the cover is not in the circuit, or grounded separately. Cutting the ground connection to the Cover and running a separate ground basically removes the cover from the equation and allows the Neck pickup and Bridge pickup to connect without the cover at all. Does that make sense?
Question on your prewired 3 way push pull pot for series and parallel on a Tele. I have a neck pickup I want to install on my Tele with the 3 way push pull pot. My neck pickup only has 2 wires a black and white. I would assume black to ground and white to the position toggle, so then how would this work with only the 2 wires since I still need a wire to go to the push pull pot?
I love this mod.
However, I have a neck pickup with 3rd (yellow) wire that grounds the pickup cover separately.
When I connect this to the common ground I loose output from the neck pickup.
When disconnected I have full output, bit get nasty bus when I touch the pickup cover.
Is there a way around this?
Thanks in advance.
Best wishes to all.
Hello, I followed the diagram and it works perfectly but i have a question. It sounds to me that, in series, the bridge pickup goes into the neck, so the combined tone is similar-er to a neck humbucker. Is there a way to have the neck going into bridge so the overall tone is like a humbucker bridge?
Hi Tyler, I’ve just wired up a Tele using the above diagram and it sounds awesome but when I pull the knob up I don’t notice any difference in tone or output , it sounds just the same as the neck pickup when it’s in parallel , I’ve double checked the wiring too. I’m using a CTS push pull pot. Thanks
How come I have a terrible noise until I touch some metal parts with my hands?
I did double check your shematic and my connections. There is also a wire from bridge to common ground.
There is a grounding issue on your guitar. If you can touch your bridge assembly or strings and the ground noise goes away, that’s indicative of a bad ground on your bridge assembly. I would recommend checking it over again or taking it to a guitar tech for diagnosing.
How would you use 50’s type wiring with this?
I love the idea of pulling up on the pot to have series no matter why position you are in. I was wondering if you could show me how to do it using the volume pot as the push/pull instead of the tone pot? The reason is that I had my heart set on using a no-load pot for the tone. Thank you very much!
what if you have a non covered neck pickup? do you need the 3rd wire on the neck?
Joe,
You do not need a 3rd wire neck if you don’t have a covered neck. Thanks!
Tyler
Could you tell us some of the 4-Way Switch manufacturers models that are not compatible with the Tele control plate? thanks and keep up the great work
So far, some of the Oak Grigsby models are not working 100%. Will keep everyone posted on the rest of them, as they occur.