Masonizing a Tele...

[Dakster]

I've got this really freaking cool Ash body tele from Mexico...sounds killer with just the tex-mex pickups, (although I may switch out to some Duncans)...has your standard 5 way switch on 3 pickups..anyway, I wanted to (since I never use the tone control) just clip the cap and make it a volume control that only handles the middle pick up, regardless of where the switch is...but I still want the 5 way switch to work as it should...how do I attempt this? I could keep the tone and add another volume, but like I said, I never use it...

[pianoman]

What exactly is it you want? First of all your tele has three pickups? Also, you want to be able to adjust the volume of the middle pickup just when it is engaged w/ the 5-way (Pos, 2, 3, 4?) or do you want to control the volume of it all the time, so it can be on in all positions? or do you want to have it on full blast when in positions 2, 3, 4 and the ability to adjust the volume to add it in a little or a lot or not at all in positions 1 and 5. All different schematics ;). I'll draw it up for you.

[Dakster]

Ok, Brent's tele has the standard 3 way switch...b, b+n, n....he has a strat pickup in the center, with a volume control added on the plate between the volume and tone...now, with my 3 pick up tele with the 5 way switch, I get b,b+m,b+n,n+m,n.....what I would like is a continuous volume control to work the middle pickup all the time. No matter where I am on the switch. SO, since I don't use my tone control, I can cut the cap and just make it a potentiometer, right? So, I'd like to dedicate that contol to the middle pickup. Brent swears that when he rolls it in, if he just does it ever so slightly, it actually takes a bit of the bite off the bridge pickup, almost acting as an eq...although Brent's tele has a Gibson mini bucker in the neck and the center pickup is a Duncan stackd single coil, and the rear is some concoction Joe Glaser and Seymour Duncan came up with..Valley Arts has issed the Brent Mason Sig Tele, for like 2200 or something...even a used one has gone for 1100...I just don't see that for a tele...anyway, thanks for the help!

[Dakster]

http://www.gibson.com/Products/GibsonElectric/ValleyArts/ For the unfamilar, this is Brent Mason...one of the cats who made it cool to be a country picker again...Jerry Reed on steroids, and his tone is to die for....even if you aren't a country fan, worth checking out!

[pianoman]

I get b,b+m,b+n,n+m,n

What kind of five-way are you using then? That must be some strange wiring/switch. Also, do you want the volume just to work on those three middle positions, or do you want to be able to add middle to the b, n positions too?

Sorry for being a little slow on the uptake here.. just trying to figure out exactly what you're looking for. Dumb question, but why not go w/ the three-way like the guy you posted?

[Dakster]

It may be the easiest thing to do...Fender wired the switch that way to give all 3 tele positions and the 2 strat positions. I guess all I want is to be able to bring the middle pu in no matter where I am on the switch...

[Grapeshot]

Why didn't Brent get a deal with Fender? I'm curious to know why.

[Dakster]

No idea, unless it's because Mike Mcguire and the Valley Arts cats are in Nashville...I know Gibson built him a Howard Roberts Fusion also, and signing Brent would be keeping in their studio guitarist signature line..Larry Carlton had one, Lukather, and now Mason...that's the only answer I can give, and it's an uneducated one...