Fleetdog

If you're looking to put a Bigsby on a tele this is the place to go. The gallery on that site has more Bigsbyed out Teles than you can shake a stick at.

Joe nailed my intent there. Set the coil tapping switches between songs then pretty much just use the pickup selector durring a song. Now I just need a band so I have oportunity to perform. ...oh, and I just think that little switch plate looks cool.

Thanks mammoth, but I think you missed my point a bit. I'm building a tele with humbuckers and I just thought it would be fun to add the 3 switch plate off a Jaguar that would basically let me program each possition of the pickup selector to either be tapped or not. I'm using 4 switches to get 6 sounds. This could easily be achieved with the 3-way and a single mini-toggle or push-pull pot (or even a 6-way rotary switch). I just wanted to make something different.

My pickups arrived today and gave me a bit of wire routing inspiration. The leads off these are 4 conductors sheilded together with one ground. I'm going to use these leads to send everything to the control cavity first. Then if I can get my hands on more of this wire, I'll run 2 strands of it to the tap switch cavity. One bundle for each pup, 1 conductor tied in with the ground sheilding to supply ground for tapping, 2 going from the 3 way switch to the middle tabs of the tap switches, the last, supplying the other middle wire from that pup. I think that would be easier and cleaner than chopping the leads off short to try and use the shortest leads possible (which would probably be unshielded) by sending a couple leads straight to the tap switches.

I finally get what you're saying! I didn't read your bit about changing the order of the coils in the serries. I thought you were just reversing the + and - putting one humbucker out of phase. Now that I understand what you were saying, I think the last schem you posted is the winner. Now I just need to buy some parts and actually assemble this axe! Thanks a lot for your help Joe. You'll probably spot this project as it moves along on telemodders but I'll be sure to post about this wiring specifically here when I get to try it out.

Here it is. I connect the bottom of the south coils directly to ground and the top of the north coils directly to the hot output. The 6 switches then determine what (if anything) the other end of the outside coils are connected to. The key here is to treat a humbucker as 2 pickups rather than 1 with a center tap. Of course, I'm not sure if this will cause me any sort of interference or noise but I think it's worth a shot.

So what do you use to draw your schematics?

That actually doesn't look much like mine but I think I'm going in a rather unorthodox direction with the wiring right now. The only thing I don't like that I see in your schematic is that you are tapping the south coil on each pickup. I would like to tap the outside coils (south on bridge/north on neck). What do you use to draw your schematics? I have been modifying schematics I find in Photoshop but it's not very good for drawing them from scratch. I'll post my idea as soon as I draw a decent version of it. As for the switches, tele 3 way, 2P2T on/on sliders, 3 way selects a pickup combination and one tap switch to control the selected pickup(s). Your assumptions were spot on!

I want to wire 2 humbuckers to a 3-way switch and 3 on/on switches. The 3-way selects bridge/both/neck. Here comes the weird part. The 3 on/on switches (in a Jaguar plate) will each corespond to one position on the 3 way and control tapping. To put it another way, if the bridge only is selected, one switch will control if it is tapped or not. If both pups are selected, the middle switch will select between all 4 coils and outer coils only. If the neck is selected, the 3rd switch determines if it is tapped or not. I know I could get all these sounds and more with only 2 switches but I really like the idea of basically programming each possition on the 3 way with the Jag switches. I drew up one design for this but it taps by leaving the circuit open on unused coils rather than shorting them, which I read can lead to excessive noise. Any ideas?

I was actually quite surprised how good the grain does look on this guitar. I mean, it's just basswood so no flame figure or anything but it's a 3 piece body and the grain is consistant across all 3. Applying directly to the wood is not an option since the sealer stuff they put on there is nice and smooth and put up a fight even to a drill bit! I'm not looking for any sort of mile deep gorgeious grain appearance, just a nice rich green that lets a bit of grain peek through.

I've been reading here for a long time but this is post #1. I have a Saga tele style kit I'd like to put a bright green translucent finish on. I've seen several posts here looking for help getting through the sealer to the veneer on the PRS style but I have no veneer and no desire to sand that much. I just want to do finish sanding on the sealer and start blowing some color on there. I know Reranch suggests spraying alcohol based dye over sealers but I don't know if the sealer stuff Saga uses will let that work. I've also seen a few promoting Dupicolor sprays but I don't like the look of that green too much. Has anyone successfully colored any Saga guitar with alcohol dye or with auto "candy" paint? Worst case scenario, I'll screw up a clear green, prime, and spray on a solid green; however, I'd like to have the clear work. Thanks for reading!