Breezysound Telecaster Wiring

[AiAi]

Hello Tokai enthusiasts.

My first post here.

Last year I bought a pink paisley Breezysound Telecaster and have recently been trying to understand how it is wired, as I feel a few changes might be required to better suit my playing.

I don't know much about telecaster wiring but it seems the Tokai Breezysounds are wired differently from a standard Fender. I've noticed that the green tone cap on the Breezysound is soldered from the tone pot centre lug to the input lug of the volume pot. Whereas, on a Fender the tone cap is usually soldered to the ground lug of the volume pot. Does this make a difference to the way the guitar behaves? Shouldn't the tone cap be soldered to ground?

Also, I'm not keen on the 680pf treble bleed cap in conjunction with the 1MΩ volume pot. The sound thins out too much for my liking when the volume is rolled down. Has anyone tried different values here?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Paladin2019]

Thanks for any help.

What changes would you specifically want to see from these modifications?

Tone cap circuit can be wired up a number of ways. Both the ones you described are fairly standard.

Treble bleeds infuriate me. Make no mistake, I adore them - but the info out there on the net is so **** misleading. 680pF is WAY too big for a bleed cap, especially on a Tele. Even worse, if you go looking around online you'll see the most commonly recommended value is 1000pF! No wonder people try this mod and rip it out straight away. That's going to be horribly thin.

That 1M pot you have in there will only make things worse too. 250K is the standard.

My personal recommendation would be to scrap the 1M pot and go with 250K in both positions. From there, wire it all up 50's style (also known as the Fezz Parka mod) and get rid of the bleed cap altogether.

If that doesn't work out, rewire it in the traditional Fender style (only requires one wire moved from the 50's configuration) and try using a small treble bleed cap in parallel with a 130K resistor. By small, I mean start at 100pF - be willing to experiment. I don't think you should go over 330pF maximum.

 

[AiAi]

I would like to retain a bit of low end punch when lowering the volume. At the moment all the low end disappears as soon as you start to roll the volume off a little. I'm tempted to try a smaller value cap with a resistor in parallel as you suggested.

I have found some photos on this forum of another paisley Breezysound that shows it's wiring...

http://tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php...start=15&sid=e3557312ec1772e5ea92f85a48762c2a

If you scroll down towards the end you'll see them in a post from fuzztone.

I think these Breezysounds came from the factory with 1M volume pots installed. Makes the bridge pickup sound quite harsh. However, my guitar has been modded with a mini humbucker in the neck, so the 1M pot sounds good with that. Am I right in thinking I could place a resistor somewhere in order to reduce the 1M to 250K for the bridge pickup, yet retain the full 1M for the neck pickup?

 

[Barks67]

My personal recommendation would be to scrap the 1M pot and go with 250K in both positions. From there, wire it all up 50's style (also known as the Fezz Parka mod) and get rid of the bleed cap altogether.

Agree 100%
Telecasters are very versatile wired this way.

 

[Paladin2019]

Am I right in thinking I could place a resistor somewhere in order to reduce the 1M to 250K for the bridge pickup, yet retain the full 1M for the neck pickup?

Not sure about that. I know you can reduce a pot's value by putting a resistor across it but I don't know if you can do it selectively. Your best bet might actually be a dual-gang pot.

If the guitar came with those pots then you may just want to leave them as they are for the sake of simplicity. The easiest and cheapest thing to try would still be the 50's rewire without a bleed cap. This is the configuration I have in my tele, though I prefer bleeds in my Love Rock.

50's wiring is designed to reduce treble rolloff in much the same way as as a treble bleed cap does. It's quite a fashionable mod at the moment but it does have a slight disadvantage compared to a bleed cap - it changes the response of the tone control as the volume is lowered.

 

[AiAi]

Sounds like the 50's wiring is easier to achieve than trying to find a nicely balanced treble bleed solution. I might start from there and see how it feels.

I found a Fender wiring diagram for a HS Telecaster that has two 500K pots and a 270K resistor wired in parallel from the bridge pickup switch lug to ground.

http://support.fender.com/service_diagrams/telecaster/011-8600A_SISD.pdf

I'm guessing this would go some way to achieving a lower pot value just for the bridge pickup.

 

[Paladin2019]

I found a Fender wiring diagram for a HS Telecaster that has two 500K pots and a 270K resistor wired in parallel from the bridge pickup switch lug to ground.

Nice solution.

Use a 330K resistor instead, this will give you 1M at the neck pickup and 250K at the bridge:

[1000*330]/[1000+330]=248

 

[Peter Mac]

Hi guys,

The reason for the 500k pots in that Fender wiring diagram is because it is using a humbucker.

For 2 single coils, use 250k pots.
I like to use a Vitamin Q PIO 0.033cap to give a fuller tone and brightness without getting too thin.
Wire centre lug tone to live lug volume for better tonal range.

Peter