ASK HBS – Telecaster With Neck Humbucker Wiring Options

Queston:

Hi,

Do you have a wiring diagram for a telecaster guitar with a neck humbucker and bridge single coil? There is one volume and one tone pot and a 3 way blade switch. I wanted to know what value pots to use and the standard tone pot capacitor value. I have seen in some diagrams that a 500k resistor is used to reduce the value of a 500k pot but I’m not clear on how this works. Any guidance or help would be much appreciated.

Thanks, John

Answer:

Hello John, Thanks for the great question. Besides the pickups, that setup sounds pretty standard for the Telecaster, so we have most of our work done for us, with the only hard part being the value of the tone pots.

Tone Pot Values

250k Pots

We usually use 250K pots with single coils because they tend to be pretty bright. The lower value of the pot allows more of the high frequencies to be filtered out, but if you have a warmer-sounding single coil, you can get away with a higher-value pot.

500K pots

The proximity of the two single coils in a humbucker makes them naturally warmer, so we usually use higher-value pots with them to help retain some of the highs and keep them from sounding too muddy, but if yours sounds especially bright, you can get away with a lower-value pot.

The Resistor Trick

Using a resistor in parallel with your tone pot will reduce the load seen by the pickup. For instance, a 500k pot + 500k resistor in parallel = about 250k. Since it’s easy to get different resistor values, it’s easy to fine-tune your tone if you have the patience.

To figure out the value use:
R Total = Pot * resistor / Pot + resistor

Using Different Pot Values

One way to find the middle ground between 250k pots and 500K pots can be to use one of each. Using a 500K for the volume and a 250K for the tone can help brighten up your tone without needing to add extra components or perform complicated math.

The Hard Truth

Mixing humbuckers and single coils can be challenging, no matter what tricks you use. The humbucker might always sound warmer than you want, while the single coil might sound a little bright. It really depends on how the two pair up out of the box. The best option is to get the one you use the most sounding how you want, so you always have a great sound, then you can struggle with the other to get it as good as you can.

Wiring Diagram

Here is the wiring diagram for a Telecaster with one volume, one tone, a 3-way blade switch, and a parallel resistor to reduce the load the pickup sees. Since I’m including the parallel resistor, I’m using 500K pots. If you need an even brighter tone, switch the tone to a 250K pot, or remove the resistor and go with the 250K tone from the start, adding a resistor if you need to.
*one thing I didn’t find out in your question is what humbucker you are using so for this diagram I used a Seymour Duncan. If you are using something else you’ll need to modify the wiring accordingly.

Seymour Duncan Wiring Code

• Black = HOT
• White and Red = Tied Together and taped off (unless pickup splitting)
• Green and Bare = Tied Together and Ground

Diagram