Telecaster Guitar Wiring Harness

Description

Where it all began…

The guitar that started it all! The Telecaster was the first successful commercially produced solid-body electric guitar.

Whilst the Telecaster was a new innovation, there was nothing necessarily “fancy” about it. With that being said, Fender had produced a guitar which was well designed, easy-playing, affordable, but most importantly it sounded great. Leo Fender had created an instrument that musicians couldn’t wait to get their hands on!

The Telecaster originally went through a number of different electrical configurations. At first the tone pot was used as a “blender” control. But after several iterations, and by 1967, the Telecaster was finally produced with a traditional two pickup switching system.

The electrical low-down…

The electrical components inside your guitar are almost never seen and thus, easily forgotten. A number of large guitar manufacturers know this and often “skimp” on the quality of components used and the way they wire them to save on costs.

Something not every player considers…

Replacing your guitar’s pickups is an easy way to improve or alter your tone. But what a lot of players don’t think about is how their signal is carried from the pickups to the amp.

Your signal passes through the guitars wiring harness before traveling to your amp. You do not want crappy components or dodgy wiring robbing you of tone!

This is where Guitar Sauce comes in…

I build your wiring harnesses using the best premium components available and I build them with 110% attention to detail. I also offer unlimited support for the lifetime of your harness.

Your new wiring harness will also help if your guitar is suffering from any of the following:

• Scratchy pots
• Signal cuts in and out
• Tone controls make no difference to your tone
• Tone becomes too muddy when rolling back the volume
• Volume or tone controls have no “sweep” and are very abrupt

Your Telecaster wiring harness includes:

2x Premium CTS audio pots (250K or 500K)
I’ve tried CTS pots from various suppliers and these are the best I have found. Solid brass shaft and bushing. C-clip reinforced shaft and a 30% taper which offers a perfect sweep. I make sure they are all matched to within a +/- 2% tolerance.

CRL 3-way switch
The original American made CRL switch used in Fender guitars since the 1950’s. These are improved versions of the originals and are often considered “lifetime” switches as you should never have to replace them again.

Sprague Orange Drop .047uf capacitor
Sprague/CDE Orange Drops are classic capacitors used since the 1960’s. Known for their tone and reliability, they are used by many high-end guitar manufacturers and builders around the world.

Switchcraft mono output jack
The industry standard for output jacks. Solid and dependable.

Vintage style cloth covered 22 gauge black wiring
This quality vintage style wiring is pre-tinned which means it holds its shape and makes soldering a lot easier for you.

All kits are wired with 50’s style guitar wiring.

Some extra info to help you out…

500K or 250K pots – which do I need?

I offer both options in Telecaster kits to suit humbucker and single coil equipped guitars. A simple rule of thumb is humbucker pickups require 500K pots and single coil pickups require 250K pots.

If you are not sure which you should use for your setup, feel free to shoot me a message and I will be happy to help.

Compatibility with your guitar

Your new wiring kit will fit directly into American made Fender Telecasters and any other Telecaster style guitar which use imperial sized pots.

If your guitar is a Telecaster style guitar which currently uses metric sized pots then you will need to slightly widen the holes in the control plate to fit the upgraded CTS pots.

I have written a helpful guide here which covers the difference between imperial and metric guitar pots, how to check your current pots, and making sure your knobs will fit your new pots.