A man should treat himself once in a while, right? To weeks ago I bought 2 Telecaster wiring assemblies from Emerson!
What?! (you’ll probably ask yourself …)
I just shoot the explanation at you… (whether you like it or not ). Guitars are strange things , they consist of many parts which affect sound, guitarists are even more strange characters, the’re puzzling just as long until they find “the tone” they have in their head (for me: a little ” Twang” like Kid Ramos, a little compression a-la Danny Gatton , a little “spark” as Brad Paisley and a of bit gain & grit from… well, from who actually … ) the ambition to find “that” sound results in a lively business of making and spending money, big time! (and I’m guilty too, in both occasions). By example; Google “Telecaster, guitar, bridge” and you’ll see that many, many flavors appear! And then we are only talking about the bridge of a telacaster, no other parts, no other brands of guitars… WOW!
Anyway , the last few weeks I’ve been spending time, money, some Blood, Sweat & … to find the right electronics myself (it becomes a deviation I know, haha ) to give you an impression how bizarre that is: in addition to the pick-up’s (which I already had, and I do not want to change them: Joe Barden’s Danny Gatton t-Style pickups) there is often a volume knob, tone knob, element switch and some resistors in a guitar. And yes, all available in many brands, values and qualities. My quest learned that this is “my” set-up:
– 250K volume and tone potentiometers (1Meg or 1000K is brilliant for tone swells, but 4x the “range” of a 250k pot and the last 25% is very bright, IMHO)
– 0,047 uF capacitor (this value is ideal for B.B. King licks and Hammond sounds)
– 1000 pF capacitor and 180k resistor as a “treble bleed” to keep the highs running when you draw back the volume
To achieve these values and composition, I have mounted & removed everything a large number of times (in the kitchen cause of the light and the hight of the counter, hahaha) in different ways to each other. Now I manage soldering quite well, but soldering up-on soldering doesn’t make it more beautiful and my equipment must be need & reliable! So I scoured the internet, in order to score myself some quality parts and then I spotted something… a complete set, pre-soldered in a beautiful way and a good price.
Yesterday the”3 – Way Tele Prewired Assembly w/an Emerson Paper in Oil Cap” arrived, really beautiful craftsmanship, I’m happy!
Now lets fire-up the soldering iron one more time to install these beauties!
http://emersoncustomguitars.bigcartel.com/product/3-way-vintage-tele-prewired-assembly-t3v
