The Mod Squad
Spurred on by the wiring ‘kit’ supplied with Fender’s 70th Anniversary Broadcaster, Dave Burrluck hops into the time machine to revisit the infamous ‘blend’, as well as the ‘dark circuit’. Scary…
I’ll wager the majority, if not all, of the Telecasters you own (or have owned) will have what we call ‘modern’ wiring. It’s also pretty much the default and most simple circuit for any two-pickup guitar: a three-way pickup switch (voicing bridge, both, and neck pickups) with a master volume and tone.
But back in 1950, Fender’s original circuit, known as the ‘blend’, was a little different and more complex. It was changed in mid-’52 to what lasted until 1967 and was known as the ‘dark circuit’. On both we had a preset ‘bass’ tone so us guitarists could cover electric basslines or switch from the steel guitar-like bridge pickup to a bit of muted jazz comping. On that second circuit you couldn’t combine the neck and bridge pickup at all.
So, the first 1950 to ’52 circuit offered the following functions from its three-way lever switch:
• Position 1: The bridge pickup is voiced but what we now know as the tone control worked as a blend. With the lower blend control fully clockwise the bridge pickup is voiced; by turning the blend control anticlockwise the neck pickup is introduced.
• Position 2: The neck pickup is voiced. The volume acts as normal but the lower blend/tone control is inactive.
• Position 3: As position 2 but with a preset capacitor roll off for a ‘jazz’ or bass-like sound.
The second 1952 to ’67 circuit worked like this:
• Position 1: Bridge pickup with both volume and tone control.
• Position 2: Neck pickup with both volume and tone control.
• Position 3: Neck pickup but with that preset bassy tone and inactive tone control.
This later circuit was only changed after Leo Fender had sold his company. He never intended us to hear how that nowclassic two-pickup mix sounded, although, as ever, players found their way around that either by ‘jamming’ the circuit’s three-way switch between positions 1 and 2 or simply rewiring it.
Kits Away
The Fender Broadcaster on review in this issue is wired modern-style but comes with an optional ‘wiring kit’, so if you’re handy with a soldering iron, you can easily rewire it to that original ‘blend’ circuit. The extra 15kohm resistor is the only additional component you’ll need, but do we really want to do that on a new guitar that’ll have to be returned to Fender, let alone one with some collecting potential down the line? No.
Thankfully, there are plenty of options and one of those is simply to buy a prewired control circuit that emulates either of those original circuits. That way you can swap over the new electrics to your existing control plate – or buy an extra one of those, too. If you don’t like it, the reverse process is just as easy.
I order up the Luxe Blackguard Tele 1950-1952 Pre-Wired Kit (£73) from Charles Guitars. It features Total Vintage Tone audio-taper 250k CTS solid-shaft pots, a three-way CRL lever switch, Switchcraft output socket, vintage correct wire and a .05 microfarads Luxe capacitor – “a Tele ‘phone book’ waximpregnated paper and foil capacitor, which is hand-wound on a 1932 Sprague Specialties Co. Winding Machine replica using exact vintage spec foil and paper film. They’re hand soldered, triple hot vacuum impregnated with pure castor oil and pure beeswax and hand-wrapped.” Irrespective of what you think about all this old capacitor stuff, the pre-wired harness looks the part – and then some.
Pickup Choices
Another thing about the Broadcaster is its legendary pickup set, not least its bridge pickup. From Fender downwards, a high percentage of the zillions of pickup makers out there do a ‘Broadcaster’, many more than one. It does make you wonder, bearing in mind the scarcity and huge value of the ‘approximately 250 only’ original Broadcasters, exactly how many of these makers have actually studied a real example as opposed to follow the basic specs, listen to a few records and have a stab – informed or otherwise – at making what is in general terms a ‘hot’ Tele bridge pickup. The get-out, of course, is that pickup-making was far from an exacting science back in the day – “they were all different!” For us players and modders, then, finding a good one can be time consuming and expensive.
Many of us just simply don’t have the time – or money – to research the staggering options available and as I’ve
never heard a bad-sounding Bare Knuckle and have used them on numerous guitars, I thought I’d start there. Now, Bare Knuckle offers a lot of Tele sets – the Country Boy, Yardbird, Brown Sugar, The Boss, Piledriver and the dual-blade Cobra T – but it’s the company’s vintage-specific Blackguard Series, which takes us through the historically significant Tele pickups, that interests me here. The choices are the Flat ’50, the Flat ’52, the ’55 Stagger and the grey-base ’68 Stagger. Clearly, the Flat ’50 (from £190 per set) is going to suit the original wiring.
These are, so says the Bare Knuckle blurb, “scatter-wound by hand with 43 AWG plain enamel wire on both bridge and neck and are pure Broadcaster heaven. This is the hottest of the four sets (Flat ’50, Flat ’52, ’55 Stagger and ’68 Stagger) with a thicker zincplated steel baseplate, flat profile magnets and authentic vintage ‘flat top’ deep-drawn brass cover; the Flat ’50s have a simply massive sound. Chunky bottom-end and snarling mids create a throaty tone with excellent natural sustain that can really push a tube amp hard.”
The first rule of selling pickups is a good bit of spiel – something that Bare Knuckle also does rather well! Both use Alnico 5 rod magnets and the quoted DCRs are 10.6kohms at the bridge and 6.8k at the neck.
So, that’s £263 in total. If I fit the new pickups and circuit to the Wilkinson kit build I did a couple of issues back (approximately £450), it means I’ve just passed £700. Now, the Wilkinson kit uses an alder body so I’m not going to get the entire Blackguard ash-bodied experience but, hey, maybe we’ll come back to that in a future Mod Squad.
Of the many good and not so good things that can be attributed to the Telecaster, it’s a complete pain to swap out its bridge pickup because you have to remove the bridge as well. On the other hand, it’s simply the best of any classic design when it comes to a little bit of electronics tweakery thanks to the top-mounting of its control plate, which holds all the components. Swapping the entire control assembly simply means you undo two screws, unsolder the pickups and remove the output jack then load another in. Here we’ll be using the same control plate, so, obviously, aside from unsoldering the pickups and loading the new ones in, I need to undo the knobs, pots and switch and replace those with the Charles Guitars kit.
The only problem I encounter is that the thread of the Wilkinson output jack is presumably metric to fit the Electrosocket jack plate; the one with the pre-wired kit doesn’t fit but all that means is that I just unsolder it from the kit and resolder the original. Aside from that, I have my ‘original’ wiring installed in minutes.
After screwing the saddles out of the way of the four bridge screws and removing those to begin installing the Bare Knuckles, I wonder how many Tele pickups I’ve changed over the years. It’s an easy enough job and Bare Knuckle has followed the slot-head screw protocol here to stick with vintage style. Superbly built as usual, these Flat 50s are available aged if you prefer and the package includes the three mounting bolts with rubber ‘springs’ plus the two longer and thinner screws, again with rubber, to mount the neck pickup directly into the body. We even get a set of Rotosound Roto Yellows (0.010 to 0.046), which are quickly installed. I set the pickup heights around 1.6mm (from the underside of the string, fretted at the top fret) to the top of the pickup on the treble side and about half of that again on the bass. I leave the black ’guard off until I finally adjust the neck pickup, of course, and screw the saddles back to their approximate position before tuning up to tension. Then I can check and reset the intonation as usual.
“Getting used to a new pickup isn’t something you should do in a hurry”
Play Test
Getting used to a new pickup set, especially with a relatively new-to-me control setup, isn’t something you should do in a hurry. I can’t speak for anyone else but I usually find myself going from extremes – “They sound amazing!” to, “Err, I think I’ve made a mistake…” – before settling on some kind of truth.
This original circuit certainly has quite a changeable character. In position 3 the bass/jazz tone is seemingly what you’d hear if you selected the neck pickup and
simply fully rolled off your tone control on a modern-wired Tele. In position 2 the neck pickup jumps up in volume and actually sounds quite clear and distinct. Many of us overlook this pickup, which can sound soft and underpowered – but not here. The bridge has certainly got some poke, a really strong and relatively thick voice but still with loads of stinging Tele bite. The blend, however, is quite unique: with the lower control fully clockwise it’s just the bridge, and as you roll it back (in an anti-clockwise direction) the neck is added in changing the character, adding a subtle amount of depth and a little of the bouncy funk we love of the modern Tele’s dual pickup mix. There’s no tone control so you might need to adjust your amp a bit but remember pulling the volume back will soften those highs a little, too. The quality of sound is excellent and the performance of those pots, not least the blend, is superb. These guys are very good!
By the way, that lone 15kohm resistor was, I believe, originally intended to reduce the volume of the neck pickup. Bearing in mind it’s quieter anyway, that doesn’t make too much sense. When it’s replaced in the circuit with just a jumper wire I’m hearing slightly more volume in the muted jazz setting and a more modern classic mix with the blend fully rolled off. It doesn’t affect position 2. Either way, try it for yourself.
Final Thoughts
For around half the price of the cost of the host guitar I’ve loaded in new pickups and a pre-wired control harness. Has it changed my world? While it’s fun to experiment with that original Fender circuit, like many, I’m not sure how much use I’ll find for that preset bass sound (although a lower value cap would reduce the bass roll-off ), maybe 30 per cent of your switching potential. The actual blend, however, is the golden ticket.
Many of us will have already tried the ‘hot Tele pickup set’, done our own ‘Broadcaster’, and those who find a Tele just a bit too thin or bright will know it’s more than useful. This Bare Knuckle set combines the spice with a full-bodied flavour and clean definition from the neck pickup that elevates a good Tele into a very good Tele whatever circuit you choose. Apart from being a thing of beauty, the pre-wired harness makes the drive super smooth and very responsive.