Wiring Harness for Fender Telecaster • Brown Sugar Blend
We call this Telecaster harness the Brown Sugar Blend. Why? Read on!
It's been speculated upon for years exactly what Keith Richards has under the hood of his main Tele, Macawber. By now, most agree that it's not stock Tele wiring, but a modified Broadcaster circuit. We think we've nailed it with this harness!
- In the first position (bridge), the bridge pickup is engaged. The volume knob acts as expected, but the tone knob acts a blend that let's you dial in the neck pickup. At ten, you have the full bridge pickup. As you roll down toward zero, the neck pickup is brought in, darkening the tone in a way similar to a standard tone knob, but with a fuller, more focused bottom end.
- The center position selects the neck pickup and bypasses the tone circuit.
- The third position (neck) selects the neck pickup with the capacitor engaged. Most old Broadcaster circuits use a cap in the .05 range which makes the neck pickup sound more like an organ than a guitar, so we chose a capacitor in the .01 range for near-perfect "Woman Tone" from this position.
We build these with CTS' top-shelf 250k pots with brass posts and shafts. The capacitor is a vintage Sprague Bumblebee from the late 50s. This is an authentic vintage cap, not a reissue. An Oak 3-way switch and Switchcraft jack brings it all together.
Available with these options:
- Neck pickup configuration. Choose single coil or humbucker. For guitars with a humbucker in the neck position, we add a 10-15k resistor to balance the level of the pickups so that the humbucker doesn't overpower the single coil in the bridge. Models with a single coil at the neck usually do not require a resistor.
- Grounding shield. Most Telecaster harnesses are mounted on a metal plate when installed on the guitar. This plate serves as a grounding shield. If your guitar is rear-loaded or the controls are mounted on a non-metal plate, we offer an optional .025 machined aluminum grounding shield, made in our shop.
- Please select from the menu at the top of this description.
Wiring diagram included. Made in USA.
CreamTone harnesses are built on music! We've repurposed dozens of old albums that were no longer playable and headed for the dumpster by turning them into mounting plates for our harnesses.