Description
Hoagland Custom, located in sunny Fernandina Beach, Florida, has been building quality, custom guitar wiring harnesses & winding quality handcrafted pickups for over 25 years…
& we love what we do!
This is a “Brent Mason” Telecaster wiring harness with 4-way switching…
If you have (or want to build) a Brent Mason “Power” Tele, this is the harness for you! It incorporates 4-way switching (rather than the standard 3-way switching) and is chock full of premium quality parts! As it does include a push/pull pot, some cavity alteration may be required. It is simple to solder in. We include a very easy-to-understand wiring diagram.
This wiring harness gives you the functionality of a Tele with series/parallel switching (a great option!) AND the independent volume control with the middle pickup.
The middle pickup is controlled by the rear-mounted, push/pull pot on the control plate. It is NOT part of, and is independent from, the 4-way switching. The middle pickup can be turned off or on with the push/pull pot.
The middle pickup is controlled by the middle position-mounted pot on the control plate. It is NOT part of the 3-way switching.
(According to Brent Mason) “To activate or cut off the middle pickup there are two different ways: connecting the pickup to the switch or using a push/pull volume pot for the middle pickup. I decided to use the second version because when connecting the pickup directly to the switch, the volume pot stays connected to the circuit, adding some load to it, resulting in less high-end. Please note that the master tone pot will not work on the middle pickup when the master volume is not set to “10” (aka fully opened). When you start to roll down the volume, the middle pickup gets disconnected from the master tone, no matter if you switch the pickup itself or the volume pot.”
This DOES NOT include the custom-drilled control plate but they are available.
Premier Guitar Magazine did a nice article on Brent Mason’s guitar wiring: Read the Premier Guitar Magazine article here
In Mason’s own words (in an interview with Premier Guitar Magazine): “Please note that the master tone pot will not work on the middle pickup when the master volume is not set to “10” (aka fully opened). When you start to roll down the volume, the middle pickup gets disconnected from the master tone, no matter if you switch the pickup itself or the volume pot.”.
A photo of Brent Mason’s actual wiring harness:
HARDWARE: (included are dress nuts/washers and switch mounting screws)
- optional custom drilled chrome control plate & mounting screws ($28 upgrade)
- optional custom drilled chrome “slanted switch” control plate & mounting screws ($31 upgrade)
- optional custom drilled nickel control plate & mounting screws ($28 upgrade)
- optional custom drilled black control plate & mounting screws ($34 upgrade)
- optional custom drilled gold control plate & mounting screws ($38 upgrade)
CAPACITOR:
- Sprague “Orange Drop” poly capacitor, .047mfd value
SWITCHING POSITIONS:
- P1 – bridge pickup
- P2 – bridge & neck, in-parallel (normal Tele tone)
- P3 – neck pickup
- P4 – bridge & neck, in-series (about 15% more power & better tone!)
STANDARD INCLUDES:
- 1 CTS or Bourns Pro Series volume pot, 250k value, audio taper
- 1 CTS or Bourns Pro Series tone pot, 250k value, linear taper
- 1 Bourns 250k push/pull pot to control the middle pickup
- Sprague “Orange Drop” poly capacitor, .047mfd value
- 4-way lever style switch
- Switchcraft mono output jack
- Gavitt vintage style, cloth covered wire
- tech support phone & email
While we make all of our wiring harnesses to be installed rather easily, we always recommend that you take your guitar, Hoagland Custom wiring harness, and the wiring diagram to your local guitar technician for installation. There are a lot of variables (grounding, pickup wires colors, etc., etc.) and they will be equipped to get your guitar sounding it’s BEST!
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