Radioshop Telecaster Tone System

Description

We proudly introduce our Radioshop Telecaster Tone System for your enjoyment with our custom ‘Radioshop Telecaster Blender Mod’. We love the 3 main sounds that a Tele offers but have always felt that a little more could be teased out of the setup with a bit of simple modding. On the neck pickup and feel you just want a tiny bit of the bridge pickup mixed in to liven things up? Or maybe the bridge is just a little too much for you at times and could do with a little taming? A lot of us guitarists spend most of our time in the Middle position with our Teles just wishing for one simple thing … a bit more control over the volume of each pickup. With only space for two knobs on the control plate, the options for modding are fairly limited but we feel we’ve hit upon something which solves the problem nicely. The Radioshop Telecaster Tone System pairs your choice of one of our best selling Handwound Telecaster Sets with a ready to solder in harness with our Radioshop Tele Blend Mod giving you a new world of sonic possibilities.

Keeping the normal array of three way selector switch and master tone knob, we’ve swapped out the traditional tone knob for a dual concentric pot which gives you a new level of control over the sounds available. The upper knob controls the master tone as it would in a standard Telecaster wiring setup, whilst the lower, wider knob acts as a blender pot to blend in the bridge or neck pickup when not normally in action. This control is via a no load modification so when on 10, the knob does absolutely nothing and the pot is removed from the tone circuit. When dialling down from 10, the blend control comes into play giving a new tonal palette to play with. In the neck position, dialling down adds as much of the bridge pickup as is desired to the neck sound and when in the bridge position, dialling the knob down adds the neck pickup to the overall sound. Dial all the way down to Zero and you have the same sound (in all three positions) as the traditional middle sound so the mod is utterly pointless at this setting! The real magic is in the mid to upper reaches of the control. We can now subtly add the bridge to the neck sound and vice versa. Our personal favourite is the neck position with a little bit of the bridge added – a great sound for rhythm playing! The bridge pickup too with just a little of the neck added is a really useful sound – it just seems to take our Tele up a few notches in the Twang stakes. Of course, the amount you blend in by is up to you and there’s a lot of fun to be had just playing around!

The Radioshop Telecaster Tone System comes with a set of our handwound pickups and a pre-wired harness with our ‘Radioshop Telecaster Blender Mod’ attached to a cardboard mount, complete with knobs, loaded with all USA grade components ready for you to solder in and transform your Tele’s tone.

The Tone System also has an added benefit when selecting Reverse Wound Reverse Polarity via the menu for the Neck pickup. RWRP traditionally enables hum cancelling when both pickups are engaged fully in the middle position. The Blender Mod sees the effect of this hum cancelling happening at a much earlier stage than normal – in the Bridge or Neck position a slight turning of the Blender Pot from the ’10’ position begins to engage the effect of hum cancelling from both pickups but with very little of the other pickup added to the sound. This effectively enables an element of hum cancelling in all three positions – a very nice added bonus and great for noisy situations!

Specification

• Includes a Set of our Handwound pickups of your choice and a pre-wired harness attached to a cardboard mount with the ‘Radioshop Telecaster Blender Mod’
• Choice of Reverse Wound Reverse Polarity Bridge Pickup for hum cancelling when both pickups are used or ‘Vintage Spec non RWRP’
• 3 way Oak Grigsby Switch
• CTS 250k Volume Pot
• CTS Dual Concentric Tone Knob – Upper Knob: Master Tone, Lower Knob: Blender Pot to blend between pickups
• Choice of Sprague Orange Drop or Paper In Oil Capacitor (traditional Fender 0.047uf value)
• Switchcraft Mono Jack
• Comes with chrome or gold knurled knob for the Volume
• Choice of chrome, chrome with black or gold knurled knobs for the Dual Concentric Pot
• Does not include control plate or switch tip
• Blender pot is a No load potentiometer – performs no function and is removed from the tone circuit when on ’10’. Blends the pickups when set below ’10’

Watch: The Radioshop Telecaster Tone System with our Pure ’50s Tele set (set previously known as Vintage ’52s)