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I have an SH Tele that I just installed a DiMarzio Super Distortion in place of dull, mushy stock HB.

It's an incredible upgrade, whole new guitar.

I think the bridge pick up is fine, but obvuously there's a volume difference between the two.
I like this difference a lot of the time, since there's three blended positions, and 2 full one way or the other, so it's like a built in lead boost when needed.

But there's other times were I'd like them to be at "unity".
So what I'd like to do is hook up a clean boost activated with toggle or push/pull that, when engaged, only kicks in on the 5 way switch positions involving the bridge pickup.

Is this feasible? If so, suggestions on best way to achieve this?
If not, any other (onboard) suggestions for what I'm after- excluding replacing bridge pickup?

Thanks

That sounds like you need to break into the wire from the bridge pickup (disconnect the "live" side from the switch contact) and feed that into your clean boost. The output of the clean boost gets connected to where the "live" wire was disconnected from! If you want to, you can build a boost circuit with two selectable outputs - one in-phase and the other out-of-phase, but that mightn't give you much more than you already get from your 5-position selector.

If you’re into onboard circuits and batteries, then fine.

My way of balancing the pickups, however, would be to switch the neck pickup from a series humbucker to parallel humbucker (The Super D is a 4-wire pickup, so this mod is easy).

Again, I would use a pull switch on one of the pots. There are plenty of diagrams on the web for the wiring.

Switching from series to parallel drops the neck output, and gives a brighter, almost single-coil tone, which would blend nicely (tonally and volume-wise) with the bridge pickup to give you a normal-ish sounding Tele - without batteries, boosters or having cut out chunks of the guitar body.

Lucifer wrote:If you’re into onboard circuits and batteries, then fine.

My way of balancing the pickups, however, would be to switch the neck pickup from a series humbucker to parallel humbucker (The Super D is a 4-wire pickup, so this mod is easy).

Again, I would use a pull switch on one of the pots. There are plenty of diagrams on the web for the wiring.

Switching from series to parallel drops the neck output, and gives a brighter, almost single-coil tone, which would blend nicely (tonally and volume-wise) with the bridge pickup to give you a normal-ish sounding Tele - without batteries, boosters or having cut out chunks of the guitar body.

I really like this, I'd wanted to explore adding a parallel option anyway, so this 'sounds' ideal.
I guess I didn't realize there would be a vol drop side effect of a switch to parallel, as the only guitar I have with this option came like that from the factory.
I've never popped the hood on that one, I'm assuming they must've done something to compensate for it, or just matched the pickups better as I don't recall any real percieved difference in the output when switching between positons.

mictester wrote:That sounds like you need to break into the wire from the bridge pickup (disconnect the "live" side from the switch contact) and feed that into your clean boost. The output of the clean boost gets connected to where the "live" wire was disconnected from! If you want to, you can build a boost circuit with two selectable outputs - one in-phase and the other out-of-phase, but that mightn't give you much more than you already get from your 5-position selector.

Also an interesting tip- though given the "parallel" idea in the other reply, I'm wondering if I want batteries and routing for a boost.
Seems I've read somewhere about a passive boost, but can't recall or sure.

Why not try the simple option(as per my previous post) first.

And if that doesn’t float your boat, then try MicTester’s suggestion.

I put a couple of small FET buffer / amplifiers into a Tele recently. There was just enough room beside each pickup to house the tiny PCB without hacking into the woodwork. I used "phantom" powering up the guitar lead, so I didn't need to house batteries in the guitar body. This was fine, but the guitar now has to be used with its associated floor box (that provides the phantom supply). The owner suggested yesterday that the supply box could also have a couple of effects in it, so I've started on a version of the Pearl CO4 compressor and a fuzz face (silicon with the added base to collector capacitors for a more "germanium" sound), with an added treble booster option.... The owner plays (sort of) "psychedelic country" and loves the range of sounds available with this combination.

mictester wrote:I put a couple of small FET buffer / amplifiers into a Tele recently. There was just enough room beside each pickup to house the tiny PCB without hacking into the woodwork. I used "phantom" powering up the guitar lead, so I didn't need to house batteries in the guitar body. This was fine, but the guitar now has to be used with its associated floor box (that provides the phantom supply). The owner suggested yesterday that the supply box could also have a couple of effects in it, so I've started on a version of the Pearl CO4 compressor and a fuzz face (silicon with the added base to collector capacitors for a more "germanium" sound), with an added treble booster option.... The owner plays (sort of) "psychedelic country" and loves the range of sounds available with this combination.

Now THAT's a killer solution!
I'm intrigued, would you possibly be able to post "deets"? (as the kids say; Schematic to you and me )
That rig sounds like something you'd be able to market and do really well with, seems to me anyway.

One can also build that into the guitar cable : http://www.till.com/articles/PreampCable/
but that's not a solution for a switchable boost depending on selector position.