Telecaster Wiring Kits Please Read All Instructions Before Beginning. Tools you will need: Soldering Iron (35 watt preferably) Solder Wet Sponge Wire Clippers Wire Strippers 3/8 Drill Bit 5/32 Drill Bit Phillips Screwdriver Pliers Small bowl to hold screws and knobs ATTENTION: At the very least basic soldering skills are needed to install this kit. If you do not have these skills or are not confident enough in your skills to install this kit than please take it to someone who does, such as a certified guitar technician. Soldering tips: Remember to clean the tip of your soldering iron before soldering each connection, a dirty or bad solder joint can add excessive noise into your guitar, especially when using distortion. Be sure to apply a small amount of solder to your iron before trying to heat a connection, this will help your iron transfer heat better and the solder will flow faster Removing Current Wiring: Step 1. Place your guitar face up on a firm yet soft surface (a couple of bath towels on a bench or table will do) to keep your guitar from getting scratched. Step 2. Remove the knobs and switch tip from the controls. If your knobs are metal they may be held on with a set screw located on the side of the knob. Next, with the Phillips screwdriver remove the two screws on either end of the control plate and place the screws in a small bowl so they will not get lost. Now you can pull up the control plate to expose the wiring beneath. Step 3. Remove the jack plate. Remove the two screws on the side of the jack plate and then pull it away from the body. Next, remove the nut and pull the plate away from the jack. If your guitar does not have a screwed down plate but rather a push-in jack socket it would be best to leave the socket in place and remove the nut on the jack and then pull it into the control cavity. Once the jack sockets have been removed they don t like to stay in place. You may also consider replacing it with a screw down jack plate.
Step 4. Next you need to identify the pickup wires and the bridge ground wire. In this guitar the neck pickup wires are coming from the front of the cavity, and the bridge pickup wires are coming from the middle of the cavity. The small black wire coming out of the middle of the cavity with the bridge pickup wires is the bridge ground. The last wire coming out of the cavity in this photo is the output wire running to the jack. Use some tape to identify the pickup wires so they don t get switched when hooking them up to your new wiring kit. In this we used blue electricians tape for the neck and red for the bridge. Also notice that with these pickups the red and bare wires coming from the pickups are soldered to ground and the white wires are the hot that run to the switch. Step 5. After the wires have been identified go ahead and clip them from the old controls, but don t clip the wires going to the jack. You can now set the old controls aside and after you are finished with the installation you can mount them on the empty template and keep them if you like. After clipping the wires go ahead and prep them for installing your new kit. In this photo we trimmed the red wire all the way back to the bare ground wire, twisted them together, tinned all the exposed wire with solder and then covered it with heat shrink. We then trimmed all the wires back enough for connections and then tinned them. Step 6. Your control plate should be empty now. For your new kit to fit, the pot holes need to be 3/8 inch (9.52mm) in diameter and the switch holes need to be 5/32 inch (3.968mm) in diameter. If they are not the correct size you will need to drill them out. Step 7. Remove the new wiring kit from the template and then mount it to the control plate. Notice that there are two nuts on the pot shafts, the second nut is to adjust the height of the pot sticking out of the control plate on the other side. Adjust this for the proper height so your knob will sit properly and not be too high off of the control plate. Tighten down the nuts on the pots and the screws on the switch and make sure that everything is secure.
Time To Solder! NOTE: When soldering to the back of the pot first put a small bead of solder on the pot (or use a soldered joint that already exists on the back of the pot), then place the tinned wire on top of the bead of solder, and then using the tip of the iron heat both the wire and the bead of solder at the same time until the solder flows together and covers the wire. Remove the iron and hold the wire in place until the solder cools and hardens (feel free to blow on it). This will make it quick and hassle free to attach the wire to the pot. You do not want the iron on the components for too long or you will burn up the pot. NOTE: Notice that the lugs of the switch are covered in. When attaching wires to these points place the tip of the wire against the soldering point, touch the soldering iron to the wire and soldering point at the same time and push gently. When the solder heats up and flows the tip of the wire will push through the hole of the soldering point, remove the soldering iron quickly and the solder will cover the pin and wire and make a solid connection. If you hold the heat too long than the solder will run down the lug and could foul up the switch operation. Once the solder is cooled and the wire is held in place make sure that the wire coming out of the pin is not touching any other connections or small metal runs and trim with wire clippers if necessary. NOTE: Remember that the metal braiding on the outside of the wires is all connected to ground so they cannot touch any other connections or else your signal will die Step 8. Now to hookup the wires. The neck pickup hot wire solders to the first open lug at the forward position of the switch and the bridge pickup hot wire solders to the last open lug towards the rear of the switch. The pickup ground wires and the bridge ground wire solder to the back of either of the pots. NOTE: The kit used in this picture is the VTLK-1, if you are installing a different kit please see the wiring schematics at the end of these instructions for wire locations. Step 9. Before screwing down the control plate, feed the jack through the control cavity and out the jack hole. You can use a screw driver to help guide the jack out the hole, just stick the screwdriver through the hole and through the jack from the outside of the guitar and use it to hold the jack centered and then push it through the hole from the control cavity with the output wire. Then attach the jack to the jack plate. The jack also has an adjusting nut to set the height properly. Now insert a cable into the jack and make sure that it inserts and withdraws properly. If there is any problems getting the jack in, pull the slack of the output wire into the control cavity.
Step 10. Now place the control plate back into place. Be careful as you put it in, make sure that the excess output wire does not bunch up beneath the capacitor (the blue component between the pots) and bend it out of position. Also make sure it does not bunch up under the tone pot or go back down the jack hole. If it bunches up under the tone pot it can make for a difficult fit, and if it goes down the jack hole it can prevent the guitar cable from inserting into the jack correctly. After the plate is in place screw it back down to the guitar body and then put the knobs and switch tip on the controls. Step 11. Your finished, so plug it in and take if for a test run. If something is not working properly go over the instructions and your connections again carefully and see if you can find the problem. Be sure that the braided wire is not touching anything other than ground. If you cannot find the problem email us at customerservice@bcsguitars.com and we will get a technician to call you as soon as they are available and try to help you trouble shoot the problem. Other Telecaster Kits On the following pages you will find the wiring schematics and other notes for installing our other Telecaster kits. If you have any problems understanding the schematics, or any other problems with your installation please contact us and we will be happy to help. E-mail: customerservice@bcsguitars.com Phone: 1-417-217-0908
VTLK-4 4-way Series/Parallel Switching To complete this modification you will need to remove the neck pickup cover from the pickup ground wire and ground it with its own ground wire. Step 1. Remove the neck pickup from the guitar and the controls (switch and pot). On the bottom of the pickup you will see where the pickup wires are soldered to the coil wire and the pickup cover. The pickup cover has a tab sticking through the base of the pickup and there is a small jumper wire that connects it to the ground wire connection. Step 2. Remove the jumper wire that connects the pickup cover tab to the ground wire connection. To do this simply heat the jumper with your solder iron as soon as the solder begins to flow move the jumper wire away with the tip of the iron. Step 3. Solder a new ground wire to the pickup cover tab. Make sure the ground wire is long enough to reach one of the control pots so it can be grounded. NOTE: Be sure that there is no bits of solder connecting ANY of the three connections (Pickup cover tab, Hot wire connection & Ground wire connection), if there is you need to remove it before re-installing the pickup.