One of my customers has a Tele with a Piezo and has modded it with a La Cabronita tone switching set-up. Here’s his write-up of the process and a couple of pictures.
Over to you, Terry!
Put this tele-thinline together about 12 years ago with a Fishman Piezo, StewMac body and Warmouth neck ( before import taxes became crippling).
Never quite happy with the stereo jackplug solution to the mag/piezo output so looked online for a solution. Found quite a few guys in same position, but no passive switching solution, only tricky preamp blender which looked fiddy to install.
So I was interested by the La Cab switching solution as last year I had tried a 3 way passive switch between the pups, and it worked fine. The piezo needed its own pot because of the massive output signal, which meant I had to remove the tele tone pot. Then I discovered Gavin’s solution, and the pieces fell into place.
Soldering is not too tough. Sharpen the iron to a point to get into the small places. Protect the guitar as though you’re doing a surgery job (no blood inside, please). Note the copper shielding on the inside cavities. Essential to cut down the hum, a little more audible on the super bright non-capped switch position.
Had to open up the LH screw hole for the 3 way pup switch to slide in, but in fact with the control plate fitted this looks quite elegant.
Sounds super icy and crisp in the UP position, especially through my Blues Deluxe. Pot Down gives the wah /honk effect ( thanks Gavin). The piezo output is massive and super crisp so a 50 ohm pot is essential to tame the output when switching from piezo to mag. I run this through a Yamaha THR5 mini acoustic that gives some degree of control with huge dynamic range.
So there you go..a poor man’s LaCab with a piezo option for about 15 quid ( excluding the postage, Gavin).
Thanks
Terry
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