My Old, 60's MIJ Telestar Has THREE Pickup Wires- Whaaa???? Other Questions, Too.

[stevieb]

So, after 42 years, I am FINALLY restoring my '68 Telestar Hollowbody 2-pickup electric guitar. Not going to replace any components- 3-way switch already replaced, pots are fine, etc., unless...

The obviously (?) single-coil pickups have THREE WIRES coming from them- one black, one blue, one red. The black and blues are both grounded to the back of the pots; the red goes to one of the terminals of the pots (2 vol/2 tone setup.) What's that all about? Just yesterday, I was looking at the innards of a Recco guitar- same era, same country of origin, same-looking single coils, but only two pickup wires. Anything I can do with the three, to give me additional tones? If I need a switch to take advantage of this weird (to me) wiring setup, I would go with a push-pull pot- not drilling any holes is THIS guitar. Pups have chrome covers with a white plastic insert where the pole screws go through to screw into the main pole piece.

The caps on the tone controls are... 42 years old. I should probably change them, right? FWIT, they are green "Chiklet" caps. What would sound better- chicklets or orange drops?

And finally, I found a piece of tan cloth tape, dry and not sticking to anything (although it had been wrapped around part of the wriring) and a paper label about the same width that said "China" on it. Nothing else, just "China." I am guessing the circuitry, or one component, was made in China? Or maybe that label was actually on the replacement 3-way switch and I just didn't notice or remember from when I installed it? I am thinking the latter is more likely, but is it possible that China was a supplier for Matsumoku (or whoever made Telestars)?

 

[danw]

If the pickups have metal covers, I'm guessing the second ground is the shield; it goes to the cover. I believe they wire it this way so you can switch the phase of the pickup without making the cover hot. So you could maybe put in a phase switch.

From what I read, the orange drops just take up a lot of space in the cavity and don't sound any better; I use the chicklets.

 

[stevieb]

The pups do, indeed, have metal covers. I have a couple of Westones with phase-reversal switches- having two guitars that already jump thru that hoop, combined with not really wanting to mess with this old girl, means I am going to leave that alone on this one.

Thanks. Bus should I replace the caps, even if only with new chicklets?

 

[danw]

I'd go ahead and replace them while the soldering iron's hot. A pack of two is what, 50 cents?

 

[slowmotion]

I wouldn't bother changing the caps unless they are broken, or you want to try changing values to get a different range.

Changing caps falls into the "guitar feng shui" bucket for me. It's nice to use high voltage ones because they have nice thick legs and are easy to work with, but the differences between paper in oil/polyester/polywhatever/ceramics are negligible (I'd only recommend a good quality cap because their tolerances are tighter - and greencaps are just fine). But a nice big orange drop sure does look nice in the cavity...