Session ace Brent Mason's famous '67 Telecaster has three humbucker pickups and three controls. Fender just released a Brent Mason signature Telecaster, which is a replica of this guitar.
Fender just released a signature model for one of Nashville's most prolific session guitarists. Let's look inside his number one guitar.
Welcome back to Mod Garage. Let's take a closer look at what's usually referred to as the Brent Mason Telecaster wiring. It's also been called "Telecaster blend wiring" or "Nashville Telecaster wiring," and I think it's time to cover this one in detail for several reasons. First and foremost, I've received numerous requests from you, dear readers, to do this. Fender recently released a faithful replica of Brent Mason's Telecaster, and also, my PG colleague John Bohlinger did a great Rig Rundown video with Mason just weeks ago. Mason is an outstanding player and absolutely nice guy so it's only logical to cover the wiring of his famous '67 Telecaster. Unless you're living in a cave, you've heard about Mason and his playing, which he's laid down on more Nashville studio records than one can count.
Mason's famous "automobile primer gray" 1967 Telecaster has three humbucker pickups and three controls. It's basically a standard 3-way Tele pickup-switching circuit plus an additional volume control to blend in the middle pickup. These are the pickups Mason uses in his Telecaster, all from the Seymour Duncan company:
Rig Rundown: Brent Mason [2021]
- Neck position: Vintage Mini Humbucker (Mason tenderly calls it a "Baby Humbucker"), built-in 180 degrees flipped, so the open pole pieces are facing the bridge rather than the neck for some more high-end and clarity in the tone. The pickup is wired with both coils in series for full humbucking functionality and no control to split it.
- Middle position: Mason is using an older version of the Hot Stack Strat STK-S2 with the red pickup cover and engraved Seymour Duncan logo on top. The current model has a white cover that's partly open on top. Hopefully, the iconic early red pickup cover will be available again for that special look. The pickup is wired with both coils in series for full humbucking functionality and no control to split it.
- Bridge position: Vintage Stack Tele STK-T3b, which is wired with both coils in series for full humbucking functionality and no control to split it.
These are the pickups installed in Brent's original Tele and also the pickups Fender is using for the signature model. This is an HHH pickup combination, by all means. Why Fender labelled it an SSH combination on the webpage ... well, we don't know.
In general, you can use any given pickup combination for this wiring. If you want to be as close as possible, this is your shopping list. If you only want to get in the same ballpark, you should use a vintage-flavored Tele bridge pickup, a hotter (overwound) Stratocaster middle pickup, and a PAF-style humbucker or hot P-90 for the neck position. No matter if they're single-coils or humbuckers, it will work.
"This wiring worked well for Mason right from the start: A hum-free operation is absolutely essential for work in a studio."
Why did Mason choose such an unusual pickup combination, you might ask? According to Mason himself, he didn't have much money in his early career and could only afford one guitar. This had to cover everything he needed in the studio. Brent wanted a Telecaster bridge pickup to cover all the country playing that was popular in the early '90s. For this, he also installed a B-Bender (Joe Glaser system, Mk1 version). He also wanted a Stratocaster tone, especially the in-between tone from bridge and middle together in parallel, and a Les Paul-ish tone from the neck position. So, the pickup combination he chose made sense, and Nashville's Joe Glaser did the wiring for him, which is the reason why Mason named this wiring "Glaser wiring."
This worked well for Mason right from the start: A hum-free operation is absolutely essential for work in a studio. But the wiring underwent some evolution during the years regarding the push-pull pot, which is the master tone control. This was initially wired to split the Hot Stack middle pickup into a single-coil, and all the diagrams of this wiring that are online right now still display this version. Today, the push-pull pot is wired to switch the middle pickup on and off. This is also the way Fender's Mason signature Tele is wired and what I'll be showing you. If you want the older wiring, you can find several examples online. They are also correct, but simply not up to date with Mason's current wiring.
I asked Mason directly about this, and I'm more than happy to share his reply:
"Basically, it's a standard 3-way switch with an extra volume knob that controls the middle pickup. Three knobs, left to right: volume (for neck and bridge), volume (middle), tone (for all 3) with an extra feature to pull on the tone knob to cut the middle pickup off or on. The middle pickup with the volume knob enables you to roll in the desired amount to blend with either neck or bridge. The pull knob on my original '67 Tele cuts the Seymour Duncan Vintage Stack split coil in half to single-coil. Later on, over the years I found that feature useless. We decided to make that tone control knob cut the middle pickup off and on. Upward position is off. The pickups are all Seymour Duncan; Mini Humbucker in front, Hot Stack in middle, and Vintage Stack in bridge." āBrent Mason
Building The Limited-Edition Brent Mason Telecaster | Dream Factory | Fender
For more on the guitar and its story, I recommend watching the video about it.
So, what do we need for this wiring? We know the pickups, but we don't know exactly what's used for the electronics and how it's wired. Fender didn't release a wiring diagram for the signature model yet and Joe Glaser didn't publish anything about it. My diagram (Fig. 1 - scroll below) will work exactly as it should, but maybe the original guitar is wired slightly different. As you know, many roads lead to Rome.
I was able to find a photo of the wiring Fender did (Photo 1) and extracted a still shot of Brent's original guitar from the Fender video mentioned above (Photo 2).
Photo 1
Photo courtesy of FMIC
Photo 2
Photo courtesy of FMIC
On these two photos, we can clearly see:
- The push-pull pot is wired to switch the middle pickup on and off.
- All three pickups are wired for full humbucking functionality with both coils in series.
- No treble-bleed networks are used on the two volume pots.
- Mason still has the '67 original Sprague "Circle D" 0.05 uF high-voltage ceramic tone cap in his guitar.
This only leaves us with two unknown parameters: resistance of the three pots, and on/off wiring of the middle pickup. I think it's three 250k audio pots, but if you want a tad more high-end, using a 500k audio push-pull master tone pot is worth a try. I would use two 250k audio volume pots to benefit from the much better taper range compared to a 500k potāthe nature of the (passive) beast.
To activate or cut off the middle pickup there are two different ways: connecting the pickup to the switch or using a push/pull volume pot for the middle pickup. I decided to use the second version because when connecting the pickup directly to the switch, the volume pot stays connected to the circuit, adding some load to it, resulting in less high-end. Please note that the master tone pot will not work on the middle pickup when the master volume is not set to "10" (aka fully opened). When you start to roll down the volume, the middle pickup gets disconnected from the master tone, no matter if you switch the pickup itself or the volume potāthat's part of the game.
Fig. 1
To keep the wiring diagram (Fig. 1) as clean as possible, I showed all ground connections only with the international symbol for it rather than drawing several black wires through the diagram. I also only show two pickup wires (hot and ground) but keep in mind that these are humbuckers with a four-conductor wiring plus separate ground wire, so you'll have to solder some wires together to end up with only two pickup wires. The separate ground wire always goes directly to ground (casing of a pot, etc.) and assuming you're using Seymour Duncan pickups, you'll have to follow this color code:
- Black wire = hot output
- White and red wire are twisted together, soldered, and isolated
- Green wire = ground
For other pickups, you'll have to use the corresponding color code from the manufacturer. For single-coil pickups, you don't need to do all this.
Is this wiring perfect or are there any mods that can be done? At least it's perfect for Mason and his playing. If it's good enough for him, it should be good enough for all of us. But this is only half the truth.
If you have Brent's playing chops, you don't depend much on any equipment. Even with the cheapest, meanest, off-tuned junk guitar, Mason will sound much better than most of us. The better you play, the less you depend on equipment. It's absolutely okay and no sacrilege to mod this circuit to your personal needs. If you want to use the push-pull pot for splitting one of the pickups rather than switching the middle pickup on and off ... go for it! If you want to use treble-bleed networks for the volume pots or want to implement splitting for all three pickups, there's no law against doing so.
That's it for now. Next month we'll continue with our DIY relic'ing project.
Until then ... keep on modding!- Rig Rundown: Brent Mason [2021] - Premier Guitar āŗ
- First Look: Fender Brent Mason Telecaster - Premier Guitar āŗ
- The Telecaster Mod Guide - Premier Guitar āŗ
- Fender Esquire Basics - Premier Guitar āŗ
- Ultimate Broadway Nashville T-Style Guitar Build & Test - Premier Guitar āŗ
In this episode of 100 Guitarists, weāre talking all things surf rock, from reverb to tremolo picking and much more. And while āMisrlouā is undisputedly his most influential work, maybe Daleās best records didnāt come until a few decades later.
āAll the kids in all L.A. / Come to hear Dick Dale play,ā or so goes the title track from Dick Daleās Wrecking Crew-heavy 1963 album, King of the Surf Guitar. Immodest though it might seem to proclaim such a status, he was indeed at the top of the heap.
For many, Daleās legend precedes him. His sound, first heard in a So Cal beach ballroom, created the surf guitar vocabulary and transformed the guitar universe, starting with the 1962 release of his take on the traditional song āMisrlou.ā Ever the showman, he worked closely with Leo Fender developing the right gear for the gig as he played his ripping instrumentals to larger and larger audiences. He also inspired a Hendrix lyric and had a late-career renaissance thanks to Quentin Tarantino.
In this episode of 100 Guitarists, weāre talking all things surf rock, from reverb to tremolo picking and much more. And while āMisrlouā is undisputedly his most influential work, maybe Daleās best records didnāt come until a few decades later.
This episode is sponsored byTraveler Guitar.
Advanced
Intermediate
- Learn how to incorporate open strings all the way up the fretboard.
- Build velocity in your playing without practicing speed exercises.
- Discover an easy way to steal licks from the pros using YouTube.
Itās universally known in the guitar community that Brad Paisley isnāt just some guy that strums a guitar and sings country songs. Heās widely respected as one of the best players in the country music scene and takes an unusual approach to achieve the sonic insanity that spills out of his guitar. From Telecasters, G-benders, and cranked Dr. Z amps to instrumental records and wild guitar solos getting mainstream country radio airtime, Paisley has solidified his place in the discussion of all-time greats, and not just in the country world. In this lesson, weāll dive into one of the cornerstones of Bradās playing that makes him so unique: open strings.
A couple of prefaces:
Most of the licks in this lesson are exponentially easier when hybrid picked.
And in case you didnāt know, YouTube allows you to alter the speed of videos. This is a massive tool to take advantage of when learning licks, practicing them, and getting them up to speed. Simply click the Settings button in the bottom right corner of the video player and select Playback Speed. This will allow you to speed up or slow down the video to your liking without any changes to pitch. Transients will become an issue the farther away from the original speed you go, but not enough to keep you from slowing a solo down 50 percent to really learn and nail the nuances.
Weāll start by just dipping a toe in the water for Ex. 1, looking at a small part of the solo from Bradās song āTicks.ā This section is found at the 3:06 mark of the video below. Brad really likes to use open strings to provide color to licks, usually with the note falling outside of the established scale. This little nugget is entirely in the E major scale (EāF#āG#āAāBāC#āD#) with exception of the open 3rd string. The use of the open string throws a b3 into the mix, while making it feel faster with little added effort. If you were to play this lick at half speed, the open G string does not sound greatābut thatās the whole idea behind what Brad is able to do with open string licks. At tempo, the open string sounds like a natural inflection and the lick has more velocity than if it were omitted.
Ex. 1
Ticks
In Ex. 2 weāre still looking at the āTicksā solo but focusing on the back half. This entire section of the solo is a smorgasbord of open strings. The first phrase uses sliding and open strings to create an almost bouncy and circus feel. The use of the open G string allows Brad to travel up the fretboard with some very interesting flair. Then he uses the open 1st string in measure 2 to create momentum again, but in this instance, the open-string pull-offs fall inside the E major scale rather than acting as color tones. Itās much easier to connect this section of the lick to the previous by using the third finger to execute the bend and the fourth finger to start the new descending phrase. Lastly, Brad takes the solo home with a simple descending three-note-per-string pull-off lick that combines inside and outside notes.
Ex. 2
If youāve ever listened to Paisleyās āTime Warp,ā you know that itās a gold mine of licks to steal. In Ex. 3, Iām focusing on a lick Brad plays on the āLive on Lettermanā version, which occurs after the piano solo at the 1:23 mark in the video below. Itās worth noting that this is not the same line featured on the album version from Time Well Wasted. This lick is a perfect example of how Brad uses open strings to create velocity and really get going downhill at breakneck speeds. The lick is not overly complicated, but it is extremely fast, especially if you are new to hybrid picking. Iām playing it at roughly 75 percent speed so that the notes are intelligible and not just a blur. The lick is mostly based in the A Aeolian mode (AāBāCāDāEāFāG), with flatted second being the exception.
Ex. 3
Brad Paisley - Time Warp (Live on Letterman)
In this example (Ex. 4), we tackle a fantastic phrase from the solo to āWater.ā The lick Iām breaking down falls around the 1:43 mark in the YouTube video. Whatās so interesting is that while the song is in F major, Brad utilizes the open A, D, and G strings to navigate the fretboard vertically and create energy. My favorite thing about the descending pull-off section of this lick is that itās a tame bluegrass-style lick in G, but itās the placement of the lick over the chord changes that makes it sound interesting.
Ex. 4
Brad Paisley - Water
Ex. 5 is where things get really exciting. Itās from a live performance of āWaterā during the 2010 ACM awards. At the 3:40 mark Brad uses an open-string lick to build tension and work his way up the fretboard that caught my attention. As before, it sounds monstrous at tempo but really doesnāt make a ton of sense when slowed down. Itās a fairly simple pull-off lick that isnāt too difficult if youāre already used to hybrid picking, but it creates a ton of movement and excitement when sped up. Iām guilty of stealing both this lick and the idea behind it for āwowā moments in solos.
Ex. 5
Brad Paisley - Water (live ACM Awards 2010)
Itās undeniable how freakishly good of a guitar player Brad Paisley is (try grabbing some of the monster licks from the outro of āWaterā). Because of how many tricks he has up his sleeve, heās nearly impossible to replicate, but that doesnāt mean there isnāt something that everyone can take from Paisleyās bag of tricks. Use this concept of using open strings in unconventional places to add spice, speed, and mystique to your playing.
An easy guide to re-anchoring a loose tuning machine, restoring a ālostā input jack, refinishing dinged frets, and staunching a dinged surface. Result: no repair fees!
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Designed in close collaboration with the legendary guitarist, the Jackson Lee Malia LM-87 is built for shredding. Its blend of vintage vibe and high-performance features make this signature model a must-have for players who value commanding metal tone and smooth playability.
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