Extra selector switch above standard 3-way pickup selector (?)

[Strangethinline]

Hi Charles and all,

Just received last night an El Degas Tele Thinline I won online recently, and noticed that it has an extra 2-way mini selector switch above the usual stock pickup switch. Didn’t even notice in the photos.

Has anyone seen or owned these? If so, is it a phase switch, extra tone control, etc.? It doesn’t appear to function at the moment or be a post-factory modification based on first glance; haven’t opened it up yet to dig around inside and see how much could use replacement. Just wondering if anyone else has one or an approximate year on it since it seems to be an oddball compared to all the others posted online.

Hope to take it apart this weekend and start working on it. Can report updates/photos if helpful. Also, if any recommendations are out there for best electronics/hardware to use for rebuilding, I’d appreciate it!

[charles]

Neither of my ED Tele thinlines have any extra switches. If this is the H/H version (dual humbuckers) I wonder if someone added a coil tap or phase switch? Coil taps were pretty popular in that era to get a single coil sound out of humbuckers.

I seem to remember, way in the back of my brain, of once hearing a rumor that a shop in Canada that sold ED's was offering additional options such as coil taps and such as an upsell option when you bought an El Degas but this is only hearsay (plus I could be completely misremembering) so take it with a huge grain of salt! In either case, I would bet this was not a factory/stock option and was added either at time of purchase or afterwards.

[charles]

As for hardware, watch out for sizing. A lot of Fender USA parts may not fit without modification due to these instruments coming out of Japan and using parts utilizing the metric system. Your mileage may vary!

Definitely keep us posted and share photos if you can, it's very helpful! (Host images on a photo sharing site such as Imgur and post the img links in your posts, let me know if you need help)

[Strangethinline]

Thanks much! It’s the standard single coil at both neck and bridge, so we’ll see what’s going on under there. Hope to have it opened up in the coming days (will share photos).

Thanks again.

[charles]

Huh! Interesting. I'm interested to see what it is. I would hazard a guess that a phase switch is most likely but who knows!

[Strangethinline]

Hi Charles and all,

Here’s a few photos of the upside of the pickguard and underbelly. Looking at the engravings and build on the old switch base in question, looks to be a DPDT, guessing for phasing / series-parallel fun. The wiring coming from this switch is lazily hand-wrapped to its next connection with no solder; thinking this is why it seems not to function.

The electronics are very dirty and looks to be a bunch of glue tacked in there, going to clean it up soon and start working on it.

https://flic.kr/p/2n7nGxp

https://flic.kr/p/2n7o7MU

https://flic.kr/p/2n7qSBW

[Barry]

I've had a thinline Tele on my wish list for a long time, so congratulations.
But yuk! At least it looks like it's not a recent mod!

The connection points do look as if they have been "stabilized" with some sort of glue stick adhesive. Not a bad idea (it protects against moisture and corrosion). But of course, it presupposes that the connection was correct in the first place eh?!

I don't know about the connection points to the rest of the circuit components but that bare wire is the ground and it's hard to see if it's solidly connected. A crappy ground can cause all sorts of things to malfunction.

I would start my trouble shooting there.

[Strangethinline]

Appreciate your thoughts. Looking forward to testing the connection points and cleaning it up a bit. From what I could get out of the pickups as-is from sweet spots on the pickup selector, it sounds great already.