Prototype Tone Circuit Diagram

[Jellyfish]

My mate back in the UK is designing and building a custom guitar and wants to make it stand out from the crowd.  One of the suggestions I've made to him is to ressurect the tone circuit that was used in the Prototype.... While I'm pretty sure this wasn't a totally original idea, I don't know of any other production guitar that had this type of tone circuit - either before or since.

Now, I could try to trace the circuit from my Proto (which has untouched wiring), but that might not be 100% accurate and would probably involve removing pots etc...  As a more reliable alternative, does anyone here have a copy of the original circuit diagram?

[velorush]

It's nothing revolutionary. It's a two-pickup / master volume / master tone circuit.  The innovation was putting the "neck" pickup in the same bezel as the bridge pickup. 

Here's SD's 'buckered-bridge Tele diagram. 

The differences would be:

1. Proximity of the pickups (obviously)
2. Toggle switch rather than blade switch
3. Use of 500k pots rather than 250k
4. Use of Hamer's 0.015 μF cap rather than the pictured 0.04 μF cap

 

[Jellyfish]

Thanks for this Jeff.

Actually, the Proto tone control *is* somewhat revolutionary.  The "flat" setting is with the tone knob at 5.  Turning down from there rolls off treble as you would expect, but turning up provides a high-mid boost of sorts.

This design didn't catch on.  And since 30+ years have past, the peculiar nature of the Proto's tone control may not be widely understood. I think this why the Proto has a repuation (undeserved) for being overly bright, even brash - because players used to a more conventional tone control leave it set permanently at "10".

[velorush]

Item 4 of my "differences would be" is specifically why the Hamer tone circuit is different (i.e., "5" on the knob being normal).