Freeway Switch 3B3-01 Black Barrel Tip

The Freeway 3B3-01 switch gives you three extra tonalities. I fitted one of these switches to my American Telecaster and it has transformed the guitar. Positions 1,2 and 3function like a normal 3 way switch i.e Position 1-Bridge pickup.2-Bridge/Neck in parallel. 3-Neck.By pushing the the switch slightly across you hear an audible click which gives you access to the other pickup combinations. Position 4- both pickups in parallel out of phase. Position 5- both pickups in series out of phase. Position 6- both pickups in series in phase.These switches are easily fitted if you have basic soldering and wiring skills. Wiring diagrams can be easily obtained from the Freeway website.

I've always been a fan of multiple switches and tonal options in my guitars, and when I found out about this switch, I wanted to install this to my traditional tele with single coils. I loved the idea of having multiple switching options without altering the looks of your guitar.

Installation is quite easy as solder sticks easily to the pads on the switch. The switch is larger than I expected though, not much larger than a traditional switch on most Fender MIM/MIA guitars but if your guitar has a smaller PCB style switch, make sure the cavity can fit this.

The switch has two banks, first has the regular positions and the second bank has the extra positions. Out of the extra positions, the series position (like a humbucker) was the most important for me, the other two extra positions are series reverse phase and parallel reverse phase. A four way switch can be used to achieve the series tone as well, but two extra tonal options without push-pull pots etc. are welcome. Whether they're useful is up to you and I recommend listening to a demo before buying.

My biggest complaint however, is that the switch feels a bit flimsy to use when switching between the positions in a bank. It's easy to miss the middle position if you're quickly switching pickups, since the switch doesn't quickly snap to position. The stock switch in my MIM Fender tele felt significantly better.

If you're looking mostly to add the series option, I'd get a four way switch instead, but the extra tonal options this switch offers still makes it worth it if you're going to use them.

I fitted this Freeway switch into my .strandberg* Boden Original 6, which as stock was setup with dual humbuckers and a five way switch. The standard setup didn't include both humbuckers, or the split bridge humbucker, and the diagram provided by Freeway (on their website) made this a doddle to change over (far fewer contacts to manage too!).

Now I have the following options:
Lower Position 1: Neck Humbucker
Lower Position 2: Both Humbuckers
Lower Position 3: Bridge Humbucker

Upper Position 1: Neck Coil Tapped, Outer Coil
Upper Position 2: Neck and Bridge Coil Tapped, Outer Coils
Upper Position 3: Bridge Coil Tapped, Outer Coil

It physically seems to be quite large, mainly because it's boxy, but it's actually a slightly better fit in the Boden's cavity than the original super-style switch (which barely fit to the extent that contacts could short on the cavity cover!), as it's slightly lower.

The main thing to watch for when fitting is that the slot for the blade is wide enough to allow the sideways motion to change between 'bank 1' and 'bank 2', or 'upper' and 'lower'.

All in all, it's a great quality switch that's easy to wire, if quite expensive.