Flatline Telecaster Switch Review

By Pappy

Flatline Guitars is a company out of Washington that has been specializing in high-quality guitars for years, but has recently expanded its offerings by selling custom parts to help customize your guitar to a higher level. Examples include pre-wired pickguards for your Strat or Strat-inspired guitars, custom neck plates, and (my favorite) Telecaster control plates.

See, Flatline is known for tweaking the classic recipes of guitars to make them better for the modern player, but my favorite tweak belongs to the Delta guitar - their Tele-inspired guitar. It features volume and tone knobs like you know and love, but Rick and co. at Flatline swapped out the blade switch for a toggle and the world suddenly made more sense. As much as I love the Tele, I would argue that the blade switch wasn’t the best choice because it goes against your hand’s normal motion when you’re playing guitar. Instead of easily flicking your fingers and switching to the bridge or reaching a bit to pull up and move to the neck you have to run perpendicular to the motion that you were already doing when you were playing. I know that it’s tradition and all that, but there has to a come a time when we throw off the shackles of tradition just because that is how it’s always been done. The toggle makes sense, I got used to it VERY quickly, and moving back to a blade switch seems inefficient and cumbersome.

Because of this, I was pretty excited when Flatline announced these control plates and was even MORE excited when they said they were offering pre-wired control plates. I don’t mind wiring Telecasters - it’s not that hard - but I was excited at the idea of just a couple of solder points, a couple of screws and then I can go right to playing.

Flatline sent me two control plates: one was blank, drilled for two knobs, a toggle, and two mounting screws, and the other control plate was all wired up and ready to go. The blank one is made for the people that want to choose/buy/install their own preferred parts, while the pre-wired one is made for folks like me who just want to play as soon as possible. If you choose the blank one to use your own parts in it, Flatline has free wiring plans on their website to show you where each wire goes. They even have two wiring options so you can choose which one strikes your fancy more (I like the Delta 90 wiring). If you order the pre-wired one, it’s as easy as looking at the same wiring diagram and soldering your positive and negative pickup leads and bolting in your new (included) output jack.

That’s it.

I did have a slight issue with my installation where I had to modify my pickguard, but this was because Fender drilled the control plate holes way off-center, not because of anything Flatline did. Other than that, installation was a breeze and I was playing in under ten minutes.

The blank control plate costs $15.00 and the pre-wired control plate will set you back $75.00, but I definitely think it’s worth it. The only thing the pre-wired control plate DOESN’T come with are knobs, but I think it’s a smart move since everyone has their own preference in knobs so why bother increasing the price for knobs you may or may not dig?

Overall, I think it’s a brilliant way to upgrade your Tele and give it that boutique feel without having to give up your favorite guitar or spend the same amount you would on a boutique guitar. The toggle not only makes more sense, is more efficient, and clean-looking, but it’s an easy way to set your guitar apart from the sea of similar-looking Teles out there.

For more information or to order yours, be sure to click HERE.