Bought a 2001 68 Reissue...HACK job wiring

[Shockwave]

Hey guys, first post...Need some serious help here.

Bought my 01 68 reissue on Wednesday, I knew the wiring was FUBAR'd but i bought it anyway, long story short i have all the guts out of the guitar right now with new pots and caps coming in tomorrow.

GIBSON LES PAUL WIRING KIT - DELUXE! - eBay (item 150373616927 end time Mar-15-10 19:23:57 PDT)


anyway here are some pics of the thing this guy or whoever it was was trying to accomplish!

So i have everything out of it right now, i have not rewired any pickups in years and the toggle switch is confusing the hell out of me.

One side has 3 terminals...where does each of them go

one side has 1 terminal...where does it go??


I ask this because i have seen a few different diagrams that show the terminal that is by itself on one side goes to the input jack. Then on other diagrams i see the input jack gets wired to the middle terminal on the side that has three of them.

Either way it seems i am left over with a 4th wire that is braided and has no where to go coming from the switch???

I have looked at the diagrams here also just FYI
thanks for any help!

 

[BCRGreg]

The one by itself is ground.

The three tabs are inputs with an output in the center.

 

[dynabite]

 

[Shockwave]

The one by itself is ground.

The three tabs are inputs with an output in the center.

so never mind the core inside the braided wire? Just ground the braid to a pot and that it?

 

[lukemacauley]

so never mind the core inside the braided wire? Just ground the braid to a pot and that it?

No, the core in the wire is used as your "hot", which you will solder to lugs. The braid itself is used for a ground.

 

[Shockwave]

No, the core in the wire is used as your "hot", which you will solder to lugs. The braid itself is used for a ground.

Yes I I know, I was talking about the side with the one terminal that you said was ground only. Currently there is a braided wire with core hooked up to that. That's why I said just ground it

 

[lukemacauley]

There's no need for your ground to be braided wire, it's easier to use normal wire and ground it to the braided wire.

 

[Shockwave]

Any local places carry the braided wire? I should probably just replace r all coming from the toggle anyway.

 

[lukemacauley]

I'd just order a pre-wired toggle switch from RS Guitar Works if I was you. Save you a lot of hassle. Or any electronics store/guitar website should have it.

 

[jonesy]

Here are a couple of wiring diagrams for vintage 50's style wiring. I would just pull that mess out of there and start from scratch. If you need some 500K CTS pots and some decent paper in oil caps or a pre-wired switch and 50's harness let me know?

 

[lukemacauley]

Jonesy's also very helpful and a great guy, his rigs also have that extra bit of mojo. I went with a 50's rig, and never looked back.

 

[Shockwave]

so i got all new pots and caps in today, solder it all up and im getting no sound out of the neck pup

 

[lukemacauley]

Check the wiring on the switch. Then check no ground connections are touching any of the live lugs on the pots and the switch.

The switch is probably the culprit, it's always the bloody switch...

 

[Shockwave]

Check the wiring on the switch. Then check no ground connections are touching any of the live lugs on the pots and the switch.

The switch is probably the culprit, it's always the bloody switch...

the switch worked before all this, needless to say now i am getting no sound anywhere. Somethings gone wrong...

 

[lukemacauley]

You're obviously grounding a live connection. If you see nothing in the cavity then it's the switch. I don't care if it was working before, it ain't working now.

Pictures would be helpful too.

 

[jonesy]

the switch worked before all this, needless to say now i am getting no sound anywhere. Somethings gone wrong...

Check all your braided runs where the black cloth hot lead comes out of the braided shield. What happens many times is the braided melts into the hot lead after a bunch of re-solders and creates a direct short at that point.

Un-solder it, and snip off the end if it is long enough, then push back the braid and re-solder both connections. Make sure there is at least 1/4" distance between braided ground and hot center lead connections. Try the neck pickup wire where it connects to the volume pot and also switch run to neck volume. Bet there is a dead short in one or both of them?

 

[Shockwave]

Check all your braided runs where the black cloth hot lead comes out of the braided shield. What happens many times is the braided melts into the hot lead after a bunch of re-solders and creates a direct short at that point.

Un-solder it, and snip off the end if it is long enough, then push back the braid and re-solder both connections. Make sure there is at least 1/4" distance between braided ground and hot center lead connections. Try the neck pickup wire where it connects to the volume pot and also switch run to neck volume. Bet there is a dead short in one or both of them?

thanks, ive about had it here, spend 2200 on a guitar that i cant even play. The soldering of everything went just fine and looked pretty good after i was done. Then nothing worked at all...Then the bridge pickup worked by itself, then out of nowhere it just cuts out and then comes back in(after a good 5 minutes of playing around with wires, when it is working i can jiggle all the wires a bit and it does not cut out, then out of the blue its gone again. When the bridge pickup is working i can go to the middle position of the toggle switch and it will not cut out until i roll back the volume on the neck pickup, which leads me to believe the neck pickup is at least wired correctly... Im giving up for tonight, a 1hr project has turned into 4hrs now and no progress at all.

 

[jonesy]

thanks, ive about had it here, spend 2200 on a guitar that i cant even play. The soldering of everything went just fine and looked pretty good after i was done. Then nothing worked at all...Then the bridge pickup worked by itself, then out of nowhere it just cuts out and then comes back in(after a good 5 minutes of playing around with wires, when it is working i can jiggle all the wires a bit and it does not cut out, then out of the blue its gone again. When the bridge pickup is working i can go to the middle position of the toggle switch and it will not cut out until i roll back the volume on the neck pickup, which leads me to believe the neck pickup is at least wired correctly... Im giving up for tonight, a 1hr project has turned into 4hrs now and no progress at all.

Yeah been there done that many times it get's very frustrating. Sounds like it's time to take a break from it for a while.

 

[Shockwave]

after dinking around again and getting nothing im just going to order a new switch and input jack and take it from there. Also can i replace the braided from the pickups? The ends are getting to be a mess from going back and forth a few times, cant really cut anymore off either, i would just like to replace the wire all the way to the pickup. Also, is there anyway to wire a pickup directly to one pickup to the input jack without the toggle switch. I just want to make sure both pups are still working!!

 

[jonesy]

after dinking around again and getting nothing im just going to order a new switch and input jack and take it from there. Also can i replace the braided from the pickups? The ends are getting to be a mess from going back and forth a few times, cant really cut anymore off either, i would just like to replace the wire all the way to the pickup. Also, is there anyway to wire a pickup directly to one pickup to the input jack without the toggle switch. I just want to make sure both pups are still working!!

I just replied to your email.

You can replace braided wire on pu's but it is a bit tricky and you risk damaging your pu's in the process.

Just wire an input jack to the end of one of your pu's lead if you want to check to see if it is working and plug in patch cord. Or use a multimeter to check ohm reading for each pu?