Semihollow f-hole wiring/re-puping project

[alathIN]

I got a sweet deal on a pair of Seth Lovers for my Ibanez AS73 (semihollow, their incarnation of an ES335)

Knowing that wiring f-hole semihollows is a bit of a hassle, I am hoping to only do this job once.

Option one: Sort of tepmted to pull the existing PUPs out and splice the Seth Lovers wires in to the existing wiring, thus leaving the pots and switch and the stuff that's annoying to get at alone.
But then I'm thinking, if I am spending money and hassle to get better tone, bodge-y wiring is probably the last thing I want.

Option two: take everything out and re-do it all. If I go this route, I'm tempted to replace the pots and switch and wire and everything - in accordance with my "do the job only once" doctrine.

Quesitons:
1. Is option one really as dumb as I think it is?
2. do I really need to replace the pots? I've heard people on forums say the stock Ibanez ones aren't that great and it's worthwhile to replace them. Others say they're fine, leave them alone. I'm certainly not noticing any problems with them so far.
3. If I do replace the pots, what should I get? Also, long/short shaft, split/solid shaft - what do I need?
4. Is it being overly anal to replace the wires too? If I do replace the wire, what should I get?

Background: I've rewired electric guitars before - about 32 years ago - but never a semihollow. I do a lot of work on my house, car, bikes, etc, so I'm generally pretty adept with most projects - I can almost always get through a job pretty well, especially if I catch a few YouTube videos. But if you have any tips/tricks/advice on how to do the job (or, if it's one of those things that a pro can do at low cost and I'm dumb to mess with it) I'd be interested to know.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Semihollow f-hole wiring/re-puping project

You'll know what shaft length you'll need when they're out, but if you can measure the thickness of the top at the f-hole, that should give you an idea which ones to order.
The beauty of long-shafts is that you can make them shorter by adding another nut on the underside if it turns out you do need short-shaft.

I'd suggest a spool of string. Tie some tightly around the shafts of each pot before removing their top nuts. When you remove them, tie the string to the new pots and pull them through.
Multiple spools of various colors would probably keep it organized better.

I don't imagine the jack would need replacing, however, the ground wire for the pots is on it. If you can remove it first by pulling it out the side, then you can tie a string around its contact arms or even the collar.

As long as everything was out, I'd look into setting up some sort of quick-connect for the pickups, so if you ever wanted to change them again, you simply unplug them. However, if you ever needed to replace a pot, then you would need to break out the string again.

I'd also recommend TripleShots for the pickups. You may never need splitting/phasing, but if you do, they're there, and it's easier to monkey them into a 335-type than wrangling push-pulls with all the little jumpers snapping off while you fidget with them.


It's my understanding that Jackson used a wire coat hanger to insert the pots into their Jazz'R models, since they had no control cavity covers, either.

 

[alathIN]

Re: Semihollow f-hole wiring/re-puping project

I like the string suggestion.

I was just reading the SD article about 50s wiring, and if I go through their list of "If you like X, you will probably like vintage," I'm a 'yes' on 3 of the 4, and a 'not sure' on the 4th.
So I'm thinking I should try this. It looks like all you have to do is switch one tail of the capacitor (or whatever thing) that runs between the volume and tone pots to a different prong - or am I missing something?

What is a TripleShot?

For quick disconnect - I have some spade connectors I could solder on, then wrap in tape or shrink-y stuff to insulate them. In fact I think I also have some inline crimp connectors that have a nylon insulating jacket. They're just regular hardware store grade stuff, not like gold plated hyper OCD audio geek type things. Probably good enough?

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Semihollow f-hole wiring/re-puping project

As long as it's not chewing gum wrapper, it'll make a good connection. Actually, chewing gum wrapper might do well. Depends on the metallic content. Household tin foil will work in a pinch, though you can't solder it.
Old PCs are a great resource for connectors, so long as you can get the pickup wires to stay.
They worked well enough to put men on the moon, they're good enough for electrical geetars.

Seymour Duncan TripleShots are humbucker mounting rings with 2 micro-switches on them which allow you to select the three primary operations of a 4-conductor humbucker: series, split to either coil, and parallel with another pickup. Probably the greatest thing to come along since the humbucker itself.

Can't say I know anything about the difference between 50's wiring and running the capacitor only across the Tone pot lugs. I've done it both ways, as I've seen it done both ways in diagrams, but I've never made any clinical comparisons.
If you wanted to get super-experimental, you could wire the capacitor to a push-pull so you could make it switch between either wiring style.


I've never actually rewired a semi-hollow, but I'm assuming the ideal re-assembly method would be to mount the bridge pickup to the body, then feed those wires up through the neck pickup cavity to wire it to the toggle switch, then with the neck pickup and pots and switch and jack all wired up (don't forget the ground wires!), feed everything into the body through the neck pickup cavity, pulling the strings for each piece to get them in place.

Is this the type with the big round screwed-on pad on the back of the body? I always wondered what was under that, like maybe a hole big enough to work in?

 

[alathIN]

Re: Semihollow f-hole wiring/re-puping project

Is this the type with the big round screwed-on pad on the back of the body? I always wondered what was under that, like maybe a hole big enough to work in?

Nope. It's all woodwork on the back. The only access is through the f-holes.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Semihollow f-hole wiring/re-puping project

"that's going to chafe my willy" lol

Well, good luck with it.

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Semihollow f-hole wiring/re-puping project

Two minor contributions:
It is not crazy to splice into the existing wiring. I have done a few that way over the years and it works just fine.
Second, if you do replace the pots & wires you will have much better luck getting them out and back in through the pickup hole rather than the f-hole.