A beginner's guide...

Yesterday I swapped out the electrics on my tele and installed a 4-way thingamabob. You guys make it sound so easy, but I thought I’d remind you what it’s like for a beginner.

I had done similar on my LP about 3 or 4 years ago, and it’s taken this long for the trauma to subside to a level that I’m prepared to have another go. Previous to that I put together a kit amp about 20 years ago, which worked fine until it decided to put on a fireworks display in the middle of a gig, this presumably being a feature that wasn’t mentioned in the kit instructions. Some people would have seen this as a challenge, a means of furthering their knowledge and skills...I quietly put away my soldering iron and resolved to be a better person if him upstairs would stop things blowing up near me.

If you have never waved a soldering iron in anger, then maybe the following will help:

1. Clear space on desk, put soft towel over it and place tele face down.
2. Wonder where the access plate for the controls is.
3. Turn tele the other way up, and realise that I’m an idiot.
4. Loosen strings so that I can take off the scratchplate, then decide to stop dickin’ around and remove strings completely.
5. Remove scratchplate.
6. Spot almost immediately that the controls that I’m about to swap have nothing to do with the scratchplate, and realise that I’m an idiot.
7. Replace scratchplate.
8. Restring, so that when I have triumphantly succeeded in my task, I will be able to test things out immediately.
9. Realise that I’m back where I started, sigh, have a cup of tea.
10. While sipping tea, sit looking at guitar.
11. Remember reading somewhere about the use of visualisation by top athletes to improve their performance, so decide to give it a go. Imagine removing the control plate, and then...realise I’ve no idea what it looks like in there, so stop mucking around with all this visualisation nonsense and finish my cuppa.
12. Remove control plate and have a look at all the electrical gubbins inside.
13. Feel faint.
14. Close eyes and visit my happy place until I stop feeling faint.
15. Remembering what happened when I replaced the electrics in my LP, get a camera and take a few shots of electrical gubbins.
16. Remove knobs and suchlike from the pots and switch, and then unscrew said items from control plate.
17. Panic slightly when I realise that the arrangement of the switch and pots to be replaced is opposite to that on my wiring diagram, i.e. on my diagram the switch is on the left, whereas on my tele it’s on the right.
18. Get a bit confused working out my right from my left, consider getting a mirror to reverse the diagram, try standing on my head (not sure why, but it cleared up my sinuses), and feel myself moving towards the “running round in circles flapping my arms” stage.
19. Have a cup of tea.
20. Look at the detached control plate, and decide to screw on all my new electrical gubbins.
21. Find out that the holes are too small for the new pots to go through, as are the holes for the switch screws.
22. Say a rude word.
23. Go to the website I bought the new stuff from and see clearly where they say that the holes on CIJ teles are smaller than the American replacements I’ve bought.
24. Wonder why my brain totally failed to register this when I bought the stuff, and say another rude word.
25. Having once watched an episode of American Chopper, I realise that I could enlarge the holes using a drill “thing”. Impressed with my ingenuity, visit the local DIY store.
26. Spend 10 minutes looking at a large wall-display full of drill stuff. That’s 10 minutes of my life spent in total, unproductive confusion. An assistant takes pity on me and asks if I need help, and I briefly wonder if I could persuade him to come home and do my soldering. He finds the bit I need, and so the hunter returns home with his catch.
27. Drilling the holes is remarkably uneventful. In fact I would say that I am happy with my hole enlargement drilling skillset, and will use it at any and all opportunity. I am positively looking forward to next seeing a hole that is slightly too small for its purpose and being able to say “I have just the thing...”
28. Affix the new gubbins to the control plate and get out the soldering iron to desolder the old stuff.
29. Feel faint.
30. Place the soldering iron against the earth wires at the back of one of the old pots and wait for the solder to melt.
31. Wait some more.
32. Have a bit more of a wait.
33. Get tired of waiting and test soldering iron with thumb. Realise soldering iron isn’t plugged in, say rude word, and plug it in
34. Back to waiting for the solder to melt. Get a sense of deja vu, wonder if the fuse has blown, and test soldering iron with thumb.
35. Scream. Seek medical attention.
36. 2 tubs of savlon later unsolder all connections.
37. Follow wiring instructions to the letter, checking and rechecking all the time. Removing all possible chances for error, I meticulously go step-by-step through the wiring process, only burning myself twice more, and nearly setting fire to my hair when scratching my head while holding the soldering iron
38. Notice that the wiring diagram has an extra wire in it coming from the neck pickup. Why hasn’t mine got that? Is it necessary? Maybe it’s the mojo wire? Maybe that’s why my playing sounds crap?
39. Come to the forum and find out that it’s an earth lead that I have to add.
40. Which means removing the scratchplate.
41. And the strings.
42. Again.
43. Say another rude word and get on with it.
44. Finally, finished! I look upon the work and it is good. The solders a bit blobby in places, but considering that soldering is obviously designed for people with three hands, and I have only two, I’m satisfied with the result.
45. Replace strings (not scratchplate, just in case I have to fiddle some more with the pickup).
46. Plug in a cord and listen to the happy sound of bees and wasps and things buzzing in my amp. The bees get louder when I touch the strings, obviously a warning to stay away from the guitar.
47. Say a rude word.
48. Spend 30 minutes going over the wiring, all the time confirming that it’s identical to the diagram. Go on the interweb and look for other diagrams, but they all come up the same.
49. Have a cup of coffee (the equivalent of having a cup of tea and rolling your sleeves up).
50. Find out, after a process of experimentation, that the buzzing goes away if the volume pot is on full, and the tone pot is on its bassiest. Move either of them and it’s back to buzz city. Feel sure that this is significant, but haven’t a clue why.
51. Wonder if I can get by without using the volume/tone pots.
52. On a whim, swap the wires at the output jack socket.
53. Plug in the cord to the amp and experience a sense of almost complete nirvana. No buzzing. Grinning from ear to ear I strum the strings. No noise.
54. Realise the amp is turned off.
55. Run out of rude words to say.
56. Turn the amp on and reattain nirvana. All is well with the world, and I hurry to reassemble the guitar before the gods realise that its working. (Find out that my old switch tip doesn’t fit (too small), but I consider that this, in the great scheme of things, is a mere trifle)

So, sorry for the long ramble, but this is exactly how it happened. I took a long afternoon to do what most of you guys could complete in 20 minutes, but I got there in the end. Anyone out there who hasn’t tried this: give it a go. If I can do it...:ola

You're done magnificently, Timbo. Thank you for sharing the odyssey.

Whew my head hurts from all the reading..:D Great job!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Timbo

27. Drilling the holes is remarkably uneventful.

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Good thing. If you don't use clamps and things, it's pretty easy to take off a finger drilling sheet stock.

Congrats! :salud:

That was the funniest thing I've read in some time. If you're not a humorist, you should be.

Thanks for the yarn, and congrats on the succesfull journey. I suggest (urge, in fact) you follow up in the next week with another wiring project to help your brain retain some of the details.

This time use a friend's guitar, just make sure he's not present.

57. Clay wonders why his Nashville is still stock.
58. Clay tries to remember what sort of pups are in it. And which ones he thought he'd try.
59. Clay says rude word.
60. Clay switches from coffee to tea.
61. Clay rolls sleeves down.
62. Clay avoids mirrors.



:appl:

Sorry for laughing at you!

It actually sounds like it went well. You didn't break anything and ended up with a new tool that you look forward to using again.

Installing a 4-way switch in a Tele is not a beginner's job. Well, not a beginner's first job anyway.

Wait until you decide to install a middle pickup along with a 5-way "Super Mega Ultra Switches" with twice as many poles on it.

Thanks for sharing.

He, he, NOW you now why I only play Esquires.

LOL! that is great (not to mention WAY too close to home :wah: )
What they said about being a humorist!!!
I also did notice you used quite a few technical terms in there, 'gubbins,' f'rinstance.

Now had it been me, I would most likely have begun the job and stopped several times during the process to think it over even more. Once I became comfortable with the whole string removal/reapplication thing after about 10 or 20 trys, I might begin looking for a screwdriver to tackle the next part.

That is the funniest thing I have read in a long time. And just having done the exact same thing to my MIJ Tele, I knew EXACTLY what you were going through almost every step of the way. I didn't have the soldering problems, but none of the stuff fit, and I had to go looking for the right drill bits and a new tip, etc. I already had a drill press, so that wasn't a problem. You didn't mention that the old knobs do not fit on the 1/4 inch shafts of the new pots! I went and got a set of 1/4 inch shaft knobs (along with a new switch tip), and then decided $20 was too much to spend on them, so I reamed the old knobs out to 1/4, after all I had to ream the mounting holes, too.
FWIW, I had a lot more trouble doing an RS kit in my Les Paul. Easy enough to do about 1/2 the wiring outside the guitar, but at some point, you have to install it and finish up inside what has to be the tightest quarters ever. If I had designed that guitar in the 50s, I'd have made the cavity a tad bigger just for the elbow room :)
Great story, and well told! That should be in someone's book.

Heh, thanks guys :hi:

Now, cover me 'cos I'm going back in :confused:

Going to try a different wiring diagram I found here on the forum, see what it sounds like.

(Addictive this, innit :spin:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Timbo

(Addictive this, innit :spin:)

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Why yes. Now, tell me, have you ever considered building an 'amplifier'?

Ha ha, it's a slippery, slippery slope!

they should *sticky* this thread

i'm always wary when someone says "Just ____"

That's a very good description of the "first time inside."

Since you're going back in, you'll probably discover what I did: the first time you're a bumbling nerd who should never try this again, but the second time, you're suddenly an old hand.

I'd convinced myself that I should never rewire anything becuase my soldering in high school shop was so heinous. Thanks to TFF (the Charles Atlas of guitar forums), I got so good I recently soldered all the balanced-line XLR wall plates in my studio myself, and they look like they were done at the factory.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Timbo

9. Realise that I’m back where I started, sigh, have a cup of tea.
10. While sipping tea, sit looking at guitar.
...
19. Have a cup of tea.

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This tea you mention, never heard mention of it in other repair stories. Does Stewmac or Radio Shack sell this?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Timbo

27... I am positively looking forward to next seeing a hole that is slightly too small for its purpose and being able to say “I have just the thing...”

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:laughing:

http://images.google.com/images?q=tb...tea-rutles.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NeoFauve

This tea you mention, never heard mention of it in other repair stories. Does Stewmac or Radio Shack sell this?

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StewMac must.... It's the substance used to artificially age plastic Strat parts. I never heard of anyone drinking it!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gravity Jim

StewMac must.... It's the substance used to artificially age plastic Strat parts. I never heard of anyone drinking it!

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Perhaps this explains how amusing Timbo is.

the whole thing reminds me of when i was a kid of 13. My sister got a flat in her 64 impala. She doesn't know how to fix a flat, let alone use a jack. So I HAD to help her. I set up the bumper-jack in the middle of the wheelwell and jacked up the car!....lol....well, it raised the car (old iron!), but for the hell of us, we couldn't figure out how to remove the tire b/c the jack was right in front of the tire. :laughing:

Well, that's that done.

I'm minded of the words of my grandfather: "If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well". He obviously never thought to apply this to soldering or he would obviously have added: "unless it's soldering, in which case give it your best shot and hope nobody notices. Or blows up".

I'd seen the volume-lowering-without-treble-loss mod posted by Fez, which involves moving one wire. One wire, I ask you. To a man of my experience!

I laid the tele on the desk (right way up - my mother didn't raise no fool. Except for my youngest brother, but seeing as he was mainly raised by chickens that doesn't count). I removed the control plate and gazed upon my work of the day before.

Jim talks above of how, after the first time, you are no longer the bumbling initiate and instead become the master, and this is true. I looked fondly upon the work my younger self had completed, and chuckled softly, gently shaking my head at the folly of youth. I found it hard to believe that it was my hands that had fumbled so ineptly, and thought long about the journey of life I had taken since. If only I could travel back, past the mists of time, to provide wisdom and guidance, to encourage and explain, or at the very least to prevent the testing of the soldering iron with the tip of the thumb...

But no, I had a job to do here. I needed to move that wire, from there to there. I plugged in my soldering iron and left for the kitchen, to roll my sleeves up and have a cup of tea (which is the equivalent of having a cup of coffee).

I returned to my office just in time to see my favourite potted plant burst into flames, having neglected to check that the soldering iron wasn't resting against anything flammable. Many rude words were said, but at least the tea came in handy putting out the fire. I cleaned up the desk, and wiped the soldering iron clean with a dry cloth, in the process giving myself what I estimate to be 3rd degree burning on the palm of my hand.

I'm thinking of learning a second language to get a new stock of rude words.

The actual soldering went flawlessly (as one would expect), and I am pleased with the sound of the guitar (once it is turned up loudly enough to drown out my whimpering).

It has been worth it, but I feel that enough is enough, and I should now just shut up and play my guitar :Banjo: