The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary

View Poll Results: I could _predictably_ just about install or replace

Voters
83. You may not vote on this poll
  • no electronic part at all

    24 28.92%
  • a pot or a cap

    6 7.23%
  • a pickup selector switch

    2 2.41%
  • all innards from individual parts

    39 46.99%
  • a self-configured superswitch

    12 14.46%
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  1. #1

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    As far as I am concerned, I can replace a pot alright and won't burn my fingers on a soldering iron, but then I'm sort of unhappy about my mental response on unscrewing a Tele control plate wanting to fit a pull-push pot in there.

    Aside from the poll here, have there been any specific ego-boosters in your lives enabling you to overcome this kind of reluctance to deal with a tangle of wires?

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  3. #2
    Don't know about ego boosters. I've just always enjoyed trying different configurations, while at the same time not being able to afford paying for a tech. So I've just been forced to learn how do it myself. Trial and error, accept that every atempt won't be perfect, and whenever I've had the chance to speak with a professional, I've tried to either ask for advice, or observe how they work. It's come to a point when I finally think I can do decent soldering and set ups.

    One suggestion is to buy a couple of pedal kits to put together. It's great practice, and most of all fun, even when they don't turn out as good as you hoped.

  4. #3

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    No.

  5. #4

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    I know how to use a soldering iron to do basic repairs, but I don’t know that much about electronics so I wouldn’t attempt anything too fancy.

    Not long ago I managed to source and replace all the tone and volume pots on my old Ibanez Artist solid-body, so I was quite pleased about that. Mind you that guitar has excellent access to the wiring, a backplate comes off and it’s all open for you to get at it. I wouldn’t like to try doing it on an archtop, fishing around through the pickup holes or something.

    A few years ago I managed to solder a new wire inside the reverb tank in my Fender Twin and get it working again, that was a satisfying repair. I was amazed at how thin the original wire was, it was like a human hair, no wonder it broke!

  6. #5

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    I know what I am supposed to connect, but my soldering skills suck.

  7. #6

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    I learned to use a soldering iron quite early, because when I played in a band with my school mates, we were forever breaking guitar leads and it would have cost too much to keep replacing them. So my dad showed me how to use his soldering iron, and I became the official guitar-lead repair guy for the band!

  8. #7

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    My first attempt at electronics repair was a near full re-wire of an Epi 175. I did the output jack, selector switch, pots and neck pup. I was way too ambitious and the results were a magnificent trainwreck. I took it to a local tech and he flat out laughed at my work. A full hollow body is maybe the wrong place to cut your teeth when it comes to guitar repair.

  9. #8

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    I can just about change strings...

  10. #9
    Great responses so far. By the way, just to illlustrate the "self-configured superswitch" item in the poll:

    5-Way Rotary Switch | Switches | Electric Parts, Knobs | Parts | Rockinger Guitars

    How savvy are you when it comes to guitar electronics?-screenshot_273-png

    Of note:

    "...allows you a wide range of custom guitar wirings but you have to be a wiring expert."

    "Wiring instructions are not included."

    A polite way of saying: go ahead and buy, but then give us a break, right?


    LOL

  11. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
    I can just about change strings...
    I don't believe a word.

  12. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
    I can just about change strings...
    you mean I don’t have to keep using the ones it came with...holy sh**!

  13. #12

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    I think the neatest repair I ever pulled off was many years ago when I had an old computer which worked ok but the internal battery failed, which created all sorts of problems at start-up (you had to reset the BIOS each time with background commands or some such nonsense).

    I managed to locate the battery, it was a tiny little circular object permanently wired into the middle of a printed circuit board, surrounded by components. But I could just make out ‘9v’ printed on it. So I managed to cut the pins under it and remove it. Then I attached a standard rechargeable 9v battery inside a battery holder to the inside of the computer with velcro, ran some wires to the circuit board, borrowed a miniature soldering iron, and somehow managed to solder the wires to the stumps of the pins without frying any of the surrounding components. It was as fiddly as hell and I only did it because I was prepared to get rid of the computer otherwise.

    To my amazement it worked, and the computer did several more years service ok.

  14. #13

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    I'm an electrical engineer. I started off with an after-school job at a stereo shop, where I would change parts like that "super-switch", and fix loudspeakers, etc. So guitars are easy-peasy, the hardest part is fishing parts in an archtop.

  15. #14

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    My father opened a radio/TV/stereo repair shop, and I worked there in high school. I learned to solder, which ain't rocket science but does take some care, and I learned about circuits and troubleshooting. My main job, though, was fixing mechanical things like record changers, 8-track tape decks, and car radios. But I learned more than enough to be able to work with basic-level guitar circuits. There really isn't much there, and there is very little voltage, so there is no danger at all other than what one might self-induce. Out where I grew up, we had to learn how to do everything ourselves, because there weren't many places to get it done, and no money to pay anyone to do it. I learned carpentry, welding, car repair, electric wiring, veterinary skills, and all sorts of things on that little dryland cotton farm, and later the TV shop. I've had some inlaws who couldn't pour piss out of a boot with the instructions printed upside down on the heel, and I have never understood the lack of basic skills. It seems to be much worse now, as technology makes many skills obsolete. But to the poll question, yes, I can wire a guitar.

  16. #15

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    Electrical stuff is too scary for me. I stand on a wooden chair and wear rubber boots to change my flashlight batteries.

  17. #16

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    I can solder and I can follow instructions. I understand the circuitry inside an ordinary guitar (pots and caps). I don't understand amp circuitry.

    For guitars, there are plenty of websites with instructions for rewiring. It's just a question of unscrewing things, unsoldering, following the path of the wires and resoldering. It's all pretty simple.

    For amps, some things that commonly break don't require that you understand anything in order to fix them Things may break because they're stressed mechanically (like the input jack or volume pot) or they've vibrated loose over time. So, you wiggle things and see if you can affect the symptom. Oftentimes that's enough to figure out what to tighten or resolder.

    EDIT: In case this sounds safe, it shouldn't. Tube amps have big caps that you can hurt you even when the amp is unplugged. And, anything plugged into the wall can hurt you if some bad things happen at once.

    Other times, something more complicated happens and you need the right tools, eg an oscilloscope, and expertise.
    Last edited by rpjazzguitar; 02-05-2021 at 05:49 PM.

  18. #17

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    You really need a couple of things like a volt meter and understanding phase issues to be good at it. Especially when combining different pickups from diffe ent makers. I always end up defaulting to a competent luthier/ electrician?

  19. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by fasteddie
    I stand on a wooden chair and wear rubber boots
    yeah I do that sometimes but......er, ok, that’s not for this forum...

  20. #19

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    My brother-in-law was a super-duper electrical field engineer and tinkerer. And a fragile diabetic. (He was in great physical shape otherwise.) He flew around the USA repairing systems that run assembly lines when the manufacturer couldn't. Whenever he came over he could count on a needed electrical favor for me. We were polar opposites. He was tone-deaf, and I can't solder for s***. Tragically, he passed away from the disease, ~60, luckily at home sleeping on his sofa during a well-deserved nap.

  21. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by fasteddie
    Electrical stuff is too scary for me. I stand on a wooden chair and wear rubber boots to change my flashlight batteries.
    Reminds me of the time as a boy I decided to try my father's steel case drill in the damp garage in my bare feet.

    Was frozen for what seemed like forever, lucky to be here. I learned a lot that day.

  22. #21

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    My thinking is that guitar makers should know their ropes and there's little I can or want to do apart from an occasional PU swap. I hate the period-perfect volume pots on my ES-175 1959 VOS though, as all the action is between 11 and 12. But won't change those. Done a lot of soldering since I was 11 thanks to my long-standing aeromodeling hobby (now latent), but the EU prohibition of lead-containing soldering alloys has really spoiled the joy. Therefore, I let a guitar tech make the speaker cables that come with every TOOB.

  23. #22

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    I used to fix cables and stuff but these days my electronic activities are limited to changing the batteries in my hearing aids. The hardest bit is holding on to them, as they are tiny. And inasmuch as the choice was between the aids and a Wes Mo, you better believe I'm gonna run 'em 'til they drop.

    But yeah, I now leave things to people that, unlike me, are not learning on the job.

  24. #23

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    Have doing extensive work on all passive and active innards including custom design active FET and op-amp onboard circuits.

    But always hoping to learn more about the trickiest circuits - which I feel are the High impedeance passive circuits of the most basic setups. Always new wrinkles to understand. For example, just how great the silly-named “greasebucket” tone circuit works. Seems obvious once you see it, yet never occurred to me. Great super-simple humbling stuff.

  25. #24

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    I do my own pickups, pots, and switches because it's not that hard and it's difficult to find a good tech in this area. The exception was when I had a pair of SD P-Rails (switch between P90/serial/parallel) installed in a semi-hollow with four push pull pots. Many wires to tiny connections in a cramped space. I paid him more than he bid.

  26. #25

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    A multimeter is useful, often essential. Not just a voltmeter, but one that can measure ohms accurately. I take that as a given, though, because I've always owned one. They don't need to be expensive, cheap ones work well enough. I have two that I got from Harbor Freight for free.