Ok, I am stumped !

[Alfonse Pagano]

1961 Kay Galaxie Semi-Hollow Body.

How the hell does one take our and then reinstall the electronics?

No acsess from te back of the guitar

Hire a kid with tiny arms?

Any tutorials out there?

Please see attached photos.

Thank You

Alfonse

 

 

[Frank Ford]

Typically, we tie threads or strings to the pot shafts and jack, and then drop them inside.   Threads make it easy to pull them back upinto the right holes.   If pots are already out, the thread trick takes just a little fishing around but it works just as well.

[Donald A. Fortune]

What the master fixer upper says , and you can fish a piece of wire from the point that you wish to end up with and then attach thread or light string to the wire that you fished and then attach the pot or kack to it and then pull it thru.   Peace, Donald

[Mark Pollock]

Also, if you take a regular pencil, and pop the eraser out of the bushing that holds it in place, you have a nice little tool to catch the shaft of a pot and draw it up through the hole.

[Alfonse Pagano]

Once again, Thanks....

great advise!

[Scott Supak]

What works well for me is surgical tubing slid over the pot shaft. Keeps a good grip on the pot so you don't lose it as easily if you run into any interference. This works best w/full size components, not so much w/mini pots as the mounting hole in the body is usually too small. Also, I use a piece of cheap patch cord w/plastic molded ends, ground down to the proper diameter on a belt sander, to fish the jack in and out.

[Joshua Levin-Epstein]

A variation on the surgical tubing is heat shrink tubing. Fish it from the appropriate hole to the p/u cutout, push it onto the pot shaft and pull  into place.

 

I suggest you make a template of the guitar top out of cardboard, cutting a hole for the pick up and punching holes for the pots and jack with a pencil. Do all you wiring on this so you know everything fits. Too much wire between components ends up catching on stuff or wrapping around itself. Too little and you know what happens. You can also orient the components so they just "pop" in place.  Frank shows how to build a 1/4 inch jack tool by soldering a 1/4" inch plug onto a rod and grinding it to the same size as the shaft. I have one of the old Lawrence jacks that (in theory) make cable contacts via a set screw. It was no good for that, but I put it on a heavy duty hanger and ground it to shape. I've attached a picture. I can put that on some cable when necessary, like Scott suggests. If you build this on the template and pull it into place via the jack, it will go very smoothly. You may want to get your self a set of hemostats, as well.

 

Yours is a good guitar to try this on, before rewiring an ES-345.

 

Joshua

[Grahame Myers]

I use strong cotton thread tied onto the pot shafts, and I've also built a jig to prefabricate the wiring harness, see pictures. For the jack, I butchered on old cable, and soldered the jack itself to a length of thick wire, so I can pull it up through the hole, and then slide the nut and washer over the cable.

[Mike Kolb]

Grahame... I really dig your double-sided jig for pre-wiring!  There's an idea worth copying. Judging by the number of holes, I'm guessing that you can use it for any number of different set-ups?  Do you "drill holes as needed"? Do you have others for, say, a strat or similar? The edges are a nice touch... tall-enough to let the components and knobs clear and be able to flip it over as needed. Good work!  I may construct one this very afternoon.

Then my eyes wander to your enviable resistance-soldering station and all the other goodies, everything thoughtfully arranged in an economy of space.  I learn more from all these shop pictures than most verbal posts!  And the ever-present Lucky Strikes. I have forbidden myself from puffing in the shop per se, so it's out the side door for me.... rain or shine.  Anyway, nice job on the jig.

 

[Grahame Myers]

Mike..I originally made the jig for ES335/Les Paul-type wiring,   I made it out of scraps I had laying around, it took about 20 mins. I guess I could knock a jig up for a Strat quickly enough, although with a Strat, the pickguard itself acts as a jig: I clamp a padded visegrip on the edge of the pickguard, to weight it a bit, and stop it moving around.

My "enviable" soldering station was made in China and cost, I think, around €35 on Ebay. It's 2 years old now, and still going strong. When I bought it, I ordered a handful of replacement tips, just in case. I find it handy to be able to change the tip to a very fine pencil tip when I have to solder the PCB's you encounter in active systems, otherwise it works quite well, it takes about 2 mins to get up to temperature, and regulates the preset temp. accurately.

Thanks for the nice words about my shop, but with only 65 square feet altogether, I have to be economical with my use of space, otherwise I'd never find anything. In one half I have a big radial pillar drill, a combi sander, a router table, and a bandsaw. In the other half I have a solder station, and my main workbench with a vise. I use every inch of wallspace for hanging things, as well as the normal tool drawers etc. Oh yeah, and a 75W Peavey Viper amp too, for testing my work. With the wall hangers, and floor racks, I have space for exactly 18 guitars, including 4 of my own :-)

I don't find it hard though, I learnt my trade in the British air force, and we were taught to adhere to "A place for everything, and everything in its place" at all times! We worked with "tool tags", and after the job was done, we had to bring all the tools back to the "tag man" If you had less tags than you started with, you knew that a tool was missing, and was somewhere in the aircraft. An absolute no go, the crew chief wouldn't sign the work off till all the tools were accounted for. We lost one of our Phantoms that way: On the landing approach, a spanner which had been  left in the cockpit fell into the thrust lever mechanism and jammed the throttles. The crew had to eject (both ok), but the aircraft was a total loss (and most of the approach VASI lights too) I've never forgotten that, although I'd never laid hands on that particular aircraft, it belonged to another squadron on the base. Even today, 35 years later, I always have to know where all my tools are all the time: If I want to use, say, a particular screwdriver, and can't find it, I search for it until I've found it again, although I could just use another one. Pretty anal huh? That's British military training :-) ...I can even still rattle off my service number like a pistol shot, 35 years after finishing my service, it's burned into my brain :-)

[Mike Kolb]

Ah, the venerable F-4 Phantom.... my hands-down favorite aircraft of all time (well, maybe it's a split-decision with the C121 Constellation). I was an air traffic controller in the USN, aboard the USS Kearsarge and we had scads of F-4's to drool-over. When those monsters hit afterburners, it was a treat for the senses. But I digress as this IS a guitar-related board, after all:) 

When I lose or misplace a tool, I give myself about 15mins of looking and then use something else, knowing the original miscreant will show itself eventually. Failing that (should a few days or a week go by) I'll reluctantly purchase a replacement... which is why I end-up with multiples of tools.  My wife calls it the "old-guy" syndrome:)

[Tim Mace]

Toolsheimers

[Mike Kolb]

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