i just needed to rant. this experience ruined my evening:
So i've been putting off working on the electronics in my thinline for a little while now, and I finally pushed myself to change the pots out and doublecheck all the old connections (as something had been funky with the tone pot). I also remembered why i'd avoided doing this work for as long as i had.
First, in order to get the pickguard off I had to unscrew the neck pickup while it was still on the body. This has something to do with the 22nd fret overhang blocking the upper edge of the pickguard, and the pickup's baseplate being just perfectly snug with the route so that there was no wiggle room to get anything out. So i unscrew the pickup and let it plop into the cavity.
Then there's the fact that lead from the pickup goes through the body to be connected to components on the pickguard, creating a little loop that is tying you very closely to the body, depending on how long the pickup's lead is. So i have to carefully turn the pickguard over and set it on top of the guitar to work, being sure not to put too much strain on any connections from inside the guitar.
So I do my thing... i spend probably an hour and a half removing old connections, connecting new ones, making sure everything's clean, using solder lugs for all the ground connections (Thanks Cagey!) etc... That alone is a stressful and arduous experience for me. I hate soldering for the life of me, but i'm addicted to changing electronics and configurations. go figure.
so after that's all said and done, I go to put the pickup back on the pickguard. That's a b**** because it's connected on the other end, which means in order to get the pickup close to the pickguard, I have to awkwardly hold the pickguard up to the body while i try to get those mounting screws in. I manage, but it doesn't make my life any easier.
Then i go to put the pickguard back on the body. Lo and behold: for the same reason I couldn't get it off with the pickup in there, I couldn't get it back ON with the pickup in there.
After struggling with it a little bit, I think "ok. maybe i just have to take the strings off" - which I had managed to avoid doing until this point. I remove the strings (begrudgingly, cuz they're only a week old, and i have locking tuners which means there's no extra slack at the end of the strings by which to restring them.) I then proceed to try and wiggle the pickup into the cavity or force the pickguard to bend. Nothing is working, but somehow during this process I applied force to the pickup in a way that one mounting screw pulled out of the backplate, and in the process strips the hole so that I can no longer thread that screw back into place. I wouldn't even know how i got the damn thing on there in the first place, except I remembered I actually put the neck on after I wired up the electronics.
So after spending 2+ hours on this little shenanigan, I now have one guitar in the house that works. I'm not sure what I can do about the backplate of the neck pickup, but I was talking to Ken about replacing that pickup anyway so I guess it'll wait til that happens.
Then of course there's the fact that there's no way to change the bridge pickup without complete removing the bridge from the guitar. And there's no way to reach the screws that mount the bridge onto the guitar without removing at least three or four of the saddles! You can believe I'm looking forward to THAT job when I want to change the bridge pickup out.
what this experience has taught me:
-never get guitar with a tele bridge. ever.
-always get a larger-than-needed pickup route for anything mounted on a pickguard
-pay someone else to do your wiring work. you'll live longer
-know what you're getting into before you invest $$$$ into something you plan to have for many many years to come. :doh:
i'm tempted to take a router to this thing right now. just to let off some steam and save myself from having the same frustrations in a few weeks when i have to work on this thing again.
So i've been putting off working on the electronics in my thinline for a little while now, and I finally pushed myself to change the pots out and doublecheck all the old connections (as something had been funky with the tone pot). I also remembered why i'd avoided doing this work for as long as i had.
First, in order to get the pickguard off I had to unscrew the neck pickup while it was still on the body. This has something to do with the 22nd fret overhang blocking the upper edge of the pickguard, and the pickup's baseplate being just perfectly snug with the route so that there was no wiggle room to get anything out. So i unscrew the pickup and let it plop into the cavity.
Then there's the fact that lead from the pickup goes through the body to be connected to components on the pickguard, creating a little loop that is tying you very closely to the body, depending on how long the pickup's lead is. So i have to carefully turn the pickguard over and set it on top of the guitar to work, being sure not to put too much strain on any connections from inside the guitar.
So I do my thing... i spend probably an hour and a half removing old connections, connecting new ones, making sure everything's clean, using solder lugs for all the ground connections (Thanks Cagey!) etc... That alone is a stressful and arduous experience for me. I hate soldering for the life of me, but i'm addicted to changing electronics and configurations. go figure.
so after that's all said and done, I go to put the pickup back on the pickguard. That's a b**** because it's connected on the other end, which means in order to get the pickup close to the pickguard, I have to awkwardly hold the pickguard up to the body while i try to get those mounting screws in. I manage, but it doesn't make my life any easier.
Then i go to put the pickguard back on the body. Lo and behold: for the same reason I couldn't get it off with the pickup in there, I couldn't get it back ON with the pickup in there.
After struggling with it a little bit, I think "ok. maybe i just have to take the strings off" - which I had managed to avoid doing until this point. I remove the strings (begrudgingly, cuz they're only a week old, and i have locking tuners which means there's no extra slack at the end of the strings by which to restring them.) I then proceed to try and wiggle the pickup into the cavity or force the pickguard to bend. Nothing is working, but somehow during this process I applied force to the pickup in a way that one mounting screw pulled out of the backplate, and in the process strips the hole so that I can no longer thread that screw back into place. I wouldn't even know how i got the damn thing on there in the first place, except I remembered I actually put the neck on after I wired up the electronics.
So after spending 2+ hours on this little shenanigan, I now have one guitar in the house that works. I'm not sure what I can do about the backplate of the neck pickup, but I was talking to Ken about replacing that pickup anyway so I guess it'll wait til that happens.
Then of course there's the fact that there's no way to change the bridge pickup without complete removing the bridge from the guitar. And there's no way to reach the screws that mount the bridge onto the guitar without removing at least three or four of the saddles! You can believe I'm looking forward to THAT job when I want to change the bridge pickup out.
what this experience has taught me:
-never get guitar with a tele bridge. ever.
-always get a larger-than-needed pickup route for anything mounted on a pickguard
-pay someone else to do your wiring work. you'll live longer
-know what you're getting into before you invest $$$$ into something you plan to have for many many years to come. :doh:
i'm tempted to take a router to this thing right now. just to let off some steam and save myself from having the same frustrations in a few weeks when i have to work on this thing again.
