Pickup wiring route does not meet control cavity

[StaticRick]

I bought a Showcase body a little while ago and finally today I got around to doing the electronics on it, or so I thought.  I quickly realized that the wiring route does not make it all the way to the controls.

The body is a carved top Tele with H-H pickups and a LP style selector switch. 

Am I missing something?  The control cavity has two entry points for wires, one for the bridge pickup and one for the ground wire from the bridge.  I'm not very confident that I would be able to drill a hole from the control cavity that hits the channel.  It also needs to be a fairly large hole since it has to include the wires to/from the switch.  My best guess is that the channel and the control cavity are 2 to 3 inches apart right now. 

Is there some sort of luthier trick that I'm missing here?  I can't for the life of me figure out what to do other than send it back to Warmoth.  I do have an email in to them.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Corey P.]

Yeah that sounds like a pretty big oops!

I have to plead ignorance on how they're routed by design, is the wiring channel from the pickup switch/neck pickup supposed to join with the bridge pickup wiring route (so that all 3 sets of wires enter the control area via a single route) and simply doesn't?  Or is there supposed to be a separate route for those wires in addition to the bridge pickup and ground routes into the cavity?

Gorgeous body regardless - contacting W is definitely the best action to take; I reckon no one is there today due to the holiday, but I'm sure someone will respond soon, or  don't hesitate to call them.

 

[StaticRick]

I don't actually know how it's supposed to be on a carved Tele body.  I know that on a Les Paul the diagonal route goes in a straight line from the toggle switch to the control cavity.  It passes by both of the pickups on the way, so it's kind of a master conduit for all of the wiring.  You can see from the picture of my body that the angle of the diagonal route is such that it's never going to get close to the bridge pickup or even the control cavity.  So, I'm not sure what the thinking is on routing the wiring.

I did get an automated email response saying that Warmoth is closed for Labor Day, so I'll hope to hear something tomorrow.

 

[Scuffcakes]

Is it a chambered or solid body?

I found this image of a chambered body without the cap that might help figure out where the wiring route goes.

It's small but it's the only image I could find.  Might help

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

It just got missed.  They've done it before, there's other threads on it. 

Always contact them first.

 

[StaticRick]

Not chambered.

I feel like there's something I'm missing about this. There are other carved Tele bodies in the showcase where you can see the same diagonal route passing through the neck pickup at the same angle.  To me, the angle looks like it would intersect the end of a traditional Tele control cavity, but does not reach a Les Paul type control cavity. Having said that, there are plenty of examples in the Showcase of LP bodies with a traditional Les Paul layout which have the same diagonal route in the neck pickup route. 

I guess it's possible that the route is only there to provide a passage from the toggle switch to the neck pickup route.  Then, I need to find a pathway from the neck pickup to the control cavity.  It will have to be roomy enough for the pickup wires AND the switch wires.

Looking forward to hearing from customer service.  I'm sure that they can clear this up.

 

[Cagey]

Both pickups wire to the switch on the upper bout, then a line from there goes down to the control cavity. Unless you bought used pickups that have already been trimmed to fit something else, you should have plenty of lead to do that.

Edit: Never mind. I just realized you've got the dual volume/tone thing going on there. Whole different animal. There's a diagram here that would get you wired, but it's not going to solve your lead length problem.

You may end up having to do some splicing.

 

[Dan025]

well i can tell you a modification you can do, you can drill with a lont drill bit through the neck heel area into the neck pickup route and keep going till you hit the bridge pickup route, the start of the hole wont be visible with the neck on and pickup installed and you could route the pickup lead into the bridge pickup cavity then the volume and the leads from the two volumes through the bridge pickup cavity to th neck pickup cavity then up to the switch cavity.
other than that i'd have to look at it in hand to try to come up with ideas.

 

[Updown]

Here's a pic of what DanO was getting at  :icon_thumright:

 

[StaticRick]

..., but it's not going to solve your lead length problem.

You may end up having to do some splicing.

I've got pickups with full leads, that's never been my concern.  The problem now is that there is no opening from the control cavity to the diagonal route.  In other words, I have no path to get the neck pickup lead to the volume knob.

I've thought about the Tele-style hole from the neck pickup into the bridge pickup, like in the photo above.  I'm concerned that there isn't enough room to route both the neck pickup leads and the multi-conductor wire for the switch.  They will all have to tuck around the sides of the bridge humbucker, right?  I also don't think that the hole provided between the bridge humbucker route and the control cavity is large enough to fit two humbucker leads and one multi-conductor for the switch.

How is a Les Paul type arrangement (H-H, 2V, 2T) normally routed by Warmoth?  I'm trying to understand what is missing on this one. 

 

[Updown]

I'm concerned that there isn't enough room to route both the neck pickup leads and the multi-conductor wire for the switch. 
They will all have to tuck around the sides of the bridge humbucker, right? 

I also don't think that the hole provided between the bridge humbucker route and the control cavity is large enough to fit two humbucker leads and one multi-conductor for the switch.

That hole (between the Bridge Hum and control Cavity) can easily be made bigger.
There is only a small distance between the two.
Should be able to get a dremel of drill inside of control cavity, and go from there .... I have many a time  :icon_biggrin:

Here's what I did to get rid of the wires  :icon_thumright:
Used a Dremel to make a rout for the wires.

 

[kurcatovium]

Very nice job there. Also very nice top on that guitar!

 

[StaticRick]

An update:  I contacted Warmoth customer service and sent the body back to them to have it fixed.  They turned it around very quickly and corrected the problem with a hole drilled from the control cavity to the diagonal route.  :hello2: