Replace 335 harness - DIY or is life too short?

PonchoGreg

So I've assembled myself a nice wiring harness for my 335 (want to get rid of the existing push/pulls and have it in 50s wiring). It's all ready to go but I'm kinda dreading the actual install...

I'm pretty handy with modding, usually only go to a tech for fretwork, have done a bunch of complete rewires on anything from strats to LPs. But there is something daunting about the 335, one reads so many horror stories likening it to keyhole surgery...

On the one hand I kinda want to do it myself for the challenge and to have another tool in my modding skillset - especially as my 335 has access via a generous cutout in the bridge pickup cavity vs just the F-hole, and the only thing left to do really is solder the pickups and stuff everything back in.

But I'm also tempted to skip potentially 1-2hrs of aggravation and have the trusted Feline do the job, which I would imagine would be 50-odd quid.

What would you do?

mgaw

spend £50

Ossyrocks

PonchoGreg said:

But I'm also tempted to skip potentially 6-7hrs of aggravation and have the trusted Feline do the job, which I would imagine would be 50-odd quid.

What would you do?

Fixed that bit for you. I’ll never do it again, change a harness in a 335 that is.

springhead

Go on have at it!  It is a pain in the arse, you will use sweary words, but you kind of need to know don't you?

Lots of different tips and tricks, bits of string/thread, surgical tubing over the pot shafts etc.  Best tip I found was, if you have one, to use a jack plug that will fit through the hole in the wood.  Some patch leads are like that - no cover, no rim, just 1/4" body and the cable.  Feed that in and through, plug it into the jack and use that to pull the assembly in.  You can slip the washer and nut down the cable and onto the jack.

ICBM

springhead said:

Go on have at it!  It is a pain in the arse, you will use sweary words, but you kind of need to know don't you?

Lots of different tips and tricks, bits of string/thread, surgical tubing over the pot shafts etc.  Best tip I found was, if you have one, to use a jack plug that will fit through the hole in the wood.  Some patch leads are like that - no cover, no rim, just 1/4" body and the cable.  Feed that in and through, plug it into the jack and use that to pull the assembly in.  You can slip the washer and nut down the cable and onto the jack.

This - the jack is the only really difficult bit. I've got an old plug I filed down attached to the end of a long piece of solid wire, which makes getting it in and out through the hole easier. You should be able to get the bridge volume and tone controls, the neck volume and the switch all installed with just your fingers, no string etc needed. The neck tone can be tricky but if you just use string for that one it won't get tangled with all the others.

To tighten the jack, use a taper reamer pushed into the barrel, it will grip it enough until the shakeproof washer really bites on the inside.

PonchoGreg

My plan for the jack would be string through with a nut tied in past the jack to pull it in. Then tighten and then cut the string / fish out the nut

Jimbro66

If you have assembled the harness accurately that will help a lot. Some of the one-size-fits-all harnesses can be a pig to install. It's a fiddly job but there is a certain satisfaction in doing it yourself. Take your time, don't force it and if you hit a snag just take a break from it rather than becoming frustrated. Good luck!

PonchoGreg

Thanks for all the tips guys. Is it the done thing to loop the bridge pickup lead around the loom (along the ground/bridge volume switch wire)? Weirdly Gibson have gone the long way around on the stock wiring, it basically exits left from the cavity, towards the lower horn and coming back down along the side - which would be hard to replicate I think!

sweepy

Use heatshrink on the pot shafts and an old jack lead for the output socket and it’s an hour job tops 

FelineGuitars

For God's sake use a long neck jack socket- getting the short one through and fixed up isn't much fun /always reliable.

Don't make the harness too rigid - if you look at the Gibson (and other companies) harnesses you will find that they have a lot of flex in them for good reason - makes it easier to move the whle thing around - it's why they use the braided wire as what joins the pots

PonchoGreg

FelineGuitars said:

For God's sake use a long neck jack socket- getting the short one through and fixed up isn't much fun /always reliable.

Don't make the harness too rigid - if you look at the Gibson (and other companies) harnesses you will find that they have a lot of flex in them for good reason - makes it easier to move the whle thing around - it's why they use the braided wire as what joins the pots

Yup, got the longer jack socket. And I did the harness with braided wire (with a bit of slack too just in case) so hopefully it's all a bit malleable.

Or maybe I'll drop by in a few days with my tail between my legs and a 335 with its guts hanging out

stickyfiddle

Big fan of surgical tubing for this. It actually makes it relatively simple. I did my CS-336 early last year - even smaller space to get everything in place, but still doable with only limited swearing

PonchoGreg

stickyfiddle said:

Big fan of surgical tubing for this. It actually makes it relatively simple. I did my CS-336 early last year - even smaller space to get everything in place, but still doable with only limited swearing

What size tubing did you go for?

PonchoGreg

Well, the deed is done. I'll definitely file that one alongside "putting covers on humbuckers" in the "not as bad as expected" category.

Not sure how long it took me from start to finish as I had a "dinner + half a bottle of Chianti" break halfway through, but I'd say a couple of hours all in at a leisurely pace. I think I only muttered a single "come here, you f**k you" when the jack socket got tangled up with one of the tone pot strings, otherwise swearing was kept to a bare minimum.

Definitely helps to be well prepared, though (and be able to think on your feet when something goes wrong) so thanks everyone for the tips. These came in very handy indeed:



- head torch = essential
- fishing device made from a coat hanger. That one definitely saved my bacon when the jack got tangled up and I had to cut it loose and fish it again through the f-hole with all the other crap out of the way
- improvised jack-pulling device with string and a rawl plug. That worked really well actually (until the aforementioned entanglement, that is) - perfect size to jam in the socket without it moving and with enough clearance for the hole.
- some standard wire for the pots, very easy to wrap around the post snugly without a knot getting in the way.

My one mistake was using nylon string to extend my jack and pot pulling devices. It's too light/thin, gets tangled up easily, and gets caught up on the very rough wood of the pickup cavity, especially around corners. Surgical tubing or (now that I think of it) jack lead cable would have been better.

Oh well, got there in the end. But I definitely double-checked that everything was working as expected through an amp before the reassembly part, you don't want to find out you missed a ground connection when everything is back in, that's for sure...

All in all, a relatively satisfying piece of DIY. I actually spent longer and swore way more rewiring a Charvel once (took me four tries, including taking off the neck each time to remove the scratchplate, to figure out the switch was shorting against the shielded cavity...). Probably not in a hurry to do it again though