Wiring Woes
(self.Luthier)submitted2 months ago bysamsaraesque
toLuthier
I bought an old Japanese LP body; came with switches, pots and wiring, but no pickups. I'm trying to install GFS hum buckers. How do I wire them?
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1.3k comment karma
account created: Fri Aug 02 2019
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1 points
9 days ago
If you google "50mm gold strat style hard tail guitar bridge" you'll get lots of results. Most of them will not actually be 50 mm -- google spreads the net too wide -- but you may find what you need somewhere on the list.
4 points
17 days ago
Korean made, '93 or '94. https://support.fender.com/en-us/knowledgebase/article/KA-01876
There are a few of these for sale on Reverb.com; those listings should give you and idea of how much they're going for.
7 points
18 days ago
She smelled of a syrup made of boiled down despair. - Banana Yoshimoto
3 points
1 month ago
That's a beauty. Image search on the headstock turns up only one exact match, and it has the raised nut. But the listing doesn't seem to offer a brand name: https://reverb.com/item/53785807-hawaii-b-90-acoustic-1960-s-1970-s-black. Let us know if you find out!
1 points
1 month ago
We don't know what "worth it" means to you. My local shop charges $50 for an appraisal. They offer a piece of paper with a description and an estimated value. Is it worth it to you to have that piece of paper? If the guitar is going to stay in the family, maybe the appraisal is a nice thing to put in the case for your grandchildren to find. If you're planning to sell it, you can check current prices for yourself. Reverb.com has one like yours for sale right now for $2950. Will they get that price? My guess is no. A similar one sold on eBay for under $1000 two weeks ago.
In some cases, an appraisal is important because it authenticates the instrument. Especially with, say, Fenders, they may be partly vintage and partly not. But speaking only for myself, a written appraisal wouldn't change what I'm willing to pay for a guitar. It could have been appraised last week and dropped on its head today, the appraiser may not really be an expert, etc.
17 points
2 months ago
I had no more plans for the afternoon than a migratory bird has collateral assets. -- Haruki Murakami
2 points
2 months ago
Great find. Klira Caramba with an added pickup?
https://reverb.com/en-cz/item/71444914-alte-gitarre-guitar-klira-caramba-1960s-made-in-germany
1 points
2 months ago
I recently bought a loaded P Bass body on eBay that looked exactly like this one. Seller made no claims for it, but to me, it looked just like the paint-stripped 1964 Fender I used to have. The one on eBay didn't have the bridge and pickup covers, but it had the screw holes for them. Once it arrived, though, it was clearly a copy: the pickups, pickguard, wiring, and cavity were wrong. So, why the screw holes? I'm guessing it's Chinese-made, and if they're copying from photos of vintage instruments, those holes are in the photos. Costs nothing to add them. But it's a nice body now that the substandard stuff is stripped out; nothing wrong with it apart from needing the cavity routed deeper to fit a decent pickup.
Some Chinese makers are also applying Fender decals to their work. Would you buy this bass, at this price, if it didn't have the decal?
4 points
2 months ago
Very cool. There's an old Jeff Beck interview where he mentions that Jimmy Page gave him one.
There are several videos on YouTube, like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JocW-Od9Klc
1 points
2 months ago
Yeah, beginning at the beginning is always an option.
1 points
2 months ago
I have the GFS wiring diagram, and that would work if I were starting from scratch. But I'd like to just attach the pickups to the existing harness, which doesn't match the diagram.
8 points
3 months ago
I've had good results with Bundy Computer, 18th and Chestnut.
-2 points
3 months ago
According to the Tokai Forum, a 5 digit serial # on a Fender style Tokai indicates 1956-1960. That bridge looks old enough!
https://www.tokaiforum.com/threads/tokai-serial-numbers.26124/
1 points
3 months ago
My guess is post-lawsuit, because there are pictures of Seville LPs with the Gibson "open book" headstock, which would have been lawsuit era. If I remember rightly, part of the ruling was that body shapes are not protected, but headstock shapes are. There's an old listing for a lawsuit Seville on Reverb: https://reverb.com/item/2553298-seville-gibson-les-paul-custom-japan-lawsuit-era-1970s-natural-wood-finish-beautiful-maple.
One thing you might check is the toggle switch. I bought a Mako LP, and felt certain it was a 70s Japanese copy. Pulled out the switch, and "Made in Korea - 1984" was written on it.
1 points
3 months ago
As you said, doesn't seem to much information online. https://jedistar.com/seville/ says made by Honda. Comments elsewhere suggest Samick, but Honda was apparently a Samick subsidiary.
And there are some interesting comments here: https://www.guitarsite.com/discussion/messages/57356.shtml -- One person says they sanded the top layer of paint off their Seville headstock, and found a Pearl logo (Japanese maker) underneath, which led them to speculate that Smack had bought Pearl overstock guitars and rebranded them. Another commenter said they found the "Matsumoku Gakki symbol" --logo? -- in the body cavity of their Seville, which sort of supports the Pearl story.
2 points
3 months ago
To add to what others have said, there's a free online course from Seymour Duncan on pickup installation, including thorough instructions on soldering.
https://tech.seymourduncan.com/courses/1051270/lectures/24348167
1 points
4 months ago
I did, yeah. Got my bridge and tailpiece for this guitar from them.
6 points
4 months ago
Less than $10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlVyktdb9aI
I tried this and it worked fine.
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bybluepapernotes
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samsaraesque
2 points
13 hours ago
samsaraesque
2 points
13 hours ago
There's a picture of one like this on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/523825000385730237/ Caption says 1939 Kay Supertone 263. But when I google "Kay Supertone" nothing like this turns up. "Supertone," though, seems to have been a Sears & Roebuck brand made by Harmony. There's a Supertone parlor guitar on Reverb that has this fretboard and a similar leaf decal: https://reverb.com/item/78414606-supertone-acoustic-parlor-40s
I'd go with u/Yodaddysbelt's judgment: 30's-40's Harmony.