Yamaha SJ-500 Super Flighter Wiring Diagram?

[Rabbitz]

Many (many) years ago a mate of mine was "between gigs" and so sold me his Yamaha SJ-500 Super Flighter.

This must have been circa 1984 or 1985. I paid the princely sum of $150.

I mucked around with it for a while (I couldn't play at the time - many, including me, would say I still can't) then it got tucked under a bed and essentially forgotten.

A few years ago that old mate passed away, and at the time I wondered what had happened to the guitar but never followed it up.

I little while ago my parents asked me if I still wanted the guitar - apparently it moved with them over the last 30 years.

Well it has finally found its way back to me.

Long story short, it doesn't work. Nada, nought, zero, 3/4 of 5/8 of nothing, SFA.

I've opened up the panels and it looks like someone has had a fiddle - it has at least one non-standard pick up, but it also had masking tape as insulation and a few other issues. No corrosion or verdigris, no physical damage so a bit of old fashioned fault finding is my destiny. First things first though - the battery in the multimeter just gave up the ghost (Murphy is alive and well and visiting Mt Colah)

Given its state and also its history (for me) I'd like to get it back in working order with something akin to its original wiring.

I've done a couple of interweb searches looking for a schematic or wiring diagram of the original wiring - alas I've not had any success.

Does anyone have any info on this guitar or a secret stash of wiring diagrams/service manuals?

[Rabbitz]

Well a little fault finding and I have found three issues.

First up was a short across the neck pick up from a stray strand from the ground wire. Therefore no output.

Second is an open circuit pick up (only one half but as they are in series there was no output). It is a Dimarzio A2N with a 1979 date stamp. So I'll have to source a new pick up of some description.

Finally, one of the volume pots is very flaky. I've squirted in a bit of contact cleaner and I'll see how it goes, if not I'll grab a 500k Audio Taper pot and stick it in there.

BUT

It actually makes noise now which is a vast improvement.

[WeirdBits]

SJ or SF?

(10chars)

[Nickosaurus]

Hey Weirdy he mentioned SJ-500 in the OP :)

[WeirdBits]

That's why I'm checking... SJ = Super Jam, SF = Super Flighter, no?

[Nickosaurus]

Whoops - sorry mate. You're right. Not sure!

[Rabbitz]

I did say SJ. However I meant SF.

It is one of those crazy back to front F's that looks loke a J.

It is my excuse and I am sticking to it :)

[WeirdBits]

Looks like the stock SF-500 wiring is LP style 2 vol 2 tone, from here (http://yamahasuperflighters.co.uk/models/first-gen/yamaha-sf500/):


...The pickups are Yamaha’s own “F-II” humbuckers which are shared with the SF700 range. On the pickups are two contacts allowing them to be wired for a coil-tap, although as stock they were only wired as a full humbucker. Extra wiring can be added after-market and often is on the SF700 particularly...

This looks to be an original '78 SF500 pickup (with the 2nd unused contact):
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p19/mimasu_album/pickup1978.jpg


Not sure if this is a 500 or 700, but the cavity should be close:
https://yamahasuperflighters.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/pickups.jpg

The wiring layouts from that era seem to use 500K volume and 300K tone pots with 022 caps for those models. I think these diagrams (http://forum.japanaxe.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=2288#p18013) (without the switched tone pots) should match your model, give or take.

[Rabbitz]

Thanks Scott,

It all seems kosher then. Well apart from the bodgey Dimarzio pick up and the flakey pot/s.

The tone pots measure at ~350kΩ and the volume at ~420kΩ in circuit, so given the age and the fact they are in circuit then 300 and 500 would be about right.

While measuring them (and trying to establish if they were linear or log) they all exhibited drop outs, so I might bite the bullet and replace all four.

For the record they appear to be log pots (tapered or AT).

[WeirdBits]

It's probably worth spending a few minutes having a look at the internals of that DiMarzio pup, it may be a fixable problem with the links to the coil wires rather than a buried break in one of the coils themselves. Be a shame to have to trash a nice old 70's pup like that.

[Rabbitz]

You're right. As it stands there is nothing to lose in pulling down.

Curiously, it briefly came to life, which makes me think it is a broken wire someplace.