Lol @jugglindan I was just looking at diy pedals and Amps since my guitar is stuck in limbo.
@ricky I’m interested to see what you do too. I just learned about running one coil from each humbucker in series but that required a change to the pup wiring I think.
There some good info on basic guitar electronics and wiring schemes here:
http://www.1728.org/guitar.htm
The one issue you have with coil splits on an ES-1 is the extra length of push/pull pots (if you use those rather than separate switches). They are quite deep and because of the arched back and sides, you've got varying depths available to fit them in. Not only is there the installed depth to think about, but you need more height to be able to get the shaft through the hole in the first place - and you've got to be able to do this working through the F-hole.
I have an ES-1 body here, and I've measured the depth available beneath the relevant holes in the body. Using the normal control layout, you've got bridge volume 41mm, bridge tone 42mm, neck volume 56mm and neck tone 50mm. You'll need longer shaft pots because of the body thickness (5mm, but slightly thicker from a practical sense because of the curve of the top), and the push/pull pot I've got available with a suitable length shaft is 47mm overall, with a 27mm deep body and 20mm of shaft.
I really don't think you'd fit those in the bridge pot positions at all, and the neck tone could be a struggle given its position. You'd certainly need to use cotton, rather than tubing, over the shaft to pull it through the hole. So you could use the neck volume pot to tap just the bridge pickup. A bit odd conceptually, but it works.
If you want to coil split both pickups, then I'd suggest fitting some mini-toggle switches.
A semi-hollow body isn't the best type of guitar to play about with wiring configurations. Once you've got the controls in and fitted, you probably won't want to take them all out again to change a component value. Any Vero board will want to be fixed down otherwise it will keep knocking against the body, and you have the F-hole to think about. So do any experimenting with the controls outside the guitar, before you put them in.
Ah, yes. I got so carried away thinking about coil split experiments that I forgot about the guitar body considerations. In my mind I was thinking of the generous rear route on my G&L.Originally Posted by Simon Barden
@Simon.
Thanks for checking the body depths - very useful and in fact something I was rolling around in the back of my mind.
So ... toggle switches or maybe a reimagined rotary switch as the real vintage versions had (think they were wired with resistors to just cut the hb values??
One rotary switch with say 5 positions 'could' give me 4 alternative splits plus no split or am I just making life difficult?
And I thought that building my dream guitar would be easy! Story of my life.
With any rotary switch, you run into the problem of getting it through the F-hole. They don't tend to be that compact. Whilst you can just about get a full-sized pot through the hole ( I just tried and it really was a struggle, and you'd need to be very careful with how your wiring went on the pot), anything the same diameter as that with a deeper body, or just a larger diameter, is likely to be impossible. Mini pots are the best choice here for ease of getting your harness in and out.
These are the push/pull switches I ordered. It looks like they would fit depth-wise but IDK if the shaft would be long enough. It’s 9.5mm shaft but you have to subtract for the nut. They are 44.5mm total height so some would have to be started through the hole at an angle, which is likely going to happen anyway when you pull them through with string. Mounting depth is only 25.4mm.
https://www.mojotone.com/guitar-part...-Potentiometer
Here is long shaft version, but 19mm shaft adds 10mm to total height and would be more difficult to snake through the holes at an angle.
https://www.mojotone.com/guitar-part...-Potentiometer
I think if you used the long shaft version (54.5mm total height) you could squeeze them into the Neck Vol and Neck Tone per Simon’s measurements and layout. Note that it is perfectly OK to control bridge pickup with a switch hidden under neck pickup’s knob.
Last edited by Joe Garfield; 23-04-2020 at 05:54 AM.
I'm afraid they won't fit through the F-hole of an ES-1 at all. I know because I've got one of those pots handy It's got a full-sized pot diameter, and the extra depth of the full-sized section (let alone the slightly larger PCB connection board) means there's simply no way to fit it into the body. With a normal full-sized pot, you have to angle it in and give it a hard push to fit through the f-hole, but with those deep CTS pots, you simply can't do that.
"I won't fit in this way..."
"No, still won't fit in."
Hmm... I do not want to carve a big chunk out of the f hole to make it fit! (Nice finish on that guitar btw)
Thanks for checking this Simon.
I have found https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/potentiometers/7703078/
They are 17mm dia as opposed to the 24mm one that you have.
Would they work? Also, is the spec up to the job? They are Bourns so should be decent. Long shaft available.
They'll do the job. Decent pots. 6mm is compatible with the kit holes and the kit knobs.
That guitar isn't finished properly yet. Neck is only half done, needs attaching and final clear coats sprayed on, then sanding and polishing. Binding got ruined by spirit-based stain in the cracks, so it was painted white and then some tinted lacquer has given it a more aged look.
Problem solved.
cheers Mark.
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