Upgrading electronics in a low-cost 335 copy...

[Steve Z]

Originally Posted by Livingston

SteveZ,

I decided to order the same kit (ES335) for my Ibanez AM70. I've messed around with the wiring with that guitar in the past but have not been completely happy. I ordered the Mojo kit this morning...can't wait to receive and install it.

Have you received your kit yet?

Darryl

Darryl,

I hope the kit works for both of us . As the prewired kits are made to order (listed as back order when I placed my order) I don't expect to receive it until late this week or early next week. The used Gibson 57 Classic pickups (I bought from a seller on the Seymour Duncan forum) arrived this afternoon so I am anxious for the wiring harness to get here so I can begin the "adventure".

[Steve Z]

Well, the wiring harness arrived this afternoon. It looks just like the photo on the website with great soldering. The wiring harness was well packed and came with well written directions.

Now that I have everything that I need, the only task left at hand is finding my soldering gun. I may have to do a little drilling on my guitar as many overseas made guitars require enlargement of the hole diameter for the USA sized pots and switches to fit... more to follow.

I will be sure to watch the installation video again before I commence the "operation"... http://www.mojomusicalsupply.com/video-335.asp

[Livingston]

Steve Z,

Have you had time to install the Mojo wire harness and the Gibson p/u's?

I placed my order on February 2nd but the order hasn't shipped yet. Do you recall how long it takes them to complete the order?

Hope your soldering project is going smoothly.

Darryl

[GAD]

Sorry I'm late to the party. I've done what you're looking at. I replaced *everything* in my HB-35. Details in the TGP thread here: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/sho...d.php?t=473956

GAD

[Taylorplayer]

Originally Posted by GAD

Sorry I'm late to the party. I've done what you're looking at. I replaced *everything* in my HB-35. Details in the TGP thread here: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/sho...d.php?t=473956

GAD

GAD: Man, that project you undertook became quite adventure!!! Folks, you really need to check out that link and see all that he had to do!

[phuufme]

Originally Posted by GAD

Sorry I'm late to the party. I've done what you're looking at. I replaced *everything* in my HB-35. Details in the TGP thread here: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/sho...d.php?t=473956

GAD

I want to post just "wow", but its too short. So, WOW.

[Steve Z]

Originally Posted by Livingston

Steve Z,

Have you had time to install the Mojo wire harness and the Gibson p/u's?

I placed my order on February 2nd but the order hasn't shipped yet. Do you recall how long it takes them to complete the order?

Hope your soldering project is going smoothly.

Darryl

Well, life has taken over and changed my priorities so I have not yet installed the electronics and pickups. I plan on getting to that task this week.

I ordered the wiring harness on Jan 29th and it arrived on Feb 4th. You might want to send them a quick email and inquire as the time seems rather lengthy.

Originally Posted by GAD

Sorry I'm late to the party. I've done what you're looking at. I replaced *everything* in my HB-35. Details in the TGP thread here: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/sho...d.php?t=473956

GAD

Thanks for the link. Good reading and some good lessons learned about the process. Bummer on the original transaction, but appears you have a sweet player now.

[Livingston]

Got my Mojo today! It looks very nicely soldered and constructed. I like the mounting board/jig they use to ship the product. I will save it for future DIY jobs.

I'm hoping to break out the soldering iron tonight after the kids go to bed. It depends...I'm going to use some copper foil to shield the pots. If I can do that quickly, then I will install the wire harness tonight...otherwise, I'm leaving for China for a couple weeks and won't get to this until March.

More to come...

[GAD]

Originally Posted by Taylorplayer

GAD: Man, that project you undertook became quite adventure!!! Folks, you really need to check out that link and see all that he had to do!

Hey thanks. I don't sleep much, and I get bored easily, so I really had fun doing it. I just recently sold it to someone who had to sell off all their gear and was looking for a cheap guitar. I figured them being thrilled with it is better then me still not playing it much. Besides, I put the money towards a new Guild X-170.

GAD

[Steve Z]

Well, I finally got around to installing the new wiring harness and pickups into my Hohner SE-35 (335 copy - Korean made). I bought the guitar new in the late '90s. I absolutely love the neck on this guitar and the quality of the workmanship for the price... the wiring harness is a different story (see picture below). This guitar now sounds and plays great!

The Mojo wiring harness installation video was outstanding in detailing the procedure, and the instructions that came with the wiring harness were also valuable. I won't go into much detail as it was pretty straight forward as per the video. I did use dental floss to pull the pots, switch and jack through the holes. The new wiring harness and pickups really did make a noticeable difference in clarity and tone of the guitar for being such a low cost modification. It did help finding the Gibson 57 classic pickups used. I highly recommend the Mojo prewired wiring harness as it is top quality. I would have gone crazy trying to do 1/4 as good a job and the time saved is definitely worth something.

Here are a few items that I thought are important to help anyone else who is planning on upgrading their electronics...

1. Total time to swap electronics was about 3 hours. It could have gone faster, but I had to restring all the dental floss as I initially for got to put the lock washers on the pots before I tied on the dental floss and pulled it through all the hoes. Thankfully I did not yet stick the new wiring harness into the body of the guitar.

- Note (I read this somewhere, forget where) - To pull the dental floss through the body holes, use the ball end of an old guitar string. Thread the ball end of a guitar string through the hole and pull the ball back out of the f-hole. Wrap the end of the floss around the ball end of the string and pull the floss through. Simple and fast!

2. I soldered the pickups in place prior to putting the wiring harness in the body of the guitar as the leads were long enough. The bridge ground had to be soldered with half the wiring harness placed inside the body and just before I put the neck volume pot in the body as the bridge ground wire was not that long. Careful not to burn the guitar body with the solder gun.

3. The CTS pots are larger than the stock foreign pots that were installed in my guitar and would not fit through the end circle parts of the f-holes, which I thought were the largest part. They did, however, fit through the wide-center part of the f-holes with a little playing around. Be careful not to mess up the preformed shape of the wiring harness as it nicely hides the wires when installed.

4. It worked best to install the jack first, then slowly pull all the pots dental floss to get them in place. I secured the pots with the washers and nuts, then installed the switch last.

5. Install new strings and adjust the new picks to balance the volume. Enjoy!


I had heard that stock wiring harnesses in overseas guitars was poor, but I had no idea how inferior the harness were until I pulled it out and compared it to the Mojo harness with CTS pots and Switchcraft switch. Wow! This picture does not even capture the actual difference in quality.





Blue tape was used to hold dental floss while inserting harness into body.

[GAD]

Good job man! You should be proud of yourself. A lot of people don't have the skills or determination to tackle a job like that. The fact that you did it successfully is a pretty cool thing!

GAD

[phuufme]

Definitely jealous. So you did NOT change the pickups, just the pots and the switch?

[Bob Womack]

I've found the '57 Classics to be just plain old gorgeous. I've got a set in one of my guitars and it sounds so nice I'm afraid to touch anything. I guess that's a measure of success?

Bob

[Steve Z]

Originally Posted by GAD

Good job man! You should be proud of yourself. A lot of people don't have the skills or determination to tackle a job like that. The fact that you did it successfully is a pretty cool thing!

GAD

Thanks. It was definitely a fun and rewarding learning experience. I am not sure that it took much talent as 90% of the work was already done with the pre-wired wiring harness, but it did take patience and thinking out the order of placing the pots/switch in the body body. I was also unsure on how to ground the metal sleeved Gibson 57 classic pickup wires... after much Googling with little luck, it dawned on my to just look at the wiring of my ancient Les Paul . Had I went right to the Les Paul to begin with I could have saved another 20 minutes.

Originally Posted by phuufme

Definitely jealous. So you did NOT change the pickups, just the pots and the switch?

I did replace the stock pickups with a used set of Gibson '57 Classic/Classic+. The original pickups were Sky Pickups "designed by Kent Armstrong"... likely just some overseas inexpensive pickups. It seems every pickup manufacturer these days has "designed by Kent Armstrong " models, which IMHO dilutes the importance of "designed by...". All in all the stock pickups were not that bad, but I can definitely tell a very noticeable difference between the stock pickups and the -57 Classics. Mostly more clarity.

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

I've found the '57 Classics to be just plain old gorgeous. I've got a set in one of my guitars and it sounds so nice I'm afraid to touch anything. I guess that's a measure of success?

Bob

The '57 Classics do sound nice. I am not sure I would have paid new prices, but at 40% less than new price I couldn't pass up the deal and boy am I glad I made the switch. I would likely have been equally happy with used Seymour Duncan's but I found the used '57s first.