RS Kit Update

[Kazwell]

One word of advice, never start on a project like this at 1:00am. Especially since I got up at 4:30am the day before. Makes for a long day to say the least. At a slow but consistent pace I went ahead and changed everthing out that I had in the RS complete vintage kit, down to the jack even though the stock looked like it was the exact model Switchcraft.

 

Sorry, no pics were taken so please no "useless" icons. I'll post some in the future. Mistakenly, I was under the assumption my H-150 had braided wiring, that settled any misgivings about removing the toggle wiring. I was surprised to see the same grade of toggle switch wiring that I have seen in my Korean Tradtion and Epiphone. Never worked this extensively with braided wiring or the cloth covered stuff they included to ground the pots together. Actually, it is much easier to work with as all you have to do is push back the cloth and braiding. The connection automatically grounds itself through the guitar since the ground wires are exposed and on top of one another through the body.

 

The superpots are much stiffer than ones I am used to, but they also deliver as promised a linear volume gain. The Jensen caps, which are huge btw, seem to also deliver nice tone. I would say that the overall headroom has now increased in both volume and tone spectrum. All my patches on my VOx Tonelab seem too hot now and will have to be tweaked. Overall was it worth the price? I would say yes, you will not be sorry. One word of caution is that on my H-150, the Switchcraft long toggle was not a perfect fit and I have to set aside the crown that was included and utilize the one that came with the H-150. I only had about 2 treads -maybe three exposed out of the cap to screw the crown on. No room for a washer, but it seems to stay in place pretty weill.

 

Got to wrap up since I'm only going on about three hours sleep here, but I gott say after cranking the Seth Lovers through an amp with this wiring, that rare feeling came over me that hits tone junkies now and then, that "high" when you actually hear the sound you felt like you were missing all along. That feeling totally trumped the sick feeling I was carrying at the pit of my stomach after a drop about the diameter of a thimbal landed dead square on the back (luckily) of the guitar. Unfortunately it left what resembles a boil on the back-small gripe considering we have had folks recently posting neck break photos, but I am sure we can all relate to the feeling you get after you put your first serious ding on a fairly new guitar. Enough of the rambling, thanks for letting me share.

 

Kaz

[skydog]

Thanks for the update Kaz. I think I'll go ahead with this for my 150 and if I like it I'll add it to my 535.

[Kazwell]

You won't be sorry, skydog, just remember about the toggle switch issue. That's the biggest problem I found with it.

[skydog]

I know the 150 will be the easier of the two. Any "luthiers" here have any advise on dealing with the 535 hollowbody?

[Dick Seacup]

The advice I've always read about rewiring hollowbodies is to attach dental floss to the pots and switches you're pulling out (before you pull them out), so it's a breeze to pull the new stuff back in.  Makes sense to me, but I've never tried it.

[skydog]

You mention the Jensen caps as being huge. I wonder if everything in the RS kit will pass through the F holes?

[tulk1]

Cool deal, Kaz. Thanks for the update and inspiration.

[Kazwell]

You mention the Jensen caps as being huge. I wonder if everything in the RS kit will pass through the F holes?

 

Oh, that should be no problem at all. Here is a photo of the .22(s)

 

 

The .15 is a few mm longer, but not as wide. Compared to the tiny stock caps that were in my H-150, they definately appeared to be huge.

[High Flying Bird]

I got a picture form the inside of my buddy's H-150 last night.  Those caps you show are a good bit bigger than the ones that come stock. 

 

http://www.ronwarren.com/heritage2/img_6247.htm

[Kazwell]

Yep, that's what I had as well.