Toothpaste 475 rebuild and Sliding vs Rotary Potentiometer Questions

[gmaffPappy]

I have a '93 Charvel 475 Deluxe.
I love the feel and balance of this guitar. This guitar was my dream ax right after HS, but it's been hanging on the wall for a decade. It's only ever played like an electric acoustic that looks cool. I'm an acoustic player, that didn't bother me. Now I'm getting back to my roots and would like to ROCK!
The previous owner messed it all up.
The je-1200 is gone, everything else is original. The humbuckers don't work. I'm pretty sure it's the wiring's fault, but I'll check the HB.

I'm an IT architect who fancies himself an amateur guitar player. Technically, I can do this wiring. I understand the electronic components, wiring, diagrams, soldering, etc.
The problem I will have is not going all IT Architect, over-analytic, maniac and trying to do what is possible, as apposed to just doing what needs to get done well.

Call this post a Sanity Check.

I would love to play with as many combinations of my pickups as I can. Since I'm doing the wiring, I can make the switches do whatever I want...that's cool.
There's no pick-guard that I can replace if I screw up whole placement/size or want to change the # of holes, and I'm not drilling holes in the mint '93 classic....I can't believe it and I are solidly "Classic"s!

So, here's what I have to work with:

Body:
Three holes (I haven't measured them yet, but I am willing to ream them if needed....suggestions/cautions?)
One slot w/ two screw holes (where the 5-way switch is).

Electronic:
1 x 250k volume pot - replacing the je-1200 (a new je-1200 will be here Wed. Is the attached pot for volume 250k?)
1 x 500k pot
1 x 500k push/pull pot
1 x 5-eay lever switch
1 x mono jack (I think it is supposed to be stereo to act as the je-1200 on/off switch?)
2 x Jackson j-200
1 x Jackson j-50bc
0 x caps
0 x resisters


Rebuild Options:
1. Wire it up "factory" - Pretty Easy
2. Go IT Maniac

MANIAC
1. Upgrade all 500k pots to 550k (1M?) push/pull
A. one pot (hole 2) changes the HB phasing and is tone
B. one pot (hole 3) as HB coil tap (which should I turn off or is there even an option?) and je-1200 controller
2. I like the Gilmour mode with 7-way switch, but there are no 7-way switches and I'm not drilling any holes.
A. replace the 250k volume pot on the je-1200 with a (250k or 500k?) sliding potentiometer. This way, the volume will be a slide that fits into the 5-way switch's slot
B. Put a 7-way rotary switch in to the body's volume hole. Positions:
1: 1
2: 12
3: 13
4: 2
5: 23
6: 3
7: 123
With the coil tap, that's 11 combinations and no new holes

3. caps and resisters. I don't know. Suggestions? Do I need a treble bleed with the je-1200?

Am I totally crazy?....probably!
Has anyone used a sliding potentiometer? The specs are the same. The only difference is the mechanism. Benefits, I case use a 7-way switch in the volume hole, and it will also make knowing, at a glance, what the volume is set to easier, for this "Classic".
Is this a bad idea? Is this just plain stupid?

[pianoguyy]

Did they make a 475 in 1993 ?


But to answer the question:
There's a load of technology that wasn't available 30 years ago. So, you really should figure out what you want to use the guitar for, and then work on that.
Because you also have kill switches. Modeling technology. Sustainers. Fender used 'personality cards', could you imagine what can be done with modern computer tech. Or go really retro, and use the Ace Frehley smoke bomb.

The point - yeah, we can really go overboard if we don't have a goal.

[gmaffPappy]

Is it a '93 475? If it's not, I don't know what it is.

My Goals:
1. Keep it analog...There's too much digital in my life
2. Get this ax working right.
3. Explore as many sounds as I can without having to bread out a soldering iron
4. Learn

Is what I'm proposing doable, realistic, and practical?
I'll wire it all up in a test harness alligator-ed to the 475 fore trial.

[gmaffPappy]

Pics:

https://1drv.ms/i/s!AlLIeh47lRC8gZE1nTiB81IMQJABZw?e=MjIZBW

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AlLIeh47lRC8gZE7JXYioJWGBD-Y7A?e=1bwX3B

The serial # is: 368034
6 digit SN starting with 3. Though SN's are dubious for dating, it is a Special/Deluxe (depending on the year.) and made in Jap.

[ed]

Nice looking guitar. It is most likely from 1990. They didnt make 475s in 1993 anymore as far as i know.
If you have the 5 way jackson super switch(dont remember if 475 came with that) You can get loads of sounds with that alone. Or similar 5 way super switch from today.

[gmaffPappy]

Thanks, I love the look of this guitar. It plays like a dream. The action is super low w/ no buzzing.

I read that there were later Jap 475's made because they had the parts. I haven't taken the neck off to check the date/time of the body & neck, but the rumor is they continued to use the parts later than the catalog date, but continued with their SN's. There's still a lot of questions when dating these guitars. At this point, I'd guess it's made from some of the last body and necks batches of '91 of that style, because the style changed that year, but assembled in '93, thus the #. I'll probably never know for sure.

As for the 5-way, it may be part of the HB problem. I'll know and report back after tests.

If I stay with 5-way instead of the 7-way that brings me down in the # of pup configs. What should I drop? I really don't know until I hear them.

I want a clean and clear strat sound for blues, but love the HB crunch for some heavier rock. Suggestions?

Just to go even further overboard, I just found a Bourns Dual Mini Guitar Potentiometer w/Push Pull Switch, 500K Audio, Solid Shaft on Amazon.
Dual?
Could this give me a single tap for each HB coil? Interesting thought. That would put the # of pup combination to 15. That's crazy, but I'd never have to rewire the pups again

[gmaffPappy]

Okay, the Dual pot. I think I found the answer. I didn't know there where two types of p/p pots. SPST is in on/off switch with one wired "on". I didn't know that. The dual is a DPDT. This is what I use for coil taps? Two states to toggle between.
I guess I could put two DPDT's in for tone and je-1200 tone, they'll turn on/off each coil.

If I over engineer this any more, I'll need a Raspberry PI to get my guitar to make some noise. But there'd go the idea of analog

[pianoguyy]

I read that there were later Jap 475's made because they had the parts.
but the rumor is they continued to use the parts later than the catalog date

This is true of all guitars for both their start and end dates. Calendar year and Model year don't run the same. Not to mention actual production dates.
But that means, as example, a model that officially ended in 2018 was made though March 2019... not 2023.

*point of interest - Ibanez, in the 80s, the ones that passed through the Pennsylvania plant, some of the 'last made' guitars of a model would end up being a hodge podge of parts because as they ran out of parts they would use whatever was sitting around.

[pianoguyy]

Oh, and stop trying to date guitars using serial numbers.
A 3xxxxx on an imported bolt-on means it was the 300,000th bolt on made. It is not a year and it is not model specific. The best we could do is date them sequentially, but I don't think anyone really has made a list of them to be able to compare.

[gmaffPappy]

Thanks for the info. Every bit helps.
I guess I'll just have to take that neck off, next time I restring, and check out the stamps. With my luck, there won't be any on either part...LOL!
Right now, I guess the most accurate I can be on this is that the headstock's logo, was printed somewhere between 1989 and 1992, inclusively.
Still, this ax is over 25 years old...like me

[john.w.lawson]

Looks like a 475 to me. Might be a special

[gmaffPappy]

Here's where I landed.
1. 2x push/pull Bourns 500k pots
2. New je-1200 (already ordered and OTW)
3. Copper tape with conductive adhesive for shielding
4. Vintage 3-color, 1'/color, 22awg wire
5. The kicker! 1x Fee-Way 10-way switch 5B5-02 for SSH. It fits in the same 5-way slot and screw holes.
6. No new holes

I had no idea there was a 10-way out there.
It has 1 less than what I was considering, but I still will have 2 unused DPDT's.
It comes with diagrams for a 2 pot wiring. My third is used to control the je-1200.

Problem solved and it's not CRAZY!
Grand total w/ shipping $69.80. They'll all be here Wed/Thurs. You couldn't pay for even a single lesson, schedule before then, for that little $$. I'm not counting the je-1200 I bought last week, but it was only $45...if it works.

Now, unless you gentle people correct my course, all I have to worry about is resistors and caps for the 1 tone and volume. But, I don't know that I need them. I thought the je-1200 handled everything, but it may not. I've seen a couple diagrams with a .022 cap on the tone pot, but no treble bleed on the vol. Thoughts?

Am I on the better path? What pitfalls and ambushes should I be looking out for?

Thanks, All!

[john.w.lawson]

Here's where I landed.
1. 2x push/pull Bourns 500k pots
2. New je-1200 (already ordered and OTW)
3. Copper tape with conductive adhesive for shielding
4. Vintage 3-color, 1'/color, 22awg wire
5. The kicker! 1x Fee-Way 10-way switch 5B5-02 for SSH. It fits in the same 5-way slot and screw holes.
6. No new holes

I had no idea there was a 10-way out there.
It has 1 less than what I was considering, but I still will have 2 unused DPDT's.
It comes with diagrams for a 2 pot wiring. My third is used to control the je-1200.

Problem solved and it's not CRAZY!
Grand total w/ shipping $69.80. They'll all be here Wed/Thurs. You couldn't pay for even a single lesson, schedule before then, for that little $$. I'm not counting the je-1200 I bought last week, but it was only $45...if it works.

Now, unless you gentle people correct my course, all I have to worry about is resistors and caps for the 1 tone and volume. But, I don't know that I need them. I thought the je-1200 handled everything, but it may not. I've seen a couple diagrams with a .022 cap on the tone pot, but no treble bleed on the vol. Thoughts?

Am I on the better path? What pitfalls and ambushes should I be looking out for?

Thanks, All!

[gmaffPappy]

Okay, it's DONE!
All 11 positions have been verified with a multi-meter. Most importantly, it makes sound.
And, Man, does it sound AWESOME? YES!!! TOTALLY!!!
Once I polish it up, I'll post some pics.
Thank you all for your help!