Switch replacement on Epiphone G-1275 doubleneck

[blademaster2]

This was a relatively small job: I was frustrated with the noisy/scratchy switches on my Epiphone doubleneck - they were the miniature ones with tiny point-contacts and not the large ones I have seen on Gibsons. I have cleaned them a few times but they would soon return to becoming flakey in a relatively short time. Last month I purchased a set of right-angle Gibson-style switches from StewMac (expecting the straight ones to be too high for the shallower doubleneck body cavity) and planned to replace them.

It required a small amount of wood removal to enlarge the cavity where the footprint of the larger switches needed to go, so I cut some neat swathes into the wood, sealed the exposed areas (probably not necessary as this is inexpensive mahogany plywood), and carefully soldered in the new switches. The job was quite clean when it was done and it went back together with no mishaps.

I am very pleased with the look of these new switches (sitting lower on the pickguard and cleaner, more minimal collar on them) and their smoothness of operation, and the guitar operates as it should. I love the sympathetic vibrations of the unplayed neck when the other neck is in use. If I have both necks on but turn down the volume on the neck that I am playing and crank the amplifier I get swelling/swirling tones accompanying my playing. Very cool.

I have read some posts that the pickups in these guitars were not good, but I have no complaints about them so I am not in a hurry to buy anything as an upgrade.

Does anyone else in Nuts2 have similar experiences with those cheaper switches?

[sumgai]

bm,


Pics, or it didn't happen!








sumgai

[Deleted]

Feb 21, 2018 11:14:46 GMT -5 blademaster2 said:

(probably not necessary as this is inexpensive mahogany plywood)

plywood rocks , great sustain , no kidding

Feb 21, 2018 11:14:46 GMT -5 blademaster2 said:

Does anyone else in Nuts2 have similar experiences with those cheaper switches?

Man I would not remove wood just for the sake of a switch. The cheaper ones can hold up to a few years (mine went belly up in 3 years), and I replaced them with exactly the same. Yours were the rectangular / box type?

[blademaster2]

These old switches were open-frame things (like the new ones, but different design) used for pickup selection (and also neck selection in this case).

I think their weakness was the very tiny contact point, where somehow the contact degraded. Also, due to the shorter length of the flexible contacts that are displaced by the toggle moving back and forth the old ones were harder to switch and not as smooth operating. I very much like the look and feel of the new ones.

The amount of wood removal was very small (probably less than 0.5 cu inch), and only where the wiring channel, which was shallower than the switch cavities, was not deep enough to accommodate the added dimension of the right-angle switch. I removed just enough wood on these channels to clear the room for the switch contacts and wiring, but not even as deep as the original switch cavity depth. I never did measure the depth of the switch cavity versus straight switches but I suspect it would have been too shallow since the body is thinner than a Les Paul - and the *last* thing I wanted to do was to risk busting through the back of the body with a forstner bit.

I will get photos posted a little later, but I hope Sumgai is not expecting to see much in them except very small amount of cavity wood removed and sealed. I did not photograph my soldering (but I did beautiful solder joints - good enough to pass J-STD-001FS inspection). The biggest visible difference is the appearance from the outside, as the new ones look much less clunky.

[blademaster2]

Here are some photos: old switch, example of enlarged channel, and the new switches after installation.

Sadly, my awesome soldering was not photographed.

Attachments:

[Deleted]

Seems clean and nice. Good job!

[sumgai]

OK, it happened.

Nice job, looks professional to my eye.

Fortunately for me, I'm not addicted to solder-pr0n!




sumgai