C18Q1 Gibson CS-336 "refurb"

stickyfiddle · January 2018

Chalky said:

Rewiring a semi is awkward but as long as you are methodical its ok. I always make the loom slightly too big rather than an exact fit template - the wiggle room makes it easier to fit.

Yeah, absolutely this. For me the loom is more a guide to make the pots don't end up too close together than anything else.

stickyfiddle · January 2018

stickyfiddle said:

Adam_MD said:

Looking good @stickyfiddle how are the ox4s?

Honestly, I've spent too much time working away from home so haven't plugged in as much as I'd have liked, but early impressions are really good. Just a nice sparkly PAF type thing, exactly what I'm after.

To expand on this, I sat down for a quick 10 minute strum last night and got up an hour later having not even considered switching guitars throughout.

Good pickups

Keefy · January 2018

Nice work @stickyfiddle! I've bookmarked this thread against the day when I have no choice but to attack the innards of my own CS336.

Mine is black, and a previous owner (quite possibly someone on here) has replaced the stock pickups with Bareknuckle Mississippi Queens. It plays and sounds phenomenal, but I agree about the tuner pegs - they would look better in cream/ivory. I replaced the plastic nut with bone last year (relatively easy job - I have nut files!), but I haven't yet had to go 'internal'. The day is bound to come though, as the bridge volume pot loses contact at the very top of its travel.

Where can I get the fret polishing pads and mask?

stickyfiddle · January 2018

Keefy said:

Nice work @stickyfiddle! I've bookmarked this thread against the day when I have no choice but to attack the innards of my own CS336.

Mine is black, and a previous owner (quite possibly someone on here) has replaced the stock pickups with Bareknuckle Mississippi Queens. It plays and sounds phenomenal, but I agree about the tuner pegs - they would look better in cream/ivory. I replaced the plastic nut with bone last year (relatively easy job - I have nut files!), but I haven't yet had to go 'internal'. The day is bound to come though, as the bridge volume pot loses contact at the very top of its travel.

Where can I get the fret polishing pads and mask?

Those bits came from Stewmac. I’ve had the fretboard mask things for years but everything else was in a recent order.

They do a little packets of the micromesh pads - one of each grade about 2” Square, which is perfect for fretwork. I’d seen it recommended for years but never tried it - I’m glad I did

stickyfiddle · March 2018

Minor update because I'd done it a bit wrong. Turns out the reason the switch wouldn't orient the right way is because I'd wired it wrong. Not electrically wrong, but the orientation of the cable runs was backwards.

Gibson do their looms for 335-types in a U shape, which it partly to stop the wiring being visible through the f-hole, and partly to aid feeding the loom into the guitar.

It should look roughly like this 335 image borrowed from t'internet:

What I did was to do the "U" the wrong way around, so the bridge vol & tone were closely linked to the switch, meaning I could rotate the switch as far as I needed. The net result was a switch angled perpendicular to where is should have been.

So yesterday it all came out again (because apparently I love rewiring semi-hollows...). The good news is, it only needed about 6 solder joints changing, then went back in very easily, suggesting that the "proper" way actually gives practical benefits. Who knew!?

The whole thing took me maybe an hour, which I'm quite proud of. No pictures as I forgot, but imagine a little bit of swearing and then having a beer after a job done remarkably quicker than expected.

And hopefully I won't have to do it again for another 10 years this time...

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C18Q1 Gibson CS-336 "refurb"

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