Gretsch thin line pickup selector switch access

JayGee

I have a Gretsch 6522T (Electromatic, thinline, fully hollow body, double cutaway) - the pickup selector on it has always been a little temperamental, sometimes requiring a flick or two backwards and forwards before it would start working properly if I hadn’t used the guitar for a while, but now it seems to have decided that it doesn’t have a bridge pickup at all and no amount of vigorous switch flicking has persuaded it otherwise.

I’ve seen it suggested that it’s possible to fish the selector switch (mounted on the bass side “horn”) out thorough the neck pickup opening (having first put a bit of tube or thread over it to help guide it back into place) which I can just about countenance having a go at myself rather than pulling the whole wiring loom out through the treble side f-hole which I’m much more wary of, and would probably hand the guitar over to a tech/luthier for…

Can anyone here confirm this and/or offer further suggestions?

ICBM

Yes, that will work - but before you do, spray some contact cleaner down into the switch with the guitar lying on its back. It will usually reach the switch contacts.

OilCityPickups

It's a common thing on Electromatics it seems:  my current 5420T and my previous 5420T both had the intermittent switch issue. Use proper contact cleaner though not ordinary WD40 or other spray oils. To confuse matters there is now apparently a WD40 contact cleaner as a separate thing from their spray lube ... not tried it myself.

Personally when I upgrade my Gretsch's pickups I'll replace the switch as a matter of course. 

JayGee

Cheers both of you, contact cleaner it is then before I dive in with screwdriver and soldering iron…

Any concerns regarding finish with that stuff? I’ll be careful, but it would be a shame to spoil that lovely sparkly blue so if there are any risks I’d like to know up front so I can take due precautions… 

ICBM

No, contact cleaner is safe enough even on nitro, and a modern Gretsch - or pretty much any far-eastern-made guitar - will be polyurethane or polyester. Those are pretty much immune to any solvent damage.

I agree with OilCityPickups though, if cleaner doesn't sort it and you have to get the switch out, you're as well to replace it with a better one rather than try to fix it.

OilCityPickups

ICBM said:

No, contact cleaner is safe enough even on nitro, and a modern Gretsch - or pretty much any far-eastern-made guitar - will be polyurethane or polyester. Those are pretty much immune to any solvent damage.

I agree with OilCityPickups though, if cleaner doesn't sort it and you have to get the switch out, you're as well to replace it with a better one rather than try to fix it.

And congratulations you are experiencing the great joy of Gretsch ownership ... an experience that is unchanged pretty much in 70 years: You buy a Gretsch then you realise that to make it play the way it should/you want it to - you have to change/upgrade/hotrod pretty much everything. :-)

BobHillman

OilCityPickups said:

ICBM said:

No, contact cleaner is safe enough even on nitro, and a modern Gretsch - or pretty much any far-eastern-made guitar - will be polyurethane or polyester. Those are pretty much immune to any solvent damage.

I agree with OilCityPickups though, if cleaner doesn't sort it and you have to get the switch out, you're as well to replace it with a better one rather than try to fix it.

And congratulations you are experiencing the great joy of Gretsch ownership ... an experience that is unchanged pretty much in 70 years: You buy a Gretsch then you realise that to make it play the way it should/you want it to - you have to change/upgrade/hotrod pretty much everything. :-)

The phrase "Trigger's broom" comes to mind...!

ICBM

BobHillman said:

The phrase "Trigger's broom" comes to mind...!

Or, indeed, "Roy Orbison's Gretsch".

https://uniqueguitar.blogspot.com/2011/07/roy-orbisons-gretschgibsonsho-bud-guitar.html

BobHillman

ICBM said:

BobHillman said:

The phrase "Trigger's broom" comes to mind...!

Or, indeed, "Roy Orbison's Gretsch".

https://uniqueguitar.blogspot.com/2011/07/roy-orbisons-gretschgibsonsho-bud-guitar.html

That's a guitar that I was not previously aware of. And, of course, we can't ask Roy when he last saw it, can we?

Dave_Mc

ICBM said:

but before you do, spray some contact cleaner down into the switch with the guitar lying on its back. It will usually reach the switch contacts.

I was going to say that, but wasn't 100% sure it'd work with a toggle switch! That certainly worked for me with a Tokai Tele (enclosed lever switch IIRC).

(Yes I was too lazy to unscrew two screws! Or maybe it was a good while ago and I didn't realise the electronics compartment was so easy to get to!)

JayGee

ICBM said:

BobHillman said:

The phrase "Trigger's broom" comes to mind...!

Or, indeed, "Roy Orbison's Gretsch".

https://uniqueguitar.blogspot.com/2011/07/roy-orbisons-gretschgibsonsho-bud-guitar.html

That’s terrific!

I imagine we’ll never see an official tribute/replica for Very Obvious Legal reasons, which is A Damned Shame…

JayGee

JayGee said:

ICBM said:

BobHillman said:

The phrase "Trigger's broom" comes to mind...!

Or, indeed, "Roy Orbison's Gretsch".

https://uniqueguitar.blogspot.com/2011/07/roy-orbisons-gretschgibsonsho-bud-guitar.html

That’s terrific!

I imagine we’ll never see an official tribute/replica for Very Obvious Legal reasons, which is A Damned Shame…

Or possibly a crying shame… :-)

JayGee

ICBM said:

No, contact cleaner is safe enough even on nitro, and a modern Gretsch - or pretty much any far-eastern-made guitar - will be polyurethane or polyester. Those are pretty much immune to any solvent damage.

I agree with OilCityPickups though, if cleaner doesn't sort it and you have to get the switch out, you're as well to replace it with a better one rather than try to fix it.

Sadly contact cleaner hasn’t (yet - who knows, one more spray and wiggle might just displace a stubborn lump of something and it seems unlikely that trying will make things worse…) done the trick so it looks like I’ll be performing exploratory surgery over the weekend. Hopefully it’ll be a failed switch or a relatively accessible connection, but if it looks like more than that it’ll probably be off to a tech/luthier to be rewired with nicer bits on the basis that if I have to pay to have the whole loom fished out and replaced I might as well at least try to make it a “one and done” deal.

And yes, while I have successfully fixed open, snap together switches previously there’s no way I’d go down that road with something I can’t get access to just by undoing a couple of screws….

TheMarlin

Lob it. Get a decent switch. If it’s playing up now, it will always be a pain in the ass. 

OilCityPickups

TheMarlin said:

Lob it. Get a decent switch. If it’s playing up now, it will always be a pain in the ass. 

Exactly - love Electromatics as I do ... the switches are a weak link ... bin it! 

JayGee

Update. After absolutely drowning the switch in contact cleaner a couple of times and making sure that the liquid was actually going down past the shaft and into the switch (I think I may have been a little stingy previously) it’s now working perfectly. :-)

But yeah, it it starts playing up again (suggesting it wasn’t just a lump of crud which has been floating around in there since day one) then it’s going in favour of something nicer from one of the usual suspects…

Dave_Mc

^ Great result!