Firstly, I'm sorry to have appeared to be so lax in getting these photos in here. I just had a hard time figuring out the blah blah blahs.
Secondly, as you know doubt know from looking at the pic, she has 2 mini-humbuckers with solid covers, a volume and tone pot for each, and a 3-way slide switch acting as the pickup selector. I'd rather have a toggle switch, as I have found that much more manageable under any condition, rehearsal or gig. It has a very low-impact on the amount of one's attention required for use, if you catch my drift. That notwithstanding, the switch just has to work.
Upon looking at it again when taking the pics, it appears to have been a "normal" 3-way slider that was sorta customized at the factory. A closer comparison of the new switch with the old makes me believe this, along with some dusty memory of this sort of ways of "customizing" a switch to make it fit in a location it would not without such modification.
The new switch has 4 contacts on each of its long sides. The old switch, on first glance, doesn't have any of that, and soldering looks to have been done in a very strange fashion. That closer look alluded to above was a look that included some thought, whereas the first look that created for me that "Oh, ****" moment I get when I expect to see something in a specific way and instead what I see creates a confusion that sorta automatically ends the thought process. The old switch looks like maybe some of the contacts were maybe cut off and others were bent over, perhaps to give needed clearance between the electrical connections and that little brass (?) cup it sits in there under the pickguard.
Hence, if I am correct in this -- perhaps someone here will know the answer -- , the switch is no longer looking AS ALIEN to me as it did at first, but being only a parts changer (outside of my builds), I know next to zero about the wiring of pickups -- so what I'm gonna find when I fire up my soldering equipment sorta scares me. I'm thinking I should have 3 wires from each pickup, probably black, some other color, and a braided wire. But I don't see reflection of that here. I'm hoping someone here can inform my poor brain, as it needs all the help it can get on wiring...well, actually at "unwiring", then re-wiring.
Well, if anyone needs more info in order to assist, please ask. I shouldn't be as tardy with my responses.
And if you have other questions about the instrument, do ask. I think I said previously that this was my first good guitar. I fell in love with her immediately, and unlike most people I've met over many years of roaming this politically altered form of reality, she never let me down. I managed to play her long after the tuners began to fail and the switch started crackling and popping, all by adapting to the decreased functionality little by little as it worsened over time. Though I'm not turned on by the control or pickup cavities, I do love this old girl totally...probably as much as my wife, though not as much as my GF. LOL So, I'd love to open her up and take measurements and such for someone. It's a great way to learn, isn't it? I want to put my meter on the pickups to get an accurate reading on their output.
Later today I'm going to install the new Kluson tuners. All of the posts line up and slip right in. Didn't need to change the ferrules, which was a point of concern, as I know how easily the finish could be ruined when trying to extract bits of hardware installed over a finish 55 years ago; the finish could easily peel off with the ferrules even with Great Care taken. BUT, only one of the screw holes lines up and the heads of the screws that did the job on the old set (new screws not provided) hit the outside edges of the tuner enclosures, stopping them from going in. I could sand down the heads of the screws, I guess, how I'll have to figure out, if it comes to it, but will instead look up mounting screw figures if I can find the anywhere.
Ok. Now I'm outa here. Thanks for being here!
Dale
