EA 250 Access to Toggle Switch Knobs

[Buymymonkey]

I have an old EA 250 Epiphone that I bought when I was 15 years old (1980) and have kept around. The body started to separate so I glued it. I took it to a guitar shop and they said "no worth really fixing it up". Nice! Anyway -

 

The toggle switch is starting to go (it crackles and doesn't work) and I probably need to change to volume/tone knows. Plus, the pickups look look like they are too high - sooooo.... here are my questions.

 

1. How do you access the toggle switch and controls? There's no access port other than the decorative holes in the top. Do I need to drop out the pickups and go that way?

 

2. Speaking of pickups, the neck pickup is up very high, nearly touching the strings, while the bridge pickup is lower. What is the proper distances from the pickup to the string?

 

3. I could not find a definitive answer but, I have the black pickups that have the metal slats but also for each metal slat there a phillips-head screw below it. It looks like a humbucker style but I'm guessing it's faux and only single coil. Any ideas?

 

4. The serial # on the back of the body is not readable but inside the body is a simple sticker that says Epiphone EA-250 Japan and that's it. There's variations on the EA-250 I was reading about but I'm guess it's just a stock, cheap EA-250 made back in the mid to late 70's?

 

5. The neck of the guitar "looks" like it leans back toward the player but when I look a the guitar from the side, the strings on the neck all the way to the bridge, are flat and the action is very VERY low (I like that). Is that right? That is, the next is situated so the strings are flat, but it does look like, when compared to the top, it leans back toward the player a little bit.

 

Okay - that's it. Any assistance would be most appreciated!

 

I've attached a pic of the guitar. I like how it sounds. Nothing to write home about, but it looks nice and has a nice sound, I think.

[jonnyg]

Assuming you have the model with the switch on the lower horn you can get at that by removing the front pickup and hooking it out. The EA250 is completely hollow so getting any of the electrics out is not really much of a problem, everything comes out through one of the pickup holes including the other pickup if you remove the surround. Time consuming but not hard.

 

It's normally the bridge pickup which is higher than the neck, because there's less string vibration at the bridge than at the neck. But that's not a rule that can't be broken if you prefer it the other way.

 

Pickup heights are another thing not set in stone, but if you fret at the 22nd, 3mm for the neck and 2mm for the bridge is a reasonable starting point. You might want to lower the bass strings side a bit and if the strings sound unbalanced against each other you can use the screws on the top of the pickup to balance the individual strings. Your ears should tell you when you're about right for the way you play and the sound you want.

 

I believe the pickups were humbuckers. The round pole pieces and the "metal slats" seem to indicate two coils. What isn't standard is the size. They are longer and thinner and the cutouts are dogear P90 shaped which makes fitting a replacement difficult. I did manage to fit a DiMarzio to the one I owned but it took some 'outside of the box' thinking. The original pickups sounded reasonably good to me. Fatter than a Fender but not as fat as a Gibson. It was trying to keep it in tune that I hated. The weak neck pocket joint made it almost impossible on mine.