How to access electronics??

[Gilmore]

Hi

 

I have a Epiphone Sheraton II, and I am going to change pickups and mabye some wireings too. But how can you work on it without any openings on the body besides those narrow "F" holes??

[L5Larry]

All access is gained throught the pickup holes, generally the bridge pickup cutout. The best way to do any mods is to remove the entire wiring harness intact. Remove all the mounting nuts and carefully snake all the parts out the bridge pickup hole. There may be a bridge or tailpiece ground wire to unsolder, but other than that the entire harness will come right out.

 

What I do is then make a mounting template out of a thin piece of plywood or masonite that exactly matches the position of eveything as mounted to the guitar, and remount everything to this template. That way you know the exact location of everything for wire lengths and wire routing and bundling. I even mark the location of the f-holes on the template so I can route the wires around them so as not to show through the f-holes on the guiar when reassembled.

 

Take great care in all your solder joints and route and zip-tie your wire bundles very neatly. This will make it easier to reassemble.The biggest problem on reassembly is the jack. I'll run a looped string through it's mounting hole, run it through the plug hole and loop it around the jack lug, Use that to pull the jack back into place. Slide the mounting nut and washer down the string get it started on the jack. Once you have done that, let go of one side of the looped string and pull it through and out. You should be able to get the controls back in place by hand. Be care not to over tighten the mounting nuts as that will spin the parts and break the solder connections.

 

I hope that helps.

[bobv]

My Epiphone had a lot of extra wire in between the controls so they didn't want to stay in the nice configuration going back in. The wire was cheap and noisy so rewiring is a good idea (nothing wrong with the Alpha pots, really, and the selector switches have been upgraded lately, but the wire is not well shielded, also they have a very long length of wire running to the pickup selector switch as if it's the same harness used for a Les Paul). If you rewire it neatly on a template like L5 says, then you're in good shape. Another trick is to use dental floss or fishing line - tie it to the pot shaft before removing the nuts, and it will help you to fish the pots back into place.

 

There should be enough room going in through the bridge pickup rout since there's a cutout on the center block at the treble side - watch the videos of an ES335 being made at the Gibson Memphis plant and you can see what I mean (the Epi has almost as big a cutout).

[Gilmore]

Thanks guys, that really helped.

[Ron G]

Sorry, but the previous replies are wrong. The wiring, pots, etc. must be removed via the F hole. There are recent threads in the Epi forum which will be helpful.

[bobv]

I'm not getting my information from "recent posts." The "wrong" advice I gave is based on actually getting my snoot inside a couple of Epiphones and a couple of Gibsons that I've been paid to work on by pros who trusted me to do so. If you're going to call someone out like that, you'd better have better citations as authority.

[GuitarJunkie]

Never take advice on f-holes from a-holes.

[Ron G]

But were they Epi semi-hollows? I own one. The hole in the center block between

the pickup cavity and the controls isn't big enough for components to pass through.

I pointed the original poster to the Epi forum because there are several good posts

about Sheraton electronics replacement. Chill, dude.

 

Very civil, junkie.

[GuitarJunkie]

I knew when I was typing it that it might get taken the wrong way (I guess what other way is there to take it?), but I couldn't resist.

 

If you check my track record over my 600 posts, that's not really my style. Welcome to the forum.

[Ron G]

bobv, do you have a link to the video you mentioned?

[weeladdie]

I'm not getting my information from "recent posts." The "wrong" advice I gave is based on actually getting my snoot inside a couple of Epiphones and a couple of Gibsons that I've been paid to work on by pros who trusted me to do so. If you're going to call someone out like that' date=' you'd better have better citations as authority.[/quote']

 

As an owner of an Epiphone Sheraton II (mfg 12/2004) I can assure you there is no way to remove the electronics through the pickup routes.

 

There is a small hole in each route only large enough to pass the pickup wires through.

 

HTH

[L5Larry]

Well then, the f-hole wins.

[Ron G]

Well then' date=' the f-hole wins.[/quote']

 

...and apologies are owed to the original poster and me.

[bobv]

Sorry to confuse you with the facts, and I don't owe anybody an apology. Don't post insults or facts that are only opinions limited to your own experience.

 

Here's the Gibson routing which, since 1961 or so, has included a large hole for the electronics to go in through the pickup rout (because apparently the varitone rotary switch wouldn't fit otherwise):

 

 

Here's the Epiphone routing which sometimes has a square hole, and sometimes has much more space on the right side of the center block - depending on the year and the production run.

 

 

SO the moral of the story is to take the bridge pickup off and see if there's enough room to fish the pots through - because if there is then that's the way to go. Otherwise there's nothing wrong with trying to do it from the f-holes, but practically speaking you should have a black Sharpie ready to touch up the scratches. And don't bother taking advice from anyone who's basing it on "recent posts" or the ownership of one guitar.

[Ron G]

It's wonderful that this forum has such modest and helpful folks who engender respect

and admiration from all who participate. Even when they're wrong (this thread was about

an Epi Sheraton, not a Gibson with a Varitone, no less) they are so gracious about it.

People will invariably seek out the sterling wisdom of such individuals. The term "member"

takes on a whole new meaning.

 

Bobv, I am humbled by your greatness=d>

[bobv]

Post something helpful or don't post at all, f-hole.

[dbirchett]

This is an old topic but I thought I would respond anyway. I have been posting over at the Epi forum for a few months.

 

I have a recent Epi Sheraton II that I have replaced pickups on. The other guitar player in my group has an older Sheraton II as well so I have some frame of reference. Also, there have been a large number of posts concerning this issue as well. So let me add my 2 cents.

 

First of all, Sheratons are made in a number of places. A few have been made in Japan, a whole lot of 'em have been made in Korea and a few in China as well. I will discuss the Koreans as those are what most people are familiar with.

 

Sheratons have been made by several companies for Epiphone. Samsung, Saien, Peerless and Unsung, to name a few. Mine is a 2007 Unsung model (you can tell that from the serial number). It has a rectangular cut out in the pickup rout that should be large enough to pass a full size pot through. Might be tight though. My friends Sheraton I believe is a late 80s or early 90s one made by Samsung. There is no rout in the pickup hole so, when he replaced the wiring, he had to use mini pots through the f holes. His f-holes are not large enough to pass a full sized pot. Mine are larger and would probably have no problems.

 

So the answer is that it depends on the factory with whom Epiphone contracted to build the Sheraton and the time it was made. There may be a cut out in the bridge pickup rout, there may not be. If you go through the f hole, you may be able to use full sized pots, you may not.

 

As for the Gibson pictures, the one showing the rout for the Gibson is from a 335. My guess is that they standardized the routing for use with the 335, 345 and 355 so that they could assemble them using the same methods.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Don

[CajunBlues]

 

...and apologies are owed to the original poster and me.

 

I totally agree.. An apology is owed... Bob V... your comments are way out of line...

 

All epi semi hollows I have owned have required taking the pots out through the f hole... You can also splice the wire from the pot to the pickup wire.... that is much easier... taking the pots out is A LOT of work... Even the professionals splice the wires ... I have seen them do it...