Inside a Riviera Valensi P-94 + Rewire

[jammybstard]

Seen as I'm layed up from work recovering from a minor op, I thought I'd use the time to have a look at the electronics inside my recently acuired Riviera, It's the Nick Valensi P-94 Edition (not the Elitist version). At the least I wanted to add some treble bleed caps to make the volume controles more usable, this is the first time I've worked on an arch top through the F-Holes, word of warning if your not the patient type this not a job you would enjoy!

 

 

 

 

The knobs came off pretty easily, there not the best quality I've ever seen but they look good.

 

I made a carefull note of which way the threaded ends of the screws at the botom of the switch were facing for reassembly.

 

Measured up and made a template of the layout of everything including the F hole

 

The cat been her usual helpfull self and walking accross the guitar while I had my hands inside.

 

Taped around the f hole to avoide scratching it up and started pulling the components back through; tricky for a start, it would apear the f holes have been cut only the tinyest fraction larger than the pots and It took a while to carfully pull all the components through.

 

I used this special one-of-a kind tool to prise the sticky-back wire grips off the back off the back of the top and hook the wires through;

 

Once everthing out was out I labled the wires for the PUPs, there was plenty of wire left on from the factory which was great, I only had to cut the ground wire to get plenty of room to work away from the guitar (we don't want soldering irons near guitars if we can help it)

 

Mounted onto the template

 

The stock tone capacitors seen here still attached to the pots are basic film capacitors 22nf, very cheap but sill better than the ceramics often used.

I have a load of these 33n metallized polypropylene capacitors which I think will work great, the higher value will let me roll off the higher frequencies further, the P-94s are very bright, been able to reign them in a bit more will be good.

 

 

Sleaved the Legs and fitted to the Pots

 

 

I thought while I was on I might aswell upgrade all the wire, I have a few meters of Vandamn classic screened pair kicking around, it's a high quality studio hook up wire.

 

 

The main change I wanted to make was to fit some Treble bleed capacitors, I have these 1n5 metallized polypropylene caps; this an excellent mod to make to your volume control, I'm suprised it's never been taken up as a stock fitted part; for those who don't know a Treble bleed is a capacitor bypassing the volume control, It acts as a high pass filter, you will have noticed that as you turn down a standard volume pot the high frequencies roll off faster than the low frequencies, anything below 7 seems increasingly muddy (I have no idea why), by bypassing the volume control with a high pass filter the sound stays bright and clear all the way down, at full volume it is essentialy shorted out of the circuit and has no effect.

 

The completed Loom ready for re-instalation.

 

 

The Nightmare begins!

 

 

 

Two hours later, what a sod getting everything back in the strings were getting tangled up somthing rotten!

 

 

The results are fantastic though the tone is smooth and lovely and the treble bypass makes the world of difference at lower volumes.

 

If your thinking of doing any of the above checkout the www.planetz.com blogs he covers all of this stuff and he's the ultimate guitar nerd, lots of proper side by side testing of guitar mods.

[AS90]

Bravo!!!

[Red 333]

Great job explaining the process with your very clear step-by-step photos and captions. Protecting the area around the f-hole with tape is an excellent tip.

 

Red 333

[jammybstard]

Great job explaining the process with your very clear step-by-step photos and captions. Protecting the area around the f-hole with tape is an excellent tip.

You should watch the PlanetZ videos, loads of great tips.