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Is G&L wiring deliberately sloppy?

#22
The wiring in my 3 G&Ls is not especially neat but they’ve worked reliably for 40 years and I imagine that’s all G&L was really concerned about. The extra time it takes to do tidy lead dressing costs money and companies like to make money, not spend it.

I’m not bashing the late G&L. I like their instruments very much and I’ve owned instruments with sloppy wiring from lots of different manufacturers.
 
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#23
Low Main said:
Some early G&L's have a brass plate on the floor of the cavity which can be soldered to.
Click to expand...
Ooh, nice touch. I suppose I'll use the shielding tape instead.
Low Main said:
The issue I have with the early G&L wiring is that the wire gauge they used is so slender.
Click to expand...
Right? I broke the pre-amp line without noticing. I'm glad I'm not the only one.
I'm going upgrade the wiring because I don't know when I will go back in there.
 
#26
IDK about that, but when I got my '96 SB-1 a few years ago it had the worst ground hum of any bass I've had due to lack of shielding.
I had to run a piece of zipcord wire from bridge to my wrist when recording just in case I took fingers off strings...fixed that with copper tape.
Wiring itself was clean and pots etc. looked high quality.
 
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#27
bpabon said:
Oooh, another discrepancy is that the diagram shows switches with 6 terminals and my bass has switches with 9 terminals.
Click to expand...
Is it possible yours was modded? On the L2000s it was popular to do the "K Mod" (I'm not sure how it got its name) which involved changing the series/parallel switch to one with more terminals. I don't know if similar mods were made to the L1500s.
 
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#30
Lo-E said:
Is it possible yours was modded? On the L2000s it was popular to do the "K Mod" (I'm not sure how it got its name) which involved changing the series/parallel switch to one with more terminals. I don't know if similar mods were made to the L1500s.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the wonderful rabbit hole, which I will now share... The K mod adds a blue wire from the MFD base plate to...
Wait for it...
GND !
1000016016.jpg

The L-1500 has only one pickup (thank goodness) so my layout would look a little less like R. Crumb's lunch, but I would still need a third toggle hole in the top of my never-to-be-made-again CLF L-1500. That's...
a bridge too far.
(🧐See what I did there?)
But seriously, there are folks here <cough> @-Boscoe- </cough> who understand this way more than I do.
 
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#32
bpabon said:
Thank you for the wonderful rabbit hole, which I will now share... The K mod adds a blue wire from the MFD base plate to...
Wait for it...
GND !
View attachment 7484455
The L-1500 has only one pickup (thank goodness) so my layout would look a little less like R. Crumb's lunch, but I would still need a third toggle hole in the top of my never-to-be-made-again CLF L-1500. That's...
a bridge too far.
(🧐See what I did there?)
But seriously, there are folks here <cough> @-Boscoe- </cough> who understand this way more than I do.
Click to expand...
The K-mod simply replaces the series/parallel switch with another switch. No new holes are needed. It can easily be applied to a one-pickup G&L and adds the option of single-coil operation. If you wanted to get really tricky, you could use the pot that ebay seller is offering that has a push-pull pot to add the early G&L “single coil with bass boost” option (many G&L users refer to it as OMG mode!) and, again, no additional holes would be needed.

You’d be straying from the original circuit but both mods are defeatable so you’d still have the original circuit available at all times. Just some fun things you can do with the passive part of the G&L circuits.
 
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#34
Lo-E said:
The K-mod simply replaces the series/parallel switch with another switch. No new holes are needed. It can easily be applied to a one-pickup G&L and adds the option of single-coil operation. If you wanted to get really tricky, you could use the pot that ebay seller is offering that has a push-pull pot to add the early G&L “single coil with bass boost” option (many G&L users refer to it as OMG mode!)
Click to expand...
I think I get it, and it's awesome.
So, I replace the series/parallel toggle with single/series/parallel
Then use this bad boy
To toggle the bass pot to add OMG mode.
 
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#36
bpabon said:
Thank you for the wonderful rabbit hole, which I will now share... The K mod adds a blue wire from the MFD base plate to...
Wait for it...
GND !
View attachment 7484455
The L-1500 has only one pickup (thank goodness) so my layout would look a little less like R. Crumb's lunch, but I would still need a third toggle hole in the top of my never-to-be-made-again CLF L-1500. That's...
a bridge too far.
(🧐See what I did there?)
But seriously, there are folks here <cough> @-Boscoe- </cough> who understand this way more than I do.
Click to expand...
Wow, I've seen bad tapeworm infestations, but that one's ftw.
 
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#37
bpabon said:
I think that the actual guitar has a trs jack, indicated by green numerals 1 and 2:
Click to expand...
I think I read, either here or on G&L’s
Forum, that the earliest Climax/L15XX mods had the TR Jack as in the diagram. There were complaints of the battery running down with the basses not even being used, so G&L switched to a TRS jack that would disconnect the battery when the cable was pulled out.
Could have been a PSA sent out to distributors to mod existing in-stock and sold basses….
But I’ve been wrong many times before, this could all be BS…

Low Main said:
Some early G&L's have a brass plate on the floor of the cavity which can be soldered to.

The issue I have with the early G&L wiring is that the wire gauge they used is so slender. I've had several instances where a wire will just break off of it's solder point (40 + years after the bass was manufactured). I don't know what gauge they used, maybe 24 or smaller.

I used to re-solder the broken wires, but now I replace them with fresh 22 gauge wire. Keeping the color the same.

I haven't gotten to the point where I'm preemptively replacing wires before they break off. I'm still just chasing after the breaks when they happen.

I remember looking at those basses when I heard G&L closed and thinking: Dang, you all were already choice, now you're going to be collectible too.
Click to expand...
My L2500 has a factory foil tape shield on the cavity floor. Cheaper than a brass plate. The walls of the cavity are painted with the shielding schmutz.

I’ve had a couple wires break off my preamp module after just 20 years and had to re-solder. But that’s probable due to sticking my fingers in there and moving stuff around just look within the spaghetti…
 
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#38
eniac said:
Wow, I've seen bad tapeworm infestations, but that one's ftw.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I saw that diagram and got a strong hankerin' for some spaghetti LOL

bpabon said:
So, I replace the series/parallel toggle with single/series/parallel
Then use this bad boy
https://ebay.us/m/WWoxFL To toggle the bass pot to add OMG mode.
Click to expand...
I couldn't get the ebay link to open, so not sure what kind of switch it is. But I drew up a circuit that uses a 3 position toggle for parallel, single coil, series. Then added a push/pull pot's switch inline with the OMG cap so you can toggle the cap in or out of the series circuit. In other words, while in series, you can choose regular series or OMG. When circuit in single coil or parallel, OMG is disabled.

So, I don't know if this is exactly what you want, but I think it's a neat idea.:
OMG mod.jpg


FWIW, I repurposed a pdf document I found in this forum about OMG caps. Pdf link is in this discussion, post #3.
F

Thread 'How do I add the OMG setting to my series/parallel switch?'

I've been reading about the G&L L1000, and I'd like to experiment with the OMG setting, which puts a .1uF capacitor in parallel with one coil of a humbucker when switched to series. Here's G&L's circuit: Link Removed
And here's how my series/parallel switch is wired:
switching.jpg

On this switch, where would I put the capacitor to cut treble on one coil of the pickup?

Edit: I don't know why the link I posted opens up like it did, but that is not the post I mentioned. Click link, scroll down to post #3 for link to pdf doc I used, if interested.
 
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#39
fig said:
I couldn't get the ebay link to open, so not sure what kind of switch it is.
Click to expand...
It's a C1M (reverse Audio taper) Pot with Push-Pull DPDT
fig said:
But I drew up a circuit that uses a 3 position toggle for parallel, single coil, series. Then added a push/pull pot's switch inline with the OMG cap so you can toggle the cap in or out of the series circuit. In other words, while in series, you can choose regular series or OMG. When circuit in single coil or parallel, OMG is disabled.

So, I don't know if this is exactly what you want, but I think it's a neat idea.:
Click to expand...
Amazing, and so clear! Yes, I think that is it...
fig said:
Edit: I don't know why the link I posted opens up like it did, but that is not the post I mentioned. Click link, scroll down to post #3 for link to pdf doc I used, if interested.
Click to expand...
Done!
 
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