Can anyone help with advice on upgrading a guitar

[lesblues]

Hi all

I just bought a Hohner se 35 professional series (ES 335 type guitar) from the early 90’s with the intention of upgrading the hardware. I am looking to play Blues and Rock from BB King ,Chuck Berry to Neil Young and would appreciate your advice about the type of pick ups I should install.

Am I right in thinking that the Stormy Mondays with Alnico iv magnets will more or less do  what I’m looking for or should I be looking at something else. I did wonder about the PG  Blues

The other point I would like your help on is this: I only recently discovered how much choice there is in Pots and capacitors and I need to know what combination will work best with eg the Stormy Mondays to provide the type of tone I’m looking for. I don’t know if I need long or short shafts, 500k or 250k what are the best capacitors etc.

Hope somebody can throw in their tuppence worth, I am very much a newbie in this department and appreciate all the help advice you can offer.

Thanks

Les

[Ratrod]

Most of the hardware is probably OK.

Usually it's the electronics that are questionable. I'd suggest a new wiring harness with CTS and switchcraft components.

For a Chuck Berry tone I recommend Riff Raffs.

[Plexi Ken]

Hi, welcome to the forum  :D

I have PG Blues in a Les Paul Std, they have some tonal similarities to Stormy Mondays but with the middle position permanently out-of-phase and I think the neck pick is a little different. Unless you are a Peter Green fan and can really see yourself using the out-of-phase sound a lot, I would suggest not getting the PG Blues. If you still want the out-of-phase sound, it can be achieve with a wiring mod and a push-pull or mini-toggle switch. If won't give you an 'as convincing' sound as the PG Blues but you will have the standard middle position sound that the PG Blues don't.

I think AIV SMs or RR will get you the tones you mention. RR have a brighter and more biting sound than SM, think late '60s Chuck Berry.

[lesblues]

Thanks for your input guys. I agree with you Rat Rod the bridge and tail piece are sound. I think the mahine heads need to be changed as it does tend to detune quite quickly. I did think I would be best to change the electrics which is why I was asking about the pots and capacitors. I take your point about using CTS pots, I haven't come across Switchcraft so thanks for the heads up on that.

Does anyone have an opinion on whether I should use 500k or 250k pots and should I be thinking about spending silly money to buy Bumble bee caps or are there more affordable caps that are just as good?

Plexi Ken, thanks for the info regarding the PG Blues. You confirmed what I suspected. While I like early Fleetwood Mac, I don't really see myself trying to emulate the Man.

So either Stormy Mondays or Riff Raff, Anybody else like to offer their opinion to help me decide?

Thanks again
Les

[Will]

Humbuckers will do best with 500k.

I haven't played with caps much, but people often say that the orange drop caps are good value.

[FELINEGUITARS]

There is something special about the PG blues neck pickup that make it worth getting the set (but get it 4 conductor  so you can reverse the phase back to "in phase " when you wire it up.

The neck pickup is wound with Formvar wire , which was used on old strats and differs to the plain enamel wire (the insulation is thicker, and this will have an effect on the capacitance of the winding and also it's tone)

The thinking is that this is the wire that the repairer used to rewind PG's neck pickup - so it has been used here also

[Tomcaster]

+1 on PG Blues.

[Fourth Feline]

Just be wary, if changing the pots, caps and toggle switch - as a 'proper' Gibson / CTS type 3 way toggle is usually about 2-3 mm too shallow ( i.e. it's thread that comes through the hole to meet the nut ).

This has meant for me and others I have read of, having to either very carefully countersink the hole from the outside, and touch up the  exposed wood with nail varnish / Humbrol paint  - or stick to the original switch / buy a 9mm threaded 'Alpha' switch.  The body shell on non gibson guitars seems to have an extra layer or two of laminate. I have not encountered a Hohner like yours yet though, so please measure the hole depth before buying the switch.

I still heartilly recommend putting  nice CTS 500K pots and a couple of Sprague 'orange drop' tone caps in though, well worth the effort for such a nice guitar.  Get stocked up with some garden wire or fishing line ready for the 'transplant' job .

The pots are still relatively short shaft as usually described from guitar spares sites ( the long usually having to compensate for the deep / solid maple arch top on a Les Paul ).

As for pickup, I would initially have voted AIV Stormy Mondays - as you had already mentioned, but for Chuck Berry - and a more Rock / assertive edge, I concur with the Riff Raffs.  I am however intrigued - and totally trusting of what Jonathan at Feline said about the P.G. Blues set though.

Enjoy !  :)  

[Ratrod]

Do you mean the top is that thick? Thicker than your average maple cap?

[Fourth Feline]

Do you mean the top is that thick? Thicker than your average maple cap?

Hiya Ratrod,  :)

A reply in two halves :

If your question refers to the pot shaft length on a Les Paul, then yes - the shaft length required for the CTS Volume / Tone pots is very long, as at some points there was ( working from memory ) about 1- 2 cm of wood between the control cavity and the eventual top of my 1997 Les Paul Standard. The neck pickup controls being more the culprit than the bridge ones, but all needed adjustment of the spacing nut(s) underneath to match the 3 or four different cambers / distances between the inner cavity and the figured / shaped top curves.


If your question refers to the 335 type guitar,  then yes, I found that the shell / top was at least 2mm too thick for a CTS switch . There was another guy on here upgrading an ( Ibanez ? ) 335 type guitar at the same time - and he generously posted a long sequence of photos about his ' modding'. I tried to countersink the hole from the underside,  thinking I could get round the outer wood being exposed, but of course ( stupid me ) I did not correctly gauge the amount of wood removed by the router - and had to rebuild the hole completely.  It is still fine to do, if you do what the other guy did, and that is route out from the top ( if required ) - and just dab nail varnish on the exposed wood before fitting the facing washer and nut of the superior CTS toggle switch .

If your question refers to neither - have a nice day !  :mrgreen:

I  hope in this case, the Hohner may be old enough to have come from a German factory - and therefore have Gibson type tolerances ;  but CTS toggle switches are too expensive to guess with .  :oops: