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Replacing toggle on my Sheraton

Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2016 1:27 pm
by 12bar
Now I had some time to replace the faulty toggle switch on my Epi Sheraton. It's a Göldo EL002, but most of the switches look the same. It's open, not closed as the build-in one, so you can see how it works. Short story:

- cover the guitar to avoid solder on it
- mark and photo the old wiring so you know where the cables go to
- bend the contacts on the new switch (see photo). The two contacts in the middle have to be soldered together with the jack cable
- unsolder the old one
- solder the new one. For ground it may be necessary to extend the ground cable.
- put it back

It's not too hard to work through the f-hole, because the switch is nearby. Good luck.
Fix the cable
Fix the cable
toggle01.jpg (64.98 KiB) Viewed 12224 times
Old and new
Old and new
toggle02.jpg (68.18 KiB) Viewed 12224 times
Unsoldered
Unsoldered
toggle03.jpg (68.58 KiB) Viewed 12224 times
The new one
The new one
toggle04.jpg (103.66 KiB) Viewed 12224 times
Ground cable
Ground cable
toggle05.jpg (62.17 KiB) Viewed 12224 times
Finished
Finished
toggle06.jpg (65.17 KiB) Viewed 12224 times

Re: Replacing toggle on my Sheraton

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2016 8:00 am
by VikingBlues
A neat and tidy job well done :thumbsup: - I guess we're seeing why the f holes have that shape with the wider parts of the gap in the design.

Reminds me how, apart from joining the neck to the body, soldering was my least favourite part of building an electric guitar. :sad:

Re: Replacing toggle on my Sheraton

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2016 11:47 am
by 12bar
To my surprise the soldering went quite easy, although it was a very cheap iron (10 Euro)...

Re: Replacing toggle on my Sheraton

Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 9:47 pm
by MikeL
Nice tutorial Gerd.

Apologies if this seems like a dumb question but how did you know that the old toggle was faulty. I'm asking because I don't think my G&L Legacy (which I bought used) has never worked right. There's static or complete cutting out when I switch to the neck pickup. I suspect it's a bad contact in the switch but, having zero experience, also wonder if it's the pickup itself.

That was my first guitar and I rarely mess with it for that reason (I think the jack has some problems too :sad: ). I focus mainly on acoustic now so that I won't be distracted with all of the complications of electrics (pickup selection, guitar tone settings, amp setting, cords, etc.).

It's a quality guitar so I'm apprehensive to take it to some stranger who might permanently screw something up while attempting to "fix" it.

Re: Replacing toggle on my Sheraton

Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 9:55 pm
by 12bar
Don't fix it if it's not broken - as we say here... :lol:

The problem was simple: it didn't stay in the end positions, it switched back to middle as soon as you even looked at it. Sometimes it was in bridge position and during play it switched back to middle which was quite :wall:

The output jack is a very common source for problems, too, but you problem sounds more like a PU or toggle one as suggested. If you can take the toggle out it's easy to measure. Good luck!

Re: Replacing toggle on my Sheraton

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2016 9:20 pm
by MikeL
A more common usage in my experience is:
"If it's not broken, fix it until it is." :big_smile:

Re: Replacing toggle on my Sheraton

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2016 3:00 pm
by VikingBlues
Nice one Mike!! :lol:

Re: Replacing toggle on my Sheraton

Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 9:55 pm
by HalfBlindLefty
Great job Gerd. Good on you

Re: Replacing toggle on my Sheraton

Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 10:43 am
by 12bar
Thanks - I would think twice before changing anything that's not near the f-hole... :lol:

Re: Replacing toggle on my Sheraton

Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 11:57 am
by HalfBlindLefty
:rofl: