The Electra Forums

Hey all, been a long time fan of uncle Matt's, having 4 at the moment, and one I think may be. (late 79 Lotus Paul copy, I think it's the 555w or some such number.) I am also a guitar tech having about 30 odd years or experience, and am here to help, with any kind of help I can offer.
Now.... my dilemma. I recently pickup up an 80 Electra 2264N (Zephyr Studio) that has had the pickups replaced. Nice ones mind you, Duncan Pearly gates in the neck, and a JB in the bridge. My question is the wiring on the 6 way switch, and the lack of caps on the tone pots.
Using the 6 way switch....
position 1 (Furthest from you while holding the guitar.) standard paul wiring, and allows the 3 way switch to be used.
2: Neck coil tapped (top coil off), bridge on
3: Neck off, bridge coil tapped (rear coil off)
4: neck and bridge both coil tapped.
5: neck on, bridge coil tapped
6: Neck coil tapped, bridge off.
Is this right, or was it redesigned with the pickup change?

Question 2: No caps on the tone controls. uhhh whaa? and yet, they work. But one set effects the other pickup.
Anyone have a diagram of how it SHOULD be?

I spoke in person with Tom Presley two summers ago, and he verified what I suspected to be the Zephyr wiring, three modes (Parallel, Series, out of phase) and every other position are those three modes in single coil. On my Zephyr (find the video from the link below) it appears to be:

Position one: Series Humbucker
Position two: Series Single Coil
Position three: Parallel Humbucker
Position four: Parallel Single Coil
Position five: Out of Phase Humbucker
Position six: Out of Phase Single Coil

Good luck trying to rewire, I've had the rotary out and its pretty tight inside that control cavity. The original rotary is around an inch in diameter and has a crazy number of jumpers installed, as well as probably 35 pins altogether. While being a versatile setup, I typically just use my rotary as a humbucker/single coil switch as it's tough to see quickly which position you're in, and I'd rather just concentrate on playing.

Unless you are using a super clean amp tone, there is not much difference between Series and Parallel (series will be ever so slightly louder and boomier ) and personally I don't crave the out of phase tone that often, maybe if I'm doing the intro to 'Houses of the Holy'...

I've never seen a wiring diagram, and again, after looking at the rotary, I'd be hard pressed to document it, it's a total rats nest. From the sound of your current wiring description, it sounds like someone has been tinkering, as both pickups should be available regardless of rotary position. Best of luck, Mike.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

Yeah, I've looked inside, and that blue switch is TINY! I suspected the wiring was a variation on the Gibson L6S, which I have, but that wiring doesn't support the 3 way, or the separate vol/tone controls. Well the hunt will continue, unless someone wants to go thru the painstaking process of tracing and writing out the wiring.... (Hint hint????? Some one... anyone?)

Wellllllll.... spent about 12 hours experimenting with the 6 way switch, trying different combinations, and after lots of failures, sat down, and thought hard about it.

Basically, it's a single switch variation of the Jimmy Page wiring. So... I just did that. wired the guitar with 4 push pulls, and copied the wiring found here.
http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showt ... ng-picture

How's it sound? Wonderful! Very versatile, with some nice tones that may or not be everyone's taste.

But the 6 way switch you ask. After some thought, I intend to use it as a variable cap selector for the tone controls. I am one who uses the tone controls, and sometimes feels the cap that is there, isn't right for the job. So I will use the switch for selecting values.
1) bypass
2) .003 (cuts the very upper high end)
3) .22
4) .44
5) .47
6) .69
Use the caps of your choice, but it will add a subtle dimension to the guitar.