The Electra Forums

Guitar is fine with switch in center position, but dead in rhythm or treble positions.
Is it likely to be a bad switch or in the pickups. Also any wiring diagram available somewhere? Thanks for any help with this.

Gary

Off the top of my head sounds like a bad switch. Use some deoxit to clean it if you can first. You can test your pickups by using a DMM setting to ohms and in the right range and see if the ends of each pickup wires show the right range of resistance for the pickup. If the pickups test good then it is the wiring or the switch itself.

It would be odd for the switch to work only in the middle unless the problem was with the switch or the wiring. If a pickup was bad and the wiring correct and the switch working, it would work in two positions (one good pickup side and the middle - with no change in sound) if wired correctly.

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Thorny

Thanks for the reply. I will check it out and let you know what I find. Maybe try to post a picture of it too.

Gary

Looks like a generic Les Paul type wiring to me - so you should be able to find that just about anywhere. Here is a good link to a diagram from guitarnuts.

http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/stockgibson.php

It explains things well and gives some variations too. Any generic 3-way switch should work as long as it fits. Some may require a minorly little different sized hole and some may require a different threaded plastic knob, so if you get one with the knob on it you should be OK. It might be good to get a better quality one anyway. Should be able to find from GFS, Stewmac, or any parts place (even your local guitar center or store may have one).

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Thorny

I put a stewmac 3 way in my Workingman. It just, and I do mean just, fit so check the dimensions carefully. Its an easy fix though.

Hi,
Thanks for the help.
I pulled the switch out, took the back off and cleaned the contact with tuner cleaner. I adjusted them for tension and position, reassembled everything (without removing any wires) and we have contact in all 3 positions. Works great, picks are OK.

Gary

Oop's

Pickups are OK.

Gary

3-ways are the most common electrical component to fail on these guitars, in my experience. Closely followed by output jacks.