Rewiring Legacy HB Deluxe back to original

[tonyh]

I made a huge mistake in replacing the neck and middle stock pickups on my Legacy HB Deluxe with SD '59 mini humbuckers. A local guitar shop did the work, but I missed the old pickups and decided to return to the stock single coils myself and save some cash so I printed out the wiring diagram for the Legacy HB and pulled the SD pickups.

I have quadruple checked and then some, but after rewiring exactly per the diagram, I get no sound at all when plugged in. I've gone through the obvious checklist of making sure the volume knob was turned up, amp working ok, etc. Is there something different about the wiring for the HB Deluxe as compared to the HB? I've checked for soldering shorts and loose connections. Still nothing.

[Elwood]

Can you post a pic of the wiring ?

Do you hear any sound when plugged in? ....like a hum or buzz ,
...if so does it change if you touch the bridge?

[tonyh]

I do not get any sound at all after plugging in, even if I touch the bridge. The amp clicks and buzzes when I first touch the plug to the jack of course. Here are a few photos:

[Elwood]

Nice pics Tony,
Everything looks good,
Can you get a sound by touching the wiring contacts on the jack ?
Sometimes those barrel jacks go out .

If you get a sound at the jack then I would work backwards to the pickup switch etc.

[tonyh]

It's alive!!! I removed the black wire going from the jack to the "IMEG" pot, what I call the bass tone pot and we have tone! I thought putting this wire there (per the drawing) was strange, but I trusted my interpretation of the drawing. Only thing I can think of is the black wire shown on the drawing going from the bass tone pot to the jack represents the connection of the actual jack itself to the pot (in my case this connection is the tab soldered on with the big glob of solder.)

Thanks Elwood for pointing me towards the jack. Before I didn't know where to start and was afraid to start removing wires blindly.

The drawing I'm referring to is the one taken off of this website in the gallery section.

Now that I've got the original pickups back on, no regrets. The SD '59s were nice, but they just didn't have that soulful tone that the originals have.

[Elwood]

Great news !

I'd love to see some shots from the front when you get a chance,
the finish looks pretty nice from what little is shown below.


cheers,
Elwood

[Craig]

It's alive!!! I removed the black wire going from the jack to the "IMEG" pot, what I call the bass tone pot and we have tone! I thought putting this wire there (per the drawing) was strange, but I trusted my interpretation of the drawing. Only thing I can think of is the black wire shown on the drawing going from the bass tone pot to the jack represents the connection of the actual jack itself to the pot (in my case this connection is the tab soldered on with the big glob of solder.)

Thanks Elwood for pointing me towards the jack. Before I didn't know where to start and was afraid to start removing wires blindly.

The drawing I'm referring to is the one taken off of this website in the gallery section.

Now that I've got the original pickups back on, no regrets. The SD '59s were nice, but they just didn't have that soulful tone that the originals have.

You will want to solder that black ground wire to the ground lug on the jack, which sticks up from the case of the jack.

Hope this helps.

[tonyh]

Elwood,
Here's a pic of the front. This is a USA made Legacy HB Deluxe. Even though I'm biased, this is a beautiful guitar. But what sold me on it was the neck. It's the most playable neck I've played on any guitar so far. Of course the brilliant sound and killer looks helped a bunch too!




Craig, thanks for the reminder on the ground wire. I was so excited about the guitar working again that I almost neglected this important detail.

Best Regards,
Tony