Newport Electronics: out the F hole, or out the pickup route?

[tbonesullivan]

So in my dumb quest to get my Hamers looking at stock as possible, I've finally come to the newport. The tuner replacement away from sperzels is easy, but changing out the original pickup selector is not. I'll have to pull out the electronics somehow, and then get it back in somehow.

When Hamer builds these, do they put the electronics in through the bridge pickup route, or do they put them in through the F hole? If I'm just doing the selector switch, would it be possible to just swing that out and leave the other parts where they are, or is there not enough conductor for that?

[Thundersteel]

When I swapped the pups in my Newport, everything came out of the pickup route. The pots and switch are attached together by a stiff, bare wire, and come out as a complete assembly. Hint: Before removing the output jack, tie a string to it to aid in putting it back when done--makes it a lot easier!

[tbonesullivan]

Sweet! Now I just need to hope that whoever replaced the original switchcraft switch with some metric POS didn't decide to get rid of that wonderful stiff wire.

[JES1680]

I use dental floss to tie around the input jack, pots, and switch if I'm doing everything then you can pull it all back through the pickup route when done. I HATE working on hollow / semi-hollow guitars. PITA... but they sound sooo good.

[velorush]

I used the twine method, too, but the Howard's body is so thick that the harness wound up flipping over (a few times). This is where an assist with a piece of 20 ga. wire with a hook on one end came in handy.

And yes, through the bridge pickup hole. The F-holes are rarely large enough to fit components through after the wires are soldered up.

[velorush]

One other note: I'm pretty particular about components / wiring not showing through the F-hole. So much so I got ridiculously anal when it came to building the wiring harness. I made an impression of the top, flipped it over and transferred it to a box (flipped because the harness is on the underside of the top). That allowed me to see exactly where the wires would be residing once the harness was in the guitar.

This is the original harness in the jig (note the Bridge Volume pot tabs - in the F-hole (unacceptable!):

And the replacement harness I built from RS Guitar components:

[gorch]

The stiff bare wire works as the electronic ground. It's a nice solution to have all the components tied to that backbone.

[tbonesullivan]

Ok, Finally getting around to doing this. Does anyone have a picture of the stock wiring in a newport?

[Thundersteel]

Quote

Ok, Finally getting around to doing this.

After almost a year? 

[tbonesullivan]

10 hours ago, Thundersteel said:

After almost a year? 

Yeah, that's about how long it takes things to happen, unfortunately. I got distracted by things like finish repairs and blue guitars. I also suck at electronics work, so I'm kinda avoiding it.