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Hi.

A new arrival. 1981 Vector. It’s looks, plays and sounds great. For some reason the pickups were swapped from front to back with chopped wire so I will have to add wire to the neck pickup so it will reach the neck volume pot. It must have been an aesthetic reason as both original DiMarzios measure the same 8.5k.

The cavity wiring in general is fairly untidy, so I may completely rewire it for piece of mind.

I don’t want the out of phase middle position as I have that on my ‘79 Sunburst, so I’m going to wire it traditionally.  Does anyone have a wiring diagram please?

The DiMarzios have a White and Black shielded wire and an unshielded Earth.
 

Thanks in advance.

E31CD667-98A7-4FC9-BA44-55D4A08783E7.jpeg

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Very nice!  I had an ‘83 vector for several years. Killer guitars and every bit the tone monsters as the specials and sunbursts. Only sold mine because of the thinner neck. Congrats on your new arrival.

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Great score!  The original DiMarzios had some variance to them and sometimes the guitar just sounded better with the zebra pickup in the bridge and cream in the neck.  Such was the case (along with a similar bird's nest of wiring) of an '80 Special I once bought.  I rewired it with Hamer pots and swapped the pickups back to the "correct" aesthetic positions (zebra in the neck). I  discovered why they had been swapped as soon as I fired it up: it sounded better with the pickups in the "wrong" positions.  So, I swapped them back.  One of the best sounding guitars I've ever owned.

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Wiring diagram: https://www.seymourduncan.com/wiring-diagrams?meta_params=guitar-options,2-pickups,neck-h,bridge-h,2-volume,1-tone,3-way-toggle,accessory-none (just ignore the four-conductor business of the red and white wires).

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10 hours ago, velorush said:

Great score!  The original DiMarzios had some variance to them and sometimes the guitar just sounded better with the zebra pickup in the bridge and cream in the neck.  Such was the case (along with a similar bird's nest of wiring) of an '80 Special I once bought.  I rewired it with Hamer pots and swapped the pickups back to the "correct" aesthetic positions (zebra in the neck). I  discovered why they had been swapped as soon as I fired it up: it sounded better with the pickups in the "wrong" positions.  So, I swapped them back.  One of the best sounding guitars I've ever owned.

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Wiring diagram: https://www.seymourduncan.com/wiring-diagrams?meta_params=guitar-options,2-pickups,neck-h,bridge-h,2-volume,1-tone,3-way-toggle,accessory-none (just ignore the four-conductor business of the red and white wires).

That Special looks fantastic. 

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10 hours ago, Snoozingcat said:

That Special looks fantastic. 

Yeah, sorry, that's a pretty pretentious and well-massaged photo (only one I had in Imgur since the move over from Photobucket).  Here's a more realistic photo of the well-worn guitar.  Note the pickups in the "right" (i.e., lesser-sounding) position. That lasted about an hour.

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Here's the wiring when I bought it - not as bad as I recall, but some sub-standard pots and general "iffyness" in the soldering.

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And here with Hamer pots (from @BCR Greg) and a new orange drop with the original out-of-phase wiring.

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It's really a breeze to wire up these old Hamers because the metal plate works great as a jig.  Pop the pot shafts through a cardboard box and you can do some of the connections outside the guitar (lessens the chances of burning the body with the soldering iron).

19LteHX.jpg

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11 hours ago, GuitarGuy65 said:

Congrats, love it!  I've got an '81 bound Vector (purchased from another forum member) and it is an amazing guitar.  Really love the neck profile and it's nice and punchy sounding too...

 

1981 Hamer Vector 2.jpg

That practically looks like you just came home from buying it new.  

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1 hour ago, scottcald said:

That practically looks like you just came home from buying it new.  

While it's got a very few slight scratches it's about as clean as you can find for an '81!  No checking or fade to the finish, and the case has more wear than the guitar so it was definitely a closet queen... 😀

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