335 Pickup Replacement

I'm not familiar with that particular guitar, but I have seen other guitars were you have to remove the controls through the pickup slot. Connect everything together, slide the controls in and mount them ,then mount the pickups. I think I explained it right.

Joe

If I remember correctly, the controls, on a 335, have to come out through the lower f-hole.
As far as I know, the sustain block is wider than the pup, so there is only a wire-hole into the interior of the guitar.

Hmmm, taking the controls out of the f-hole seems logical, but i'm not sure how i'll get the tone controls and the output jack pack in their places when i'm done. I can't just take the volume pots out by themselves, since they are all wired together with very little extra wire. Does anyone have any suggestions about getting the parts back in their proper places?

Tie dental floss to the pots before you take them out. Use long enough pieces that it still hangs out through the holes after they're extracted. That helps guide them back into position.

If you find replacement difficult, you can cut an access hole in the back of the OS and either cover it with a plastic access cover or use the removed material to create a more aesthetically consistent and flush cover.

Why suggest such a radical operation? Normally, I wouldn't. But I really don't think you will devalue this particular guitar, as the OS is budget line. Plus even Gibson uses this approach on its ES-333, which is the $999 budget version of the 335. If you end up doing a lot of changes, an access cover will make things much easier.

Using covers is also the method used on the $3000+ Gibson Lucille. The reason, though, is that these guitars don't have f-holes.

If you're careful and use thread as ricochet recommends (tie the other ends together, so that they can't lose themselves in the bowels of the guitar), it will take less time and be non-intrusive to your guitar - the time it takes to cut the hole and fashion a well-fitting cover is likely to be longer than using the f-holes.

The guitar is 43mm thick on the OUTside. What sort of saw are you going to use that will give a clean cut in a short amount of time and not destroy the finish of the guitar around the cut?

The only two pots that need to be extracted are the two volume pots, which are farily close to the f-hole. The problem is that I can't seem to get them out without taking the rest of the electronics out. All of the wires inside seem to be conrained in one larger sleeve of cloth. Are 335's usually wired together like this? And please explain the dental floss trick more thoroughly, as that may work.
Oh, and by the way, I don't really want to cut a hole in my guitar at the present time, as I am happy with everything else on it, and don't envision myself modifying it any further.

Simple. Tie the dental floss to the pot shafts. When the pot goes inside the guitar, it leaves the dental floss trailing it. Use nice long pieces and tie them together like greybeard said so they can't get pulled through and lost. When you're ready to put the pots back, pull the dental floss to pull the pot shaft back to the hole and it's relatively easy to work it through. If you change the pots, transfer the thread to the new pots.

Another little trick is to attach the dental floss before undoing the nut that holds the pot in place.
You remove all the knobs, then attach the dental floss to the pot shafts and tie all the other ends together. You can now undo the nuts and let them slide down the dental floss. Once you have them all up by the knot, you can put a short length of dental floss around the long strands, to keep the nuts from sliding down and scratching your guitar.

When you pull the pot back through the body all you need to do is release the relevant nut, which can then be dropped over the shaft of the pot and tightened, without having to remove the dental floss first and risk the pot dropping back into the inside of the guitar without nothing attached.

Last thing is to remove the dental floss from the pot shafts and put the knobs back.

Nice touch!

I just wanted you guys to know that I used dental floss, and successfully changed the pickups yesterday. Sounds great!
Thanks for the help!!!!!!

Way to go!
:D