John Birch J1 wiring diagram?

CampbellH · September 2023

blobb said:

Close up the wiring in mine if that's any use.

Cheers. That is a lot neater than what I have got in front of me. There is a lot of bare metal wire (thick) used as grounding and now I have pickups out can be lifted out in one solid lump.

impmann · September 2023

Having worked on a few JB guitars - I'd suggest rewiring it from scratch and binning all the JB stuff. The quality of the work was "variable" at best, to bloody awful at worst (the worst being the guitar I worked on where all the internal wires were black and were glued with epoxy to the guitar... by JB's workshop). I've yet to play an original that works in a logical fashion or doesn't have a 'quirk' - so if you want to be able to use it, I'd start from scratch.

CampbellH · September 2023

impmann said:

Having worked on a few JB guitars - I'd suggest rewiring it from scratch and binning all the JB stuff. The quality of the work was "variable" at best, to bloody awful at worst (the worst being the guitar I worked on where all the internal wires were black and were glued with epoxy to the guitar... by JB's workshop). I've yet to play an original that works in a logical fashion or doesn't have a 'quirk' - so if you want to be able to use it, I'd start from scratch.

If it were mine, I would have stripped it out and did it all out properly with splitting, out of phase and a kill switch as there are plenty of holes in the body to fill.

Unfortunately this is for someone else, and it did start out as the above,

I think when reality kicked in that It was about to be 'RIPPED OUT', they started to panic.Fair play to them, I will be removing the years of nicotine grime that even now I can taste just thinking about that guitar.

blobb · September 2023

Mine is flawless and works exactly as it should - i.e confusing. I got it from an old Liverpool beat combo player who ordered it brand new as a custom build and it's pristine. I have seen several horror story guitars but I get the feeling JD was all over this one.

CampbellH · September 2023

Well this one has not been pampered. It has a neck break at the headstock. Repaired with two bolts. Hex heads sit proudly on the top. Apparently the owner of the guitar was a little hot headed in the past and stuck the head of the guitar through a gyproc wall in anger. The guy that brought the guitar to me, not the owner, was going to use a dremel to take them off.

I advised him not to, as the head would more than likely break off.

WezV · September 2023

blobb said:

Mine is flawless and works exactly as it should - i.e confusing. I got it from an old Liverpool beat combo player who ordered it brand new as a custom build and it's pristine. I have seen several horror story guitars but I get the feeling JD was all over this one.

Mine played great when I got it, despite half the body hanging off.

After stripping it down I was surprised the wood work was pretty good too....the thick finish was hiding a well made guitar

But then I worked on another one off model where the entire back of the neck was body filler, from the factory, and the neck pickup was routed so close I'm surprised the neck actually stayed on.

So I kind of expect the standard models to be built reasonably well, one offs to be very crude.... and best not to talk about what he did to Gibsons and Fenders as it amounts to cruelty.

I don't usually use body filler on guitar repairs, but couldn't resist when fixing mine as it's an authentic JB feature

CampbellH · September 2023

Body filler, Check. Got that on the back of the neck repair.

blobb · September 2023

OMG - as the kids like to say

Schnozz · September 2023

I had one and only used one setting - When I opened it up, it was a bit of a holy sh*t moment (same as Blobb's)

https://i.imgur.com/4UN5LTC.jpg

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John Birch J1 wiring diagram?

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