Travis Bean Guitars - Unofficial Guitar Resource - Header




» Home
» About
» Blog
» Donate
» Database
» Videos
» Market
» Classifieds
» FAQ
» History
» Photo Gallery
» Repair
» Join
» FaceBook



» Join
» Login



» General Discussion
» Beans For Sale
» Mods/Repairs
» Website Discussion
» Forum Rules




»  Radiozoom
»  THE NEIN
»  Arcade Fire
»  Take A Worm For A Walk Week
»  Shellac
»  View All Bands

TravisBeanGuitars.com
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
© 2001 - 2024


  Rattlesnake Cable Company - High Quality Instrument Cables - Made in Montana
Forum :: Mods / Repairs

Due to abuse - forum is closed and in archive mode only

Wiring Schematic

  Return to forum index
 Author  Message
Greg Bailey

PostPosted: 01/05/2004 at 1:02 PM    Post subject: Wiring Schematic link

Hi,

Does anyone have a schematic drawing for a Travis Bean guitar, Standard or Artist? I'm wondering about the function of the selector switch. I'm guessing it selects A, A&B or B with A&B being parallel. Is that correct?

Thanks
Greg

Back to top


Disclosure: Any links to eBay or Amazon.com are affiliate links. Affiliate links may provide commission payments to the site based on purchases.

Ezra

Joined:
15 Aug 2001
Posts: 69
PostPosted: 01/06/2004 at 8:21 AM    Post subject: RE:Wiring Schematic link

Both of mine are wired like a Les Paul
Neck, both, Bridge
In the mid position each volumn works independently for one P/U

Good Luck

Back to top

View Member Profile

Greg Bailey

PostPosted: 04/30/2007 at 8:55 PM    Post subject: RE:Wiring Schematic link

HI ALL!

You know what this site needs????? It needs to have the wiring diagrams for these guitars in the repair section. I would be MORE than happy to draw these up and submit them if I can get some CLEAR pix of the inside of the control cavity. I mean HECK! If I can do something to help everyone else while I also get what I need, why not??? As some of you may know, I make TB reproductions and right now, I'm building a black 1000S. I normally use Les Paul type wiring because I have no idea what's in an original TB. I want to make this and any future TB guitars I build to be as accurate as possible and the correct wiring will help me make these guitars closer to original TB guitars. Now, I may not be able to get the original capacitors and stuff, but maybe I can get close??? Besides, I have some old caps and stuff, maybe I can match something up??? I also need to know the resistance on the pots, but I'm assumimg they are 500K??? I do have a couple pix of this cavity, but they aren't very good. I can see that there is a sheilded wire going from the switch to the jack, so I can do that right and I can see the solid bare wire that grounds all the pots, the switch, etc together too. I can see exactly where the caps are connected too, but some of the wires aren't making sense, but my pixs are bad, you know??? Besides the jack wire, I also see 2 other sheilded wires going away from the switch, one for each pickup and they run to what I assume is the volume pots, the ones in front, right?? Anyway, in my picture, it looks like the wire and the sheild are soldered to the back of the pot??? What's up with that?? I know, bad pix, right! In my pix, it also looks like the pickup wires are doing the same thing, at the same pots! I do know something about wiring guitars, I've done it quite a bitover the last 20 years or so, but from these pix, I can't do much with them accurately. Help me, PLEASE!!! Like I said, if I can get the accurate info, I will draw it all out nice and neat and send it in and maybe we can get it all in the repair section of this site and help other people who need help with their TB guitars. I'm not looking for to be selfish here.

Thanks,
Greg Bailey http://www.baileycustomguitar.com/

Back to top


admin

Joined:
01 Jun 2001
Posts: 1266
PostPosted: 04/30/2007 at 9:14 PM    Post subject: RE:Wiring Schematic link

Hello Greg

Sounds like a great idea. If you can get me a schematic and a write up.. I'll be more than happy to get into the Repair section.

I also think it would be great to get other tips and how-tos.. for example, attaching pickguard (epoxy used, etc), bridge replacement, tuners, etc. I think these items could be extremely benefitial to other Bean owners.. especially for the fixer uppers out there.

Thanks!
admin

Back to top

View Member Profile

Greg Bailey

PostPosted: 04/30/2007 at 11:25 PM    Post subject: RE:Wiring Schematic link

HI!

YEAH! That sounds great!!! Count me in, I'll do quite a bit to help. You mentioned bridges and tuners. I believe they used Schaller tuners on the Travis Beans, but I have seen Grovers on them also. I like Grovers, myself but the point I'm making is about the little screws that go in the tuners. I have no idea what Travis Bean used there, but I just use a 3/32" roll pin about 3/8" long. I just install the tuners with just the nuts on the front and get them as straight as possible, then I drill the 3/32" holes about 3/3" deep. I drill right through the little hole. Now, that little hole is normally a bit smaller than the drill, so when I'm done drilling, the hole is perfectly lined up. Then I use a small punch to drive the roll pin into the hole, flush with the little tab in the tuner. Why am I telling you this?? Because, if you strip out one of the little screws in the headstock while replacing tuners, you can do this little trick. See, when you use the roll pins, you don't have to remove them if you replace the tuners. They just stay right there, but you may have to drill in the tab of the new tuner. I've done this on most of the necks I've made with no problems! If you try to drill and tap those little holes, you risk breaking a tiny tap in the hole and then what??? You're in a really bad spot then.

I looking at the Standard that's currently on ebay,

http://cgi.ebay.com/1977-.....ZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

There IS a decent picture of the wiring there, but it's still a bit confusing to me, but it's also consistant with the other pix I have. So, I tried to do my wiring in the black Standard that I'm building and it works great! I think what they have done with the wiring at the pots is to solder the sheilder the sheilding all the way across the wire without, (some how) melting the insulation on the inner wire and then the inner, positive wire is soldered to the lug on the pot. It looks that way for the pickup wires as well as the wires running from the switch. The thing that gets me is all the redundancy. I mean, why does the wiring need the sheilded wires from the switch? I know a wire needs to go from the switch to the pot, but why sheilded, to reduce hum or something? If so, why is the sheilding soldered to the pot? There is already a solid wire running around all the pot, the jack and then to the sheilding on the switch wires and ultimately to the switch body. So, can anyone out there confirm what I said about the sheilded wires??? You know, about the sheilding being soldered to the pot and the inner wire in turn soldered to the lug on the pot??? I have done quite a bit of wiring, but as you can tell, I'm no expert. Does sheilding that's used to reduce hum need to be grounded. Let me know, PLEASE! Anything that anyone can help with will go a long way. I may just have this licked. If so, I WILL draw it up with an explaination of how it's done and then send it in, but I STILL don't know the cap values or what pots are there.

Sorry it's so long, but I just want to get the info I need and help others as I can.

Thanks Again,
Greg







Back to top


sol

PostPosted: 05/01/2007 at 11:01 AM    Post subject: RE:Wiring Schematic link

Gibson wiring...except pickup go to volume/tone before they go to selecor (Gibson go to selector first, I think)...then selector goes to output...02uF tone caps...01uF Treble Bypass caps on the volume...500KA pots throughout.

Note - there is no real difference between gibson and Beans...except for the treble bleed caps...

Funny thing was I was going to post something on this topic yesterday

Here's the skinny...I was looking at the wiring of my Bean the other day...everything looks original (even has the yellow and white shielded wire throughout)...but one of the pots looks to be of a different make...and...somebody wired up the neck tone controle WRONG (it's wired directly to ground so it doesn't do anything)...

At first I thought the bad wiring most have been the result of the replaced neck volume pot...but on closer inspection...the tone cap has been cut to length and and the exposed wire shielded with extra Yellow/White tubing...suggesting that the pot had always been hooked up that way...

There are alot of possible explinations (I think it has to be the replaced pot)...but has anybody else ever had this problem with a bean? It wouldn't be to far out to imaganine that the guy with the soldering iron at the factor made a mistake...and then some tech years later followed the mistake during a repair?

Greg in regards to your point with the redundent grounding scheme...I know a little...hopefully this helps

The whole idea is that when something is at ground potential it blocks out magenetic interferance from other sources (i.e. radio, other wires in close proximity, the computer monitor, etc.)

The shielded wire is definatly used to reduce hum/radio interferance...and yes it needs to be grounded to work...techinicaly, one piece of unshielded wire could comprimise the whole scheme (and just add additional capacitance to the circuit)..so thats why all the wiring is shielded...but at the same time...the solder points aren't shielded (remember the inside of the pot is shielded because we have grounded it)...so you stilll have a point...The only real answer I could give you is this type of shielding scheme was popular in the 70's...and some techs still like it...It does minimize the number of potential radio anteneas

The fender jazzmaster shielding scheme makes alot more sense to me(were the pickguard and the entire inside cavity are shielded with a metal shield, then normal wiring is used)...this way the entire cavity were the wires are running is shielded from outside interfearnece...but...its more expensive...side note - a veleno should be perfectly shielded do to the construction technique

As far as the overly redundent grounding scheme
1: All metal parts need to conect to ground (pots, switches, backplate, neck) for electrical safety.

2: All shielded wires need to be grounded in order to make the shielding work

I would think if you really want to shield this bean...go buy some condoctive paint and paint the inside of the cavity with three layers of the stuff...then ground the paint and the rear shield and you should have a neater and quieter shielding...without having to use shielded wire

I hope this helps...and if I'm wrong about anything Please correct me...

One question I have...is do you ground pickup covers.


Back to top


Disclosure: Any links to eBay or Amazon.com are affiliate links. Affiliate links may provide commission payments to the site based on purchases.

Greg Bailey

PostPosted: 05/01/2007 at 1:11 PM    Post subject: RE:Wiring Schematic link

HI,

Well, this all seems to be helpful, it's good to know something from a Bean owner. It does make sense that the sheilding should all be grounded, but I was never told that, most of what I've learned has been from looking at guitars and trying things. I just never knew for sure if sheilding, ANY sheilding that was for hum should be grounded or not, I thought, maybe as long as something was closed up in metal, it would be effectively sheilded whether it was grounded or not. It's good to know for sure, so from now on, I'll make sure to always ground. So, in my current project, I'll need to replace a couple wires with sheilded wires, but that's a quick fix.

If I'm not mistaken, I think I completely lined the cavity with aluminum tape. I work in a tape factory as a machinist, so I can get tape as wide as I want it. Anyway, that should have grounded the cavity completely in that one because once the cover was installed, it should have been pressed to the tape and the pots, that WERE grounded would also have been pressed to the tape. Maybe I should do that in the future??? I know what you mean about the way things were in the 70's, so that would make sense too about the redundancy.

I've also noticed that from the 3 original Travis Beans that I've seen the wiring in, they all have differences. Not big differences though. The wires all look to go to the same places, but some have the solid, bare ground wire soldered to the side of the pots, while some are soldered to the bottom. Some use A LOT of solder and some use very little solder. I'm sure they had more than one person do the wiring and different people do things different. I also have a picture of one that probably DOESN'T have all original wiring. It has pots that are completely flat on the bottom, rather than having that dip in the center and it also has some grey sheilded wires rather than the white & yellow striped wires, but they all look to be connected like the other pix I have, from what I can see anyway.

So, thanks for the info, it IS a big help to me. Asa for the pickup cover grounding, When I am in the position to ground pickup covers, I do it. These are touched by hands, so I always have grounded them. It's pretty easy to do, I mean usually the base of the pickup is already ground, so I just solder the cover to the base plate in a couple places. That's one thing I've noticed as been consistant in covered pickups I seen in the past, they ALL are soldered to the base plate. When I made aluminum covers for a Travis Bean project once, I believe I had tiny screws holding the mounting plate to the cover and then the plate had screws that were also through the receiver, so all was grounded.

By the way, it doesn't sound like you were wrong about anything, from my knowledge anyway.

I do still need to know the value of the caps and pots, so I'd love it if someone could help me with that. Right now, I just have some caps I had around here soldered in, I just made sure they were two matched pairs. The pair going from pot to pot is larger than the other, like in the pix I've seen. So far, the guitar sounds great. The front pots control the volume just like Ezra noted earlier in this thread, in the mid position each volume works independently for one pickup. So, maybe I'm on the right track here.

Thanks,
Greg





Back to top


Sol

PostPosted: 05/02/2007 at 9:32 PM    Post subject: RE:Wiring Schematic link



I was board tonight...Hope this helps...I tried to draw the schematic exactly how it is wired


Back to top


Kevin

Joined:
16 Mar 2007
Posts: 147
PostPosted: 05/02/2007 at 10:17 PM    Post subject: RE:Wiring Schematic link

Heres a strange bit on the Velenos sheilding/grounding, the anodized and powder coated ones are not fully sheilded. The ano and pd are non conductive so they must be grounded like a normal guitar...ie ground wires to all pieces inside. As long as the coating is penetrated in someplace(which is almost always going to happen with bolts ect) the ground will make it through and sheild the inside. Its pretty strange, but just thought youd like to know that. I had no clue.

The wire that Bean used is pretty cool. Ive never really trusted the braided sheild wire as it can shift and ground something out, but having the grounded braid encased is a great idea.

Back to top

View Member Profile

Greg Bailey

PostPosted: 05/03/2007 at 6:32 AM    Post subject: RE:Wiring Schematic link

HEY!!!

That's a great schematic Sol. I saved it in my TB folder for safe keeping. I think that maybe I'll do some other type of drawing. I mean, some people can't follow a schematic, they CAN be confusing! And besides, the schematic doesn't actually show the wiring like it is in the guitar. You know, all the redundancy and stuff we talked about?? Anyway, I was thinking that maybe I can do some sort of diagram that shows all that. What do you think? It may really help people who are wanting to wire up a Bean! I like this schematic though, it'll be a huge help for me.

Greg

Back to top


admin

Joined:
01 Jun 2001
Posts: 1266
PostPosted: 05/07/2007 at 12:28 PM    Post subject: RE:Wiring Schematic link

Very nice close up of internal wiring of TB500 #137 here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1976-.....ZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Need to scroll all the way to the bottom.

admin

Back to top

View Member Profile

Disclosure: Any links to eBay or Amazon.com are affiliate links. Affiliate links may provide commission payments to the site based on purchases.

Jody

PostPosted: 05/26/2007 at 1:36 PM    Post subject: RE:Wiring Schematic link

Check out my Bean pictures #688 on the 1000Standard database. Good picture of the wiring on there.

Back to top


Save Up to $75 Instantly at MusiciansFriend.com
Due to abuse - forum is closed and in archive mode only

  Return to forum index