Switches

You guys know I love my LP's. But the selector switch has conked out. AGAIN!!! For the second time this year. I only had it soldered last time. This time I think I might get the switch n wiring replaced. Any idea how much that might cost. N what switches would you recommend? The guy in the shop last time said he uses the same thats in it, n there pretty good, after I slagged them off. I felt a lil silly then. But anyway, twice in a year, its starting to piss me off!!!!
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

It's rare for one of those switches to go bad, but 2 of them? As long as the switch has been soldered correctly and the knurled nut is kept tight you really should rarely if ever have a problem with it, Many LP's from the 50's still have the original switches. Just about any music store should carry a quality switch of this type, if nothing else, Gibson has it's own line of replacement parts, shouldn't be hard to find. My question is whats going on here thats causing these switches to fail? Have you ever noticed the switch being loose, flopping around inside the body loose, or the nut needing tightened often? You said it had to be resoldered once, any idea what caused the connections to break? After you get it fixed, I would take a hard look at what is going on outside the guitar.....

Get a new switch,,

I'd like to know more about this too..

My Gibson switch had no apparant defects,was resoldered "X" times,in case i was having a blonde day, and the rest of the wiring checked/reflowed at joints. On dismantling/ cleaning it still had no apparent faults (!), but, still failed to select the neck pickup properly.

The new (presumably eastern made?) switch had no major, significant physical difference (apart from having less slack in it's centre position, I changed that when i stripped it anyway) .

This switch worked happily from day one and still does with no noise and crackles_

- note that it's only been in the guitar a few months,so I can't say for sure long term.

Slasher, this is the one - a bit better made than the Gibbo.



Switch.

I like these guys, they're fast,most of the bits are good quality (don't like their strat switches) and cheap.

http://www.highlystrung.net

If the link quits its under catalogue/guitar parts/switches.

The switch contacts may be oxidized just enough to prevent reliable connection. Cut a narrow strip of paper and draw it through both sets of contacts while gently pinching them together. There are special abrasive strips made for this purpose. Some very fine 'polishing' paper works well. But before going to the expense and trouble of finding something exotic, just try it with some ordinary writing paper.

I'll try that at some point,L.
Thanks for the tip.