Hi everyone,
I recently bought a new Newark Street S-100. I am pretty happy with it but there are a few things that need "fixing" and a few changes I'm interested in making. It's hard to find people with much experience of these so I thought I'd look for any tips or perspectives here.
Firstly, the three-way pickup selector switch "cuts out" sometimes when I select the neck pickup. Also I sometimes seem to "lose" the neck pickup in the middle position. Is this more likely a faulty switch? Or a bad solder joint? I quite enjoy the orange plastic switch tip so I am hoping the switch doesn't need replacing entirely, or that I can replace it with one that will take the same switch tip. If the switch is a "weird" one that I would struggle to source I am wondering if I can contact Guild (theoretically, the guitar is under warranty). If I do get the soldering iron out (or have someone else do it) I was thinking of putting in a phase switch and a series/parallel switch (as I understand it, putting the pickups in series would counteract some of the volume drop from the out of phase setting). I am a Zappa fan and wanted to steal some of the ideas from his Roxy and Baby Snakes SGs. I am not sure about push-pull pots as I found them awkward on a LP-type guitar I had before. I am considering drilling two holes in the top between the selector switch and the neck tone pot and putting in two microswitches for the series/parallel and in/out phase wiring (such that they can both be flipped in one action).
While I was doing anything to the electronics I was considering replacing the pickups with some that have four-conductor wiring in order to put in coil splits (also thinking of zebra pickups for the cosmetics). From doing some reading though I gather the HB-1 humbuckers in the Newark St S-100 have the same unusual dimensions as a vintage Guild? Therefore, am I right in thinking replacing the pickups would also mean replacing the pickup rings? That is starting to sound like a complicated project.
It also seems the nut was cut too low on the bass side (E and A strings). I used the method where you press the string down between the second and third frets and look for a little clearance over the first fret. The E and A strings are definitely touching the first fret when I do that. On the other hand, the treble side may have too much clearance. I am torn on trying to remove and shim the nut myself or taking it to a tech (who could then also do the wiring). Once the nut is "happy" I think the bridge saddles might need some filing done too (the strings seem to sit quite "high" on the bridge such that I have to adjust the bridge height to be near the bottom of its range to get decent action).
I recently bought a new Newark Street S-100. I am pretty happy with it but there are a few things that need "fixing" and a few changes I'm interested in making. It's hard to find people with much experience of these so I thought I'd look for any tips or perspectives here.
Firstly, the three-way pickup selector switch "cuts out" sometimes when I select the neck pickup. Also I sometimes seem to "lose" the neck pickup in the middle position. Is this more likely a faulty switch? Or a bad solder joint? I quite enjoy the orange plastic switch tip so I am hoping the switch doesn't need replacing entirely, or that I can replace it with one that will take the same switch tip. If the switch is a "weird" one that I would struggle to source I am wondering if I can contact Guild (theoretically, the guitar is under warranty). If I do get the soldering iron out (or have someone else do it) I was thinking of putting in a phase switch and a series/parallel switch (as I understand it, putting the pickups in series would counteract some of the volume drop from the out of phase setting). I am a Zappa fan and wanted to steal some of the ideas from his Roxy and Baby Snakes SGs. I am not sure about push-pull pots as I found them awkward on a LP-type guitar I had before. I am considering drilling two holes in the top between the selector switch and the neck tone pot and putting in two microswitches for the series/parallel and in/out phase wiring (such that they can both be flipped in one action).
While I was doing anything to the electronics I was considering replacing the pickups with some that have four-conductor wiring in order to put in coil splits (also thinking of zebra pickups for the cosmetics). From doing some reading though I gather the HB-1 humbuckers in the Newark St S-100 have the same unusual dimensions as a vintage Guild? Therefore, am I right in thinking replacing the pickups would also mean replacing the pickup rings? That is starting to sound like a complicated project.
It also seems the nut was cut too low on the bass side (E and A strings). I used the method where you press the string down between the second and third frets and look for a little clearance over the first fret. The E and A strings are definitely touching the first fret when I do that. On the other hand, the treble side may have too much clearance. I am torn on trying to remove and shim the nut myself or taking it to a tech (who could then also do the wiring). Once the nut is "happy" I think the bridge saddles might need some filing done too (the strings seem to sit quite "high" on the bridge such that I have to adjust the bridge height to be near the bottom of its range to get decent action).
Switches failing and poorly cut nuts are common. 
