S100 Question

Hello first time post here. Just picked up a '73 S100.
1. Has anyone seen the back of the pickups engraved with the date? It is engraved with YY/MM/DD and the year being 73.
2. Is the cavity for the volume pots supposed to be completely covered in copper foil? Mine is not fully covered.
3. Does the NB have some finish? This one looks like it may have been sanded as the wood looks raw.
4. Were some made out of a single piece of wood? Don't see any seams.
5. Anyone have a good pic of the original wiring so I can see what was messed with?
6. Anyone has a good pic of the solder on the pickups? One looks reworked only on that side..

She is very dirty, missing some screws, no finish, could use some re-soldering, missing the nut for the phase switch, and missing a bit of binding.

Going to clean her up before stringing. Plugged in and all pups and switches work.

Thanks, Guy

Congrats, Guy, and welcome to the show. Photos would be great in helping us answer your questions. Here's a photo of the wiring on one of my '73 S-100s, which should provide some insight into some of your questions.



More answers and insights forthcoming from other S-100 owners, to be sure...

Welcome Guy!

Looks like your S-100 might be due for a refinish and rewire. If you want to go all-out on that kind of work, we have a forum member who has become a bit of a specialist with S-100's. His forum name is "fixit" and he performed great miracles with a horribly beaten up white S-100 that I bought earlier this year.

I am not an expert, but I've owned many S-100's over the last 20 years. Here are my best guesses to answers for your questions, but as usual, I could be wrong on a few of them, so keep checking in to see what others have to say.

1. Has anyone seen the back of the pickups engraved with the date? It is engraved with YY/MM/DD and the year being 73.
This was common practice for a couple of years in the early 70's. the engraving is original and legit.

2. Is the cavity for the volume pots supposed to be completely covered in copper foil? Mine is not fully covered.
This is different from guitar to guitar, but most 73's have copper on the bottom but only some copper on the sides of the cavity.

3. Does the NB have some finish? This one looks like it may have been sanded as the wood looks raw.
Not sure about this, but all of the NB's I've seen had a gloss finish. I'll hazard a guess and say that yours was stripped. The good news is you can now refinish to any color. Even refinished, choosing an antique white color will likely increase the resale value of your guitar.

4. Were some made out of a single piece of wood? Don't see any seams.
The body is one piece and the neck is another (until you get to the headstock, which is often 3 pieces) There should be a seam at the heel.

5. Anyone have a good pic of the original wiring so I can see what was messed with?
Thunderface to the rescue!

6. Anyone has a good pic of the solder on the pickups? One looks reworked only on that side..
Can't help here. maybe our 73 afficianados can chime in.

WELCOME TO THE FORUM!

Kent

Thanks, Kent. On the finish question, my '73 nature boy S-100 DeLuxe has a gloss finish.

Here are pics of my '73 (carved):

















And lastly, a side-by-side with the darker '74 I had (but sold):





Welcome!

LA, thanks for the cudos :!: Guy, It would be great to see some pictures of the guitar. They can be a bit tricky to post if it's you first time. I use PhotoBucket as an imige host and link to them. I would be happy to discuss finish options or any other repairs yours may need Welcome to the S-100 owners club

Wow! Thanks for all the replies. Great I have an original '73 minus the gloss. I am out travelling and will post pics and more replies when I get back in a couple of days. But thanks to everyone for all the help.

I cleaned her a bit and put on new strings and rocked out using my Mesa Studio Caliber amp. Could not crank the amp as it was late. Still need to run the guitar througn my Bandmaster and I built a Plexi Clone that I also want to try the guitar with.

I do see that one of the capacitors is missing a leg. So I need to find a new one. I noticed that the neck pup goes from low to full on in a heart beat. May be do to the cap not being connected.

Thanks gotta run to some meetings.

Guy