OT - Wiring 1/4" output on Roland Ready Strat

[primalphunk]

I posted this in the lounge first but haven't seen a reply yet.  Can anyone help me troubleshoot this?  

If you happen to have experience with wiring up this output properly I will be forever in your debt.  I wasn't being careful enough when I took apart the output jack so I need to know exactly how it was wired from the factory to begin with?   :oops:   I have lost my magnetic pickup signal that is normally transmitted to the 13 pin plug and need to get this thing working properly again. I suppose it's even possible that the toggle switch that selects guitar and synth signals may be the real culprit but I would like to start first with the output itself.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

dazed & confused,
James

[yano]

Maybe some more information about the guitar...is that what it is? with a synth involved?...could be helpful

[KarbonHed]

I have a PDFs of the installation instructions for the GK-2A onboard pick up system that I think is what is installed into Roland Ready guitars.

I just uploaded them here -

http://www.ruinbird.com/stuph/gk-2a_kit-g_installation_sheet.pdf  (980k)

http://www.ruinbird.com/stuph/gk-2-a_internal_installation_info.pdf  (480k)

The bigger one has the details of all the connections to and from the various parts of the system.

Never actually installed an internal one or dealt with one so you're on your own with the instructions, but I hope that's of some help.

[primalphunk]

Maybe some more information about the guitar...is that what it is? with a synth involved?...could be helpful

Yep...It's a guitar alright.  A standard MIM roland ready strat.  I've got Lindy Fralin real 54s single coil pickups in this guitar and the basic electronics package(omitting the hex pickup for now) is wired for the most part like any other strat-except that there is only one tone knob.  It's given me no trouble since I purchased the guitar and then one day the signal from the single coils which can be passed to the standard 1/4 output or the 13 pin cable was gone on the 13 pin side only.  The cable is good as confirmed by my Brian Moore.  

I unscrewed the 1/4" output jack and found out that it uses a switched mono jack with 3 terminals.  I even took notes about how it was wired up but it seems that one of those wires was a 2 conductor.  Either there was only one of the two conductor wires being used or something had broken loose at some point as far as I can tell.  The two conductor wire runs thru a wiring harness to a small board that is only in these roland ready units as far as I can tell.  I tried everything I could think of to figure out how the jack was supposed to be wired but still have no single coil output on the 13 pin cable.

I'm about to take a look at the pdfs that KarbonHed was so kind as to provide(thanx man!    ) and see if I can tell what's wrong from that.  I hope it will be something easy and cheap that I can take care of myself with a little help from people here that know whats what.

More later...

peace,
James

[primalphunk]

I'm about to take a look at the pdfs that KarbonHed was so kind as to provide(thanx man!    ) and see if I can tell what's wrong from that.  I hope it will be something easy and cheap that I can take care of myself with a little help from people here that know whats what.

KarbonHed, thanks for posting the pdf regarding gk pickup installation.  I'm not sure if it's going to help me enough since the gk2ah seems to use no switching jack like mine has.  The gk2ah is really simple in the manner in which it hooks up to the 1/4" output.  Signal to tip and ground to ground.  My roland ready strat seems more complicated than it needs to be in this regard.  I think I'll try to test out my toggle switch now or maybe I'll just use a non-switching jack??? ...Not sure exactly what to do next...  I wish I could find an excessively detailed schematic for this strat.

[Paul Marossy]

That two-conductor wire... perhaps that is a shielded input wire?

[primalphunk]

That two-conductor wire... perhaps that is a shielded input wire?

Yep...I'm really thick and slow...  :oops:

That's what it looks like to me but it's not coming from the single coils.  It's part of a little harness that runs to the board for the hex pickup related electronics.  In all when I first unscrewed the output jack(looks like a switchcraft #12a maybe-when you plug a 1/4" cable in the switch disconnects from the tip) there appeared to be only 3 wires running to the jack and another little bitty wire was jumpered from the switch to the ground ring.  So I took some notes.  The black and grey wires were hooked up to the ring and the white one to the tip.  I stopped to pat myself on the back then cut the wires.

Then I started stripping the wires to get ready to solder up my new switching jack and discovered that the grey wire was indeed a shielded input wire.  uhhhohhh!  Don't panic...just trace everything down.  The white wire and black wire were easy as they are the pickup output and ground.  Yep that little grey bugger is the odd man out.  Problem is that when I took this thing apart the grey wire ran only to the ring.  Hmmm...Now that is odd indeed.

Here I was getting all confident cause I built 7 pedals and rewired my old Kramer Classic I with the 12 tone strat switching sheme by Dan Armstrong.   :shock:   Yep...I'm still an idiot...The guitar still has the same problem and I haven't had time to mess with it since my last post.  Gotta go, my baby girl is screaming cause she just woke up.

peace,
James

[Paul Marossy]

Hmmm... that does seem to be a mysterious wiring job...
Have you found a schematic for it? It might indicate on the schematic what goes where.

BTW, I have a 9 mo. old baby boy who is quite demanding and a 3-year old little girl with too much energy! Just saying that I can relate.  

[primalphunk]

Hmmm... that does seem to be a mysterious wiring job...
Have you found a schematic for it? It might indicate on the schematic what goes where.

BTW, I have a 9 mo. old baby boy who is quite demanding and a 3-year old little girl with too much energy! Just saying that I can relate.  

I haven't found a schematic for it yet but have found a parts list and various layout diagrams that left me with absolutely zip as far as the details of wiring this output.  

Yeah...The kiddo is definitely demanding but worth all the extra effort.  

peace,
James

[Paul Marossy]

Well, do you know anyone who has the same kind of guitar? Maybe you could take a peek at theirs?

I guess as a last resort, you could try contacting Fender or Roland and ask them some questions about how these things are wired...