The Right Way to Wire Dynasonic Gretsches

[Vuk69]

I have a 56’ 6193 with stock wiring. Interesting was the mix of potentiometers that were used. IRC 1M volume pots and Centralab stacked tone pot. No resistors on the volume pots.

Can someone confirm the stacked tone pot 250k/500k locations? 500k at the top (stem) or at the bottom? Thanks so much.

 

[Lucky Jim]

I have a 56’ 6193 with stock wiring. Interesting was the mix of potentiometers that were used. IRC 1M volume pots and Centralab stacked tone pot. No resistors on the volume pots.

Can someone confirm the stacked tone pot 250k/500k locations? 500k at the top (stem) or at the bottom? Thanks so much.

The current Fender stacked tone pots have the 500k closest to the guitar top. @j.s.c took harnesses out of 56 and 57 Gretches so may be able to confirm if the old stacked pots are the same configuration as the current ones.

BTW in a post in this thread on Aug 6 2021 @fmode said the the stacked tone pot in his 56 Country Club measured 360k/550k.

FWIW here is my mid 50s harness layout based on information provided in this thread by j.s.c and others. There appear to be variations in the harnesses depending on the guitar models such as the inclusion or omission of resistors on the individual volume pots. I would welcome any observations anyone has on the circuit layout.

 

[j.s.c]

That's all I can do... The only pic I took where there is something written.


But on one of the schematics I made from 57 harness, The 500k is the closer to the guitar's table, but no guarantee, I don't remember doing the measurements when they were out of the box, sorry.

 

[Vuk69]

Looks like yours is F250k (front) and R500k (rear). That would be 250k at the stem. I have a few of these Centralab stacked pots laying around to try out. Currently rebuilding a rewired 56’ 6190 with an added Dynasonic and controls. Im trying to get it as close to stock wiring as possible.

It appears the Jets got the 220k resistors only. That’s interesting.

I can drop my tone pot in the 6193 and double check as well. I’ll post what I find. Thanks for all of the info.

 

[Vuk69]

Dropped the tone pot. Mine is the same as jsc…F250k/R500k. Confirmed with a multimeter too. 250k is at the stem.

 

[BrickwallJackson]

WOW! I had no idea this thread had taken on such a life of its own!! For anyone who hasn't seen it, I posted the diagrams here:

Diagrams on 50's Wiring for Gretsch

Hey Fellers, I know I did a ton of work on this awhile back, and I FINALLY got around to making up some diagrams of my research. I'll start with the Dynasonics, since that's what my original post was about. On thing to note here, some guitars had the 22k resistors on the output of the volume...

gretsch-talk.com

FYI: The resistors were 22k, not 220k. Not a mistake you wanna make if you are going that route! LOL

Also, @Hamoftruth - Dude I am SO happy that you are digging the sound! I love it in my Black Penguin!

It's way cool that y'all found out the 22k resistors were NOT in the 6120's. That's good intel to have. I am going to pull them out of my 6120 and see how she sounds. I am leaving the Penguin alone, however, It sounds EXACTLY like I want it to so no changes necessary.

I'm really happy y'all found my research useful! It took a long time and a lot of phone calls and trolling for pictures of originals to figure it all out.

 

[yocca]

Ok, finally tried the wiring today without the 22k resistors in line from the individual volume pots.

The sound seems a smidge louder without the resistors, and a tad brighter/more present. More "in-your-face" as BrickwallJackson said. It's not a night-and-day difference, but it is there. Personally, I love sparkly trebles so I'll probably go without the resistors for now, but I was smitten with the tone even before the change.

Forgive me being slightly out of tune (the weather is changing!). The clips cycle thru pickup positions from bridge, middle, neck, and back to bridge. Playing thru a Morgan PR12. Slapback courtesy of TC Electronic Alter Ego v2. Tiny bit of dirt coming from Cornerstone Gladio SC with some clean blend.

Thank you for the wonderful sound! It was exactly the information I was looking for. Obviously it's better without resistance Will the duojet produce too much treble without resistance? Hypothetically if you run a resistanceless wire on the duojet, is there any chance you could turn the master volume down to 500k to reduce the harsh highs? Isn't it too dark? sorry for google translation

 

[yocca]

I'm thinking of running this awesome wire on a duo jet! I have a question. Are all wiring materials stranded wire types? Are solid wires used as well?

 

[yocca]

[My jet report] Thanks to everyone's information, it turned into a wonderful guitar. thank you. I tried the double pot wiring and it sounded absolutely fantastic! Last time, the double pot with the 22k resistor sounded a bit muffled to me, so when I removed the 22k resistor, I was able to get it quite close to the sound of the 1950s DUO jet. I think the cause was the poor compatibility between the characteristics of the wiring material I used and the 22k resistor. The tru-arc bridge and 1950s wiring method made for a really nice guitar. The width of each sound is also free. One problem remained, that of the hum noise. However, since it is wonderful beyond that, I will think about measures against hum noise little by little.

Note 】For the current jet, the Fender Dual 500k/250k Split Shaft Pot 099-0847-000 has a short shaft, so you need to replace only the shaft with a slightly longer one.

 

[yocca]

I have a question about noise countermeasures in the double pot vintage specification wiring. A lot of noise comes out when using double pots. If you touch a string or metal part, it will become smaller, but the noise will remain. When I checked the resistance value of each grand, I think that most of the jacks, pots, strings, pickup covers, etc. are normally wired close to 0Ω. The noise is loud even with the clean tone setting directly on the amp. How is everyone doing?

 

[JackNangle]

Make sure your earth connections are good on the back of the pots, you need a pretty good soldering iron to get a good joint. Gibson used to use pot shielding cans on some 50s and 60s hollow body guitars, little metal cans that enclosed the pot. I don’t know if Gretsch ever used anything similar?
Random reverb sale of a vintage Gibson shielding can

Vintage 1960's Gibson Single Pot Shield Can Potentiometer Dust Cover c~1967 | Reverb

This listing is for a single Gibson Potentiometer Shield-Dust Cover. This came out of a mid 1960's Gibson semi-hollowbody guitar. The listing is for a single dust cover as pictured and included the top and back as well as the internal cover. This should work for any 1950's or 1960's Gibson mod...

reverb.com

 

[Chris Lamping]

I know the Duncans are closer to the original Dynas, and the Gretsch and TV Jones a bit less "rude," as Billy Zoom put it. I've got all 1Meg pots in my Gretsch hollowbody with Gretsch Dynasonics and I'm quite happy with the sound-- I wonder if you all think this (resistors plus stacked tone pot with lower values) might tame something that's already tamed? I switched from the Dearmond 2000's to Dynas because I wanted more-- I worry that this might be a convoluted way of returning to stock with the lower output Dynas. On the other hand, it would be something to do....

 

[yocca]

Thanks for the reply! Pots require advanced soldering skills, so my amateur soldering skills may be limited.

Make sure your earth connections are good on the back of the pots, you need a pretty good soldering iron to get a good joint. Gibson used to use pot shielding cans on some 50s and 60s hollow body guitars, little metal cans that enclosed the pot. I don’t know if Gretsch ever used anything similar?
Random reverb sale of a vintage Gibson shielding can

Vintage 1960's Gibson Single Pot Shield Can Potentiometer Dust Cover c~1967 | Reverb

This listing is for a single Gibson Potentiometer Shield-Dust Cover. This came out of a mid 1960's Gibson semi-hollowbody guitar. The listing is for a single dust cover as pictured and included the top and back as well as the internal cover. This should work for any 1950's or 1960's Gibson mod...

reverb.com

Thanks for the reply! Pots require advanced soldering skills, so my amateur soldering skills may be limited.

 

[JackNangle]

In my experience you need about 50 watts to get a decent solder joint on a pot casing. A typical 30 watt iron struggles to heat the pot enough, you sit with the iron on the pot for ages which can damage it or end up with a cold solder joint - which is what I suspect might be the issue you have. I use a 100 watt solder station, done in about 5 seconds.

 

[yocca]

In my experience you need about 50 watts to get a decent solder joint on a pot casing. A typical 30 watt iron struggles to heat the pot enough, you sit with the iron on the pot for ages which can damage it or end up with a cold solder joint - which is what I suspect might be the issue you have. I use a 100 watt solder station, done in about 5 seconds.

Thank you for the valuable information. I was using 30W. I thought that if the temperature was too high, the pan would burn. Thanks to you, I found that setting the wattage to 50w shortened the heating time and produced solid solder. You should see your chance and try again.

 

[David93]

Has anyone tried this wiring with T-armonds?