Gibson 345 varitone wiring

[scorpionscar]

Hi, I have in the shop a style guitar 345 with varitone. The task is that I'm not acquainted with this electronic. There are two green wires coming from the inside of the guitar and the task here is how to test in order verify where this two wires go in the lugs of the baritone or pots. Any help is wellcome. Thanks in advance!!!

 

Scorpionscar

[curtisa]

Stereo Varitone schematic is here:

https://forum.gibson.com/topic/127119-varitone-wiring/

Without being able to handle the guitar myself, I'd take a guess and say the two green wires are coming from each of the two inductors. The schematic indicates that each inductor is connected to terminal 5 of the Varitone assembly (the thin, blue 8-legged component on the back of the switch, one for each pickup).

Terminal 5 on the Varitone looks like it is counted from the end marked with the red dot. The problem you will have is that, in your photos, this terminal is snapped off pretty much all the way to the blue epoxy, which will make it difficult to re-attach these wires to the Varitone.

Has somebody else modified the wiring in this guitar before you got it? I'm not sure that second green wire should be soldered to the switch (looks like it has been soldered to terminal 2 of the bottom Varitone in your pic?). On this page it looks more like each green wire from the inductor assembly goes to each Varitone, and there should be a black wire from the inductor canister which should be connected to ground

[mistermikev]

i immediately notice something missing.  the orig varitone has a choke.  it is common knowledge that the choke is where all the "tone suck" in a varitone  comes from... (not really but yes) and as such they were freq snipped out of the circuit on many original 339s.  (and just reading curtisa pointing this out too).  not sure that even if you could find a matching original choke, you are likely going to find that it drops the output and makes the pickups sound 'weak'.  just 2 cents.

 

[curtisa]

The choke (inductor) is in there. It can be seen in the 6th picture down looking into the pickup cavity, where the two green wires and the black wire disappear.

[mistermikev]

On 4/14/2020 at 9:17 PM, curtisa said:

The choke (inductor) is in there. It can be seen in the 6th picture down looking into the pickup cavity, where the two green wires and the black wire disappear.

right on.  good eye.  I saw that but honestly did not recognize it. 

[Citizen303]

On 4/14/2020 at 6:00 PM, mistermikev said:

i immediately notice something missing.  the orig varitone has a choke.  it is common knowledge that the choke is where all the "tone suck" in a varitone  comes from... (not really but yes) and as such they were freq snipped out of the circuit on many original 339s.  (and just reading curtisa pointing this out too).  not sure that even if you could find a matching original choke, you are likely going to find that it drops the output and makes the pickups sound 'weak'.  just 2 cents.

 

The notion of the choke as a "tone suck" misunderstands its function.  The choke works together with the variance inductance and capacitance values of the varitone to create notch filters.  Each setting effectively eliminates a distinct frequency range from the output.  If you want to keep all the frequencies in the output, just use setting 1 on the varitone which effectively bypasses the notch filter.

[MiKro]

Best I can do for you.