SE Mods

[garrett]

yes, the drawing from J.E.L. is very similar to that. and yes, I have 4 conductor P/U's. the hot or red lead goes to the Volume pot, the Braid to ground, and the green and white leads are pigtailed and no connected to any component. The volume works like a volume, I just have to remember not to go past 9 when rolling up. the tones work more like distortion, adding more or less as I roll that dial up and down.

this is the assembly card provided with the harness:

Correct, but the two pots on the right in your pic are meant to be the volume controls. Pickup should go to the open outside lug. Out to switch goes to center lug, shared with the cap.

Note how the tone controls in the diagrams have the center lug to ground. Nothing should connect to those pots except the cap and grounds.

What you have in reality doesn't match the diagrams. Unless you really like it wrong* as is, you'll need to disconnect your pickups and output wires, rotate the harness 180 degrees, and rewire to the diagram.


*Non standard is more accurate. You may really like it as is, but just know that it is not vintage nor modern style wiring. You have created an alternate scheme and that works differently.

 

[Wakester]

Wait, I see now. In this pic, the two pots on the left are wired as tone controls, and the two pots on the right are wired as volume controls. It appears you have the harness rotated 180 degrees and are using the tones as volumes and vice versa, which would explain the strange behavior.

It should look similar to this, except your pickups are four conductor:

I see what you were saying, undid everything and flipped the harness 180 degrees. Oh My! Huge differance. Thank you my friend.

 

[Wakester]

New wiring harness update:

Once I got my head out of my ***, and the harness turned around. I am a much happier person. the J.E.L. harness is amazing. everything is clear and articulate. no scratching when knobs are turned. the tone is the same when the volume is at 2 or 10. the Bridge P/U can really scream when I need it to, and the Neck P/U can go super deep and bassie with out being distorted. I've been playing through a Katana Mini as I'm on the road (again) and I can play clean cleans, Crunchy bites and super metal through the Brown setting. I did try it briefly through my Katana 100 yesterday and was very impressed with what I heard. If you looking for an upgrade to any SE guitar, look for Jackson Electronic Luthier on Reverb. Rand will not do you wrong. He will even call you if you are having problems with wiring (once you contact him through reverb messenger)

I don't receive any compensation from J.E.L. for talking up their products. I just like them enough to brag them up when I can. If its not allow, let me know and I will take it off the page.

 

[singularity6]

I put the SE locking tuners and the American lampshade knobs on my SE Custom 24.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

I put the SE locking tuners and the American lampshade knobs on my SE Custom 24.

I keep promising to do the same on my SE 245, well the lampshades. But my kids keep needing stuff!

 

[singularity6]

I keep promising to do the same on my SE 245, well the lampshades. But my kids keep needing stuff!

Damned kids!

 

[testedone]

Putting a Graphtec nut on this week, then every part that could be replaced on a SE has been

 

[Kiwisholland]

First post here.

I recently got a new SE custom 24 on sale at Musician’s Friend for a great price.

Guitar came set up very poorly. Bass pickup was almost touching the strings, treble was below the pick up ring. Bridge screws were all screwed up, with bridge only bending toward treble. When I did a set up (with no strings on, and post it’s under back), one screw “snapped” the bridge plate into place. Surprised how poorly it was set up. Saddles all over the place both up and down, and back and forth.

Anyway, replaced the knobs with US knobs, slipped RIGHT on, hold tension great, even with push/pull. Put a US blade switch cap, like it much better, slipped right on firmly, stays put.

Installed locking tuners. Very nice.

I got the US pickup rings, which I like better, but the cream color doesn’t match. Got black ones, doesn’t look good. The screws fit well enough, surprisingly. Ended up going back to the SE rings. Got US strap buttons too.

None of this improves the sound, but it looks great.

I guess the next move is a MannMade Trem. I’m thinking the upgrade kit to start.

Now that it’s set up, guitar sounds great. Thanks for the advice above!

 

[dogrocketp]

Live with the stock trem for a while. Remember, everything changes everything, and change and improvement are not synonyms.

 

[testedone]

I guess the next move is a MannMade Trem.

Do the full 1 piece trem, I just did it, what an amazing sounding SE I have now

 

[bodia]

Do the full 1 piece trem, I just did it, what an amazing sounding SE I have now

Totally agree with this.

 

[Ovibos]

First post here.

I recently got a new SE custom 24 on sale at Musician’s Friend for a great price.

Guitar came set up very poorly.

Musician's Friend == Guitar Center. I never cease to be surprised at what they can mangle.

 

[Kiwisholland]

Thanks for the advice on the trem everyone. Now that it’s set up, I may wait. And when I decide, I guess I will save up for the one piece. I wanted that anyway

 

[Wakester]

I keep promising to do the same on my SE 245, well the lampshades. But my kids keep needing stuff!

That's why I kicked mine out

 

[AAT]

I've had my SE245 for 5 years now. Beautiful to play and to look at of course... but I've made 3 mods to it over time, which all make it a much better guitar (for me!).

1) Pickup switch -- turned 90 degrees so it goes forward & back not up & down. I do this on all toggle-switches now: more intuitive for me and slightly less likely to be knocked by accident (yes, I can be a bit of a wild strummer).

2) Pickup covers -- I got fed up looking at those zebra coils, plus it really annoys me that the reason you can't get double cream humbuckers is a dumb DiMarzio patent (which virtually no country other than the US would consider viable...). So I bought some very cheap covers & improved the looks (with very little impact on tone).

3) 2-knob wiring -- this is the big one! I improved the control layout: basically back to what the old SE Singlecuts had in pre-lawsuit days. I just cannot deal with 2 volumes & 2 tones when playing live -- and I would rather have the pickup switch down below the bridge. (The last straw was a gig just after Christmas 2019 where I played my Telecaster through the show but broke a string at the end of the second set: so I used the PRS for the third set and got so fed up with trying to remember which knob does what when...)

A pretty simple wiring job really -- the most hair-raising part was widening one of the pot holes to take the switch (from 8mm to 12mm diameter iirc). After a bit of research I did this using a drill running backwards, which did a great job of cleanly widening the hole.
At some point I will probably fill the holes...

 

[singularity6]

I've had my SE245 for 5 years now. Beautiful to play and to look at of course... but I've made 3 mods to it over time, which all make it a much better guitar (for me!).

1) Pickup switch -- turned 90 degrees so it goes forward & back not up & down. I do this on all toggle-switches now: more intuitive for me and slightly less likely to be knocked by accident (yes, I can be a bit of a wild strummer).

2) Pickup covers -- I got fed up looking at those zebra coils, plus it really annoys me that the reason you can't get double cream humbuckers is a dumb DiMarzio patent (which virtually no country other than the US would consider viable...). So I bought some very cheap covers & improved the looks (with very little impact on tone).

3) 2-knob wiring -- this is the big one! I improved the control layout: basically back to what the old SE Singlecuts had in pre-lawsuit days. I just cannot deal with 2 volumes & 2 tones when playing live -- and I would rather have the pickup switch down below the bridge. (The last straw was a gig just after Christmas 2019 where I played my Telecaster through the show but broke a string at the end of the second set: so I used the PRS for the third set and got so fed up with trying to remember which knob does what when...)

A pretty simple wiring job really -- the most hair-raising part was widening one of the pot holes to take the switch (from 8mm to 12mm diameter iirc). After a bit of research I did this using a drill running backwards, which did a great job of cleanly widening the hole.
At some point I will probably fill the holes...

I would have left the 3 way up top and replaced two of the knobs with coil split switches, one for each pickup. You'd get a "Paul's Guitar" pickup configuration that way.

 

[pallajt]

I've had my SE245 for 5 years now. Beautiful to play and to look at of course... but I've made 3 mods to it over time, which all make it a much better guitar (for me!).

1) Pickup switch -- turned 90 degrees so it goes forward & back not up & down. I do this on all toggle-switches now: more intuitive for me and slightly less likely to be knocked by accident (yes, I can be a bit of a wild strummer).

2) Pickup covers -- I got fed up looking at those zebra coils, plus it really annoys me that the reason you can't get double cream humbuckers is a dumb DiMarzio patent (which virtually no country other than the US would consider viable...). So I bought some very cheap covers & improved the looks (with very little impact on tone).

3) 2-knob wiring -- this is the big one! I improved the control layout: basically back to what the old SE Singlecuts had in pre-lawsuit days. I just cannot deal with 2 volumes & 2 tones when playing live -- and I would rather have the pickup switch down below the bridge. (The last straw was a gig just after Christmas 2019 where I played my Telecaster through the show but broke a string at the end of the second set: so I used the PRS for the third set and got so fed up with trying to remember which knob does what when...)

A pretty simple wiring job really -- the most hair-raising part was widening one of the pot holes to take the switch (from 8mm to 12mm diameter iirc). After a bit of research I did this using a drill running backwards, which did a great job of cleanly widening the hole.
At some point I will probably fill the holes...

Great looking guitar. I used to have an old Hohner Les Paul that I no longer own, but I got so used to the layout of the volume/tone controls on that guitar (which I think were the same as standard Les Paul configuration) that I've had my PRSs for several years now and I still forget what's where from time to time. I suppose it would be easy enough to just move the controls around to where I like them, just never bothered. To be honest I'm one of those guys who leaves volume and tone on 10 99% of the time anyway so it's not really an issue.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

I've had my SE245 for 5 years now. Beautiful to play and to look at of course... but I've made 3 mods to it over time, which all make it a much better guitar (for me!).

1) Pickup switch -- turned 90 degrees so it goes forward & back not up & down. I do this on all toggle-switches now: more intuitive for me and slightly less likely to be knocked by accident (yes, I can be a bit of a wild strummer).

2) Pickup covers -- I got fed up looking at those zebra coils, plus it really annoys me that the reason you can't get double cream humbuckers is a dumb DiMarzio patent (which virtually no country other than the US would consider viable...). So I bought some very cheap covers & improved the looks (with very little impact on tone).

3) 2-knob wiring -- this is the big one! I improved the control layout: basically back to what the old SE Singlecuts had in pre-lawsuit days. I just cannot deal with 2 volumes & 2 tones when playing live -- and I would rather have the pickup switch down below the bridge. (The last straw was a gig just after Christmas 2019 where I played my Telecaster through the show but broke a string at the end of the second set: so I used the PRS for the third set and got so fed up with trying to remember which knob does what when...)

A pretty simple wiring job really -- the most hair-raising part was widening one of the pot holes to take the switch (from 8mm to 12mm diameter iirc). After a bit of research I did this using a drill running backwards, which did a great job of cleanly widening the hole.
At some point I will probably fill the holes...

Just need a couple of ebony plugs in those holes, with little MOP stars in them (ala Brian May’s Red Special)

Call that mod no.4

 

[DizzlePizzle]

Update on mods for my SE Mira!

-Tusq XL installed
- Fralin Pure PAF pickups installed
- Upgraded volume and tone pots
- Added tortoise pickguard

I’m really wanting to add a Duesenberg Les Trem II and call it a day. I know it will require a new bridge and drilling into the guitar...I’m not sure which bridge I would need to get? Any suggestions?

 

[John Beef]

Update on mods for my SE Mira!

-Tusq XL installed
- Fralin Pure PAF pickups installed
- Upgraded volume and tone pots
- Added tortoise pickguard

I’m really wanting to add a Duesenberg Les Trem II and call it a day. I know it will require a new bridge and drilling into the guitar...I’m not sure which bridge I would need to get? Any suggestions?

Lookin good!

The bridge swap is a big job. That said, a quality ABR-1 type would probably work. It would be truly unique. A good luthier would probably charge more than the value of the guitar for that mod though.