Rewiring my Epiphone NightHawk

[Chuck D. Bones]

After retrieving my NightHawk from my sister's place, I sat down to play it and discovered that the Middle pickup was dead. Turned out to that the 5-way switch had failed. It was one of those cheap Chinese PC board-based switches. I ordered up a Fender 5-way switch from Sweetwater. I figured that while I was in there, I'd make a couple of mods. The TONE pot has a push-pull switch that splits the coils on the bridge & neck pickups when pulled up. Didn't sound that much different to me, so I though how about a polarity switch for the Middle pickup? Once I got inside and viewed the wiring, it became apparent that reversing the Middle pickup was not an option because the pickup cable was a single conductor and a shield. So instead, I wired the TONE knob's switch to reverse the Bridge pickup's polarity. To reap the full benefit of a reversible Bridge pickup, I changed the VOLUME pot to one with a push-pull pot that engages the Neck pickup when the 5-way switch is in positions 4 or 5. In addition to the usual 5-way pickup combinations, I now can engage Bridge & Neck or all three pickups. Considering those seven combinations, plus three combinations where the Bridge pickup is reversed, I now have access to 10 different pickup tones. Last, but not least, I added a Treble Bleed. R1 is metal film & C2 is silver mica. C1 was 22nF film, so I left that one as-is.


I bought my NightHawk from a pawn shop about 6 years ago. This is the pic of that guitar from their ad.

These are the pickup combinations in tabular form:




It's a bit of a rat's nest inside, HamishR would be proud.

 

[cooder]

Cool, looks like a super versatile axe now! Was probably already in original configuration flexible, now even more so.
Never had a chance to play one, but I read a number of comments that it's a way underrated Gibson/Epi modell because it just didn't look "right enough". I think they look cool.

 

[falco_femoralis]

That's cool! I love the simplicity of guitar mods

 

[MichaelW]

DEMO, DEMO, DEMO!

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

I think they look cool.

Especially when Nancy Wilson plays one.



A friend of mine brought one over several years ago, I took one look at it and said "What the Hell is that?!?!?" He replied, "It's the guitar I want to be buried with." He also told me that the middle pickup was HOT. He was right, it matches the volume of the Humbuckers. I played it and loved it. Shortly after that, I started scouring the used market for one and found mine at a pawn shop in Poway. Only about 40 miles from where my dad lives, so I made a day of it.

 

[joelorigo]

Cool guitar. It can do all the Strat and Tele sounds, plus be a Les Paul