Rewire A 1965 Gibson ES-345 TDSV? [Of Course - It Sounds Much Better Now!]

Doing the unthinkable, or a sensible upgrade? Mick is in no doubt…

Welcome to the show. Something slightly different this week to see us over the British summer.
This lovely vintage guitar has a tonal Achilles heel and I’m determined to repair it.
I’ve taken the opportunity of some time off to really get into this project – stuff like this is time consuming mentally and physically and I don’t want to rush it. So yes, it’s a loooong and drawn-out video, the absolute opposite of the fast-and-simple delivery that this medium typically demands. No apologies.
If you do want to skip to get the the action however – I totally get it – I’ve made the chapter sections nice and detailed.
Enjoy if you dare!

Interesting bits and go to sections…
0:00 Hello & welcome
0:30 What is that guitar?
2:47 The good news!
4:22 The not so good news…
4:42 Why rewire it?
5:35 Vintage ES Medal Table
9:13 The stereo story
10:40 Two amps, opposing polarity
12:03 ES-345 stereo pickups!
14:25 Stereo pickups, polarity & middle position
15:49 Why split the pickups to different amps?
18:00 Varitone demo
21:00 What I’ve never wanted to do
22:15 Somebody more creative?
22:40 How it works in my rig
25:00 Normal cables and TRS cables
26:50 Summed cable, pickups out of polarity
28:55 The problem of summed outputs
30:48 Varitone and opposing polarity pickups
32:00 What I didn’t know until today
32:50 A little play before we pull it apart
36:30 Options for what to do next
37:20 Should you modify a vintage guitar?
38:32 You should sell it!
40:32 Why not just buy the guitar you want?
42:30 The work begins!
45:30 Pickups out
47:50 The pickup and cavity routs
48:30 Unscrewing the pots and switch etc
50:20 Out comes the switch…
51:26 Out come the chokes…
53:25 And here’s the Varitone switch
54:08 Thank you, great techs
55:15 Still trying to extract stuff
56:00 It’s all out!
57:03 Two decisions made
58:55 The pickups & DC resistance
1:00:30 The chokes & weight
1:01:33 A closer look at the Varitone
1:03:07 Stereo / TRS jacks
1:04:18 Varitone Circuit analysis & thoughts
1:07:38 I don’t want that!
1:10:40 What did Matt Monty Gleeson say?
1:11:45 My fave tones… are not Varitone
1:12:16 Swap the pickups?
1:13:50 Standard 335 loom it is!
1:14:42 PAF & Patent Number info
1:20:50 Locating the dummy pot
1:23:42 Dummy jack for the jack socket
1:24:45 Here’s the new loom
1:26:05 Soldering on the pickup wires
1:29:10 Feeding the loom in
1:32:30 The moment of… FAIL
1:33:15 It was the switch!
1:38:05 Reattaching knobs and tip
1:39:20 Bridge orientation?
1:41:05 Reattaching the pickguard
1:41:45 Does it work?
1:43:28 Final play test
1:50:44 Final thoughts

Pedals & Stuff used in this show
If you use these links to buy stuff - any stuff – we receive a (hilariously) small cut.

- Thorpy FX Warthog
- Ibanez TS 808 Tube Screamer Keeley mod
- Dan Drive Austin Blender Octave Fuzz
- Free The Tone Overdriveland ODL-1-CS
- Free The Tone Future Factory FF-1Y
- Jam Pedals Harmonious Monk MkII
- TheGigRig G3 Atom

Guitars in today’s show
• 1965 Gibson ES-345 TDSV

Amps used in today’s show
• Two Rock Classic Reverb Signature 100/50 & 112 cab with EVM12L speaker

• Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb with stock speaker

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[zeroamplification]

This is the type of video that made me a lifelong TPS watcher. I look forward to Fridays all week and dedicate however long the video is because of the care, interesting topics, pure cinematic quality, presenter eloquence and more. It's not just entertainment, it's engaging which is crazy to say about a one-way media. Thank you, again, Mick & Dan for the amazing value you provide the music community. The best example of doing something you absolutely love and are passionate about and it tangibly seeping through the bytes & bits.

[RenanSantos-uejp]

2hours of monologue? BRING IT ON!!! LET`s GO, MICK!!!!

[astewart]

Can we all talk a minute about how on point Mick’s playing is throughout this video? What a dream to be able to just noodle like that. Awesome.

[moose]

Mick, the production and sound engineering of these videos are second to none and I’m just thrilled I have another Vlog to enjoy. Thank you.

[jhnlk]

“First off, it’s my f*<€ing guitar!” 😂

[SeanJWestcott]

Thanks for these deep dive episodes Mick, they’re great - informative and entertaining ! Appreciate you sharing the highs and lows of the experience 😊

[stevesteve.]

Another prominent ES345 artist is Bill Nelson "Be Bop Deluxe" who I'm sure if you contacted him would have been only too pleased to discuss his 345 and how he's used it.. certainly worthy of getting on the show.

[MurrayWilliams]

Sweet Mick … your masochistic drive to fish the innards of semi-hollowbody guitars is equal parts laudable and vexing. I love it that you’re willing to put yourself through this pain while we watch. Your bravery and insanity is appreciated and noted.

Good work sir.

By the way, it’s TOTALLY worth it to rewire that guitar. Leaving it under-playable for how you play would be a super bummer.

[WillBrahm]

Mick I love these deep dive vlogs of yours. THANK YOU!

[jthatcher]

Wow, I was unaware that you parted with Blue. That must have been hard, but on the other hand, that guitar deserved to be top of someone's heap. Good on you for moving it on and letting it be played and loved.

[vdubbub]

The amount of time I have spent watching you play Blue.... This feels like the end of an era. That being said, I hope you are happy!

[brianpara]

Watching this short video months later for a second time with a big smile on my face. As a southpaw, vintage is quite challenging and expensive to acquire. Alternatively, I just bought a lefty custom shop ‘59 ES-355 w/varitone and bigsby in watermelon red.

[whoknewyouwould]

For those whom struggle with understanding phase, this is an excellent video to help demonstrate all the variables.

Thank you Mick!

[janzahalka]

Not many people could really carry a two hour guitar re-wiring video. We need to acknowledge that.
On top of that, this was seamlessly put together and the time flew by while watching.
Great job and wonderful video!

[TheAdventChronicles]

I had noticed we hadn't seen Blue in a while and now that explains it. I'm quite sad to see that guitar move on :(

[Subropontes]

A two hour Mick Guitar Vlog? Just YES!
Videos like these are the reason I fell in love with TPS and there’s just no other channel like it.

And happy to see that you’re going for the mod, didn’t finish the video yet but hope you love it and hope that it makes you play that guitar a lot more!

[ThePosse]

You are so, so good at this, Mick. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And what a guitar! ❤

[mickstick]

At first I thought "why is he bothering?", it is such a pain with an ES guitar to rewire, but, I stand corrected it was well worth it, Sounds fantastic, just a beautiful guitar. You can never go astray simplifying.

[brandonkennedy]

FWIW, I went down this same rabbit hole with my 64 ES-345 a couple of years ago. I would make a couple of recs, albeit too late, but my experience was phenomenal doing this. It started with the readily searchable "Ben Mod" for wiring mono on a 345 as a bse to jump off of. I wanted to keep the vintage harness, it sounds much better to my ears than a modern harness which was in the guitar when I got it and I wanted the varitone, but not the tone suck. I was able to achieve this by basically using the stereo element of the varitone and choke to use both sides, one as a bypass and one as the varitone side to create a near true bypass dummy wired to the first position of the varitone. Take one side of the varitone and wire up the first position on one side and disable all the elements of the varitone capacitors, don't wire that to the choke. From there wire it as normal (like a normal 335 style). Then for positions 2-6 on the varitone, wire to the other side of the varitone and to one side of the choke to access those varitone sounds. I don't use them much but its great to have them and stays true to the intent of the guitar and it is a cool, yet rarely used feature, for me at least. What it does is gives you a near total bypass in position 1 of the varitone and a mono output. In position one, there are no capacitors getting in the way of the signal from the varitone and the choke is not engaged, its giving you as pristine and unencumbered of a sound as possible with a varitone loaded guitar. Then when in positions 2-6, It also allows access to the other varitone tones and keeps a mono signal chain. My guitar sounded night and day better after this mod was completed and I got to keep the quirky elements that make the 345 such a unique guitar.

[JFO]

Thanks Mick.. as an owner of two 1965 ES-345s this was a joy to watch and informative...I couldn't agree more on the "relative value" of these transitional year Gibson ES-345 at least in comparison to pre 65', their 335 brethren and these days Custom shop / Murphy lab. got to love a 7.5lbs ES