I just did a pot job on my '67 335.

[GuitarG]

Note to self: Never ever, ever, ever do that again!
It started out easy enough. I used a thick fishing line and tied off the pots, switch and output jack. Pulled them out through the rear pickup slot. OK, so far so good. Replaced the pots I was going to change, cleaned everything with tuner cleaner, checked my work and everything's OK. Now it's time to put this mass back into the guitar. Being very careful I fed everything back in taking up the slack as I went along. Well somehow between feeding the pickups back into the cavity and actually getting the pots back in their holes....Have you ever been fishing and while casting the line gets fouled around the reel? Well that's what I ended up with. Line wrapped around the pots every which way. Anyway, I took everything back out and went slowly and got everything back in place except the output jack, which fought me for, oh maybe 45 minutes. ARRRGGGHHH!
Got it all wired up and fortunately everything works. Total time invested, I started @ 6;30 AM and finished a little after 9:30. Three hours.
I did find a couple of interesting things.The caps are .022 black Spragues. I guess that was what Gibson was using back then but it still came as a nice surprise. Also, about 8-9 years ago I took the guitar to a tech for a pickup repair and new pots. What I found this morning was a spliced picup lead and the original pots. And the SOB charged me $150.
I'm not sure what the going bench rate is for a pot job on a 335, maybe $1-200, but I think it is money well spent. Hopefully I won't need this done for another 10 or 15 years, but next time I just may take it to a tech.
But now I have a good tone control on the bridge Timbucker I have in there and it is sounding mighty sweet.
I think I may take a nap now

 

[fast ricky love]

did you go with those pots that were all over the map gg?

 

[GuitarG]

Actually, I used two that were close to 500 and left two of the originals. I gave the originals a good shot of tuner cleaner and they're sounding good. I used a 500 for the bridge volume and one slightly lower for the bridge tone.

 

[CAPT CRUNCH]

:lolspin .....sorry............I had the exact same problem putting my Timbuckers in my 335. Even though I've changed the pots before, this time I got everything tangled once back in the body cavity. I ended up cutting all the strings off except the input jack and got it all back together. I would love to see how the factory does it. It was worth it though, wasn't it??

 

[GuitarG]

Oh yeah Capt, it was well worth it. I've got a new amp I just put together and I've spent the whole afternoon playing my 335 through it. Some mighty fine blues approved tone!

 

[Minibucker]

Thinking of doing the same...

I'm thinking of changing the pickups and pots on a '94 ES-335. It might be wired a little differently than yours, but is there not enough wire slack between the pots and the selector/jcak that you have to pull those out too? I did the same for a bigger archtop once (a Yamaha AES1500), and for the jack, I got a simple 1/4" plug from an old crappy molded short chord, cut off the insulation and wire and simply ties the string around the hot connector. Worked fine, but I didn't have to do anything to the selector toggle, as it was mounted on the upper bout, Les Paul style.

 

[GuitarG]

There wasn't enough slack to do that on my guitar. I had to pull the enitre wiring harness out. The switch was easy, it was the jack that gave me a hard time. But that has just because I was fumble-fingered and had a hard time getting it pulled back into the hole and getting the nut and washer back on.

 

[CAPT CRUNCH]

I'm with GuitarG on this one......I think you will have to pull everthing out to do it right. My biggest fear was scratching the guitar. Mine is a very flamey blonde, and doing the work over the top was nerve racking. NewOldCokeDave said in a previous thread that he uses some kind of wooden jig that he made to hold everthing.....I would like to see that. I ended up making some tools out of stiff wire that I bent to help me locate everthing inside the body cavity........string alone dont get it...That input jack is a bitch.

 

[CAPT CRUNCH]

Oh yeah Capt, it was well worth it. I've got a new amp I just put together and I've spent the whole afternoon playing my 335 through it. Some mighty fine blues approved tone!

I had 57 classics in mine, and the difference is unreal.....The Timbuckers seem to really let the natural woody sound of the guitar through.....I never really liked the sound of this guitar clean before.....Now I'm having a blast playing it clean on my Bassman!!......It's a totally different axe.

 

[Minibucker]

Yep

Right on. Once you've played a good-sounding ES-335 clean, it's hard to imagine anything else, especially through a classic Fender amp.

 

[CAPT CRUNCH]

Well, my Bassman is a re-issue......Its got a beautiful clean tone but cranked.?.....I'm not very impressed.....I bought it for its clean tone though.

 

[Wilko]

Fishing line !? hmmm..

I did a pickup change on my 335 and used tools fashioned from coat hangers. It was actually pretty easy. Worked through the f-hole and such.