Different Wiring Schemes.

A few months back, I posted up on the Mandolin Cafe forum Electric section that I was having difficulty with the volume and tone control on my BluesBird. Frankly, the problem was that I had no control! Volume was an on/off switch instead of linear, and the tone control was non-existant.

This was probably due to an incorrect wiring job by myself. Here is a pic of the original.

Several people posted up opinions on what was wrong. Andrew Jerman of

http://www.crossroadswood.com offered up that he might have a better wiring scheme for the instrument. Shortly later, he offered to make me up a new harness for my instrument if I would make before and after sound files and post them on the Cafe. What a great offer!

So, the wiring harness arrived this week and I installed it in the BluesBird. Did not take very long and fit right in.

Here is the new harness.

From the first, I was very impressed with it. First off, I have full volume and tone control. Both are very effective. Probably due to having the right wiring, right cap and right pots.

Here is a video of the difference between the harnesses.

I'm currently waiting to hear a few other 'Cafe visitors comments, but I'm pretty impressed so far. Now I have 3 distinctly different channels. Two of the channels are full and strong, but distinct from each other. The 3rd channel has a 'faraway' tone (to borrow Andrew's wording).

Frankly, at this point, I think I like the 3rd position best with its full tone and slight edge to it. Its pretty fun and is the tone that I like when playing the blues!

Thanks again to Andrew Jerman at www.crossroadswood.com. Great guy, very knowledgeable and makes a beautiful mandolin!