Brittle guitar wiring?

[glebert]

I have a fairly cheap semi-hollowbody guitar, an AXL Badwater 335 style that I do like but it also frustrates me. I got it on trade a while back, and it has always had wiring issues. First one of the pickups was not making sound, then there were grounding problems. Recently the output jack got loose and broke the wires off of it. I pulled the wiring and pots out through the lower f-hole to try to fix the jack and the grounding issues. What I am finding is that all of the wiring seems very fragile, brittle. The wire is stranded and what I sometimes call "fairy floss" wire with very fine strands. After soldering it seems like the wire is so brittle that just about any flexing will break it, and since I need to reinstall the pots and wiring through the f-hole this has become very frustrating as I get it halfway installed and find another broken wire. I really don't want to have to rewire the whole thing but that may be the next step, as some of the lead wires have broken short enough that reattachment is going to be difficult. Should I just bite the bullet and rewire? Any tips on what kind of wire to use or how to make this stuff not break?

Oh, FYI it is 335 style but wiring is more LP style with the selector switch on the upper horn, so the wiring goes though the body block.

Thanks,
Greg

[Mick Bailey]

I would rewire it. My preference is to use the same wiring that Gibson uses - braided screen with waxed cotton push-back core. Other types of screened cable will work, but I find that the centre conductor is usually thinner than I'd like. It's a pain to do, but you only need to do it once. If the pots are low-end I'd replace them at the same time and have done with it.

[olddawg]

I would rewire it. My preference is to use the same wiring that Gibson uses - braided screen with waxed cotton push-back core. Other types of screened cable will work, but I find that the centre conductor is usually thinner than I'd like. It's a pain to do, but you only need to do it once. If the pots are low-end I'd replace them at the same time and have done with it.

Yep replace it all with quality stuff. A little more money and time spent now will save you years of cursing misery. I would even run new wire to the pickups.