G&L tech resources: Wiring harnesses

 
 

This 1989 Comanche VI Signature is an example of G&L’s most elaborate wiring harness. The volume control has a common implementation using a CTS 250kΩ Audio Taper potentiometer with a 200pF treble bleed capacitor. The single tone control is fairly standard too with its CTS 250kΩ Audio Taper pot in series with a 1,000pF (.001µF) cap to ground and a 2,200pF (.0022µF) treble bleed cap soldered between the signal lug and the wiper of the pot. In between these 2 knobs, one finds 3 MTA106D pickup on/off switches instead of the usual 5-position blade switch. The magic though is in the 3 MTA206PA 3-position pickup coil selector switches at the bottom. Pointing up, the half-coil of the Z-coil pickup on the bass side is selected and pointing down the half-coil on the treble side. In the middle position, both half-coils are combine in parallel giving the pickup a sweet sound. Going through all the combinatorics, 63 useful combinations producing sound are provided. The wiring harness of the Comanche V is a much more mundane affair and could have been discussed elsewhere. The volume control is identical as the one discussed above. The PTB circuit has a CTS 500kΩ Audio Taper treble cut pot in series with a 22,000pF (.022µF) cap to ground and a CTS 1MΩ Reverse Audio Taper bass cut pot with a 2,200pF±10% (.0022µF) treble bleed cap, soldered between the signal lug and the wiper, and in series with a 1,000pF±10% (.001µF) cap to ground. With the MTA106D 2-position expander switch engaged, position 3 of the 5-position pickup selector still corresponds with just the middle pup but positions 1 and 5 combine neck and bridge pickup and positions 2 and 4 all 3. The most relevant difference with the Comanche VI though, is that on the Comanche V the 2 half-coils of the pups are wired in series instead of parallel, giving it quite a different sonic character.

Comanche (V)/Comanche VI