Thoughts on what this would be used for

[Slofinger]

A guy I do guitar stuff for left this with me to restore. A '70-72 Gibson Flying V. I consider myself somewhat of a hack in guitar building, but whoever did this brought hackery to a new level. I'm trying to figure out what the second jack would be used for. I think it is what is used for acoustic/electrics, but does anybody have any deals on what it would do in this application?

 

[Zzzen Dog]

Looks like you might have some sort of onboard interface allowing you to go directly to a mixing board?

 

[snarf]

I can't see it real well on my phone but it looks like a midi plug to me.

 

[JohnJ]

MIDI plug gets my vote

 

[MarkDyson]

Another vote for MIDI.

 

[straightblues]

Yes, likely a Roland guitar synth.

The horror of it all!!!!!

 

[Momantai]

It looks like a MIDI plug, but it can’t be one. MIDI is something digital. I don’t see any analog to digital conversion stuff so I think it is just another connector that has the same output as the jack.
Possibly to be used as a second interface to some non-guitar amp, maybe just a hifi set or so.

 

[MarkDyson]

It looks like a MIDI plug, but it can’t be one. MIDI is something digital. I don’t see any analog to digital conversion stuff so I think it is just another connector that has the same output as the jack.
Possibly to be used as a second interface to some non-guitar amp, maybe just a hifi set or so.

I was thinking there might have been some sort of box in there at one time to digitize the signal. It’s hard to see how/where that jack is currently wired up.

On the other hand, I don’t see much room for a “black box” so you’re most likely right.

 

[Slofinger]

Thanks for all the replys. I really don't know anything about midis, or interfaces or any of that stuff. That makes sense though. There was one wire hooked up to it at one time that I think went to the neck volume knob. In any case I'm taking it back to an original configuration. As you can see in the second picture it looks like a beaver knawed away the relief for that jack, or the mini switches. I don't know how somebody could treat a vintage guitar like that. I will probably rout it out clean and glue in a plug to fill that back to its original shape.
Again, thank you

 

[CapnDenny1]

I seem to remember a tape deck connection like that. Tape recorders with stereo needed 4 cables. There was a jack like that that required just one multi cable. He could probably go straight to a tape deck, or a stereo receiver.

 

[MarkDyson]

I would personally get a lot of diagnostic mileage out of knowing how many of the 5 pins were actually connected, and how. Comparing that info against some common 5-pin DIN connection diagrams might go far in figuring out just what was intended to go there.

Or, just fill in the hole and forget it was ever there.

 

[Slofinger]

I would personally get a lot of diagnostic mileage out of knowing how many of the 5 pins were actually connected, and how. Comparing that info against some common 5-pin DIN connection diagrams might go far in figuring out just what was intended to go there.

Or, just fill in the hole and forget it was ever there.

Here is a better picture of it. I assume the black wire you see hanging there is the one that was connected to the top pin. It is the only pin that appears to ever have any solder applied. That black wire is connected to the neck volume pot on the pin the pickup would typically be wired to. Since the guitar has no pickups installed and I just pulled the frets off this morning, I can't tell you what any of that does. I assume the mini switches were probably for series or parallel. I can say that the guitar got a lot of use. The frets were wore down to the nub and totally flat. I am installing stainless steel frets on it. I'm betting I can do a better job than whoever hacked this guitar up.

 

[Slofinger]

I seem to remember a tape deck connection like that. Tape recorders with stereo needed 4 cables. There was a jack like that that required just one multi cable. He could probably go straight to a tape deck, or a stereo receiver.

Now that I think about it didn't pre Smart tv's have a plugin like that inplace of rca cables?

 

[MarkDyson]

Thanks for the closeup. Crazy; with only one pin connected I can't begin to fathom what that was about. My original idea was maybe there was some sort of micro MIDI box or PCB in there at one time, but that's a bit of a stretch with no more evidence than that to go on. If there were two pins used, that corresponded to ground and hot, I might speculate it was an alternate to the standard jack out but, again, there isn't much to go on. Glad it's in good hands, I have every confidence you'll clean it up and have it rocking to original specs.

 

[PapaBear]

I think I'd order a new pickgaurd and return it to it's original glory!

 

[Slofinger]

I think I'd order a new pickgaurd and return it to it's original glory!

Exactly what I'm going to do. A Flying V doesn't need all that extra stuff.

 

[Elio]

Here is a better picture of it. I assume the black wire you see hanging there is the one that was connected to the top pin. It is the only pin that appears to ever have any solder applied. That black wire is connected to the neck volume pot on the pin the pickup would typically be wired to. Since the guitar has no pickups installed and I just pulled the frets off this morning, I can't tell you what any of that does. I assume the mini switches were probably for series or parallel. I can say that the guitar got a lot of use. The frets were wore down to the nub and totally flat. I am installing stainless steel frets on it. I'm betting I can do a better job than whoever hacked this guitar up.View attachment 8187

It looks to me as though whatever brilliant idea inspiring that mod was never realized when the previous owner sobered up and thought, "oh #%^*!, that will never work!"

 

[blackcoffeeblues]

It looks to me as though whatever the brilliant idea was that inspired that mod was never realized when the previous owner sobered up and realized, "oh #%^*!, that will never work!"

That's funny--and more than likely true.

 

[Elio]

A guy I do guitar stuff for left this with me to restore. A '70-72 Gibson Flying V. I consider myself somewhat of a hack in guitar building, but whoever did this brought hackery to a new level. I'm trying to figure out what the second jack would be used for. I think it is what is used for acoustic/electrics, but does anybody have any deals on what it would do in this application?View attachment 8185 View attachment 8186

I just took another look at that mod and realized that it looks an awful lot like the arrangement on my Godin LGXT. There is a 13 pin cable connector to the synthesizer, along with two mini toggles. One is a 3-way to switch between the midi output to the synth versus the magnetic pickups, or all combined. The second toggle is used to cycle through different synth presets. For that to work, there needs to be a synth pickup somewhere. Mine is built into the bridge, but they are usually an add-on for conversions.

 

[Slofinger]

I just took another look at that mod and realized that it looks an awful lot like the arrangement on my Godin LGXT. There is a 13 pin cable connector to the synthesizer, along with two mini toggles. One is a 3-way to switch between the midi output to the synth versus the magnetic pickups, or all combined. The second toggle is used to cycle through different synth presets. For that to work, there needs to be a synth pickup somewhere. Mine is built into the bridge, but they are usually an add-on for conversions.

I am going to go with your expertise on this. I have no idea what all that stuff does. As a matter of fact, I've come to simplify my wiring as much as possible. Volume pot for each pickup, and one tone. Thinking about trying out just one volume. Lol