Repair an Element VTC?

[D18vms]

I picked up an Element VTC that had been removed from a new Gibson. Unfortunately it was removed by cutting the battery, tone/volume control and UST wires. No idea which wires from the preamp go to the tone/volume control and which go to the battery, or which goes to tone or volume. Is there a way to determine which is which? Perhaps there's a wiring diagram? I THINK there may be a way to re-solder the UST wire and ground shield. The under saddle section is fine. The only reason I'm even considering repairing this is that the unit is really brand new. So, better to just trash this thing than get involved with it?

[Caleb_Elling]

The battery wire and the VTC (remote) wire look similar, but if you look closely you'll notice that they both have one black wire and one white-dashed wire. The battery wire has longer dashes and the remote wire has shorter dashes. You should be able to splice those ones back together fairly easily. If the pickup wire was cut close enough to the preamp, it would be better for the longevity of the pickup if you strip and resolder the pickup, rather than trying to splice it.

I hope this helps.

[D18vms]

Thanks so much. I didn't really notice a difference in dashes on the wires but looking at the cuts I was able to figure it out. The UST was too short to re-solder but I believe I was able to patch it by pushing back the ground/shield, soldering the center wire and covering it with heat shrink. Pushed back the braided ground till both ends met and heat shrinked that. The connections seem solid. Tested without installing and working. Try it in guitar tomorrow. Thanks again. Much appreciated.

[Caleb_Elling]

Sounds good!

If you have any kind of hum, you may just need to reinforce the shielding over that solder connection on the pickup wire with some copper tape or foil.

[D18vms]

Got it installed in an Eastman E1ss slope shoulder and it sounds fine. I wondered about using copper wrap on the shielding but I got a pretty good overlap and there's no hum. I'll keep it in mind if there's a problem. I want to thank you again. I was ready to trash this thing and without your help I probably would have. Really appreciate it.

[Caleb_Elling]

Glad to hear that you got it up and running again! Good job!