Can anyone help with a Watkins Rapier 33?

SysEx

My brother has had a Circuit 4 for many, many years and has decided to refurbish it. To help him, I bought him a Rapier 33 on eBay, which I hoped he would be able to use for measurements and possibly spares, but now he wants to refurbish it as well - go figure!

The drawback we've encountered is that there don't seem to be any curcuit diagrams available for the 33 and the previous owner was a bit of a hot-head with the soldering iron, so it's hard to know what's original and what's "customisation". For example, only one of the capacitors appears to be of a sensible value but the other one either shouldn't be there or else it's a ridiculously high value; and the original 2-pole switch (Rhythm/Solo) has been replaced with a 3-pole, and the 3rd position doesn't sound like it does anything but switch the pick-ups off altogether, like the Hofner Bass, but I doubt that's what they previous owner was going for :rolleyes:

As with most Watkins guitars, the neck is still straight as a die and the pick-ups' magnetism is enough to give you concern if you leave it too close to magnetic tape - luckily, we've gone digital in the home studio - so it's worth the effort to get it back on the road, I think. What I've heard of it so far is very impressive.

So, big prologue to a straightforward enough question: Does anyone here have a Rapier 33 that they wouldn't mind photographing the wiring of? Or failing that, has anyone any clues where we might locate a readable circuit diagram? The one on the Watkins site is - shall we say - open to interpretation, at the very least

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

SysEx

Kooklen

Hi! Sysex,

I think your brother and I are two of a kind

I have the same problem

in fact I had no alternative but use a radio rotary switch as the wafer rotary switch is not available at least where I come from-India-Calcutta( now Kolkata)

Im not sure but I might have the diagram somewhere. give me some time

Is it the model with 3-pick-ups?

anyway do keep in touch and i will too?

God Bless

Leonard Dennis Johns

SysEx

Thanks for the reply, Kooklen.

He now has a Circuit 4 with 4 pick-ups, a 33 with 3 pick-ups and a 22 and he gave me a 33 that he'd done wonders with, but completely modernised so not at all authentic.

It's the 33 with the 3 pups that he is still trying to track down a diagram for, but any help at all will be gratefully received.

The wafer switches are a problem, but Radio Spares seem to provide a near alternative.

Thanks again,

S

Kooklen

Sure thing buddy will try and give you a helping hand with the diagram.

Cheers

LDJ