An early example of the first "all Shergold" Masqueraders - earlier ones used Hayman necks; later "Customs" have the smaller scratchplate with the pickups on separate mounting rings - except in a small number of transitional cases.
This one had been rewired (extremely badly) to try to give single, series and parallel humbucking coil arrangements (removing the normal phased option), and had had the pots replaced with higher value units of very poor quality.
Thankfully the original switches were left, though they had sustained some damage on the solder tags, so the terrible wiring and replaced pots could be removed, and the plate refitted with the original style of pots and two replacement switches. The whole of the wiring loom from the pickups through to the new jack socket was replaced at the same time, as large amounts of insulation had been melted off and the screens had broken away. The new wiring is exactly as it would have been at the factory in 1976, except for one wire colour in the 8 core from the pickups. For anyone else who needs to do this sort of work (or have it done at a repairers) the whole job from bare control plates and cavities through to testing the switch arrangements took about four hours. And I know these circuits inside out and had another Masquerader to compare details with!

Acquired by the Collection in September 1999