Worth doing or not

RALKITE

RALKITE

Blues Newbie
i have a solid body J&D luthiers LP type guitar that comes from one of the Epiphone factories in China.
I think that if there is a flaw in the paint then they get passed onto the in house sales but with cheap electronics.
Anyway it plays nice has nice action and stays in tune pretty good so I believe the body and neck are good.
The electronics are total crap
So I’m thinking of buying a set of Seymour Duncan 59 reissues and there is a guy in US selling vintage wiring kits.
What do you people think?
 
Chuck

Chuck

Moderator (One of the Men in Black!)
Staff member
I’d go for it as well! Sounds like a fun project.
 
cowboy

cowboy

Blues, Booze & BBQ
Go for it...(y)(y)(y)...

I've done the same thing with a Epi Wilshire that I bought used......the bound neck and body were great but the pickups were crap...put in some Gibby 57's (bought used...and cheap) and had the wiring redone...did this on a couple of other guitar and it was worth the small cost...the guitar ended up so sweet that I put a Bigsby on it...

one suggestion: check out the cost of pots and wire...it may be a lot cheaper than a prewired kit...in the end, you'll end up with a smile on your face...later.

cowboy
 
MarkDyson

MarkDyson

Blues Hound Wannabe
Go for it! MOD ALL THE THINGS!!!1!!!! :confused:

Heh.

Where are you getting the vintage wiring? I get my wiring stuff from RS Guitarworks in Kentucky (via my local shop who deals with them).
 
jackderby52

jackderby52

Prehistoric blues knob (not newbie)
yes, for sure... it's the perfect candidate.. I'm curious about the vintage wiring kit?? What's the benefit? (if any?)...
 
CapnDenny1

CapnDenny1

Student Of The Blues
There's this,

http://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_..._for_Gibson_Les_Paul_with_Push_pull_Pots.html

But it's seems kind of expensive? StewMac is not cheap, but they have quality stuff. It's kind of cool that they have it laid out and the parts soldered. You will have to add the pickup wires. This is for coil splitting.

If you don't want to coil split they have this.

http://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_...-wired_Harness_for_Gibson_Les_Paulandreg.html

You could save a little money by buying the parts and doing all the work. But this would give you quality parts and help with the layout, since they have it setup for a Les Paul already.

Note that there are two versions related to the length of the shafts on the pots. I guess some Les Pauls have a thicker piece of wood between the front surface and the inside of the electronics pocket.

I don't think there is anything magic about "vintage wiring". If you had a vintage Les Paul and wanted to preserve the original build then perhaps? But I think you would be paying for something that doesn't add to the sound quality, and a lot of vintage stuff is really poor. It's just the state of the art at the time it was first done.
 
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straightblues

straightblues

Blues Junior
I am with the crowd, go for it. However, I have a caveat. Since you are asking the question, I would guess you are a modifying newbie. Since you don't have experience, I would highly recommend that you try to find your pickups used instead of buying them new. That way if they aren't to your liking you can sell them and get your money back and try something else.

I like the Duncan 59's but I like their Seth Lover model better.
 
JPsuff

JPsuff

Blackstar Artist
FWIW, my Epi LP Custom came with some decent pup's but to me they sounded a bit thin.

So I changed them out to a set of Seymour Duncan '59's (SH-1's) and I love them.
 
RALKITE

RALKITE

Blues Newbie
Thanks people I’ll try recording it with my phone. That’s all I have.
I did get another suggestion of the Seth lover ones when I first asked about the pups at a store.
I’ll check out those links
 
Rancid Rumpboogie

Rancid Rumpboogie

Blues Mangler
The biggest decision you have to make regarding the tone you will end up with is your choice of pickups. Lots of folks champion Duncan JB's for the bridge, but I find them just way too bright. Do your due diligence and listen to YouTube videos until you are tone deaf, wait a day or so, do it again, wait a day or so, do it again. The hardest to find is a bridge pickup that is "just right" for your ear ... lots of neck pickups sound good. Depending on the pickups in question, there can be a HUGE difference in tone, even between two different "PAF" pickups.

Vintage tone wiring isn't just "vintage hype". It definitely preserves treble as you roll the volume down whereas modern wiring doesn't.

Then there is the matter of dependent or independent volume controls. When in the middle selector position, if you turn one volume completely off, it turns your whole guitar off, you have dependent volume wiring because with dependent volume wiring, each volume control is dependent on the other so whichever volume is turned down the most acts as a master volume. And with dependent volume controls, you cannot mix any amount of bridge with any amount of neck ... all you can do is regulate the volume of a 50/50 mix.

Independent volume controls are just that ... independent of each other. In the middle position you can turn one completely off and still get the other pickup ... or mix any amount of bridge with any amount of neck.

The diagram below is for Vintage 50's tone wiring. To get independent volume controls, on each volume pot just flip the blue wire from the switch and the red wire to the pickup (switch wire goes on the bottom pot lug in the pic below, pickup wire goes on the middle lug in the pic below).

50s LP WIRING - PREFERRED.jpg

If you order any of those pre-wired harnesses, most likely what you will get is modern wiring ... with dependent volume controls.
 
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CapnDenny1

CapnDenny1

Student Of The Blues
I was talking more about vintage wire and vintage caps etc. Not the circuit. There are advantages and disadvantages to all of the possible circuits.
 
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