Gibson 50s wiring

ezietsman

I read online that the original 50s Les Pauls' wiring was slightly different to the modern wiring used. The effect of the modern wiring is that a lowering of the volume pot cuts a lot of treble (which is the case on all twin humbucker guitars I've ever played) due to the RC circuit then acting as a low-pass filter. Apparently the 50s wiring doesn't do this but then takes away the ability to independently control the pickups when both are engaged. It also changes the effect of the tone knobs.

Does anybody here use 50s wiring in their Gibsons/Twin humbucker guitars? Pros, cons? Would a treble bleed mod hold any advantages?

Are the Tokais wired this way (side question, seeing they're supposed to be exact replicas).

I'm a bit tired with not being able to clean up my overdrive with the volume knob because it becomes SO bassy and muddy its useless and most guitars are like this.

Reinhard

I use 50's wiring in my LP and SG, not sure how my 335 is wired. It is like you said, it makes the tone control usable. If you do decided to do it, use some decent pots to get the full effect ?

ezietsman

What are 'decent pots' ? The correct taper? What kind of pots do you have?

Vick

like....I’m not sure if this is relevant....

but i played around on a mia tele with fenders s-1(like on the baja's) system the weekend....
and when you role back the tone on those, the treble gets cut....but without adding bass....

is the effect your looking for?

ezietsman

not exactly. at the moment, with the modern wiring, the volume circuit acts as a low pass filter when you increase the pot's resistance(lower the volume) so the volume decreases and the circuit lets less treble freqs through. what i want is lowering the volume without my treble being cut. the 50s wiring does this. this is the logical effect one should expect. on a valve amp this will allow you to go from overdrive to clean by changing the volume control, without changing the eq of your sound. treble bleed mods on the modern wiring is the other option but seems more finicky regarding the values of the extra capacitor that needs to be inserted in the circuit.

singemonkey

Hey, there are plenty of wiring diagrams around to show how it's done. I've never quite worked out why modern wiring is standard (I guess if you can't do independent controls on the middle setting, but I've never head that before. Clapton relied on that middle setting, and I assume his wiring was stock '50s on the bluesbreakers record). Apparently you get more wood in the tone, better use of your volume and tone pots. For me, that's the sound of the guitars I like (Page/Clapton/Green/Taylor), so I intend to do it to both of my Les Pauls (I'm not sure if I'd have to change pots on the Gibson though).

So that should answer another of your questions, Tokais and even, correct me if I'm wrong, Gibson historics, come wired modern. Apparently '50s wiring is something you either love or hate.

My Tokai LS150 has 500k CTS pots which are apparently good to go as I understand it. So I'll definitely rewire that '50s. The Gibson may not have such good pots and I'll have to see if that's an issue.

Maybe Reinhard could weigh in on any differences in tone, and the electronic requirements?

These are from mylespaulforum, and I'm sure there's plenty more on the subject over there.

Reinhard

ezietsman wrote: What are 'decent pots' ? The correct taper? What kind of pots do you have?

I have these CTS pots installed

http://www.rsguitarworks.net/rsstore/product_info.php?cPath=31_60&products_id=400

Reinhard

On the LP forum http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=30&f=2 there isn't a lot of love for the stock electronics. I have ended up with RS parts in all my guitars. The SG has some NOS russian paper in oil caps and RS pots.

With my deluxe reverb I can control the overdrive just with the volume pots. With the stock electronics in the SG I had to turn the pots a lot to get a significant effect, and I could forget trying to do volume swells ala Joe Bonamassa. The new pots have a great taper and very useful.