1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Swapping out speakers in cab -OR- putting a hammer though your Line6 Spider? Tell us about it.
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Roman
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by Roman »

Hmm Bummer. Yeah they 'shouldn't', but sometimes it does happen.
'
With brass shaft pots i'll usually give a real....I mean real light squeeze with pliers and hit the inside of the knobs with some WD40 before pushing them on the shafts.

Did the Pot actually break or did the casing come off? they can be put back together easily.
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Greg_L
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by Greg_L »

Roman wrote:Hmm Bummer. Yeah they 'shouldn't', but sometimes it does happen.
'
With brass shaft pots i'll usually give a real....I mean real light squeeze with pliers and hit the inside of the knobs with some WD40 before pushing them on the shafts.

Did the Pot actually break or did the casing come off? they can be put back together easily.
I had my thumb on the back of the pots while pushing the knobs on. I put a tiny bit of vaseline, I mean tiny, on my finger and smeared it around the shaft. There's just no way for that to not sound sexy. Anyway, thumb on the back, grease on the shaft, push the pot on and I felt a click on my thumb on the back of the pot and the whole shaft sunk into the pot. Removed my thumb to see wtf was going on, and then the pot case came apart. Yelled "fuck" 40 times and moved on to the next pot. The exact same thing happened. Both standard CTS pots popped apart. The push/pulls are fine. I've swapped pots and knobs before. I've never had two pots fall apart the same way the same day. I really think it's just a bad batch.
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Lt. Bob
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by Lt. Bob »

Bubba wrote:
Greg_L wrote: the way I do it is to use the screw and busing against itself. Remove the tailpiece screw, drop something down the hole, like a small bolt or a dowel, and put the screw back in. As you re-tighten the screw it pushes against the small bolt you dropped down the hole. Since there's nowhere for anything to go, the screwing action pulls the bushing up. The bushing will walk up the tailpiece screw. This usually works on the cheaper, younger guitars I've done it to. On something this well made and old, that bushing may be real tight. I don't know. We shall see.
Actually, that's a fucking great idea. I will be doing that myself, from now on!

I like your component mounting board, too - very good if one is a bit fumble-fingered and prone to burning oneself with the soldering iron! :D
yessir .... that's seriously a great suggestion!
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Lt. Bob
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by Lt. Bob »

what a great thread!

Two things ...... for me a coil tap is more to simply have a way to lower the 'buckers output .... not really to sound like a single coil because it doesn't.
But you can have a bucker wailing and then coil tap it and drop into a semi-clean sound.

And yes, the guitar looks great with all that cream stuff ..... but if it were me I'd want to change the back plates (switch and control covers) to cream also.
I find that black on the back to not match the front and to me it doesn't look as good as cream would.

Nice job man!
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Greg_L
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by Greg_L »

Lt. Bob wrote:what a great thread!

Two things ...... for me a coil tap is more to simply have a way to lower the 'buckers output .... not really to sound like a single coil because it doesn't.
But you can have a bucker wailing and then coil tap it and drop into a semi-clean sound.

And yes, the guitar looks great with all that cream stuff ..... but if it were me I'd want to change the back plates (switch and control covers) to cream also.
I find that black on the back to not match the front and to me it doesn't look as good as cream would.

Nice job man!
Thanks Boob. That's a good idea on the cream back plates. I might try to find some.

My pickups aren't tapped, they are actual splits. They do become actual single coils.
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Lt. Bob
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by Lt. Bob »

well, I meant split ..... and everyone here has said they don't really sound like single coils ..... I see it as more of a different sound/lower level thing.
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Greg_L
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by Greg_L »

Lt. Bob wrote:well, I meant split ..... and everyone here has said they don't really sound like single coils ..... I see it as more of a different sound/lower level thing.
They do sound like single coils to me. Go check out the clips and see what you think. To me, when split, they sound more like singles than just lower output humbuckers.
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Lt. Bob
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by Lt. Bob »

Greg_L wrote:
Lt. Bob wrote:well, I meant split ..... and everyone here has said they don't really sound like single coils ..... I see it as more of a different sound/lower level thing.
They do sound like single coils to me. Go check out the clips and see what you think.
I will
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rammer24
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by rammer24 »

Greg_L wrote:Image
Maybe it was already mentioned, but since I know shit about guitars, I have to say that the thing that impresses me the most is the fact that the 3 pairs of shoes match the 3 colors of the guitar. On purpose or not, that's genius!
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Greg_L
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by Greg_L »

rammer24 wrote: Maybe it was already mentioned, but since I know shit about guitars, I have to say that the thing that impresses me the most is the fact that the 3 pairs of shoes match the 3 colors of the guitar. On purpose or not, that's genius!
I promise that was not on purpose lol. That's what you call serendipity. The red ones belong to one of the kids, the yellows are the wifey's, the white ones are mine.
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rammer24
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by rammer24 »

Wow! That is cool. Even the white ones are cream colored. Pretty good album cover right there.
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Greg_L
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by Greg_L »

Ha yeah there are two types of white Chucks. One is a bright bleached white that looks goofy and unnatural. The other is the classic old-school cream/off-white and that's what I wear.
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rammer24
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by rammer24 »

Are they flat-footed, like Converse? I can't wear Converse. I've tried. No arch, not comfortable.
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Greg_L
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by Greg_L »

rammer24 wrote:Are they flat-footed, like Converse? I can't wear Converse. I've tried. No arch, not comfortable.
Yes, they're Converse. Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars, aka Chucks.

Image
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rammer24
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by rammer24 »

They look great. I wish I could wear them.
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ocnor
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by ocnor »

rammer24 wrote:They look great. I wish I could wear them.
I haven't been able to wear those since I was in 7th grade. They don't make them in wide width.
Another toy that helped destroy the elder race of man..forget about your silly whim it doesn't fit the plan.
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Bubba
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

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I wear Converse. They're pretty knackered. Black is the only colour. :D
Haggard Musician :mad:
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Greg_L
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by Greg_L »

Bubba wrote:I wear Converse. They're pretty knackered. Black is the only colour. :D
I've had a black pair of Chucks non-stop since I was about 8 yrs old.

Not the same pair. I mean as soon as one pair becomes unwearable, I get another pair. I never not have black Chucks.

Go look at my live gig pics. Every shot - black chucks. :)
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rammer24
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by rammer24 »

I just got an e-mail from Jimmy. He's drunk again and wants us to stay on topic. :D
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Greg_L
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by Greg_L »

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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