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

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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 »

Wiring has begun....I'm just taking a break.
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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 »

That guitar is going to look sweet with those cream pickups. I also think that Les Pauls look like ass without a pickguard.
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by Greg_L »

ocnor wrote:That guitar is going to look sweet with those cream pickups. I also think that Les Pauls look like ass without a pickguard.
Yes and yes! :D

Home stretch...

Time to make this bitch roar again. Got a new input jack. Or is it output jack on a guitar? I guess output jack. Anyway, got another one so I don't have to deal with that damn can jack thing.
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The original plan was to just solder the inner core of the braided wire to the tip of the jack, and peel back some shielding to solder to the sleeve. But of course the lead from the switch to the jack is like an inch too short. I can't pull it no tighter. So I spliced in a little piece of wire for the hot/tip (red), and wrapped another piece of wire around the steel braiding for the ground/sleeve (black). I Melted a big glob of solder around it and sealed it all in shrink tubing. That wire runs across the control cavity so I want to insulate it. Ghetto, I know, but wtf else you gonna do with a wire that's too short?
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Next, my pre-wired pot assembly literally dropped right in. I spent a good deal of time fine tuning the heights of the pots so my knobs are all even and don't stick up too high or sit so low they scrape the guitar.
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Now it's just a matter of sticking the right wires to the right spots.
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Finished! Those tiny 4-conductor pickup wires were a cunt. This is why I originally just wanted regular non-splittable 2-conductor braided pickup wires. That would be easy. I made this more difficult on myself because I left everything a little long, but I want to have plenty of wire to spare for any future tweaks or repairs. I could have cut everything to proper length and it'd look nicer and would have been easier, but fuck it. Hopefully this shit will last another 40 years.
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All buttoned up.
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Box of the old original shit that no longer lives in this guitar. I aint getting rid of this stuff though.
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Aaaaaaaaaaaand......Ta Daaaaa! Looks fucking awesome. Those cream pickups with the cream trim really bring the looks of the guitar to a new level. It's purely coincidence that the shoes under the bench match the guitar. I just now noticed that myself as I'm typing this LOL
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Now, I've already tested it out, and everything works exactly as it should. Going slowly and being very methodical has paid off. Nothing got half-assed or short-cutted. I did it all to the best of my ability. This is basic work, but literally everything in this guitar got re-done, so there is mucho room for error.

So first, the guitar is very quiet, or as quiet as a guitar normally is. My amps aren't very quiet, so there's that. It's definitely much, much quieter than it was, so my ground fix fixed the problem. That's a win. The response from the pots is exactly what I always look for. 500k audio taper for the win. Going full power to clean from just rolling the vol is just as I like it to be. It's as good as my Goldtop which up til now has been my gold-standard for perfection. All guitars are measured against my Goldtop for roar-to-clean vol rolling. Now the Custom matches it easily. It wasn't even close before. Is the "50s wiring" doing anything special? That remains to be seen. I haven't really played it loud and proud yet. The interaction between the vol and tone controls does seem to be better than standard/modern wiring. Rolling the tone back doesn't result in a muddy mess as easily as it does with standard wiring. It's smoother and more subtle. High end is tamed without being murdered. It's all more usable, if you will. Not that I ever use the tone controls. The push/pull coil-splits at the tone pots work perfectly. No big deal there.

And for the pièce de résistance, the pickups. My wife has heard them, and she doesn't know anything about the usual buzz-words in audio like woody or warm or brown or creamy and stupid shit like that. She's more succinct. She basically summed them up perfectly - "they're thick and crunchy but they're also really clear". Lol. That's pretty much the perfect description. "Riff Raff" is the perfect name for the bridge pickup. It's thick and crunchy and really clear. It's output it modest, just the way I like them, but it has some aggressive bark and bite. Good tight lows, crunchy mids, clean highs. This thing sounds like a 60s/70s rock pickup. I'm liking it a lot so far, but I haven't really put it to the test yet. I just know it works, and that's all that matters for right now. The Mule neck pickup is more of the same. It's a little smoother than the Riff Raff and it seems well suited to be a neck pickup. I very rarely even use neck pickups, so I'm not a good judge of the finer aspects of neck pickup sound. It sounds good to me, sounds like a nice pickup, works well, smooth neck pickup sound, whatever. I suppose I could have put anything in the neck spot and been fine with it. Lol. But the Mule and Riff Raff seem like a good pair for the sounds I like.

So that's it. Sound clips tomorrow.
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by ido1957 »

Excellent - looks great with those cream pickups. Looking forward to hearing the pickups. Can you demo the tone and volume roll off please? I have to say mine does get a bit muddy when I roll back the highs so I'm curious to hear the difference.
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

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ido1957 wrote:Excellent - looks great with those cream pickups. Looking forward to hearing the pickups. Can you demo the tone and volume roll off please? I have to say mine does get a bit muddy when I roll back the highs so I'm curious to hear the difference.
Thanks. Yup, will do.

Yours may be a candidate for "50s wiring" if your guitar has standard wiring and you use your tone controls a lot. Going from Standard to 50s is not a big deal if that's all you're doing. You're basically just moving a cap leg and re-soldering a pot lug.

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

Post by Minerman »

Nice Greg, nice...I think it looks a lot better than before myself dude, & I think you did a super job on the re-wiring...IMO, you did right leaving some extra slack on the wiring too...

Awesome dude!!!
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

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Minerman wrote:Nice Greg, nice...I think it looks a lot better than before myself dude, & I think you did a super job on the re-wiring...IMO, you did right leaving some extra slack on the wiring too...

Awesome dude!!!
Thanks buddy. I've barely put this thing down since finishing it lol. I'm liking these pickups more and more. I still need to fine tune the pickup heights, but they're pretty fucking good right where they are. I just eyeballed them and went by the sound through the amps.

I think it was a good call to opt for the coil split. Honestly, that was JDOD. He didn't talk me into it, but he kind of harped on it in a way that made me say "fuck it, why not"? I was set on the standard 2-wire option because I'm not usually a coil-splitter kind of guy. Maybe I could be now? It sounds real good. And quiet too! The Bare Knuckles guys also recommended it, and obviously I don't have to use it if I don't want to.
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by Minerman »

Glad you're enjoying the new toys dude...I've always liked the coil split thing myself, nothing wrong with that dude, it makes for a little more versatility IMO...

Very, very nice Lester there dude, & again, it looks better now too...
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

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Ha thanks. You know I don't care about versatility. I only use the bridge pickup and my amps have only 6 knobs. :D
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by WhiskeyJack »

Greg that looks stellar my friend. If it sounds as sick as it looks i tip my hat to you.

Does any one play an LP with out a pickguard? Probably some one from camp PRS.
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

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WhiskeyJack wrote:Greg that looks stellar my friend. If it sounds as sick as it looks i tip my hat to you.

Does any one play an LP with out a pickguard? Probably some one from camp PRS.
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by Armistice »

WhiskeyJack wrote:Greg that looks stellar my friend. If it sounds as sick as it looks i tip my hat to you.

Does any one play an LP with out a pickguard? Probably some one from camp PRS.
LOL, guilty. I took mine off, and the poker chip. And I own a PRS. :lol:

Awesome work Greg, I've been reading along as you've gone.
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

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Armistice wrote:
LOL, guilty. I took mine off, and the poker chip. And I own a PRS. :lol:

Awesome work Greg, I've been reading along as you've gone.
Ha thanks man. :D
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by Tadpui »

Fine job, Greg! It looks great, and you did a nice and tidy job on the innards. Glad that it's all working as desired. Looking forward to clips, I'll add it to my backlog of stuff to listen to around here :)
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

Post by JD01 »

Well done, Greg. When you post up the tones give us a split neck pickup with a vol roll off.
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

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Awesome job, Greg - I only hope mine looks as good!
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

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Thanks gents. Tones coming today.
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

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490/498 split coil on my friend's Studio are just so so. Maybe the Bare Knuckles address the difference a little better. We shall see (er I mean hear).
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

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ido1957 wrote:490/498 split coil on my friend's Studio are just so so. Maybe the Bare Knuckles address the difference a little better. We shall see (er I mean hear).
I don't think any split humbucker is ever gonna sound as good as a proper dedicated single coil. I think the purpose of splitting a humbucker is to "get by" with single coil sound if you ever need it for a song or a passage or whatever. Or if you're playing live and don't wanna change or bring extra guitars. If I had to toggle back and forth in a set, I'd definitely rather just split a 'bucker than keep changing guitars. But if I'm recording and want a single coil sound and have the option to record an actual single coil, I'm gonna opt for the actual single coil over a split humbucker.
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire

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New tones in The Tone Thread. Go there!
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