1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire
Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire
De-soldered the switch and pickup wires and got the metal plate out. All pots mount to this plate and the whole thing drops into (or out of) the guitar. I left the input jack can dangling. It appears that three of the old pots are original, dating 5th week of 1978. The neck vol pot dates 43rd week of 79, so it got changed pretty early in the guitar's life. They're all CTS pots.
Mar 2 1978
I'm not sure what to do with this input jack can thing. I can't get it open! I'm afraid I'm gonna mangle it. I think I'll just get a new jack and leave this ancient shit alone.
I think I'm gonna stop here for today. The College football national championship is tonight on TV. I don't wanna remove the strings and have it sitting unstrung all night.
Mar 2 1978
I'm not sure what to do with this input jack can thing. I can't get it open! I'm afraid I'm gonna mangle it. I think I'll just get a new jack and leave this ancient shit alone.
I think I'm gonna stop here for today. The College football national championship is tonight on TV. I don't wanna remove the strings and have it sitting unstrung all night.
Rebel Yell
Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire
Man that thing is weird looking. I agree that a new jack is the way to go.
Another toy that helped destroy the elder race of man..forget about your silly whim it doesn't fit the plan.
Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire
Lol. Right? I can't get the thing open. It's gotta open somehow, but I guess it has just been sealed for too long. The can itself says "Switchcraft" on it. Pretty cool.ocnor wrote:Man that thing is weird looking. I agree that a new jack is the way to go.
So it's looking like I'm not gonna reuse any of this crap. I'm gonna get a new selector switch and jack.
Rebel Yell
Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire
Haha, so I removed the selector switch, which is a long-style gold switchcraft. It will stay. It's cool. Then I removed the shielding can pressed into the selector switch cavity. It's little more than a piece of pipe that wasn't cut all that smooth....this fucker is dangerous.
Rebel Yell
- Bubba
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire
Jesus. The lengths Gibson went to with this stupid workaround when a simple grounding wire sufficed beggars belief! It's a bit like Porsche putting the engine in the boot (trunk) then having to design the hell out of the Carrera just to stop it throwing you into a hedge.
Haggard Musician
Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire
I know, it's stupid. And it's not like Les Pauls are inherently noisy guitars. Regular ol LPs with no shielding and minimal wiring make no unwanted noise at all.Bubba wrote:Jesus. The lengths Gibson went to with this stupid workaround when a simple grounding wire sufficed beggars belief! It's a bit like Porsche putting the engine in the boot (trunk) then having to design the hell out of the Carrera just to stop it throwing you into a hedge.
Rebel Yell
Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire
This is like an archaeology dig with all these cool old parts.
People want something for nothing, they want it right now. Either they can't tell quality or don't care but feel it is important that everyone agrees with them.
Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire
Major progress today....huge update....
First off, as I think I mentioned already, I wanted to absolutely minimize the amount of time this guitar sat with no string tension. So first thing I did was wire up a new switch-to-control-cavity loom using pushback cloth wire with braided shield.
With that done, off comes the hardware and pickups and it's time to pull that bushing. This is where things got stupid. I mentioned my trick of just dropping a small bolt down the hole and screwing the stud back in to extract the bushing. Well, that worked until the stud botttomed out and couldn't go no more. The bushing pulled up some but still wasn't loose enough to pull by hand. So I dropped another little bolt in there to take up some space aaaaaaand.....they jammed side-by-side instead on standing on top of each other. Lol. So I had to release my genius and make a puller tool. I ran to my massive toolbox in the garage and started rummaging around for anything to make an extractor. My toolbox has decades of hot rod building bits and pieces and parts left over. I had an idea of what to make. I found a piece of PVC pipe and a random fine-thread bolt. A good start. Now I need a large fender washer. Can't find one. But I did find some valve spring retainers off a Ford Windsor. Perfect fit. I needed some thick washers....Pontiac intake manifold bolt washers did the trick. Voila.
This is about as far as the stud alone would pull the bushing. Two little bolts stuck down in the hole.
The random-toolbox-junk tool in action! That's a piece of old beach towel to protect the finish.
Victory!
Now the scary shit. Time to drill. I'm gonna drill through this hole into the control cavity.
Protect the surface with painters tape, a folded up napkin, and an old sawzall blade.
So going through the bushing hole into the control cavity wasn't working. At that angle the bit kept walking. I tried to punch a pilot hole, but the bit just wouldn't bite. So I had to go backwards through the cavity into the bushing hole. This was easier, but the is no room for error. I just eyeballed it, held my breath, and got after it. It worked.
Peekaboo!
I frayed the wire in the bushing hole and hammered the bushing back into it's home. Checked with multimeter, good connection. This guitar is now grounded!
So on to the pickups. Removed the original T-Tops. Someone at some point removed the covers and made some halfassed ground that does nothing. This is the bridge pickup.
Neck pickup. That faint stamp says Dec 30 1977.
Neck pickup rout. Cherry SB - Sunburst. My second favorite Les Paul finish....Goldtop is my first favorite.
So on to the pickups...here's my Bare Knuckles. Riff Raff for the bridge, The Mule for the neck. PAF-style handmade vintage output pickups. I had em made with cream bobbins because the rest of the trim on the guitar is cream and it's gonna look very Ace Frehley-ish. Unfortunately they do not glow or smoke. Well, they might when I'm done wiring this thing.
These strings came with the pickups. I've never heard of them, but what the hell? They're going on.
So as it stands right now, the pickups are in and the guitar is strung up. And it looks SICK AS FUCK. Looks awesome. But no pics yet because I have not put the pots in yet. Tomorrow will be pots installed and final wiring. And hopefully it works.
First off, as I think I mentioned already, I wanted to absolutely minimize the amount of time this guitar sat with no string tension. So first thing I did was wire up a new switch-to-control-cavity loom using pushback cloth wire with braided shield.
With that done, off comes the hardware and pickups and it's time to pull that bushing. This is where things got stupid. I mentioned my trick of just dropping a small bolt down the hole and screwing the stud back in to extract the bushing. Well, that worked until the stud botttomed out and couldn't go no more. The bushing pulled up some but still wasn't loose enough to pull by hand. So I dropped another little bolt in there to take up some space aaaaaaand.....they jammed side-by-side instead on standing on top of each other. Lol. So I had to release my genius and make a puller tool. I ran to my massive toolbox in the garage and started rummaging around for anything to make an extractor. My toolbox has decades of hot rod building bits and pieces and parts left over. I had an idea of what to make. I found a piece of PVC pipe and a random fine-thread bolt. A good start. Now I need a large fender washer. Can't find one. But I did find some valve spring retainers off a Ford Windsor. Perfect fit. I needed some thick washers....Pontiac intake manifold bolt washers did the trick. Voila.
This is about as far as the stud alone would pull the bushing. Two little bolts stuck down in the hole.
The random-toolbox-junk tool in action! That's a piece of old beach towel to protect the finish.
Victory!
Now the scary shit. Time to drill. I'm gonna drill through this hole into the control cavity.
Protect the surface with painters tape, a folded up napkin, and an old sawzall blade.
So going through the bushing hole into the control cavity wasn't working. At that angle the bit kept walking. I tried to punch a pilot hole, but the bit just wouldn't bite. So I had to go backwards through the cavity into the bushing hole. This was easier, but the is no room for error. I just eyeballed it, held my breath, and got after it. It worked.
Peekaboo!
I frayed the wire in the bushing hole and hammered the bushing back into it's home. Checked with multimeter, good connection. This guitar is now grounded!
So on to the pickups. Removed the original T-Tops. Someone at some point removed the covers and made some halfassed ground that does nothing. This is the bridge pickup.
Neck pickup. That faint stamp says Dec 30 1977.
Neck pickup rout. Cherry SB - Sunburst. My second favorite Les Paul finish....Goldtop is my first favorite.
So on to the pickups...here's my Bare Knuckles. Riff Raff for the bridge, The Mule for the neck. PAF-style handmade vintage output pickups. I had em made with cream bobbins because the rest of the trim on the guitar is cream and it's gonna look very Ace Frehley-ish. Unfortunately they do not glow or smoke. Well, they might when I'm done wiring this thing.
These strings came with the pickups. I've never heard of them, but what the hell? They're going on.
So as it stands right now, the pickups are in and the guitar is strung up. And it looks SICK AS FUCK. Looks awesome. But no pics yet because I have not put the pots in yet. Tomorrow will be pots installed and final wiring. And hopefully it works.
Rebel Yell
Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire
Very nice work!
So...do you opt to NOT put back any of those stock metal enclosures..?
So...do you opt to NOT put back any of those stock metal enclosures..?
Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire
Nope. They will not go back in.
Rebel Yell
- WhiskeyJack
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire
I'm getting weak in the knees to hear the differences. Picture will be cool too. The sound is what i'm waiting for.
Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire
Please, remove that scratch plate.
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Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire
Looking good, dude. I used your stud-pulling trick last night - worked a treat! My studs aren't that tight, though. I spent time fitting the control cavity cover - a bit time-consuming to do by hand, but I want a nice, neat finish. I'm drilling the grounding hole tonight.
Haggard Musician
Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire
Me too! Hopefully today!WhiskeyJack wrote:I'm getting weak in the knees to hear the differences. Picture will be cool too. The sound is what i'm waiting for.
Why?JD01 wrote:Please, remove that scratch plate.
Awesome. My bolt trick usually works, and it did again, just not all the way. My bushing was tight. That's what she said.Bubba wrote:Looking good, dude. I used your stud-pulling trick last night - worked a treat! My studs aren't that tight, though. I spent time fitting the control cavity cover - a bit time-consuming to do by hand, but I want a nice, neat finish. I'm drilling the grounding hole tonight.
Anyway, my homemade tool worked awesomely. Scrap junk parts laying around.
I just looked, StewMac sells my bushing puller for $53. I'll sell mine for $52.
Rebel Yell
Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire
It will vastly improve the look of your guitar!Greg_L wrote: Why?
Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire
Lol no it won't.JD01 wrote: It will vastly improve the look of your guitar!
Rebel Yell
Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire
Jesus, I'm measuring the old original pots and they are all over the map. The bridge vol pot appears to be a 300k linear pot. No prob, pretty standard for many Gibsons. But this one is wongo. It starts at 290k, close enough to 300, and smoothly ramps down as you turn the pot down. Then at about 3/4 of it's bottom range it stalls and starts creeping back up. The neck vol pot does the same thing. That will explain the slight bleed that was between the pickups. This guitar will probably sound better just from the pots and a ground wire. I never thought it sounded bad before. It was just a little noisy. I can't wait to hear it with fresh parts.
Rebel Yell
Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire
That's really weird.Greg_L wrote:Jesus, I'm measuring the old original pots and they are all over the map. The bridge vol pot appears to be a 300k linear pot. No prob, pretty standard for many Gibsons. But this one is wongo. It starts at 290k, close enough to 300, and smoothly ramps down as you turn the pot down. Then at about 3/4 of it's bottom range it stalls and starts creeping back up. The neck vol pot does the same thing. That will explain the slight bleed that was between the pickups. This guitar will probably sound better just from the pots and a ground wire. I never thought it sounded bad before. It was just a little noisy. I can't wait to hear it with fresh parts.
Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire
It's just old pots. I guess they've developed enough wear and corrosion to get some internal leakage.JD01 wrote: That's really weird.
I've never liked the roll-off taper of linear pots, including these, so that's another bonus to my new pots - audio taper.
Pots that work properly - good
Grounded guitar - good
Audio taper - good
Badass pickups - good
Correct wiring - good
Greg's workmanship - remains to be seen
Rebel Yell
Re: 1978 Les Paul Custom pickup swap, and 50's style re-wire
Great pics and progress report. Interesting about the pots. Looking forward to hearing the results....
People want something for nothing, they want it right now. Either they can't tell quality or don't care but feel it is important that everyone agrees with them.