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3 pickup LP Custom questions

MikeSlub

Administrator
Joined
Jul 15, 2001
Messages
15,166
I agree, the setup is goofy. I hate the middle switch position. Way too quacky for my taste. I turned the middle pickup, and to my ears it made it a bit less quacky, but I still hate the thin sound! :hank

1958_Gibson_Les_Paul_Custom.JPG
 

MikeSlub

Administrator
Joined
Jul 15, 2001
Messages
15,166
It wouldn't surprise me if the three-pickup LP Custom came into being at the request of the Gibson marketing department. The more pickups, the better, right? Sales of Fender Stratocasters were good and Gibson needed to have a solid body model that could match up. The sales of Les Pauls were rather weak (which is why they were later discontinued), so they kept changing/tweaking the design in hopes of improving sales. You have to remember how the late '50s was an era of futuristic/space-age designs that were somewhat excessive (tail fins anyone?), so the addition of another pickup (despite the goofy wiring/switching scheme) would have been in line with the marketing and design trends of that time.

This makes a lot of sense, and if you think about it, with the space-age, contoured lines and body cutaway of a Strat, the Les Paul must have been perceived as an outdated, clunky looking hunk of timber in the late 50's - which probably led to the dropoff in sales. :hank
 

TedB

New member
Joined
Jul 16, 2001
Messages
2,141
I use the center position for certain rhythm passages, and I don't find it 'quacky'. This is with Tom Holmes PAFs (1X453 - 2X450), and 50s spec wiring and components. What some describe as 'quacky' with 50 year-old guitars may be due to artifacts of age, as I'm not convinced we're hearing the same thing.

FWIW, my 3-pickup LP Custom is my 'go to' guitar.
 

retrobob

Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2002
Messages
735
I agree, the setup is goofy. I hate the middle switch position. Way too quacky for my taste. I turned the middle pickup, and to my ears it made it a bit less quacky, but I still hate the thin sound! :hank

When I first got mine, I felt the same way. Way to thin and quacky. I found out the middle & the bridge pickup were out of phase. I turned the magnet over in the middle pickup. Which put both pickups in phase.
Now the guitar is very usable in the middle position. It has a strat type sound with out the thin quack.
 
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Edgnr

New member
Joined
Mar 5, 2008
Messages
5
I just read that Steve Clarks (def leppard) lp customs had the normal positions bridge-middle+bridge-neck but had a volume push pull that coil split both humbuckers when in the middle position, so i guess he used it.

I dont know about electronics, can you do what brandtkronholm wrote about rewiring the instrument so that the middle pickup is governed by the neck volume and tone controls leaving everything else the same? Anybody has tried it? And in case you would want to hear the middle pup alone could you have a push pull to deactivate the bridge pickup when in the middle position?
 

efpe

Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2013
Messages
89
I would wire it the way I have wired vintage Strats for some customers. I call it the "Billy Squire Mod" because it was in a Vintage Guitar interview with him that he spoke of this. You wire the three way toggle as if it were a two pickup guitar, rythem, treble & both (neck & bridge) then use the neck pickup tone control as a volume for the middle pickup only. This way you can have all pickup choices by blending in the middle pickup. It works very well with Strats that still have three way switches, so I guess it would work well with a tripple pickup LP Custom!:salude

Here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFAo-tFDRb4
 

CPM55

New member
Joined
Jul 1, 2011
Messages
184
Robert Fripp has two customs...a beautiful 59 (the one reportedly owned previously by Steve Marriot) and a 57 (78774) which he put an extra vol,ume swith on the pick guard to control the middle pick up. He'd be one of the 'modifiers" of note. Frampton's 3 PUP was a converted 54, so I am not sure what his set up was. Jimmy Page was the true tinkerer with all the extra wirings and three toggle switches by the time it was all said and done. As for the 'quadrophonic set ups' Steve Howe messed with his 56 putting in extra pick ups but has since returned that guitar to it original two PUP, Alnico/P90 set up and still uses it on tour. Fripp has set his Black Beauties aside and sticks with his own artist makes with peiezo, multiple switches, etc these days.
 

DrRobert

Les Paul Forum Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2003
Messages
6,050
My 57 was renecked so I didn't feel too bad about changing the wiring a bit. I have 3 volumes and a tone, with a push-pull pot to bring the middle pickup in/out. So with the pot pushed in it's just like a 2 pickup custom, when it's out I can blend any 2 or 3 pickups as I want. No actual wood was harmed in the mod, so it can be put back together easily for purist...
 
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