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High output pickups and "vintage" wiring kits

WytLytnyn

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Feb 20, 2002
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88
So I've gotten my hands on a 2000 LP Gothic recently (rounded profile, ebony board) and am looking at a set of SD Sentient/Pegasus pickups. While I have an SG with an early SD Pearly Gates and an LPS (soapbars) that I love for blues/rock (and sad attempts at jazz), I'm getting into prog metal.

I've seen the clips of (and played) more traditional LPs with wiring harness upgrades but with PAF variants.

Question: Given the guitar and intentions, I'm wondering if its also worth doing a handwired harness (Emersons or the JonesyBlues kit with CTS 550K pots) at the same time given the nature of these pickups. I'm not thrilled with the 490/500T setup due to the muddiness of these units with high gain. I'm looking to get some clearer note separation from the Sentient/Pegasus setup, but am wondering if anyone out here has gotten further benefit from a different harness in conjunction with medium/high output pickups.

Opinions please.


(Mods: please move if I've posted in the wrong subforum)
 

thejaf

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Oct 27, 2006
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Changing the harness will affect the tone and feel of the instrument. How drastically or whether in a positive way can only be determined by you. In my experience most quality aftermarket replacements have been upgrades to the instrument. :salude
 

El Gringo

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Apr 8, 2015
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www.Throbak.com makers of the best pickups and harness . Right now I am waiting for one of my Les Paul's to come back from the tech which is getting Throbak SLE-101 Plus pickups and they are awesome !
 

WytLytnyn

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Feb 20, 2002
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Changing the harness will affect the tone and feel of the instrument. How drastically or whether in a positive way can only be determined by you. In my experience most quality aftermarket replacements have been upgrades to the instrument. :salude

That's what I keep hearing/seeing out here. I've decided to get CTS 550K pots, Mojotone caps, a new black selector switch and let a buddy who is an electrical engineer do it up. Pegasus/Sentient set ordered as well.

i replaced the bridges last week in both the Gothic "rat rod" (that all these parts are going into) and an old LPS with the Stewmac roller bridge. After getting the action setup up and a week or so of playing time, I'm pretty happy with the upgrade.

ironically, after a few years of only playing my Blues King acoustic randomly, I seem to be putting more parts into guitars and amps than I ever did before. I had to get new tube sockets and pots put into my '79 VibroChamp that was having volume swells and cutting out after being wailed on after a 5 year hiatus. I guess they're like BMW ///M motors: they work best when driven hard and frequently.
 

WytLytnyn

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Feb 20, 2002
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So the Pegasus/Sentient just got popped in this afternoon. I love the Sentient neck pickup so far. Very well balanced, articulate.

I'm still fiddling with the bridge pickup height but not hearing what I thought I would out of the Pegasus yet. We'll see if she stays or I switch to something else. I'll probably go for Mojotone caps next month.
 
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WytLytnyn

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Feb 20, 2002
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Update: So after adjusting pickup height, I find myself in a strange place with these new pickups. Strangely, I'm relay digging the clean tones more than the "kazoo" tone that I'm getting with overdrive or distortion. I've tried my beloved V-Twin (also interchangeably stacked a Blues Driver, Tumnus, Ego Compressor in front of it), EQ'd after it...to no happy end.

It's gotta be a combination of the fact the pots/caps need to be upgraded...and my old Fender amps aren't metal amps.

Looking at the Wampler Dracarys/Revv G3 before dipping into the Roth IRA contribution pot for a lunchbox metal head and cab.

In the meantime, I'll be back in blues mode as I pull my old SG with a lovely Pearly Gates in the bridge out plug her in.....
 

WytLytnyn

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Feb 20, 2002
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Update: Was seriously thinking about pulling the Pegasus/Sentient set after noticing increasing noise and lousy tone from some of my beloved dirt pedals. I also wasn't impressed with a new Dracarys pedal either.

All of a sudden I hear a bunch of microphonic noises in the background. I was thinking I probably did crappy job of soldering the pickups to the pots. For giggles (because I hadn't done this in the month that I've had the guitar with the pickups in), I plugged straight into the amp to start a systematic approach to the issue. Lo and behold, it was quiet, smooth and detailed as I went through various volume and tone settings. Actually, I was shocked how good they sounded....

So I went through my signal chain and isolated the issue to my beloved Blues Driver which has been a great friend for many years. Once it was out of the signal chain, most of the anticipated tone qualities from when I initially started this journey started to manifest. I also have a Jackson 50's harness with 525K pots/orange caps on the way due to assuming that I monkey'd up the install and soldering......guess we'll see what that does.

As a result, I'm happier with the "new" guitar and Dracarys pedal and their new tones. However, now I'm looking at BD-2 mods.......

The GAS never ends, does it?
 

WytLytnyn

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Feb 20, 2002
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So after a rough couple of months professionally that necessitated more attention on job hunting, customizing resumes and interviewing than working on incorporating the Mixolydian and Lydian modes into my bag of tricks, I've now picked up the guitar again.....

So I put in the Jackson Les Paul Wiring Harness by JEL 550k Centralab Spec VIP LONG Shaft Vitamin Q PIO Caps (Thanks Rand!), new switch and she's up and dancing again! Actully, Rand put in 585k pots into the harness after a long and wonderful phone conversation which brought me up to speed on many things technically about pickups and components of the wiring harness.

Both pickups now seem to have slightly more articulation with regards to pick attack and definition in how the strings ring out. Chords seem to bloom and have more "color" (if that makes sense) as they sustain and then decay.

Its really a different animal now with the new wiring harness. When rolling back the tone, it is nice and clear in terms of note definition all the way down to around ~3 on either pickup.

In terms of behavior with the volume pots, the volume level dramatically drops off between 1-3 and almost acts similar to a boost function between ~8-10 due to the dramatic increase from the ~3-7 range.

I'm really impressed with how the Sentient neck sounds clean with the new electronics. Very articulate across all variations of vol/tone now, much more so than the old Gibson factory "ashtray"/300k pots setup.

So I have another Jackson harness (from previous post) that I'm going to use in my 2003 LPS. It has anemic, one-dimensional P-100s that I'm probably going to swap for Lollar or Fralin P-90's.

In the meantime, the "rat rod" LP is fun and its helping me get back to a good place after a rough bunch of months....
 
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WytLytnyn

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Feb 20, 2002
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88
50’s wiring is worth it for any pickups.

High medium or low output.

I certainly agree. A couple of other guitar geeks have come by to check it out and now one of them is looking at doing this to a ES-335 with Seth Lovers.

Still trying to warm up to the Pegasus. All of my other bridge pickups that I've used for years are Alnico II, so being Alnico V, its definitely stronger in pull and if since the pots (reading >580) are a higher value, its just cutting harder than what I'm used to. I'm finding that the "sweet spot" to my ears seems to live between ~5-7 across the board on the volume/tone pots with the new pickups. Perhaps its all mental and through time, use and experimentation, I may find that the Pegasus "works" in the guitar......or we'll rip it out and swap in something else!
 
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