Purpendicular
New member
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2020
- Messages
- 5
Hi,
hello to everyone in this forum. This is my first post. I read a lot about the 50´s wiring, but still have a question. I have a 1974 Les Paul Custom in white (the Rhandy Roads les paul). Unfortunately the first owner changed the pots to 1975 300k pots with modern wiring (I know the original wiring was with 300k and modern, too). I measured the pots (Volume both 350k and tone 250k). I think it has a Mallory 150k 0,22 condensator. The sound was good, but the volume pots only worked at 2-3, so no dynamic playing was possible. Between 4-10 nearly nothing happens. Therefore I decided to test 50´s wiring with 500k and hoped to improve the sound.
I tried the 50´s wiring and bought an prewired kit from crazyparts with cts tvt pots (500k) and luxe bumblebees. The new pots are all audio taper. It was a matched set with all 560k.
Here is what´s happened:
1) The sound didn´t really change a lot. With 300k the sound was more punchy in the mids, when playing with gain / Hi-Gain.
2) When playing clean the sound with 500k is a little, little brighter, maybe more open. (It´s not that much as I expected)
3) The greatest improvement ist the volume pot. Now it´s possible to adjust the gain with the volume pot, which is great. But I don´t know why? Is it the wiring or the audio taper pot (I dont know if the original pots were linear).
I´m a little disapointed about the result and thought there will be a greater difference. But now I´m having trouble with my neck pickup. It sounds like a wah that isn´t deactivated... A very nasal tone (even when tone on full). I really don´t like it.
What do you think? Is it because of the 500k pot or could it be the condensator? Should I try an other condensator.
My conclusion (up to now). The 500k pots are not relevant when playing with a lot of gain.
Strange, because a lot of higain players recomend the 500k with 50´s wiring (e.g slash, Oliver Hartmann)
Any suggestions are welcome.
best regards
Michael
Here are some photos
original wiring:
50´s wiring
hello to everyone in this forum. This is my first post. I read a lot about the 50´s wiring, but still have a question. I have a 1974 Les Paul Custom in white (the Rhandy Roads les paul). Unfortunately the first owner changed the pots to 1975 300k pots with modern wiring (I know the original wiring was with 300k and modern, too). I measured the pots (Volume both 350k and tone 250k). I think it has a Mallory 150k 0,22 condensator. The sound was good, but the volume pots only worked at 2-3, so no dynamic playing was possible. Between 4-10 nearly nothing happens. Therefore I decided to test 50´s wiring with 500k and hoped to improve the sound.
I tried the 50´s wiring and bought an prewired kit from crazyparts with cts tvt pots (500k) and luxe bumblebees. The new pots are all audio taper. It was a matched set with all 560k.
Here is what´s happened:
1) The sound didn´t really change a lot. With 300k the sound was more punchy in the mids, when playing with gain / Hi-Gain.
2) When playing clean the sound with 500k is a little, little brighter, maybe more open. (It´s not that much as I expected)
3) The greatest improvement ist the volume pot. Now it´s possible to adjust the gain with the volume pot, which is great. But I don´t know why? Is it the wiring or the audio taper pot (I dont know if the original pots were linear).
I´m a little disapointed about the result and thought there will be a greater difference. But now I´m having trouble with my neck pickup. It sounds like a wah that isn´t deactivated... A very nasal tone (even when tone on full). I really don´t like it.
What do you think? Is it because of the 500k pot or could it be the condensator? Should I try an other condensator.
My conclusion (up to now). The 500k pots are not relevant when playing with a lot of gain.
Strange, because a lot of higain players recomend the 500k with 50´s wiring (e.g slash, Oliver Hartmann)
Any suggestions are welcome.
best regards
Michael
Here are some photos
original wiring:
50´s wiring
Last edited: