wiring in Bonamassa Les Paul?

From the description I would guess that it's historic wiring. Joe wanted to copy that gold top that showed up in his father's shop years ago,

http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electri … tures.aspx

I don't no how the 50's Les Paul is wired because I don't own one.

This was posted last year by carydad.

2008-08-08 06:42:16

I was shocked as well. Made my choice easy though. Not that the 9 and change seemed heavy, but I could tell before he brought out the fish scale and I am not usually that great at that sort of thing.

Only suprise so far is that it wasnt set up for 50s wiring. If Joe plays R9s most of the time, why not make the sig the same wiring? Wierd. Not a fan of burstbuckers either, though they did a decent job of aging them. I dropped in a set of Mules and changed the wiring to 50s, and changed the bumbleplastic to some repro black beauty caps. Not that it needed the new caps, but I had them sitting from another project and wanted to hear them. Band practice tomorrow night, that should be fun.

Take care,
Bill

here is some wiring information.

http://www.singlecoil.com/docs/paula.pdf

Here are some photo's of the wiring in #51

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29278172@N02/?saved=1

It isn't modern wiring.  The caps are wired to the middle lug of the volume control in the pic a la 50s.

Well I wish I took a picture back when I got it, though now that I think of it, there are plenty out there. My understanding of 50s/modern is more centered on the placement of the cap on the volume control. Modern-same lug as the pup. 50's-middle, same lug as the selector switch. I have a cavity shot of a 56 LP, and that is how it is run-middle lug.

The other side of the cap-same 56 LP, goes to the end lug, and they ground the middle. Some shops run a wire between the volume and the tone pot and put the cap between the middle lug and ground. Seems like extra parts to me.

Found it! Okay, so I have a pick of the untouched JBLP, and the cap goes to lug 1, modern style, and the other side goes to the middle of the tone pot, they ground lug 1, or 3, I guess it depends what side you start on. Anyway, not sure sonically what that does. Still going CAP-RESISTOR-GND, between the same 2 lugs.

If you have it on the pup connection, lots of folks drop in a treble bleed circuit(memphis wiring in gibson speak-on the 339). That just a cap and res in parallel between to two lugs so as you lower volume, you don't muddy up.

Then there is the discussion of independent volume controls, though most purists would probably say that part of the charm of the LP controls is the interaction in the middle position and the wide variety of tones you can get. If you want to get really wild...check out the buckethead LP...

When my drummer starts beating on the highhat, I guess it really doesnt matter all that much, it still hurts my head.

This is what http://www.acmeguitarworks.com/Les_Paul … 30C185.cfm said about their prewired kits.

"Modern Wiring
Pro - Because the tone controls receive their signal from the input of the volume pot, they are effectively connected directly to the pickup. Consequently, the volume pots' positions have no effect on the operation of the tone controls, which operate completely independently of the volume controls.
Con - The tone changes as you roll down the volume pot - there is some treble roll-off in addition to the volume roll-off. This doesn't bother some people at all, while it drives others crazy. In any case it can be compensated for by installing a volume kit, which is a resistor and capacitor wired in parallel across the volume pot's input and output lugs. These are pretty effective, but there is some modest tonal compromise associated with them, they're not a perfect fix. Still, the majority of people who try them find them to be an improvement.

Vintage Wiring (above)
Pro - When you roll off the volume control, you don't have a corresponding treble roll-off, the tone stays consistent.
Con - The tone and volume controls are interactive, because the tone controls receive their signal from the output of the volume pots (rather than the inputs). Because the position of the volume pot affects the tone control, the tone control's effect is inconsistent. As an example, if you like the tone control set at 5 with the volume all the way up, then this may change as soon as you roll the volume pot down some.

Bottom line, there are compromises with either wiring style. You'll have to choose which compromises you're more willing to live with. "

I wired my Les paul classic myself vintage wiring.  I like it but I found that it hums more then it used to, but that might be due to the operator that soldered it up more then the wiring itself.