Les Paul Pickups (Page 2 of 3)

What Epi Wiring? Is this a general enquiry?

Yes changing out Epi wiring is generally a recomended way to enhance the guitar - you can pick modern or 50s style wiring and it will still be better - 50s style is more useful if you like to roll the volume and tone back - you keep more of the clarity - the downside is that you almost always end up having to adjust the volume and tone to change either as the controls beccome interactive.

It's not a stupid question at all - inside your Epi is (apparently) lots of telephone style wiring and cheap pots - it is not expensive to swap this out for good pots, caps and proper braided cable.

I played a Epi explorer at the Gibson exhibit at the O2 and it was a great guitar a good one can be made into a great guitar if you sort out the weakest links - and if your set up is already sorted and the unplugged sound is strong then wiring is a good place to go next.

I've heard lots of people love the Alnico II's.  Its Slash's favorite pickups and the bases of his signature pickups by Seymour Duncan.  I had a Bonamassa Epi LP.  It had a huge neck bigger then any gibson I've ever owned and I've had about 10 of them.  It was even bigger then the Epiphone Dot I had which it too was bigger then a Gibson neck.  The tone was fantastic and even though it had Alpha brand pots it sounded great with those burst bucker II and III.  I saw the caps were upgraded to something better then epiphone usually uses and they might be better then most stock ceramic disk caps that Gibson and Fender uses.  I wanted to mod it because the pots are horrible.  Very Linear taper, not like CTS pots that have a nice smooth taper that works like your ears expect to hear it.  Well worth $5-$7 a pot.  Acme guitar works claim that there is no audible difference from their pots to orange drop caps to RS Guitar works Pots and Oil Caps.  Weather their is a difference or not I think its worth noting that RS Guitar Works has Brass shaft pots and tighter Tolerances then the Aluminum shafts in the CTS pots sold by Acme.

Bare Knuckle Pickups for pots and caps.

https://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/sh … 6ff07102f4

allparts for braded wire.

http://www.allparts.uk.com/online-shop/ … -4366.html

Or alternatively allparts do full kits.

http://www.allparts.uk.com/online-shop/ … 16583.html

I'm still going to say I would avoid Aluminum Shaft pots.  They are not as tough and over time will start to wear out and leave trash in your pots.  Brass is the way to go, especially if you do volume swells a lot.

In all seriousness, are these kits worth it?

http://www.croxguitars.com/vintagekits.htm

Wow look beat to hell

I use Epi's for playing out - No major heart wrenching moments if someone decides to do a runner with one.

Anyhow, Just to go a little left field on this one, I always get rid of the caps - my latest Epi (66 based SG) had Pots with a taper that I like so I left them in. The Caps are always Sprague Orange drops, a .22 for tone and a .001 for treble bleed.

As for pickups I don't get on with Epi's home brew - they're too generic sounding so I always replace them with a pickup that has a PAF ish output. My recommendation (and this is the left field bit) is www.irongear.co.uk. I'll say no more and leave you to make your own mind up. (All I will say is I have 3 Epi's with various Irongear p'ups and 1 Les Paul with a T bucker and 1 with Burstbucker V's in it. next time I need a pickup I'll be going back to Irongear).

Cheers