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Date: 2017-05-15
Last Updated: 2017-05-15
In 2012 I got a Les Paul Studio 50s Tribute, which was a very nice guitar to begin with. In 2016 I bought a Jimmy Page wiring kit on eBay. I altered the wiring from the schematic included with the kit to one with the 1950s wiring style (see below for more information). The first time I tried to wire it up I make a dog's dinner of it, and the guitar didn't work. I think the problem lay in the series-parallel push-pull circuit (which lies under the neck tone potentiometer.
Now it's 2017 and I have actually got the damn thing working! I totally omitted the series-parallel part that had caused me trouble some months earlier.
The 50s or Vintage style wiring allows you to maintain treble levels, when you roll back your volume.
See this Seymour Duncan article for more information. *Sadly some of the images on the Seymour Duncan article are missing, I will try to source an alternative.*
My schematic:
I am pleased with the improved versatility of the guitar, but I am still disappointed by the buzzing that comes from the guitar. My Squier Stratocaster in far quieter and at a fraction of the cost. Because of this I will be fully shielding the cavity of the Les Paul and most probably rewiring the guitar while I am at it. This is partially due to my own ignorance when I bought the wiring kit on eBay, I did not know that there were two distinct knurling patterns on such potentiometers, namely fine and coarse. Essentially the problem is that the original knobs were for fine knurling and the kit potentiometers are for coarse knurling. I am considering EMG active pickups as a replacement but €$£ !!