Les Paul Style 50's pots, CTS caps & wiring on SingleCut?

[YCK]

HI PRS lovers, i have thoughts of modifying the SC to the seeming popluar 50s wiring, CTS tone pots and capacitors. Any advice? Will it expand the tone of the SC further. In my earlier post, i have swapped the #7 with DragonsII. Lovely warmth and throaty sustain...

[YCK]

Oh it does? I noticed that the capacitors are not the CTS type. Seems to be the regular type found on modern Les Paul though. Am i right?

[Jim Collins]

When you refer to the "50's" wiring, are you referring to what is, essentially moving the input to the wiper, on each volume pot? (By the way, I don't know why this is referred to as 50's wiring. I can find no documentation that Gibson ever employed this scheme.)

I've tried this on my Singlecut, and as soon as I have time, I'm going to reverse it. It does have one advantage, and that is that you can be in the middle position, and turn one volume all the way down, and still have sound. It has one major disadvantage, though. The volume pot acts like a tone pot -- much moreso than it does with the original wiring. With the original wiring, rolling off the volume also rolls off a little bit of highs, but not much. (Some of us geezers who started playing guitar before anyone ever thought of putting in a treble bypass cap actually depend on this slight treble loss.)

With this alternate wiring, the loss of highs as you back off on the volume, is rather dramatic, and I find it unacceptable. Personally, I don't like treble bypass caps, so I'm not about to install them, just to attempt to compensate for what the volume control is now doing.

Right now, in order to get a sound I like from my Singlecut, I have to play with the guitar's volume controls nearly full on. Once I back off to a lower level, the sound turns to mud. In my humble opinion, the benefit of this wiring is more than offset by the drawback.

[YCK]

Hi Jim, it seems what you describe is exactly what is happening to my SC. I need to set the volume knob at 10 or else the outout is weak. Does this means i have the so called :"50's wiring"? The SC is not performing as good as i want it to be. What can i do to improve the SC? Cheers and thanks

[Erik]

If I'm not mistaken (and I could be) isn't the RS kit sort of the answer to the 50's wiring problem?

[richedie]

Hi guys,

I have a 2003 LP Standard and also installed the R/S kit which includes the 500k CTS pts and .022 Hovlands, plus special wiring. I wasn't aware that PRS uses CTS pots. Are they 500k??

I am hoping to buy a PRS soon and that is why I have the concern.

Anyway, my stock LP Standard sounded pretty darn good but I was never a roll back the tone/volume kind of guy as my amp is extremely versatile so I tend to use the channels and felxibilty of the amp. I noticed something just didn't sound right with the stock set up and the R/S kit cleared that up but also made the tone "BRIGHT"! Too bright in my opinion. I am trying to see what I can do to now tame the bright edge without losing some quality components. Do you guys have any thoughts? Should I install the stock Gibson pots and caps or maybe replace the tone and volume pots with 300k CTS?? I can't imagine the Hovland caps are the issue as they are out of the circuit when all knobs are on ten.

I sent an email to Gibson for advice.

It stinks because my tech feels my LP sounded way better stock.

So, i guess I shouldn't have to worry with the PRS?

Thanks!

R

[richedie]

Thanks John,

My LP had the stock BB Pros and my tech thought this guitar sounded best totally stock! Now I have been struggling. I am thinking this is already a bright LP as he compared to every LP in his little shop and mine was the brightest. Keep in mind this was with the R/S kit and aluminum tail piece. I was told by the manufacturer of the tail piece that the aluminum tail also adds a bright edge! Although the guy who sold me the R/S kit said the aluminum tail should warm things up! Weird.

After installing the CTS 500ks and Hovlands with the stock BB Pros...things were too bright!! I like the Rio grande pickups but would entertain going back to the stock pickups. My tech probably thinks I'm nuts for messing with a good thing.

Why are the 500k CTS pots better than the Gibson 300k pots? Maybe I could just replace the pots/caps and keep the Rios? Man, I am confused!

I can't believe it's the cable because only this guitar is this bright.
I believe I am using a CBI Gold Rush cable.

Is it possible this guitar works better with 250-300k pots? Maybe I'll try to get some good 300k CTS pots and .022 Orange drop caps. maybe I don't like the extreme clarity and bright edge.