50's vs modern wiring

[redshark]

I wouldn't play a guitar with modern wiring. I hate it!!

50's wiring for me.

[TalismanRich]

I wouldn't play a guitar with modern wiring. I hate it!!

50's wiring for me.

 

Heck, I'll play anything. Its not the wiring that makes it sound bad! In my case, its the guy with the pick.

[guycalleddave]

Has any one watched the Ann Arbor guitars video where he goes back and forth between wiring and caps? it's pretty interesting (to me at least).

 

I used to do 50's wiring all the time, but found that in a rock setting my tone was always too bright even when rolled down (in a band setting) on my les paul so I switched that guitar back. like anything, nothing is going to suit every situation. But straight guitar to amp and just me playing I prefer 50's wiring, there's just something about how it goes into the mix (again for me) though that I wasn't liking.

 

Anyways, I use the mojotone vintage speced tapered 450 CTS pots and like them, however after watching that Ann Arbor guitar video I kind of prefer a linear taper pot for Volume and an audio taper for Tone, usually I have to source the linear taper CTS off of ebay.

 

My 2 cents also is that caps don't necessarily do anything that special, I tend to use Russian PIO when I can find them cheap because they look cool, put the main point is that more expensive caps, like pots, have a consistent value. I also like them low, 0.015 ish for Humbuckers. If you're using a cap (and good pots) put you don't like the tone after 6, you probably will enjoy a smaller value cap, which will give you usable tone throughout the entire range of the pot. Organge Drops are great and cheap.

 

Also this is the first time I've ever heard about the type of wiring you used makes a difference. I tend to use the gibson style wiring just because it's like 2 wires in one, but I've also used Radioshack hook up wire and people still said my tone was great. So really who knows, do what makes you happy and what you can afford.

 

Also for those guys that don't use tone knobs, with a pot at 10, your guitar is going to sound the same no matter if it's modern or 50's wiring.

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/A2Guitars

 

 

Then there's also treble bleed circuts and independent vs dependent wiring that we could discuss if we really feel like getting nerdy.

[Steiner]

Ah! That's where I saw it. Excellent videos!

[RickFinsta]

I knew there was a bit of a cult following of the different wiring schemes, I guess I always thought of it as a 1911 versus Glock or Chevy versus Ford thing where it's more about identity and ego than application. Then again, everyone has preferences and not everyone approaches music or performance the same way. My experience is with jazz, blues, and rock and roll shows in public venues, both performing or mixing, and sometimes recording. That said...

 

Two things to consider when you fiddle with your tone knob:

 

1) You are probably not hearing what the cabinet mic hears

2) You are not controlling what FOH hears nor can you hear it

 

My opinion: tone controls on guitars are generally superfluous; a relic of the time before sound reinforcement was used in even the smallest venues.

 

ironmike, take your condescension elsewhere - I've got twenty years of sound engineering under my belt so don't you dare say that I don't know how to use my ears.

[Mbrown]

I upgraded my H 150 to 50s wiring, with 550k CTS pots. Tomorrow I will change the capacitators with Russian PIO, 0.015 for neck and 0,022 for the bridge, I had to wait for more than 1 month to get them. Even without the PIO caps, the difference between the stock wiring and the 50s is huge. More brilliant and less mudness when you roll off the volume.

In case someone is wondering, my H 150 was with HRW pickups (now changed to OX4 Paf replicas) and the pots were made by WD ( http://www.wdmusic.com/potentiometers.html) Funny thing, 2 of them are 250k and 2 of them are 500k. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to discover the producer of the capacitators. Any info about them?

[TalismanRich]

MBrown

 

If they are the stock yellow ones, they are probably ERO (Vishay) metalized polyester film MKT1813 caps. That's what was in my 157 and 535. The H140 actually had ceramic discs in it when I got it. Its an '87 . I can't remember what was in the Mille but probably the EROs.

 

I have some Mojo Dijons and Vitamin Ts but never put them in. The Vitamin T is oil filled polypropylene film / foil, the Dijon is just film / foil. The Dijons are about $1 per, the VitaminTs are about $4.

 

Both my 157 and 535 have a Kinman mod treble bleed circuit in them. Its a cap and resistor in series, vs the more common cap/ resistor in parallel. It seemed to give a more constant tone across the volume range.

 

[RSquared]

Thanks for starting this topic romk. Plenty of great info and new sites to research. Tone is subjective. Thats what makes it so much fun to chase. And once again I find myself faced with a topic I know very little about. This club is awesome and I am very glad to be in it! Thanks for posting all the info.

[tbonesullivan]

The pots I can see, but the caps? I'm pretty sure there was a relatively exhaustive scientific study showing that the idea that capacitor material really didn't matter.

 

http://zerocapcable.com/?page_id=224

[Steiner]

 

my pleasure. I highly recommend him. You figure he probably gets asked the same 5 or ten questions from every dude that buys from him. Despite this, he was quick patient and thorough in his replies to me, and once I put the money down, I had the harness in a week. Mine was a 50's harness for a 335/Semi. No reason to think RS or Mojotone aren't fine as well, but he's a little guy doing nothing but this and re-selling a few well regarded brands of p'ups. He earned whatever profit he made on the sale, I assure you.

 

 

I finally pulled the trigger on his harness. It's time to clean up my #1 guitar's sound...