Fitting Wilkinson Humbuckers in my Epiphone LP. Need help please (SORTED)

kPATm

Very Very strange. All of a sudden the neck pickup started to work. I had a look inside and the cap has come off. The Bridge and Neck now work BUT when the toggle is in the center position its very low volume with no tone. Surely the caps couldnt cause all this hassle?

kPATm

It actually sound pretty good. The sound is a bit intermittent from both pick ups. I removed both Caps but Im also waiting on a set of Orange Drops so I will stick them in when they arrive. When they do work there is no buzzing or hum surprisingly?

ICBM

kPATm said:

Very Very strange. All of a sudden the neck pickup started to work. I had a look inside and the cap has come off. The Bridge and Neck now work BUT when the toggle is in the center position its very low volume with no tone. Surely the caps couldnt cause all this hassle?

If one is shorted it could, but only if the tone control was also turned down - or also shorted. Both are rare but not unknown, although to have both in the same guitar would be quite unlucky…!

Very low volume and poor tone in the middle position probably means the pickups are out of phase. Try swapping the yellow and black wires on one of them. (Some people like the out of phase sound - that's the 'Peter Green tone'.)

kPATm

Received my kit this morning and left it in work DOH! Definitely wont have time to install it till the end of next week though. Will be posting again for more help when the time comes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPvpLuSaOOQ

 For wiring the toggle switch. The guy uses a piece of wire to wrap around the 3 braided wires. Can I use copper wire for this?

ICBM

kPATm said:

The guy uses a piece of wire to wrap around the 3 braided wires. Can I use copper wire for this?

Yes. Just make sure nothing shorts against any of the signal terminals or the contact leaves, or you'll be back here again at the double .

kPATm

Noted :-)

kPATm

Well the kit arrived. I connected up the toggle and wired the resistors to the pots outside the guitar. There is NOW WAY these pots are fitting in my guitar, they are twice the size. The shafts are the same size so they do fit in the original hole but that actual pot will not fit at all :-(

Also the 4 pots have no markings so I cant tell which is volume and which is tone?

ICBM

kPATm said:

Well the kit arrived. I connected up the toggle and wired the resistors to the pots outside the guitar. There is NOW WAY these pots are fitting in my guitar, they are twice the size. The shafts are the same size so they do fit in the original hole but that actual pot will not fit at all :-(

That's rather annoying…

Is there any way you can enlarge the holes slightly in one direction to move the pot position? It should still be covered by the washer, unless it's more than a couple of mm. You will need a round file to do this.

kPATm said:

Also the 4 pots have no markings so I cant tell which is volume and which is tone?

In that pic, the one on the left is the volume, because of how the tone cap is connected. If they're not pre-wired, it doesn't make any difference since they should all be 500K Log.

kPATm

They are not pre-wired. I dont really want to enlarge the holes just yet. I have put the original pots back in and Im going to connect it all up using the new switch and the braided cable. I need to have a break for a few hours or Im going to lose the plot :-(

I had a look at the original pots and I noticed that a tiny bit of solder was connecting 2 of the legs on the bridge volume pot so Im hoping thats why I was having problems???

ICBM

kPATm said:

I had a look at the original pots and I noticed that a tiny bit of solder was connecting 2 of the legs on the bridge volume pot so Im hoping thats why I was having problems???

It definitely won't have helped .

It's very easy to overlook things like this, especially when something has been reworked so many times.

kPATm

If it works great BUT it also means Iv forked out £50 for a kit I dont really need :-(

kPATm

So I have this now. The pots are not grounded yet. The Neck pick up works but the tone pot has no effect. The bridge pickup doesnt work at all. Would the lack of grounding cause this?

kPATm

Oooo. Im getting there. When grounding the bridge toggle wire I must have put too much heat on it and melted through to the inner wire. I removed it again and pushed the braiding back a bit and its sorted now :-)

Only the both tones dont seem to have any effect but I think this is because I havnt grounded the volume pots to the corresponding tone pots?

ICBM

kPATm said:

Oooo. Im getting there. When grounding the bridge toggle wire I must have put too much heat on it and melted through to the inner wire. I removed it again and pushed the braiding back a bit and its sorted now :-)

Only the both tones dont seem to have any effect but I think this is because I havnt grounded the volume pots to the corresponding tone pots?

Yes, you need to complete the grounds for the tone pots to work - also the tailpiece ground wire is not grounded yet either since it goes to one of the tone pots, so the guitar will be noisy.

Disappointing that the cable is plastic-insulated and not the proper cloth stuff, which is impossible to overheat.

I'm surprised you can't get the new pots in too, apart from the bridge volume. Are you sure there isn't enough clearance if you just enlarge the holes very slightly? I admit that one does look like you might need to remove some wood from the cavity wall...

kPATm

I was a bit dissapointed too the lack of cloth on the braided wire. I actually already did removed some wood from the cavity when I 1st tried this and by the look of it a LOT of wood would need to come out and Im not willing to do that TBH. For £50 I think its a bit of a waist of money IMO :-(

ICBM

kPATm said:

I was a bit dissapointed too the lack of cloth on the braided wire. I actually already did removed some wood from the cavity when I 1st tried this and by the look of it a LOT of wood would need to come out and Im not willing to do that TBH. For £50 I think its a bit of a waist of money IMO :-(

Not really, it's the guitar that's the problem. The kit will fit a proper Les Paul.

The cable is a big disappointment for that sort of money though - they can't be saving very much by using the inferior stuff. The other parts retail for that sort of money anyway so it looks like a reasonable deal, but why include something that you have to then pay more to replace if you want to do the best job?

If I'd known that I might not have recommended the kit . I get the components separately, including cloth wire, from Allparts usually, so it didn't occur to me that they would use something else… sorry!

kPATm

Not your fault mate. I couldnt have got this far without your help. Oh I dont suppose I could interest you in a set of pots and a couple of caps by any chance? ;-)

ICBM

kPATm said:

Not your fault mate. I couldnt have got this far without your help. Oh I dont suppose I could interest you in a set of pots and a couple of caps by any chance? ;-)

Thanks, but I have any number already… I get them through the shop I work for, we buy in bulk. Keep them, they will be useful one day.

For what it's worth I just had a similar sort of issue, I was doing up an old Rickenbacker bass copy for a friend and needed to replace a dead pickup, so I had the apparently bright idea of fitting a spare genuine Rick one another friend was selling… of course it didn't quite fit, and ended up taking so much effort to make it that I'd have been better just sending the dead one off for a rewind. Grrr.

kPATm

And here she is all finished, apart from a pick guard Im waiting on :-)

I really appreciate all the help on this from everybody, and a Special thanks to ICBM. Thanks mate

ICBM

Looks great! Especially liking the 80s-style cream knobs .

I just hate to give up on stuff like this, I am a bit OCD.

OK, a lot…