Les Paul wiring replacement help needed

Deijavoo

I have an issue with my treble volume on my 57 LPC when it's all the way down some small sound still comes through. 

Any recommendations on replacing the lot, where to get the parts from, how to do it etc...? I keep hearing about 50s wiring being the way forward.

Here is current form:

Total noob at this sort of stuff needing help please!

ICBM

It's probably a bad connection at the ground end of the pot track. This can happen when the terminal gets bent back to solder to the pot casing - the terminal can lift off the track board slightly. (Sometimes bad enough that it doesn't make contact at all and the volume only goes from full down to about half.)

Take the pot out far enough that you can get at the terminals - you shouldn't need to desolder it - and squeeze the ground terminal firmly onto the track board with some fine-nose pliers.

If that doesn't fix it, you probably need to replace the pot. Check all the ground connections first though.

Deijavoo

Cheers mate. So what is the script with this 50s wiring? A guy I know replaced all his on his 335 and despite being a pain in the arse he reckons it's made an excellent difference, somewhat brightens the tone apparently.

Adam_MD

Deijavoo;857632" said:

Cheers mate. So what is the script with this 50s wiring? A guy I know replaced all his on his 335 and despite being a pain in the arse he reckons it's made an excellent difference, somewhat brightens the tone apparently.

It reduces the treble loss when you turn the volume down and the volume/tone controls are much more interactive when wired this way. I prefer it though it depends if you use volume/tone controls, if they stay on 10 most of the time you'll get no benefit to 50s wiring.

Have a look at this

http://singlecoil.com/docs/paula.pdf

This video hopefully it's the right one is pretty good at showing the difference.

ICBM

Exactly that. Effectively, it turns the tone controls up "above 10" as you turn the volume down, so it offsets the normal treble loss to an extent. The disadvantage is that it makes the controls more interactive - there is a point where if the tone control is down below a certain value (normally around 3, but depends on the exact pot taper and the capacitance of the cable) the treble loss increases.

Good for people who like interactive controls or if you never turn the tone down but do use the volume, but makes no difference if you leave the volume on 10 all the time, even if you use the tone.

Deijavoo

Hhmmm...I do use the volume and tone controls a bit, maybe only three or four times in a set though. I use them way more at home but only use Bias and Amplitude there so maybe no massive benefit there.