1950's Wiring

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Hello everyone, I was wondering if any members had experimented with 50's wiring on their Guild guitars? To be clear, I am referring to the method of wiring the capacitors as used by Gibson pre-1962. I believe this method of wiring is supposed to reduce the loss of treble that can occur by lowering volume.
 

DThomasC

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I wire all of my guitars that way. Based on the way the tone and volume controls interact on my NS Aristocrat, I believe it left the factory that way.

Anyway, to me it's more than just keeping highs when you turn down the volume. It can actually extend the highs while reducing any peaks, depending on how the two knobs are set. Without any damping most pickups have a bump in their frequency response in the upper mids, above which the response falls off rapidly. With the right settings you can damp that bump, but extend the response above where it fell off undamped. I wish I was standing in front of a chalk board so I could draw graphs. Anyway, the result is airy, sparkly without being too bright.

Different pickups respond differently, and it also depends on the pot values and the value of the tone cap.
 

CarvedTop

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I recently made the change to 50's wiring on my Eastman S guitar has Lollar P90's, which sound fantastic, but would loose the brightness I wanted at lower volume, especially the neck pup. The original caps were .047uf orange drops and the pots are 500k. I made the change, moving the cap from the input leg to the output leg on the volume pots, and to the outer lug on the tone pots and moving grounding on the center lug. I used a .015uf cap for the neck pup, and .033uf cap for the bridge pup.

The result was subtle, but noticeable. Especially with the neck pup, which to me was a bit boomy or muffled sounding. It now sounds a bit clearer and has a nicer distortion sound to it. I like the sound that the changes made, so if you are interested in trying this change, it's easy to do. If you don't like it, it's easy to switch back.
 

Muckman

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Also, the taper of the pot makes a difference. Not only the type of taper, different brands seem to have different tapers to them....if you work your volume and tone a lot to achieve different sounds, this will matter. CTS custom taper are very nice, Bourns are almost as nice IMO and much less expensive.......the Bourns have a very low friction touch, turn very easily. Some people like that, some don't.
 

Nuuska

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Also, the taper of the pot makes a difference. ...

Taper difference has only to do with at what number on your knob the effect is the same.

Like if we have any two different taper 500k pots and turn them down to 350k - then they are at 350k - right ?
The position of the pot and therefore the number on the dial may differ.
But technically and soundwise they are exactly the same.
 

GAD

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Taper difference has only to do with at what number on your knob the effect is the same.

Like if we have any two different taper 500k pots and turn them down to 350k - then they are at 350k - right ?
The position of the pot and therefore the number on the dial may differ.
But technically and soundwise they are exactly the same.
While that's technically true, the range of useful change can have a big impact of the "feel" of a tone knob. The impression of the tone knob doing nothing for 80% of its rotation can be solved by changing taper which then makes the tone knob much more intuitive and useful to most people.
 

Walter Broes

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Yes, I've even rewired my vintage Guilds to 50's style Gibson wiring because it's more practical than the odd decoupled scheme they came with stock.
 

Groundwire

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I changed my 1970 S-100 to 50’s wiring and I do like it. The effect is less pronounced because HB-1’s are already bright and airy, but I do like the way the tone control now cleans up the rounds without losing volume. It becomes more interactive with the volume control.
 

Guildedagain

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Either volume will turn everything off in the middle position, which can be a little strange, but this is the wiring a lot of us grew up on, simple and user friendly.
 
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