50's wiring, what does it do?

[darkr_reaver]

So I looked through the wiring diagram and I began to wonder, why exactly do the members here change the wiring of their guitars?

I'm still confused by the caps, pots, and wiring things... So this is why I ask.

What does 50's wiring do to guitars? What's the difference between 50's and 50's w/independent volume?

Would changing the pots and caps really change your sound that much, and how?

[FF_Pedals]

Modern wiring has the tone stack in parallel with the pickup, vintage wiring puts in parallel with the output of the volume pot. Independent wiring keeps a load between the output and ground at all times so shutting off one pickup doesn't shut off both when in the middle position.

The effect of the different wiring changes the way things taper as you turn the knobs. Changing the capacitors will change the frequency response of the low pass filter. It controls how bright your sound stays as you turn down the tone knob. Using a smaller cap than 0.022uF will keep more mid/treble in your frequency lower down on the tone pot dial.

You have to try these things yourself to find out what you like. We can't tell you what you want. Just try it out if you're curious.

I like 50s wiring, independent volumes, 500k CTS pots, paper in oil (PIO) caps: 0.0115uF neck, 0.018uF bridge.

[darkr_reaver]

So if I want it to keep more treble at when I turn down tone, I should go with either 50's wiring or use a smaller cap...

To keep the guitar from shutting off sound completely in middle when one pup has no vol., I'll use independent...

I see...

I want to get more mids/highs, so I should use 50's, right? I want the pups to shut off when one has no vol., so I'll use regular 50's... Then... What's the point of changing caps if you get the same effect with different wiring???

[FF_Pedals]

Use a smaller cap. The effect of the wiring changes how the tone and volume work together as you turn down the volume knob. The effect of the cap sets the limits on how dark it gets as you turn down the tone knob.

[dspelman]

Originally Posted by darkr_reaver

So if I want it to keep more treble at when I turn down tone, I should go with either 50's wiring or use a smaller cap...

To keep the guitar from shutting off sound completely in middle when one pup has no vol., I'll use independent...

I see...

I want to get more mids/highs, so I should use 50's, right? I want the pups to shut off when one has no vol., so I'll use regular 50's... Then... What's the point of changing caps if you get the same effect with different wiring???

Honestly there's not a lot of difference -- it's a small thing.
I've got a couple of guitars with four-knob setups that aren't anything like that. For example, you can put in an active preamp (you power it with a 9V battery) and change your knob functions to Master Volume, Master Bass, Master Treble and Blend. Since the controls are active, you can actually boost and cut your bass and treble rather than simply rolling them off. With this particular system, the "5" position on the bass and treble knobs is about where you'd be with both tone controls at "10" on a standard LP.

This particular active preamp comes with three miniswitches (optional), two of which will switch your humbuckers to single coil mode, one of which throws the two pickups ("both" selected) out of phase. The blend knob makes the whole "screwing with the two volume controls when "both" is selected" process a lot easier, and you get some very interesting tones indeed when you have the out of phase switch thrown.

[xsouldriverx]

the caps change the tone of things slightly but if you listen you can still hear it. this is a review i did with changing caps on my bass:

by the way. out of a sprague vit q, rs jensen, and rs guitar cap (all .015 values) ive decided the rs guitar cap is the best for this application. the other two are nice but they smooth it out a bit too much for the sound im looking for. the jensen took last place it just kept things a tiny too dark even with tone at 10, and it seemed to let the low e bass be a bit too loose and boomy (nice but not what im looking for right now). the sprague was a close second but i figured i would save it for a guitar worthy of pio and i know they already work great for darker sounding LPs, and the jensen also seemed to let my bass sustain a noticeable bit longer

[flatrockmobile]

I changed my SG to 50's wiring and tried to bond with it for about a week and changed it back. Yes the highs were brighter when I rolled off on the volume, but even at full volume, it just lacked BALLS! It's not for everyone.
Then, I wired the tone control like this http://www.guitarelectronics.com/pro...ume1_Tone.html
instead of the factory wiring http://www.gibson.com/Files/schematics/sgxwiring.gif and the highs do NOT vanish when rolling off the volume.

[darkr_reaver]

So is this something I couild easily do myself? Or is there a risk factor involved because I have no experience with soldering???

[FF_Pedals]

Practice on something else first. You can do it with practice. Worst you could do is burn the finish on the back of the guitar (or front if you're real bad ).

[chabock]

I did it on my Epiphone and I think it sounds very good. It sounds less dark than standard wiring, if that makes sense.

[darkr_reaver]

Originally Posted by FF_Pedals

Practice on something else first. You can do it with practice. Worst you could do is burn the finish on the back of the guitar (or front if you're real bad ).

Don't go jinxing it now... Lol... I looked up some videos here and it doesn't look like a dreadfully hard thing to pull off. I just realized that I'd have to make another investment if I really wanted it all to come out perfect each time. It seems like such a useful skill though... I mean, it sure beats having to pay $50 for pickup installation!