PCB madness

[VonPoncho]

Any info or videos around on putting non Quick Connect pick ups in these new PCB board Pauls. I'd really like to put a set of PGates in mine and the only thing I'm thinking is to gut the whole damn thing.

 

[rem22]

Why use the madness word ? Guys here are so negative....of course naysayers (and wiring kit vendors) will chile in and say rip it off, because they have no idea what a PCB is and why it does not sound worse than a regular wiring,

i've put a set of Slash pups in my 2016 Studio, directly soldered the ground cable on the back of the pots' and the hot wire to the "leg" of the pots, like I would have done on a regular wiring.

Worked like a charm, took 5 minutes, and it sounds great, no hiss, nothing. Just like my other guitars who have cts pots and regular wiring.

 

[VonPoncho]

I use the word madness because it limits easy rewiring of different set ups. Not everyone is comfortable working on a PCB. To offer it as something special when it allows for the choice of what? 5 very different pick ups and closes the door on hundreds of aftermarket choices is just dumb. It takes away the fun of going in and rewiring the pots differently and trying new things easily. Gibson can sell it anyway the want but it's cheap cost cutting garbage plain and simple. I rewire pedals all day long and have no concerns working on PCB in my $100 gadgets. When I'm paying $2500 and more for a guitar however I expect it to have point to point wiring especially when the components and time involved are a fraction of it's production cost. It's limiting plain and simple. Quick Connect? Sure...cool idea but give us wires to plug into not a board so at least aftermarkets can still be used easily and rewiring of layout is also an option. My 2 cents.

 

[Breezin]

If you just want to swap pickups you can get this off ebay.
just search Gibson pcb. The same guy has a 2 wire version also.


"Description:
2 (1 pair) quick-connect adapters that you would use to solder to your conventional Gibson, Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio, etc, 4-conductor (5-wire) humbucker leads so that you may plug your conventional humbuckers into a Gibson PCB harness with the small white 5-pin quick connect receptacles (see pics)."

 

[Mr. Satchmo]

Step one:

Remove PCB

Step two

Put PCB back in

Step Three
Ratzass

 

[Mr. Satchmo]

Just kidding man. Look around for quick connect wires that you can put on your pickups. Or just use the components from the board and make a harness yourself. It's easy


Or buy 4 CTS 550K pots with Russian PIO and you have a 50s wiring harness

 

[Mr. Satchmo]

I buy my harnesses pre made from CreamTone because I trust his work a lot.

But, the alternative is to do the CTS 550K like I said earlier, and then get Luxe bees, they are made exactly like the vintage bees

 

[shupe13]

I'm not sure I would have paid $2500 for a guitar that knowingly came with poor electronics. If I did $2500 for a guitar with the intention of modding the electronics, an extra $100 for a harness would be expected. Lastly if I were an electronics tinkerer, I'd look at the PCB as a challenge, master it and add one more trick to my skill set.

That's like being disappointed in a 7 string because it has that extra string.

 

[rem22]

I use the word madness because it limits easy rewiring of different set ups. Not everyone is comfortable working on a PCB. To offer it as something special when it allows for the choice of what? 5 very different pick ups and closes the door on hundreds of aftermarket choices is just dumb.

Well, honestly I can totally understand you want to spend $$ in a custom harness, but I can't understand your statement. It's 100% wrong (close the door to other pups).

The PCB allows extremly easy replacement of the pickups from Gibson for most people (cause most people aren't on on MLP and don't buy custom wiring kits) AND it does not prevent people from either removing it or swapping pups.

But given your reaction, I feel like you should remove it and continue to say it's madness and make impossible the pups swapping. The downside is, when you say that, you make people like me and a lot other think you"re right and it's impossible.

And when you say working with PCB....again you clearly say something not true. I've soldered the back of the pots, and the hot lead to the pot (leg). I don't see at all where I've messed with PCB. I did not touch at all the PCB, it was just like a regular wiring.

Another possibility, very easy, is to cut off the wires of the stock pups close to the Gibson Quick connect plug, leave like 1 inch, and then solder your pups wires directly to the wires of the quick connect plug. Done.

So, again, while it's perfectly understandable one wants to have a fancy wiring kit, it's perfectly wrong to state the PCB makes it impossible to swap pups. It does not change a thing, all you need to know is how to solder. Period.

 

[Brutalisateur]

If you just want to swap pickups you can get this off ebay.
just search Gibson pcb. The same guy has a 2 wire version also.


"Description:
2 (1 pair) quick-connect adapters that you would use to solder to your conventional Gibson, Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio, etc, 4-conductor (5-wire) humbucker leads so that you may plug your conventional humbuckers into a Gibson PCB harness with the small white 5-pin quick connect receptacles (see pics)."

I was about to suggest that he cut the wires to the pickups and solder the new pickups wires to them. But getting a plug like that is less destructive

 

[rem22]

I was about to suggest that he cut the wires to the pickups and solder the new pickups wires to them. But getting a plug like that is less destructive

Yes, there are a lot of possiblities.

And this allows the regular buyers to swap pups very easily, so, to me, the PCB is a nice evolution. It's just that evolution for guitar nerds is often considered as blaphemy.

BTW I would have appreciated to find the Gibson quick connect plug with wires cut, so we could solder other pups to these plugs. ( because it's very difficult to set the wires in the molex adapter if you don't have the specific tool).
With this, I would not have soldered my Slash pups directly to the pot, so I can extremly easily swap pups during a string change, if I want to try back the stock pups (or pups between several LP).

Imagine you have a few Gibbies and a few pups with quick connect, it's very easy to do A/B tests or to change pups, to try different flavours.

 

[RustyNuts]

Yes, there are a lot of possiblities.

And this allows the regular buyers to swap pups very easily, so, to me, the PCB is a nice evolution. It's just that evolution for guitar nerds is often considered as blaphemy.

BTW I would have appreciated to find the Gibson quick connect plug with wires cut, so we could solder other pups to these plugs. ( because it's very difficult to set the wires in the molex adapter if you don't have the specific tool).
With this, I would not have soldered my Slash pups directly to the pot, so I can extremly easily swap pups during a string change, if I want to try back the stock pups (or pups between several LP).

Imagine you have a few Gibbies and a few pups with quick connect, it's very easy to do A/B tests or to change pups, to try different flavours.

This, to me, is the beauty of the quick connect. I was able to A/B different pickups in my Standard in less than five minutes.

 

[chipbutty24]

I wanted to do 50s wiring and potentially swap pickups. I gutted and rewired. Didn't see the need to mess with the PCB but I certainly wouldn't tear it out just out of dislike for it.

The capacitor marketing however I would call madness!

 

[TheX]

I have guitars with the PCB setup. I don't see any issues with it at all.

 

[Starman]

I kind of scratch my head when people get on the "internet" forum and crucify a PCB equipped device.... when the have accessed the internet via a PCB equipped computer or phone through a PCB equipped router and PCB equipped modem, server, cellular tower.... etc etc. etc. millions of PCB, riibbon cables, moldex connectors, diodes, circuits.... All carrying data creating high definition audio, text and video. ������

Just a poke in the eye. But honestly if you want implied mojo rip it all out and put in old school stuff or just buy mini moldex connectors from Mauser and adapt the new pickups to the PCB it's not that hard.

 

[shupe13]

Some fear technology period.

I don't understand bashing tools like the G-Force. Though I couldn't afford it at the time, the PCB equipped LP I played was bad ass. The boost was awesome even though it looked funny due to the 3 knob configuration. I could've gotten used to it!

 

[Brutalisateur]

One thing I would LOVE to have is the advanced board some 2016 models have where you can set all kinds of coilsplit, paralell/serial, phase, filter etc. just by fiddling with the minitoggle.

Shame they only put that one the models with the 2015 spec super-wide neck thats waaaay to big for my hands.

 

[Breezin]

One thing I would LOVE to have is the advanced board some 2016 models have where you can set all kinds of coilsplit, paralell/serial, phase, filter etc. just by fiddling with the minitoggle.

Shame they only put that one the models with the 2015 spec super-wide neck thats waaaay to big for my hands.

I would also like to get my hands on one of those new pcb boards.
Leave it to Gibson to put something we want in something we don't want.
Such a great business model.

 

[shupe13]

One thing I would LOVE to have is the advanced board some 2016 models have where you can set all kinds of coilsplit, paralell/serial, phase, filter etc. just by fiddling with the minitoggle.

Shame they only put that one the models with the 2015 spec super-wide neck thats waaaay to big for my hands.

I hope to get one in the near future. I love the wide neck!

 

[ajay]

Billy Gibbons was talking to a sound guy about all of the vintage wiring, pots, capacitors, resistors, diodes, speakers, the whole shebang. Then the guy pointed to the wireless unit plugged into his guitar.
"and then You run all of the vintage good stuff through a computer transmitter."

Billy uses guitar cables every time that he performs now. You're only as strong as the weakest link. Billy Gibbons is a vintage type wiring guy. I trust Billy. My only PCB is on my LPJ, because it's my practice guitar. I'm siding with Billy, because, well. He's Billy. That's enough for me.