Vintage dirty fingers pups split coil or coil tap

[GK-55]

Hi,

First timer...I own an oddball Les Paul, a 1979 Gibson GK-55. It is fully stock with dirty fingers in it. I am thinking of throwing in some bare knuckle black dogs in it, but will keep the stock pups. It has a variable coil tap, which I find really nice. After researching online, including the threads in this forum, I came to the conclusion that it is indeed a coil tap and not a coil split, and that I would have to bypass the coil tap pot when installing. However..... Bare Knuckle looked at my pickup pics and said it was a coil split and a four conductor pup would work. They said Gibson never produced a true coil tap.
I am confused. I have never changed pots or pups before, but the wiring in mine looks more complex than other pics as well. I would also like to determine the pot values, but don't have a capability at home. Any expertise on Gibson pots installed with Dirty Fingers in 79?

I'm posting pics. Help.... and thanks,

Mike

 

[GK-55]

Anyone???

 

[Electric Funeral]

I just picked up one of these today...I'm trying to wiring in 2 volumes, 1 tone, and keep the coil tap. Not sure what the pots are - most likely 300k's though.

 

[GK-55]

A GK-55? If so does it have the Dirty Fingers and how do you like them. I've heard a lot of people say they are muddy, but I am finding them very 'alive' thus far.

 

[Electric Funeral]

It has the original double cream T-top Dirty Fingers and I must say I really love them. It took a while to get them adjusted just right, but now they absolutely sing. I've tried my fair handful of DF's and these are by far the sweetest.

I have it wired with 2 volumes, a 50's tone control with an Orange drop cap for the neck pickup only, and both pickups going to the coil tap. Having the bridge pickup free of a tone control brightened it up a little more, but not too much. The neck pickup sounds great with the tone control. Also, I'm really starting to dig the coil tap - it doesn't sound exactly like a single coil but it also doesn't hum.

 

[Electric Funeral]

Wiring it up should be fairly easy - I found a diagram which was really hard to read but it basically broke down to this re the coil tap/pickup swap you want to do:

Each tone control has both the pickup lead and the wire to the selector switch soldered to one lug. On the 2-tiered coil-tap pot, the bridge pickup is wired to the top middle lug and the neck pickup to the bottom middle lug. These would be the only 4 solder points to change besides grounding the pickups to the casing of a pot. Solder the hot wire of your new pickups to their corresponding tone controls and whichever wire or combination of wires that would normally go to the coil tap switch to the corresponding lug of the two tiered pot. You should be good to go.

 

[GK-55]

I think I'm going to play the dirty fingers a while before deciding to switch up with the Bare Knuckles. I think I was initially put off by all the negative talk about them. I adjusted the poles, which were very sensitive to height, and that helped a lot. As well, I'll throw in some 500 or 550 pots at some point too. I'd love to keep it as stock as possible. Love the feel of the neck too.

So the coil tap is actually a coil split? that was my initial query actually. I read a few threads making me think it was a true coil tap, but now I gather it just splits.to single coil

 

[GK-55]

Hey I see we are neighbors too. I live in Vancouver.

 

[Electric Funeral]

Right on, I was born in Vancouver.

I have no intention of changing these pickups out. In fact, I'm tempted to find some more to put in my other guitars if I can. I just sold a set of 1984 Dirty Fingers (no T-Top bobbins) and they sounded totally different than these. As with all older Gibson humbuckers they all sound a bit different, I'm just happy I stumbled upon a great set.

As far as I can ascertain, the pickups have a single conductor lead for each coil. One lead is wired up normally and the other goes to the 2 tiered pot. Think of that control as a volume knob for just that one coil.

 

[GK-55]

Ok, thanks. There is just so much confision out there regarding the terms coil tappingand coil splitting. They are two totally diferent things. I'm happy if it is splitting the single coils and not tapping the coils.

Were those 84 dirty fingers Shaw era pickups then? They are quite sought after. I'm wondering what the difference is between Shaw Dirty Fingers and the earlier ones. The more I play this guitar the more I am amazed at how clean sounding the breakup is for overwound pickups. Thick, creamy, and very musical. I love the sound of my strat, but it is sounding thin to me now..... That is ok as I'm really a Les Paul guy at heart.

I think this guitar will stay stock, except for the pots at some point, especially since only 1000 or so were produced.

 

[GK-55]

BTW mine are cream T Top bobbins as well.

 

[caesparza]

Hi.

How would you wire this pickups with a Jimmy Page Wiring Scheme?

Is there an equivalence between the two wires going out of this vintage DF and the 4 cable conductors that are used in the modern versions of them?

Thanks for your help.
CE

 

[dspelman]

I'm under the impression that stock pickups on a GK (Gibson-Kalamazoo) 55 were supposed to have been T-Tops, but that Dirty Fingers became the de facto stock pickups because so many folks were after hot pickups at the time. Gibson experimented with these a bit -- there was even an "Active Artist" version (only a few of these around) that had a Moog Electronics preamp setup inside (and a BIG old coverplate on the back).

I think the GK55 (I've only seen a couple) has a rotary coil tap (split if you prefer) switch that does various tone variations. A LOT of original GK55s have been modified, because they were cheap used and because the folks that bought them simply wanted a Gibson headstock that they could use as a mod platform. If I'm not mistaken, all began as tobacco sunburst, though I've seen black ones and even "natural" ones that are probably refinishes.

It's rare (about 1000 of them produced) because it was one of several woe-begotten guitars produced around that time that never gained any interest or traction from Gibson customers. If I'm not mistaken there were some other Gibson-bodied (but not LP shapes) bolt-neck guitars around the same period, none of which went anywhere.

 

[LikesFirebirds]

I have it wired with 2 volumes, a 50's tone control with an Orange drop cap for the neck pickup only, ...

What does the orange drop cap do? Thanks in advance!