1979 Les Paul Custom Electronics Question

[jscorno]

My 1979 Les Paul Custom seems to be wired a bit differently that other Les Pauls I've seen. It's the era when Gibson surrounded the electronics in a metal housing. I'm running into some noise issues lately. No hum but high end rizz.

If someone has a Les Paul from a similar year and could post a picture of the guts, I'd deeply appreciate it.

I'd also appreciate any insight as to how to make the guitar a little less susceptible to noise.

Thanks in advance!

 

[whitenoise]

i gotta 79 Lp Custom, i can take some pictures today or tomorrow. Gotta love that housing shielding system.

 

[jscorno]

Thanks Whitenoise.

Here's a thread I found on the Les Paul forum that deals with the same issue. It seems that there is no string grounding on these guitars...

http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/gibson-les-pauls/4773-1979-les-paul-standard-ground-problem.html

 

[walterw]

right, gibson suffered for a little while under the delusion that they could un-ground the strings and just shield everything. my fix is to drive a longish skinny screw through the wall of the control cavity (pre-drill!) into the treble side stop-bar bushing. then it's a simple matter to run a wire from the screw head under the cover and onto the back of a pot to ground it.

actually, you'll want to lose all 4 pots while you're at it, as they will most likely be 300k volumes and 100k tones, a recipe for muddy tone. 4 500k audio tapers will give a big improvement in clarity and crunch.

 

[jscorno]

Walter, thanks for your reply. I thought grounding your strings was a bad for fear of shock. I guess as players and manufacturers understood amplifier ground better, it's not such a big deal.

Do you do you pre-drill from the cavity or from the face of guitar in the treble side stop-bar bushing hole (assuming the bushing is removed)? Starting from the cavity sounds, uh, risky.

How about the metal shell that sits over the electronics? Have you found it beneficial to run a grounding wire to it as well?

I did upgrade to CTS 500K pots a while ago. It did make quite a difference.

 

[in a little row]

i am not really familiar with that model LP although the other thread was interesting...string grounding and whatnot

Yes, ground the shell...make sure the factory shielding shell is properly grounded, in a way consistent with avoiding a ground loop, which would add the noise you are describing...



j