Caps, Resistors, Etc.-Please Explain.

[dank]

Hello, all. I often read and hear about after market rewiring of guitars. I am not referring to pickup replacement-that part is obvious to me. In fact, other than replacing pickups on my '59 reissue Les Paul and putting Suhr pickups in a 40th Anniv. Strat, my guitars remain unmodified.

From my signature, you can see that I don't own junk. The question is, what does this rewiring do to the guitar's tone? Is it really effective, or are people just doing it in search of the never ending quest for the Holy Grail of Tone?

Dan

 

[dank]

Anyone?

 

[Johnnytone]

Well, my technical knowledge is pretty low, but I have tried a few different things (mostly caps and wiring) and could definitely hear differences. I use my tone control a lot, and it is rarely on "10" on any of my guitars.

I like trying different (but similar) value caps and seeing which I prefer for each guitar/setup.

 

[52ftbuddha]

By rewiring you can change the control layout alter the taper of the volume and tone controls and alter the way the frequencies are shelved. Most people alter because the stock wiring does not suit their needs. Many instruments are constructed to traditional standards and do not work particularly well. The high frequency roll off from volume pots would be one example. If you want to see a good example pick up a Historic gibson and try the tone stack and the volume controls. Any more requires a bit of electronic knowledge.

rob

 

[MarkL8]

I reverted my R8 to 50's wiring and after finding out Gibson installs fake/ phoney Bumble bee caps I went and bought some good old fashions milspec paper in oil cap and I do like what this did for my R8

These are what Gibson is selling for BB caps these days.

 

[Shnook]

Yeah, I love reading the 'Original Bumble Bee's' on the reissue descriptions.

I have some NOS Sprague Vit Q's after seeing the pic above.

 

[[email protected]]

you may get more responses if you clarify your question a bit; people modify their guitars electronics in many ways, and it's a rather open ended question... and you can simply replace the existing components with different (presumably higher quality) ones, alter the existing wiring to change an aspect of the guitars' performance, or a combination of the two. and of course it will also depend on what instrument you're dealing with...

 

[chris77]

well I'll say this...I moded my Special Edt. Koa Tele routing and adding a Seth Lover in the neck. I left the electronics stock for a while enjoying the dark'ness of the pickup. Just recently changed out the stock 250k tone pot for a 500k and switched to a .022 ceramic cap. It opened up like a new guitar, tons for highs, fuller and crisper, but so so so far from being brittle. I have a Rio Grande Dirty Harry in the bridge and it sounds great as well. So YES IMO wiring can make an incredible difference.