Just wanted to share this for anyone interested!

[TTLWes]

I thought I would share this information about my hollow body mods since I did lots of research on this topic beforehand and got inadequate results.

 

This post will be describing my Epiphone hollow-body ES-175 mods.

 

So just a little back story as to why I thought these mods were nessecary:

I bought the ES to replace a stolen Modern Player Tele Plus (bridge HB w/coil split, middle strat sc, tele neck sc) which sounded perfect through my main recording amp, a Fender Excelsior. I purchased the ES in-store after playing it through a Fender Supersonic 22. It really sounded quite beautiful with the guitar in the middle position and reverb.

 

Fast forward to getting the guitar home and pluging into the excelsior. I was immediately disappointed at how muddy and dull the neck pickup, and to a lesser extent the bridge pickup was for trying to get a strong clean tone from this amp. It was great for cranking the amp to its max for power tube od, but inarticulate and dull for good cleans. After a few amp mods, installing foam under one of the ES' f holes, and a sound post under the bridge, it was a little better but not much.

 

Now entering the Jimmy Page "debacle" Part 1 lol. So while researching 50s wiring for gibsons I discovered that the Gibson 57 pickups in mine were 4-conductor or "lead." Ah ha! I can do coil split says I! After much deliberation I decide to go all-in and do a full Jimmy page wiring scheme on the ES to have as many options as possible in one fell swoop. Whoops! Haha! After three complete tries wiring everything up and fishing it through the f hole and pickup holes (a feat that was compounded by the fact that I was using 4 mini toggles instead of push-pull pots), I only had the neck pickup side working. BUT I noticed when coil splitting or switching to series with the neck pu it did fix the dull, blanketed on a clean amp setting.

 

Part 2:

Ok so I've got confirmation that the mod if done successfully will alleviate my tone problem. Following all that crap, I had to find a better way to get all this junk in the guitar body. After a little more research on access-panels for gibson hollow bodies (specifically the Lucille model) it seems that a few people were asking about cutting access panels in the back of their ES's and Artcores. I didn't find any definitive evidence of a successful back-hack but the general consensus was that it shouldn't affect the electric sound very much at all.

 

I decided to pull the trigger and break out the dremel. I cut an octagon-ish shaped hole in the back just big enough to get to all the pots and switches. I was a little nervous cutting into it the first time, but I soon found out how much stress would be lifted from trying the JP wiring without it.

 

Part 3: There I was, about to wire the complete harness for the FOURTH time but doing it though the new access hole was like night and day. I worked slowly and carefully and about 2 hours later, it was done. Plugged in and lo and behold.....everything works!!!! I do plan on changing it out again with new switches, pots, vintage wire, caps, and jack so just the fact that I can flip it over and go to work is a real load off!

 

There are no noticeable adverse effects on the electric or acoustic sound. It's not a collectors item guitar or meant to be a stock jazz or blues box either so I don't care if there's a hole in it. I was a little reluctant at first but now I'm glad I did it. Wow! The switching options really open this guitar up. I play psychedelic indie-rock/pop so a nice jangly tone really comes in handy sometimes. I use the neck single coil a lot now and it sounds great! It may be the pickup model, but the single coil 57s sound way better than my drummers Gibson SG on split mode. Throw in a HOF mini reverb, DOD Icebox analog chorus, Boss BD2 for boost, and a volume pedal...and this rig has been reincarnated! Other than wanting a few more pedals, I'm very satisfied with my setup now.