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50's 60's sound out of P90 Les Pauls


mihcmac

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The link below show how to get the 50's 60's sound out of your p90 Les Paul with a simple change or addition to your capacitors. Very simple mods to get more out of your P90's and treble-bleed mod for double coils..

 

P90 Pickups, Les Pauls Circuit mods

 

In this article Vaughn explains that its not the stock pickups fault for poor sound but how the capacitors are used. By simply using a large (old style) and small capacitor (new style) together with a resistor connected in parallel across the small cap you can get rich tones that you haven't heard for a while. These are very simple mods and the explanation on what effect the different capacitance values have..

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Many thanks for posting this.

I have a LP Custom with P90s. I'd love to try this mod.

Here is a pic of the control cavity. It just has the usual cheapo caps as you can see.

 

lespaul5.jpg

 

I've bookmarked your link and though I know nothing about guitar wiring will investigate further...I hope!

Can't really tell how to do it from his photos, must try and get a diagram.

 

[thumbup]

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Many thanks for posting this.

I have a LP Custom with P90s. I'd love to try this mod.

Here is a pic of the control cavity. It just has the usual cheapo caps as you can see.

 

lespaul5.jpg

 

I've bookmarked your link and though I know nothing about guitar wiring will investigate further...I hope!

Can't really tell how to do it from his photos, must try and get a diagram.

 

[thumbup]

 

 

What Vaughn has recommended.. if you look at your stock cap it is connected between your volume and tone pots.. this is where everything will happen.. if you disconnect your cap from the tone pot side and add a .033uf cap in-between, creating a series connection with the caps between the volume and tone pots.. then adding about a 200k resistor in parallel across the two leads of your original cap... note that doing this type of soldering work is easier if you remove the knobs and nuts from the top side so you lift out your pots and wiring enough to have more space to work.

 

note: that the values of caps and resisters quoted here will get you to Vaughns original sound enhancement discovery in his Les Paul 60’s Tribute. But depending on how much you want to experiment the values can be shifted achieving slightly different results. I think what I quoted above would be a very good starting point, depending how much you like it could be the stopping point.

 

The main thing Vaughn got across on his article is that you don't get much from altering your pickup, but much more from modifying the capacitors.. :)

 

 

 

 

the link again https://wgsusa.com/p...ed-circuit-mods

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Thanks again.

 

I understand the 1st bit. So I have to buy 2 suitable 033uf caps (this may be one for Rabs) and solder between tone pot and orange cap.

 

2nd bit - " a 200k resistor in parallel across the two leads of your original cap" - I buy 2 of these and solder each so it joins the wire leads of the orange caps.

 

Will certainly try it but it won't happen quick. [thumbup]

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