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swapping 4-wire and 2-wire pickups


funslinger

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Hi,

 

I have an Epiphone Les Paul Standard Pro that has the stock pro-buckers which are 4-wire to facilitate single coil operation using the push/pull volume controls on the guitar.

 

I also have an old Les Paul copy made by El Degas. This guitar has Gibson Burstbucker Pro pickups in it which are standard 2-wire. I want to install the Gibson Burstbuckers in the Epiphone. I would like to install them just as 2-wire pickups and I really don't care about having the push/pull controls operable. Is this possible and could I just keep the same push/pull volume pots with the push/pull feature disabled?

 

Secondly would I be able to install the 4-wire pro-buckers in the old El Degas? I am assuming I could just tie up two of the conductors and not solder them to anything?

 

Thanks to any advice you can offer.

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The short answer is yes to all. The longer answer is, as I don't have a set of Pro Buckers to refer to, you would have to experiment with which wires to connect or figure it out from looking at the push-pull wiring. It's not too complicated once you get your head around what you're looking at.

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Thanks very much Paul for taking the time to help out. I am new to Epiphone guitars. I sold a Gibson Les Paul Custom and bought 3 Epiphone Les Pauls with the money. In one I have 57 Classics. I put a 498T set in another. This last one I am going to put the Burstbuckers in. All 3 of these guitars play every bit a good as the Custom did. I love having the tonal options with the different pickups and guitars. Epiphone seems to make very good guitars as long as you take some time to try a variety of them to make sure there's no issues with frets etc. Thanks again.

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Epiphone seems to make very good guitars as long as you take some time to try a variety of them to make sure there's no issues with frets etc. Thanks again.

 

You're welcome, sorry I can't give more detail. You're right about Epiphone, they do have some very nice instruments. I have noticed though that even some high-end guitars (from companies more expensive than Epiphone) can come out of the factory with some work needing doing to the frets. Learning to do your own set ups including fret levelling is a great thing; you can take an average playing guitar and turn it into a great playing guitar. But it can be addictive...

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Actually quite easy to do. The wires attached to the switch section of the push/pull from the pickup are called, obviously, the "TAP" wires. These two wires get wired together, then taped off. The remaining wires are your "hot" and "ground" wires. Hot wire to the first lug of the volume pot, ground to the back of the pot. See the below diagram to get a visual.

http://guitarelectronics.com/2-humbuckers-3-way-toggle-switch-2-volumes-2-tones/

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