Late '50s, Early '60s ES-125 Needs Electrics

[Loudpipe]

I've recently acquired an ES-125 from the late '50s or early '60s (as far as I can tell) that has had a two pickup conversion done and needs pickups and both tone and volume pots. I'd like to put P90s back in it, if that's possible, but I have never wired a guitar before and don't know much about what needs to be done.

 

Any help is appreciated.

[Robin Nahum]

So what's in there now? How much damage has been done to the pickup routs?

 

The circuit layout is easy enough and I'm sure that if you google "tone circuit for P90s" or similar you'll be swamped with diagrams. The tricky bit is installing the electronics in a body with f-holes that are too small for hands. The solution is to solder up the tone circuit on the bench and then run wire and bits of string in through the pot, switch and output holes, out through the pickup holes, tie them to the respective pots, switch and jack and then g-e-n-t-l-y pull the bits back through into place.

 

No shame in giving this job to a luthier.

 

RN

[Loudpipe]

It has no electrics of any kind in right now.

 

By pickup rout, do you mean pickup "holes," or are you referring to something inside the guitar? If you were referring to the pickup "holes," the original neck rout is completely fine... it's hasn't been tampered with. The problem is the bridge rout, which was added later. It looks to have been done relatively well. It's square, and the very same width side-to-side (with the bottom of the guitar on the floor, neck pointing to the ceiling) as the neck rout, but it is slightly wider up-and-down... a little over 1/4 an inch.

 

The spars that run in the direction of the neck on either side of each pickup hole have not been tampered with.

[Robin Nahum]

By pickup rout' date=' do you mean pickup "holes,"...?[/quote']

Yep

 

....the original neck rout is completely fine... it's hasn't been tampered with. The problem is the bridge rout' date=' which was added later. It looks to have been done relatively well. It's square, and the very same width side-to-side (with the bottom of the guitar on the floor, neck pointing to the ceiling) as the neck rout, but it is slightly wider up-and-down... a little over 1/4 an inch.[/quote']

Good but the 1/4" might be a worry.

 

....The spars that run in the direction of the neck on either side of each pickup hole have not been tampered with.

Phew.

 

So we're talking about dropping in "dog-ear" P90s I guess?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-90

 

Here is some measurement info from Seymour Duncan that will help you work out whether the routs are the right size.

 

http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/antiquity/specialized-2/1103465_66_neck/

 

It is also worth noting that the P90 fitted to the full-bodied ES125 had a slightly different shaped and sized cover compared to regular dog-ear P90s. If your model is one of these, the front rout might be the right size for the older style but the back rout is for a contemporary dog-ear P90 (I suspect the older model was not made in a bridge version).

 

This guy might have some intersting bits for you.

 

http://www.grguitars.com/parts_5gibson.htm

 

Here are some other makers...

 

http://www.fralinpickups.com/p90s.asp (Well regarded, and near you I guess.)

 

http://www.vintagevibeguitars.com/pickup_sc.html (I buy all my pickups from Pete nowadays)

 

RN