Fretwired Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 I've recently acquired a brand new Epiphone ES-175 and whilst I'm broadly happy with the guitar the tone could be warmer and more focused. I happen to have a pair of Gibson '57 Classic pickups - is it worth fitting them? Is it worth upgrading the wiring and switch whilst I'm at it? Has anyone done this? I'm after some tips and advice - thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stig Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 I've recently acquired a brand new Epiphone ES-175 and whilst I'm broadly happy with the guitar the tone could be warmer and more focused. I happen to have a pair of Gibson '57 Classic pickups - is it worth fitting them? Is it worth upgrading the wiring and switch whilst I'm at it? Has anyone done this? I'm after some tips and advice - thanks in advance. Look around the board. Tons of people buy Epi's for the price and playability, then upgrade just about every piece of hardware on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron G Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 I believe the Gibson pickups will certainly be an improvement over stock. And it makes sense to upgrade the other components while installing the pickups, if you don't mind spending a relatively small amount of money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWANG Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 With CTS or Alpha pots.. you may have to enlarge the holes for them in the guitar top. that's not very difficult, you can ask and many can tell you how if you decide to do it yourself. With those pots you'll have firmer turning action, and a nicer smoother range for volume and tone controls. With Sprague Caps, or more costly .. you can go Vitamin Q.. oil/paper.. as some do.... but the difference in price is a couple of bucks to around 12.00 each.. you'll have good tone.. one thing many do is go to radio shack.. and buy poly caps, cheap, in different values.. that way you can try different values on each pickup for the sound that suits you most. this allows you to choose the frequencys that are most affected as you use the volume pot. and, others also like two simple mods that are easy, cheap and online instructions as well as advice here is available for. treble bleed caps, which are inexpensive ceramic chip caps, allow you to turn your guitar volume pots up and down without losing treble, as they do without them. and you can wire it for individual volume control. this means that you can turn down one pup, and the other will stay on, if turned up. standard wiring means you have to have a little of both on for either to work. pots, caps, and custom choice of cap values for each pickup, option of treble bleed and control behavior is not expensive, especially if you learn to do it yourself. In addition to that, switchcraft, for one, switch and output jack will give you fewer problems, perform better, and last longer than the stock switch and jack. The 57s would be excellent in that guitar, and It's worth it in my opinion. But with the electronics changes, it will be even nicer. You can get metric pots also. So drilling the guitar pot holes is not absolutely necessary, but upgrading to usa sizes, I think, is a good bet. TWANG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fretwired Posted January 15, 2009 Author Share Posted January 15, 2009 Thanks for the responses - much to think about. My local dealer also said that the Epiphone ES-175 had been discontinued - shame as it's a nice guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sledge57 Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 Thanks for the responses - much to think about. My local dealer also said that the Epiphone ES-175 had been discontinued - shame as it's a nice guitar. Seems to be available still, did they discontinue for 09? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fretwired Posted January 15, 2009 Author Share Posted January 15, 2009 Seems to be available still' date=' did they discontinue for 09?[/quote'] Possibly – I'm in England so there could still be stocks available in the USA. I called three or four dealers who told me the same thing - luckily my local Gibson dealer managed to get me one. Nice guitar but there's no Epiphone 'E' on the scratchplate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fadedepi Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 I happen to have a pair of Gibson '57 Classic pickups - is it worth fitting them? You Betcha!!! Faded... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fretwired Posted January 15, 2009 Author Share Posted January 15, 2009 You Betcha!!! Faded... Ah .. I see you also have an Epiphone ES-175. Have you modded it at all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fadedepi Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 Not yet.... but, if I already owned a pair of '57 classics, you can bet they would already be in there. Go For It!! Faded... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Bob Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 I got the ES175 about 18 months ago and did a complete upgrade on it (as a kind of project). Well worth the trouble I thought - especially on the bridge, pups and tuners. Even if it ends up only half as good as the original, it still only costs a quarter of the price. On a related topic: I noticed GAK (the UK site) was listing the ES135 again after that had been listed as discontinued for a while. Maybe Epi have been transfering the manufacture. The ES175 may resurface later, but if you've got the chance to get one, get it. Old Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fretwired Posted January 17, 2009 Author Share Posted January 17, 2009 I got the ES175 about 18 months ago and did a complete upgrade on it (as a kind of project). Well worth the trouble I thought - especially on the bridge' date=' pups and tuners. Even if it ends up only half as good as the original, it still only costs a quarter of the price. On a related topic: I noticed GAK (the UK site) was listing the ES135 again after that had been listed as discontinued for a while. Maybe Epi have been transfering the manufacture. The ES175 may resurface later, but if you've got the chance to get one, get it. Old Bob[/quote'] I managed to get one - the stock guitar is good. I just have a pair of Gibson '57 Classic pickups doing nothing. What make of bridge and tuners did you go for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Bob Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 I managed to get one - the stock guitar is good. I just have a pair of Gibson '57 Classic pickups doing nothing. What make of bridge and tuners did you go for? Good move - glad you like it. I thought it was a great way to learn all about the ES175, and see how I like playing it, without having to find £2500 ... what I mean is, I'd never do it otherwise. Haven't got the ability to justify it, or the confidence in my own judgement to risk that kind of money. Think the Epi is as good as I'd ever want to go in that direction. I had a pair of '57 Classics too (bought for another project, but never used). Big improvement, well worth it, but thought the standard pups were not too bad. Seems to me that many of the stock pups are just too 'hot' (to quote our American cousins) and that they sound woolly at lower volumes. Got a Gotoh (Nashville style) bridge from WD Music and put it on a new base. Thought the stock base was a bit tatty to be honest. Some of the later bases from WD haven't been much better, but the original one I got was OK. Allparts have bases listed which look better quality (got one of these on order to check it out). Even though the tuners say 'Grover' on them, I thought they rattled about too much and put Grover 18:1 Rotomatics on. Great improvement. In a burst of enthusiasm I changed the pots to Gibson/CTS as well, but lately have become less convinced it's worth the trouble of doing this. From earlier discussions: beware the jack socket ... the sides of the 175 were/are thin and if you're not careful you'll snag the lead and flex the sides so the finish cracks. I put a jacket plate on (just held by the nut not screwed into the body) which stopped the flexing. Also - the truss rod is some new-fangled type of dual action rod. You might be able to search the Forum for earlier discussions on this. Hope that's not too garbled. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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