joymitra Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Ok, so I just got my G400 back from my luthier, who after I dropped it off complaining it sounded like mudd (no clarity, no differences in switch positions)... he replaced the switch, the tone control, the volume controls, and rewired it to use only bridge and neck pickups... and in doing so made them hotter. Questions, in his opinion the wiring was screwey (1999, Sien Korean made), which was killing the output from the pickups. Is that so? Anyone else find this? Secondly, he has deactivated my middle pickup, and I find the sound better now than before... do I need it? He says its a config that never really panned out for gibson. Thirdly, I still want a little more tone (treble) from both pickups.. so, am considering replacing my pickups (possibly 3 of them) with EMGs or Seymore Duncan SH5s or SH15s.... Love my epi, just want it to sing a little clearer.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarxBros Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 I was never a fan of the stock pickup options with those. I'd wire it so I could choose any combo of the 3, or just get rid of the middle one. I have never been a fan of a middle bucker. It offers little in sound variation and just gets in my way for picking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1999nbmZ1281734025 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Maybe you should try swapping caps first. Its a lot cheaper than PUPs... I used .022uf on both PUPs my first time around, and .022uf for the neck and .015uf for the bridge the second time around. Just swapping caps made a huge difference to the upper frequencies available when your knobs are at 10... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joymitra Posted February 7, 2009 Author Share Posted February 7, 2009 Thanks guys,, re-wired to 2 pickups, works much better... am gonna simply leave the middle (3rd) pickup unwired and on there for aesthetics. Will investigate caps (am assuming you mean the pots or tone controls when you mention caps, that or the gold covers on top of the pickups... basically saying I have no idea what you meant by caps.. sorry!) or pickups in a year after I get a handle of this combined with my VoxAD15VT (great little amp by the way)... Thanks for the replies! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KYSohn Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 The "cap" is referring to a "capacitor" that sits on the tone pots (or between volume & tone pots depending on wiring config). Looks like--- http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102516 Here's a page you can check out for more info. http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/tonerange.php It reads, "First, locate the tone capacitor. It should be soldered to one of the terminals of one of the tone pots. Determine what value it is (see the section on reading schematics for hints as to common tone capacitor values). To shift the tone control "up" so that you have more treble available, replace the tone capacitor with one of lower value. For example, if the existing capacitor is 0.02uf, replace it with a 0.01uf capacitor. If the existing tone capacitor is 0.033uf, try replacing it with an 0.02uf capacitor. On the other hand, if you usually keep the tone controls all the way down, you may want to replace the tone capacitor with a slightly larger one to shift the tone range towards the bass end." Real easy to do, and cost only around $2.00. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muskank Sally Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 I'm often been tempted to remove the middle pickup from my G-400 Custom and throw a '66 pickguard on it. Hmmm. Seems the '66 pickguard is just the right thing for what I've had in mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wedgeSG Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 You should check the distance between pups before you jump on a replacement '66 guard. I'm pretty sure the spacing between the extremes is enough different that routing would be required. Terrapin guitars has the template for the '66 style Epi G-400 guard. If you sent the custom's dimensions between the neck and bridge pups they should be able to transpose those into the '66 style's layout. I would also check the location of the bridge posts as well since those also go through the guard. There's a German guy selling metal pickguards ('62 style), on EBAY that has even noticed a distance difference between pups between the Goth/Vintage and the Gloss finished models: he requests that you specify which you have to provide the proper spacing between the pickups. I've actually considered trying this on a custom myself but from what I've learned so far I don't expect it to be a simple parts swap. The upside to this is if you get a Terrapin guard the material can be upgraded and/or changed to enhance the part. I had them to make one for my '66 style G400 in B/W/B/W/B and the quality between it and the stocker was stunning. You could just do a Malcolm Young... yank the unused pup and stuff a nasty gym sock in the cavity... Wedgie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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