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Epiphone Electronics


SGSpecialguy

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Ive always heard that Epiphone cuts corners and uses very inexpensive electronics in their guitars,, Ive got a Epiphone Iommi SG, supposedly has USA Gibson pick ups in there, but Im thinking with cheap electronics its not getting the full potential out of those pickups, gotta be like a Ferrari with a 2 barrel carburetor :-k Im also acquiring a DOT from my brother who has swapped out the PUPs already with Gibson pups but not the wiring,, Ive seen some pre wired kits from MOJO and RS Guitarworks,, I was wondering who has done that mod on their guitars and how much its benefited your guitars,,

Thanks for the info guys [cool]

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Ive always heard that Epiphone cuts corners and uses very inexpensive electronics in their guitars' date=', Ive got a Epiphone Iommi SG, supposedly has USA Gibson pick ups in there, but Im thinking with cheap electronics its not getting the full potential out of those pickups, gotta be like a Ferrari with a 2 barrel carburetor :-k Im also acquiring a DOT from my brother who has swapped out the PUPs already with Gibson pups but not the wiring,, Ive seen some pre wired kits from MOJO and RS Guitarworks,, I was wondering who has done that mod on their guitars and how much its benefited your guitars,,

Thanks for the info guys [cool

 

Older Epis used cheap switches and those poor quality mini pots. Most of the newer ones use better switches and full sized Alpha pots which are decent quality.

 

If you switch to USA pots (Gibson/CTS) you would have to enlarge the holes in the body and get new knobs.

 

pots.jpg

 

If there's a problem like scratchy pots, noisy or intermittent switch, pots that don't change gradually over the full range, do it. If everything works fine, it works fine. If you want to try it for yourself, do the SG. Changing the components on a Dot is a pain, I wouldn't do it unless there was a problem.

 

You can buy the individual parts and save some money.

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I might attract som flac for this but, I'd say pots and switch and cable arn't going to improve your sound; but they can be a source of noise as the above poster mentioned. Giving pots a clean with contact cleaner or IPA (Industrial alcohol not beer) will often fix a noisy pot!

 

I'd deffinatly recomend some poly' caps in the tone controls and I'm an advocate of the Trebble bypass cap in the volume control which stops the sound going muddy when you drop the volume.

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if you go for 50's style wiring you'll notice a big difference , i've done my two epis and my daughters old hohner pro 335 with this , cts pots , vintage braided wire pio caps and switchcraft switch and output socket . i wouldn't have a humbucker equiped guitar wired any other way now [cool] hth

Alan

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As I'm taking apart the controls on my Wilshire, I've noticed a few issues - the bridge pickup volume pot end lug wasn't grounded; tone caps were wired behind the tone pots, such that the wire going into the cap could hit ground before actually getting to the cap; some of the solder joints were dull, and thus possibly cold. Dump that on top of less than top shelf parts (one pot was Alpha, the other three were no name), and that can hamper your tone. I'm finding it fun to work on replacement, now if I can just pull it off successfully..........:-k

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Welcome to the board! On my '98 Sherry, I replaced everything that touched the strings:

 

Tuners, nut, bridge and tail stop

 

I also replaced all pots, switch, and jack with a wired assy from fellow board member TWANG

 

Then installed SD antiquities pups.

 

Now it sounds like it should.

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thanks for the responses guys !! I noticed when you look at the RS Guitarworks site it says that their products improve your tone of your instrument, thats what I was wondering if better components actually do that or if its just reliability and smoothness and such,, tone is the ultimate conquest [cool] some of you have gone all out on your guitars [-( Thanks again for the welcome and your inputs

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