Jeff S Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 Hi guys & gals, First time here. OK, I know this may have been asked a lot of times before but didn't see anything pop up on the board. I have about a 7 or 8 year old Epi Les Paul Classic. I'm wanting to upgrade the pots and toggle switch. Are these long shank or short shank? I see both types of pots mentioned and have no idea what's in the Epi? Thinking of also putting in a 57 Classic at the neck and a 57 Classic plus in the bridge. Anyone have a similar setup? Thanks, Jeff S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damian Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 Hi guys & gals, First time here. OK, I know this may have been asked a lot of times before but didn't see anything pop up on the board. I have about a 7 or 8 year old Epi Les Paul Classic. I'm wanting to upgrade the pots and toggle switch. Are these long shank or short shank? I see both types of pots mentioned and have no idea what's in the Epi? Thinking of also putting in a 57 Classic at the neck and a 57 Classic plus in the bridge. Anyone have a similar setup? Thanks, Jeff S. Welcome aboard.......I love the Gibson 57 and 57+ pickups....A guts upgrade may be a good idea, but other members will know better than myself.........Nice guitar... The Gibson 57s are an upgrade I often do, but not always............. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnthemBassMan Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 -To answer the pot question, you need the short shaft pots. But if you buy good pots like CTS, you will need to open the mounting holes up slightly. Just a normal thing because of going from metric to standard. I have them in my '02 Classic. Put them in about a year after I bought the guitar, and even though I've done various resoldering on them from changing wiring, they still work perfectly. L8R, Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitmore Willy Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 Jeff, Welcome to the forum. +1 on AnthemBassMan. The Epi LPs I've worked on have all been short. One of the members did mention that he thought his Slash Appetite had long but that would be a slightly different animal. All normal Epis are short. What I would suggest is taking a look for your self. (if nothing else but for practice) After all, if you are going to replace them you need to be able to remove them anyway. Do one for practice and you will know if you have any other concerns. Remove cavity cover, remove 1 knob, remove nut and washer, remove pot (wire and all) measure shaft, reinstall. It can help to hold pot with one hand in cavity if nut is tight. Keeps pot from twisting and breaking wires. (although it is not usually a problem) Should take about 5 minutes. Just be careful not to scratch your guitar while loosening the nut. Short shaft thread is 3/8"....long is 3/4" Switch is normally short also. Willy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff S Posted December 28, 2010 Author Share Posted December 28, 2010 Hey guys, Thanks. I bought this guitar new and sold it a couple years ago. Now, I am trying to buy it back and turn it into a project guitar. Mainly, I play acoustic bluegrass. A month or so back, I bought an American Standard Strat from a buddy and realized how much I missed the eletrics. I always liked tha fat thick sound of the LP's and thought this guitar would make a proper project with the Gibby 57 pups and some better pots and switches. Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcwillow777 Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 CTS are very good pots and I have used them, but I have been using the Alphas that stewmac sells lately. The pots in your Epi are Alphas, but these are definitely an upgrade. Also, you don't need to enlarge the holes for them to fit, and you can also use the same knobs. You want the 500K - $2.73 each plus shipping http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Potentiometers/Standard_Control_Pots.html Definitely go Switchcraft for 1/4" jack and switch (short straight), Orange Drop caps and new wire as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitmore Willy Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 I always liked tha fat thick sound of the LP's and thought this guitar would make a proper project with the Gibby 57 pups and some better pots and switches. Probably would. Willy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaSTuS Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 Welcome to the forums, a great place for anything music related. CTS short shaft pots and Switchcraft jack and switch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordy01 Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 The only thing I would add to what has already been said is that you should have a decent soldering iron. A pistol type might be too hot, and would definitely be cumbersome with the smaller wire and tight spaces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
animalfarm Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 Jeff - Welcome to our chamber of horrors and fun! Oh, yeah! I LOVE EPI Classics, have a 2006 model, and it IS my fave to play, specifically due to the Slim, fast neck. I grab it 70% of the time without even thinking. The folks who have spoken have given good advice, I can add nothing. Well, almost.... POST some PICS!!!!!!! WE LOVE PICS! IF you know how, great! If not - at the top of the EPI LOUNGE is a thread called the "Do-it-Yourself" thread. Click on it, it takes you to the Original Post. The first entries are tutorials on HOW to post using either Photobucket or Imageshack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff S Posted December 28, 2010 Author Share Posted December 28, 2010 Thanks again for the tips. A photo is attached below. There may be a snag in the works though. I owned this guitar up until about 2 years ago. A kid in our church was a pretty talented guitarist and his dad was going to buy him an electric guitar for his birthday. However, he was looking at really bottom of the food chain type of stuff so I sold him my LP for a really good price. Our agreement was if he ever sold it, I got first crack at the same price I sold it to him. Now, he's waffling on if he wants to sell it back or not. I should know in a day or two. I hope he does go through with it because I loved the guitar and have gotten back into the amplified electric mood again. I still love my Martins (HD-28V and SPD-16 K2)and bluegrass jamming, but our church band needed someone to play electric lead so here I am. Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLHooker Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 I posted here a few days ago about installing a 57 classic and a 57 classic plus in my Epi Dot.I don't like the combination because the classic plus is so much hotter than the classic.A lot of people do like this combination.I play a lot with the selector switch in the middle position and the plus overpowers the classic completely unless you turn the volume down on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaSTuS Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 I play a lot with the selector switch in the middle position and the plus overpowers the classic completely unless you turn the volume down on it. JLH, that would only work if the re-wiring was done in the 50's style (independent volume control), do you know what style of wiring your tech installed (50's or modern). Also did you try adjusting the pickup heights as I suggested in your thread originally, you kind of left us hanging with the outcome to that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLHooker Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 I raised the neck pick up as high as I could with out touching the strings and I still don't like the difference in volume.I have a friend who did this same swap in a Gibson Sg and he had the same problem.He decided to live with it. I will probably replace the neck pickup. Thanks JLH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justuslead Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 Be careful with pots and switches. I wanted to upgrade an Epi LP for bar use, so I installed a Jimmy Page set of long pots and switches (500s) from Stu Mac to allow for coil splitting. I added Tone Pros bridge and tail, Grover locking tuners and a couple of Seymour Duncan pups (a 59 in the neck and a Pearly Gates in the bridge). I may have to have it rewired, again. It is really dark sounding. I may have to pull out the 500 pots and go back to 250s and forget about the split coils. I'm really disappointed in this upgrade....the Epi sounds so much darker than any of my Gibson LPs. I can't believe the wood is to blame. So, be careful what pots and switches you use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heretic Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 I raised the neck pick up as high as I could with out touching the strings and I still don't like the difference in volume.I have a friend who did this same swap in a Gibson Sg and he had the same problem.He decided to live with it. I will probably replace the neck pickup. Thanks JLH I think you need to LOWER the BRIDGE pickup (the Plus). I have two Epi' s with '57s and to get a good balance I lower the hotter pickup. --heretic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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