Mods for Epiphone SG 4-400

[BigDaddyRose]

Hi all,

 

I have an alpine white G-400 I bought used about a year ago. I love playing it - mostly I play classic rock (AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin) and blues, but love a variety of music.

 

Recently the bridge pickup started cutting out (would come back on if I switched to neck and back) and thought this might be a good opportunity to try my hand at re-wiring the whole thing.

 

I bought a set of Seymour Duncan Hot Rodded Humbuckers to put in it. Now the question is if I want a variety of tones, I'd like to have coil splitting using push/pull pots on the volume. Wondering if it would be possible to wire it up with in/out of phase like Jimmy Page. Anyone here done a mod like this on an Epi SG?

 

Also if you have a good idea about wiring diagrams as this is my first time modding a guitar would be nice. I have searched some on the internet and found good information about the splitting from Seymour Duncan's website.

 

Thanks,

 

Brian

[jcwillow777]

Seymour Duncan and Guitarelectronics have a lot of wiring diagrams you can download for free.

 

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/c=uogH5t9WDZ1oCMLjZsL3rahm9/category/wiring_resources_guitar_wiring_diagrams.2_pickup_guitar_wiring_diagrams/

 

Here is one for a Jimmy Page diagram:

 

 

One issue you may run into is the height of the push/pull pots in a G-400. Some will be to long and will not fit. I did a G-400 several years ago with push/pull pots, but I don't have it any more. I bought it as a project, the headstock was broken off. I don't recall the brand of pots I got, but they did fit. I wanna say I got them from Guitar Fetish.

[Bluemans335]

The cutting out problem you have is usually the toggle switch. If you leave the switch up or down when you're not playing (in other words, not in the middle), eventually the prongs in the toggle can bend and conform to the pressure, and them not make contact with one PU. It's easily fixed. Just pull the toggle out (don't disconnect any wires) and move it up and down; when you look at it sideways, you'll see if it's not making contact. Just bend the offending prong slightly.

 

 

I've rewired many SG's, used a lot of push-pulls, including the Jimmy Page system. Let me say a few things about it:

 

- I get my push-pulls and other parts from StewMac, they fit in SG's.

 

- I had no prior electronic experience and am not a handy man; my second rewire ever, was putting the Jimmy Page systrem in an LP. Through some miracle, it actually worked. I've done many since them, having had more experience under my belt.

 

- However, many guys struggle with the Page system as it's pretty complicated and I would not advise that you try doing it yourself at this point.

 

- You can use one push-pull to coil cut both PU's, or you can use two, one for each PU (which is more versatile).

 

- You can also use a second push-pull on the bridge PU (the first being for coil cut), and the second being for out-of-phase. So, the volume pot would be coil cut, tone pot would be phase. Neat thing about that is that when you have the volume pot lifted up, and are in coil cut, lifting up the tone pot changes which coil is active. On the bridge PU, there is a noticeable difference, as the slug coil is almost twice as far from the bridge as the screw coil, so they get different amounts of string energy (which impacts EQ and output). So you could do all that on just the bridge PU.

 

Your tone options would be:

- bridge HB

- neck HB

- bridge HB + neck HB

- bridge HB + neck HB out-of-phase

- bridge screw coil

- bridge slug coil

- bridge screw coil + neck HB

- bridge slug coil + neck HB

- bridge screw coil + neck HB out-of-phase

 

The first three are what you have now, plus you'd get six more.

 

If you also put a push-pull on the neck volume pot, you'd also have four more:

 

- neck screw coil

- neck screw coil + bridge HB

- neck screw coil + bridge screw coil

- neck screw coil + bridge slug coil

 

That's three push-pulls and 14 sounds. It's still easier than installing the Jimmy Page system.

[mcgruff]

I'm planning to do this to my dot just as soon as I've finished making some new pickups. I don't expect to like all the new sounds but I bet there will be a few I use - series out of phase and coil taps, probably. If you've done any soldering before putting it all together shouldn't be too hard provided you take your time and check everything carefully.

 

If you're in the UK this looks like a good price for some good-quality Bourns push-pull pots. You can also buy kits with all the parts on ebay etc although maybe not with the best quality parts from Bourns, CTS, Switchcraft, etc. 500k audio taper pots and 0.022uf caps seem to be the standard for dual humbuckers. Maybe a 0.015uf to brighten up the neck. Personally I don't feel a need to buy vintage (and expensive) paper-in-oil caps but make up your own mind.

[BigDaddyRose]

Thanks all for the advice. I think at this point I'll just use two push pulls for coil splitting on the HB's. Maybe in the future I can do the series/phase mod but this should be enough for now.

 

I'm planning to do this to my dot just as soon as I've finished making some new pickups. I don't expect to like all the new sounds but I bet there will be a few I use - series out of phase and coil taps, probably. If you've done any soldering before putting it all together shouldn't be too hard provided you take your time and check everything carefully.

 

If you're in the UK this looks like a good price for some good-quality Bourns push-pull pots. You can also buy kits with all the parts on ebay etc although maybe not with the best quality parts from Bourns, CTS, Switchcraft, etc. 500k audio taper pots and 0.022uf caps seem to be the standard for dual humbuckers. Maybe a 0.015uf to brighten up the neck. Personally I don't feel a need to buy vintage (and expensive) paper-in-oil caps but make up your own mind.