Pickup Replacement

Ok heres the dish. I Recently acquired a Gibson 25th/50th Ann. Les Paul. the pickups played good but were a little worn so I replaced them with an Invader and a Dimebucker which worked extremely well and I had no problems with the wiring. Wheres the problem you ask? Well now I want to put the Gibson Pickups in my Epiphone Les Paul. Unfortunately as everyone knows a Gibson or at least most Gibsons have Two tone and volume controls and the origional pick ups have two wires coming out to accommadate the tone switch. My Epiphone has one volume and one tone knob. How is it possible to wire the Gibson pickups into my Epi?

Try to find a wiring schematic for a Telecaster.

http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/index.php

check there

Take a good look at how your epi is wired. You'll notice that the leads from the stock p/u's go to either side of the switch. Just wire in the new p/u's the same as the stock p/u's and everything should be fine.

P.S. if you're gibson p/u's have a braided shield that wouldn't allow for you to reach the switch lugs after grounding the sheild, all you would do is unbrade the desired length that would allow the leads to reach the switch, then twist the loose brades, cover with some heat shrink tubeing, leaving a little bit of wire exposed at the end, tin (put a little solder) on the end of the ground wire, and then solder to ground. You could even twist the loose brades from the p/u's together, and solder them together and then solder to ground. If you don't have any heat shrink tubing, don't worry, just make the ground wires short enough that they couldn't bump into anything on the inside of the control cavity. Ground will usually be the bottom of the volume pot but you could also use the bottom of the tone pot as well.

Hope that helps.

If it was only so easy. thats how I wired my new P/us that way and just left out the tone switch on the gibson. But the original p/us on the gibson have two wires, one out each end. one wire was connected like you said and one connected to the tone switch. my originals in the epi were wired the way you said also but with only one wire each what do i do with the extra wires from the gibson p/us? Would it hurt just to clip them? Maybe these pictures could help.

Hey Ninja-

Wow man, I had to get my glasses to check if my eyes went funky....could you try getting a clearer pic?

I'm glad to help, but I can't see anything really good enough in the pics that you provided.

Also, let me know what model the gibson pickups are in paticular as I'm sure you know they make different models. That would help me to help you.

The p/u's are Series VII's. Sorry on the picture no matter what I do ican't get one any clearer. It's just the volume on the right switch center and tone on the left. The p/u's are wired directly to the switch. Grounded in the same place. Tone wired to the volume and output. Volume to switch. if the gibson p/u's had only one wire it would be easy its the extra wire thats throwing me for a turn.

Hi Ninja -

After doing a little research, it would be my opinion to recommend that you return your 25/50 back to stock. These guitars were made in limited numbers, and are deemed to be fairly collectible, as they were made in their original manufacturing plant in Kalamazoo, Mi. I would strongly urge you to consider putting your new p/u's in the Epi. Would you post a pic of your 25/50? I would love to see it.

for more info on your guitar check out www.lespaulforum.com/slubarticle/2550/2550.html

This picture is on another thread but check it out with the new p/u's. I would'nt have taken out the Series VII's but the gold finish was worn. I got it second or maybe even third hand from some shmo who didn't know what he had.

that's a pretty guitar, however, the stock p/u's in that thing, despite what they look like, make the thing vintage, and therefore worth a fricken buttload. you keep that thing for a while, and sell it when you retire... and you'll be one rich man

The guitar and the p/u's will never ever ever ever ever be out of my possession if comes down to me being homeless at least i'll have a way to keep busy. I wish I had decent recording gear to show you guys what this thing sounds like. Give me a few weeks.