Gibson Les Paul

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phidias
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Re: Gibson Les Paul

Post by phidias »

Laundromat wrote:
phidias wrote:I recommend Jonesyblues
Don't know anything about his products, but the man is downright weird. Also some of his "theories" on electronics he presented on another forum were a bit unconventional.
Could be, really don't know, but his harnesses are absolute top notch. I usually do all my own stuff, but when I want something a bit special or too complicated, I rely on him, and he never let me down.
I Love Rock'n'Roll - Compression Kills The Music - Never Put Off Until Tomorrow What You Can Buy Today!
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Zuff-1A
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Re: Gibson Les Paul

Post by Zuff-1A »

I had RS wiring with theyr "Superpots" (over 550 or so) but
after playing some time tone feels always too sharpy or overly bright
even with rolled back knobs
Now I have regular quality CTS Pro 480-500 pot's and better "bit more woody" tone.
One thing what worked like charm are real old Bumble bee caps
0,022uF (or so) for bridge and
0,015 - 0,018uF for neck
Random caps are great, do not buy the most expencive 0.022uF 400V
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Doctor X
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Re: Gibson Les Paul

Post by Doctor X »

I put RS vintage kits in both my Les Paul and ES-335. I didn't notice much difference in tone. I dunno whether it's because the stock electronics were already a decent quality (both are custom shop guitars).
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Doc Holliday
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Re: Gibson Les Paul

Post by Doc Holliday »

I preferred the RS stuff over the “ mojotone” stuff. But yes I think the guitar plays a part. It’s weird. The pots made more of a difference in my Tokai than my R8. They just seem more effective?! Bit more variation in the different shades of tone.
Custom shop use the 500K cts pots. There not bad but I still found they rolled off pretty quick. Rolling the bridge tone down to 5 sounds a bit early Clapton actually with the vintage taper pots. With the standard CTS pots it sounded muffled and muddy to my ears.
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Laundromat
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Re: Gibson Les Paul

Post by Laundromat »

There's the thing, any pot with the same maximum resitance will sound the same if it's cranked. The differences come with the taper and how the resistance changes on the pot travel. Standard CTS pots follow a logarithmic taper with base 10, which means when the pot is rotated halfway you have 10% of the maximum resistance. This works pretty well for tone controls, but at least I don't like it for volumes. The "vintage taper" many places sell is different in the way that you have 30% of the resistance at the halfway point, so it's much closer to linear (which would be 50%).
Datasheets for CTS pots show the available tapers and the ordering codes, which are stamped on the back of the pot unless the buyer has specified otherwise.
cts tapers.PNG
cts tapers.PNG (48.96 KiB) Viewed 3018 times
cts ordering.PNG
cts ordering.PNG (43.31 KiB) Viewed 3018 times
There's no magic to any "special" pots other than the maximum resistance, taper and how they feel when you fiddle with them. So just check the potentiometer codes and don't pay for the fancy branding or sales pitches. I don't know how their service is, but these guys sell both the regular 10% and "vintage" 30% taper pots for reasonable prices.
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Sauniere
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Re: Gibson Les Paul

Post by Sauniere »

Laundromat wrote: Thu Dec 21, 2017 9:54 am
Doc Holliday wrote:Antti how do you rate the sheds to OX4?
I rate the OX4s much higher, only because they weren't a complete nightmare to get. :badteeth:
I can't directly compare the two, as I didn't have them at the same time or try them in the same guitar. Also the Sheds were A4 and OX4s I have now are A5. Both were wound about the same with both neck and bridge wound around 7.8k, which I prefer over the common style of having the bridge pickup wound stronger. I found the Sheds a bit too loose on wound strings, which I attribute the A4 magnets. I wanted to like them because many people consider them to be the magnet for PAFs, but for me A5 just works better. I had a pair of Sheptone Tributes with A5s in the past and found them a bit brash, but these OX4s don't have that problem at all. They're nice and bloomy, with just enough tightness in the low end.

The good thing with OX4 is that Mark will wind just about anything you ask for. So I'd get in contact him and describe what you're after and I'm sure he'll have recommendations on what he thinks would fit the bill.
A4 seems to be the flavor of the day. Lots of boutique makers that have been preaching A4 for vintage tonal accuracy. I dig my OX4s with A4, but I do prefer A5 loaded pickups. Felt like my Wizz with A4 were too strident. Not a fan of A3 which also seem to be hot these days. The one pickup i had with a A3 seemed to struggle to hit that sweet spot. Lacked definition in the lows and didn't have enough push. Always felt underpowered, even on mildly overdriven tones. Swapped to a Throbak A5 and it gets me where I want to go.

I've had RS wiring in the past. Good stuff. Currently using Creamtone harnesses with drifted Bees and Black Beauties. Can't really say that it's added anything tonally. I have guitars with cheap chicklet caps and can't say i'm any happier with the performance or tones from the vintage caps.

My OX4s also happen to be in your old Tokai LS80 I believe, which I now own. The previous owner put Burstbuckers in it.
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jetofuj
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Re: Gibson Les Paul

Post by jetofuj »

Hmm, OX4's you say. My mate's just bought vintage Greco SG, really great piece of wood, but those og Maxon pickups have really low output and they feedbacks as hell. I guess I will make him buy them OX4's :party:
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Zuff-1A
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Re: Gibson Les Paul

Post by Zuff-1A »

Sauniere wrote: Thu Dec 28, 2017 7:14 pm
Laundromat wrote: Thu Dec 21, 2017 9:54 am
Doc Holliday wrote:Antti how do you rate the sheds to OX4?
I rate the OX4s much higher, only because they weren't a complete nightmare to get. :badteeth:
I can't directly compare the two, as I didn't have them at the same time or try them in the same guitar. Also the Sheds were A4 and OX4s I have now are A5. Both were wound about the same with both neck and bridge wound around 7.8k, which I prefer over the common style of having the bridge pickup wound stronger. I found the Sheds a bit too loose on wound strings, which I attribute the A4 magnets. I wanted to like them because many people consider them to be the magnet for PAFs, but for me A5 just works better. I had a pair of Sheptone Tributes with A5s in the past and found them a bit brash, but these OX4s don't have that problem at all. They're nice and bloomy, with just enough tightness in the low end.

The good thing with OX4 is that Mark will wind just about anything you ask for. So I'd get in contact him and describe what you're after and I'm sure he'll have recommendations on what he thinks would fit the bill.
A4 seems to be the flavor of the day. Lots of boutique makers that have been preaching A4 for vintage tonal accuracy. I dig my OX4s with A4, but I do prefer A5 loaded pickups. Felt like my Wizz with A4 were too strident. Not a fan of A3 which also seem to be hot these days. The one pickup i had with a A3 seemed to struggle to hit that sweet spot. Lacked definition in the lows and didn't have enough push. Always felt underpowered, even on mildly overdriven tones. Swapped to a Throbak A5 and it gets me where I want to go.

I've had RS wiring in the past. Good stuff. Currently using Creamtone harnesses with drifted Bees and Black Beauties. Can't really say that it's added anything tonally. I have guitars with cheap chicklet caps and can't say i'm any happier with the performance or tones from the vintage caps.

My OX4s also happen to be in your old Tokai LS80 I believe, which I now own. The previous owner put Burstbuckers in it.



I have A5 in neck (Dave Stephens) and A2 in bridge (Raw Vintage) and all stuff works great together and separately
Old 50-s bumble bee caps adds slightly very special brightness, snap and sparkle.
Of course it's only listenable to light volumes. Very important is the strings distance from the pickups.
Crazy good PAF Les Paul tone: Duane Allmann "Goin' down slow" solo :tu:
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chaser11
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Re: Gibson Les Paul

Post by chaser11 »

Does Gibson Les Paul better than Gibson SG Fushion?

Like this one https://musicadvisor.com/gibson-sg-fusi ... ic-guitar/
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redeyeflight
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Re: Gibson Les Paul

Post by redeyeflight »

Well, I finally got a set of OX4's in my gibson 335 (thanks to jerms for the wiring). Aaaaand. The neck pickup is perfect but I think the bridge is a bit too strident. Maybe its just my setup but its not exactly what one woukd expect from a humbucker IMO. They're both A4 low winds. Neck is perfect. Nice clarity but still smooth. Open would be the word I'd use. But the bridge might just be too bright for me. I think I perferred the stock gibson ceramic magnet that was in there before. It was a little constricted in the midrange but the highs were nice and creamy and compressed a little, which seemed to add to the sustain. The ox4 seems like it does nothing to help any kind of sustain in the bridge. Anyone have a suggestion for a different bridge pickup?
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