Jimmy Page Mod (Explained?)…

[Coda]

After years of talking about it, I finally set my LP up with the Jimmy Page Mod: coil splits, phase switch, circuit switch. It went much better than I expected it to go. T works about 90%. I don’t get any split on the neck pickup. I believe the reason for this is that I may have switch wires. I am using no -Duncan pickups, and a diagram based on Duncan pickups color code. My pickups (GFS) are said to either be the same as Duncan (GFS’s own words), or I have to swap the black and green wires (also GFS’s own words…).

Now, in order to troubleshoot thoroughly, I was wondering if anyone could explain to me what exactly is going on with this circuit. What would swapping the green and black wires from the neck pickup do? How exactly do push/pull pots work?

Of course, I’d nobody knows, I’ll figure it out in my own. At least with a thread we can all learn together…

 

[Big Monk]

I wish I could help.

Had this wiring years ago in my older Les Paul and it was a BEAR to get right.

When I finally did, I found out there are only 2 useful tones (for me): Reverse Phase and Parallel Neck.

 

[Robert]

Push-pull pots are just pots with switches (DPDT / SPDT / etc) attached, there's usually no direct connection between them until you make it.

I'll leave the rest of this to folks who are more experienced with guitar wiring.

 

[Coda]

I wish I could help.

Had this wiring years ago in my older Les Paul and it was a BEAR to get right.

When I finally did, I found out there are only 2 useful tones (for me): Reverse Phase and Parallel Neck.

So far I really like both pickups on, bridge split, out of phase, parallel…especially with some Fuzz…

From a visual perspective, everything is where it should be, an there are no strays anywhere. The only think that could possibly be wrong is the green and black wires on the neck pickup. For Duncan black is hot and green is ground, but GFS sometimes uses green for hot and black for ground…

 

[Feral Feline]

If it's just two wires, swap 'em and see if you like them better that way. If not, switch 'em back.

My friend that I swapped pups in his Ibby AR325QA had an LP way back when that had Page's wiring — I'm glad I didn't have to work on it given what a PITA the Ibby was (two 3-way toggles for split/parallel/series).

Speculating ... swapping the Green and Black on the neck pickup will give you the Peter Green out of phase tone (or put it in phase if the wires are currently reversed).

Wish I could help, best of luck.

Subscribed to learn...

 

[Joben Magooch]

I wish I could help.

Had this wiring years ago in my older Les Paul and it was a BEAR to get right.

When I finally did, I found out there are only 2 useful tones (for me): Reverse Phase and Parallel Neck.

Kind of the experience I had. Huge Zeppelin fan and had a guitar wired up "Page-style" a years back. Maybe I had it wrong or something, I was pretty new then, but found the same...just not a ton of use for me beyond the novelty of it. Fun to mess around with but practically speaking didn't offer me a ton of added functionality that I'd actually put to use.

Still wanna try again someday though.

 

[Coda]

Update: I swapped dem wires…and I now have 41 flavors of fun flowing forth from my fortunate fender-esque frequency freakinator…

…oh, and I fixed the mod too. I can now split the neck pickup, and everything works as it should. On these GFS pickups, Duncan colors work fine.

 

[Big Monk]

Update: I swapped dem wires…and I now have 41 flavors of fun flowing forth from my fortunate fender-esque frequency freakinator…

…oh, and I fixed the mod too. I can now split the neck pickup, and everything works as it should. On these GFS pickups, Duncan colors work fine.

This thread actually inspired me to put the push pull back in for Reverse phase.

I have the magnet flipped normally so I have the push pull wires for normal middle position when pulled up.

Just found out that Bare Knuckle has custom 550k CTS push pulls and I think I am going to overhaul the whole guitar and add back the Series/Parallel push pull on the bridge pickup as well.

 

[Coda]

This is a bucket list item for me. I have wanted a Les Paul with JP wiring for 20 years. It feels so strange now. What fun new adventure am I headed for?…

 

[Big Monk]

This is a bucket list item for me. I have wanted a Les Paul with JP wiring for 20 years. It feels so strange now. What fun new adventure am I headed for?…

Now you have to learn all the songs he used this wiring on.

Won’t take long…

 

[Bricksnbeatles]

I did the page wiring in my Epi LP trad pro back in high school. I still use all of the various options on a regular basis. bridge single coil and neck humbucker out of phase and in series is one of my go-to sounds for sparkly gretsch-like cleans.

 

[Feral Feline]

I'd love to have the JP wiring in my LP, but...

A) I don't own an LP yet
B) When I do get one it's gonna have a Staple and P90...

So I don't think I'll be able to rip out this Page in the history of Les Paul guitars.


So your guitar works now, but the explanation of poles and magnet order and other crucial info has still not been dropped here to tell us HOW it all works, like at GuitarElectronics.com

 

[Coda]

I'd love to have the JP wiring in my LP, but...

A) I don't own an LP yet
B) When I do get one it's gonna have a Staple and P90...

So I don't think I'll be able to rip out this Page in the history of Les Paul guitars.


So your guitar works now, but the explanation of poles and magnet order and other crucial info has still not been dropped here to tell us HOW it all works, like at GuitarElectronics.com

The way that diagram is laid out makes my head hurt.

With the JP wiring scheme, the volume pots split the coil (I believe is the pole piece magnet). The bridge tone controls is the phase switch, with also switches the coils in single coil mode. The neck tone control is the series/parallel switch…

Another thing that can be said about my experience is the pickups. These GFS Alnico II Classic pickups sounds miles ahead of the Epi ones they replaced…

 

[Feral Feline]

Makes my head hurt, too, but not as much as the one in your OP!

After working on the Ibby with a similar convoluted wiring-diagram and several other JP-LP crazy diagrams, I think... there's no easy way to draw it out — maybe the one I posted could spread the components out a bit more and in turn separate the lines more.



Your Alnico II Classics experience bodes well for me, Coda, I've got some GFS Lipstick-pups for my Tele project.