Tried a thing in my Les Paul

[HamishR]

I have a beautiful R9 Les Paul which was a very extravagant purchase but at least I bought it used, and before prices started getting silly. It's an amazing sounding and playing guitar - it surprises me with just how good it sounds every time I play it. But if I set it up to sound right for the bridge pickup the neck pickup is too loud and a bit boomy. It's a good sound sound, but out of balance with the bridge pickup. I've done all the usual things like lowering it etc but it's pretty much as low as it can go and the bridge pickup is as high as it can go.

I measured the DC resistance and the neck pickup is slightly hotter than the bridge - apparently this was in an effort to replicate the randomness of the original pickups. The leads aren't long enough to swap them around - and the difference isn't that great anyway. So I tried installing a .0047µF cap between the hot wire of the neck pickup and the pot. Bingo! The pickups are perfectly balanced! The neck pickup is slightly lower in output and the bass level matches the bridge pickup very well.

But the in between setting doesn't sound as good as it did before. So I may end up turning the neck pickup tone control into a neck pickup bass control. I may need to change to a C taper pot for this but I'll see how the stock pot goes... I really don't want to change pickups because I love the stock pickups. If this works it will really improve the sound for my taste and will be a helluva lot cheaper than a new pickup.

 

[music6000]

I have a beautiful R9 Les Paul which was a very extravagant purchase but at least I bought it used, and before prices started getting silly. It's an amazing sounding and playing guitar - it surprises me with just how good it sounds every time I play it. But if I set it up to sound right for the bridge pickup the neck pickup is too loud and a bit boomy. It's a good sound sound, but out of balance with the bridge pickup. I've done all the usual things like lowering it etc but it's pretty much as low as it can go and the bridge pickup is as high as it can go.

I measured the DC resistance and the neck pickup is slightly hotter than the bridge - apparently this was in an effort to replicate the randomness of the original pickups. The leads aren't long enough to swap them around - and the difference isn't that great anyway. So I tried installing a .0047µF cap between the hot wire of the neck pickup and the pot. Bingo! The pickups are perfectly balanced! The neck pickup is slightly lower in output and the bass level matches the bridge pickup very well.

But the in between setting doesn't sound as good as it did before. So I may end up turning the neck pickup tone control into a neck pickup bass control. I may need to change to a C taper pot for this but I'll see how the stock pot goes... I really don't want to change pickups because I love the stock pickups. If this works it will really improve the sound for my taste and will be a helluva lot cheaper than a new pickup.

Have you measured the Volume pots to see if they are the same resistance across legs 1 & 3.
I have heard anything from 430K to 520K variances???.
As a rule, Bridge is usually Hotter???

 

[cdwillis]

The 57 Classics that came in my SG were really close in output. I think the neck measured 7.8k and the bridge was 7.9k. I've always struggled getting a clear sound out of a neck humbucker. It'll sound great for something like a Gary Moore thick lead tone, but too woofy for rhythm guitar. I've heard about that capacitor trick with the neck pickup, but I haven't ever tried it. The neck pickup tone being changed to a bass cut is another mod that probably would have helped. I ended up replacing my 57 Classics with Wolfetones and it worked out the issues I had. I know it's not period correct, but underwinding the neck and overwinding the bridge is a no brainer to me. I've got a Legend with an Alnico 2 in the neck and a Marshallhead with an Alnico 2 in the bridge. 500k linear volumes and 500k logarithmic tone pots. Probably the best clean up by rolling the volume down I've ever had.

 

[spi]

Did you try adding a resistor too, as suggested by this video?

 

[HamishR]

Well today I tried this:



And it works! Really pleased with it. All the action is right at the top of the dial so I only have to wind the knob back to around 7-8 and the neck pickup has never sounded better. It's kinda like putting in a much lower wind pickup in there. I can balance it both tonally and volume-wise with the bridge pickup easily. Highly recommended. I guess having a louder neck pickup isn't so bad now.

 

[cdwillis]

Does the bass pot work pretty well even with the volume turned down a little bit? The complaint I see most often with 50s style wiring is that the tone control is less effective once the volume pot gets turned down. I'm guessing the impedance is lowering before the tone control so it doesn't work as well. I'd rather stick with my 50s wiring because it cleans up better and the only time I'm really rolling the tone off is when the pickup is full blast anyway.

 

[HamishR]

I'll check.