I've always liked the way my Les Paul looks, feels and plays. Not to mention how jealous my guitar playing buddy, who is a bit more poor, gets when I pop open that brown lifton reissue case. Yeah, it's pretty sweet with it's faded burst flametop and one of the last Brazilian boards.
However I like the way my strat sounds so much more. It's much more open, an airy sound.
My burst sounds muddy in comparison. I know single coils are quite a bit different than humbuckers, but I can't install single coils in the humbucker routes without it looking goofy and unprofessional. Besides the pickups aren't 4 conductor so splitting the coils isn't an option.
I thought about it for a while, and thought why not just rewire it. I know over on that gear page people are always talking about how big of a difference what kind of wire being used makes.
Vintage style lp wiring is 2 conductor braided, and vintage strat is two conductor cloth covered without a braid. Plus 250 k pots.
So I ripped all the braided wire out of the Paul, took out the bumblebee caps and took out the pots.
I rewired everything with the cloth wire and put in 250k pots along with some orange drop caps. I even got rid of the braided wire from the pickups and did cloth wire like strat pickups.
It was a lot of work, took me all damn night. But it was so worth it!
The les paul is now airier, cleaner, has more sparkle and harmonics seem to jump out more. I can't believe the difference. It's like night and day.
Getting rid of the shielding the braid provided did bring up the noise level a bit, but that adds to that strat sound.
Finally, after all this time I've owned it, I'm happy with the tone.
I think I'll take the day off from work tommorrow and just play guitar all day.
However I like the way my strat sounds so much more. It's much more open, an airy sound.
My burst sounds muddy in comparison. I know single coils are quite a bit different than humbuckers, but I can't install single coils in the humbucker routes without it looking goofy and unprofessional. Besides the pickups aren't 4 conductor so splitting the coils isn't an option.
I thought about it for a while, and thought why not just rewire it. I know over on that gear page people are always talking about how big of a difference what kind of wire being used makes.
Vintage style lp wiring is 2 conductor braided, and vintage strat is two conductor cloth covered without a braid. Plus 250 k pots.
So I ripped all the braided wire out of the Paul, took out the bumblebee caps and took out the pots.
I rewired everything with the cloth wire and put in 250k pots along with some orange drop caps. I even got rid of the braided wire from the pickups and did cloth wire like strat pickups.
It was a lot of work, took me all damn night. But it was so worth it!
The les paul is now airier, cleaner, has more sparkle and harmonics seem to jump out more. I can't believe the difference. It's like night and day.
Getting rid of the shielding the braid provided did bring up the noise level a bit, but that adds to that strat sound.
Finally, after all this time I've owned it, I'm happy with the tone.
I think I'll take the day off from work tommorrow and just play guitar all day.