Rewired my 2010 R9 Les Paul

RFR

Well-known member
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.
:D
 
I think I'll take the day off from work tommorrow and just play guitar all day.
:D

Sounds like a plan. :D

What pots were originally in the LP? I'm willing to believe the pots and the caps are where the tonal difference lie. I can't believe for a second the wires had anything to do with the tone.
 
Sounds like a plan. :D

What pots were originally in the LP? I'm willing to believe the pots and the caps are where the tonal difference lie. I can't believe for a second the wires had anything to do with the tone.

500 k cts.
Aw, come on.....getting rid of the braided wire was the most crucial part.
And, I used the whitish creme cloth wire for ground and the black for hot.
Did it the other way at first (black gnd), but switching colors really opened it up.
:D
 
Capacitors only have any affect when the T pots are most of the way down. I almost bought the idea that separate conductors (opposed to one conductor plus shield) would have less capacitance, but those runs are so short it can't matter. Cutting all the pots in half would have a very noticeable effect, but in the opposite direction. It would be quite a bit darker.
 
Well I plead the fifth. :D

I'm suprised no one called me out on my lunatic post earlier.
Maybe people are too kind. Maybe people are used to this kind of lunacy from the gear page. Maybe most realized it was April fools day bullshit from the beginning and refused to give it any attention.

Either way, I had fun with my troll post, and if it gave only one person a chuckle........ Mission accomplished.
:D
 
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