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Anyone else prefer Modern over '50s wiring for two pickup guitars with a 2+2 control setup?

Hiwatts-n-Gibsons

Well-known member
Joined
May 10, 2024
Messages
854
Or am I an outlier? It doesn't matter if they're wired with a Treble Bleed or not. I just don't like how '50s wiring impacts the middle position tones.

It's not like it sounds bad perse, but I tend to play with my guitars set with the neck volume on 6, and bridge volume on 8-9.

With modern wiring it yields cleans without mud on the neck pickup, a flick to the bridge yields a nasty aggressive snarl, and the middle position sounds like a beefier but still articulate less upper mid range emphasized version of my bridge pickup that is my ideal for heavy rhythm tones.

With the '50s wiring it seems to sound too thin with the bridge pickup volume set higher than the neck, so I don't get the same options as I do with the Modern wiring scheme.
 
Last edited:

Parisianwalker

New member
Joined
Aug 16, 2023
Messages
24
Or am I an outlier? It doesn't matter if they're wired with a Treble Bleed or not. I just don't like how '50s wiring impacts the middle position tones.

It's not like it sounds bad perse, but I tend to play with my guitars set with the neck volume on 6, and bridge volume on 8-9.

With modern wiring it yields cleans without mud on the neck pickup, a flick to the bridge yields a nasty aggressive snarl, and the middle position sounds like a beefier but still articulate less upper mid range emphasized version of my bridge pickup that is my ideal for heavy rhythm tones.

With the '50s wiring it seems to sound too thin with the bridge pickup volume set higher than the neck, so I don't get the same options as I do with the Modern wiring scheme.
Have you tried playing around with the tone pots as well? With ‘50s wiring the tone and volume controls are interactive with one another. I find that, for example, if I’m on 9 on the volume control and I slightly back down the tone control to 9 or 9.5, I don’t immediately get a darker sound, but a cleaner one. It’s tricky to explain.

I’m not sure that I’ve ever come across the issue with the middle position sound that you describe. Perhaps the sweet spot is set elsewhere on a guitar with ‘50s wiring?
 

Hiwatts-n-Gibsons

Well-known member
Joined
May 10, 2024
Messages
854
Have you tried playing around with the tone pots as well? With ‘50s wiring the tone and volume controls are interactive with one another. I find that, for example, if I’m on 9 on the volume control and I slightly back down the tone control to 9 or 9.5, I don’t immediately get a darker sound, but a cleaner one. It’s tricky to explain.

I’m not sure that I’ve ever come across the issue with the middle position sound that you describe. Perhaps the sweet spot is set elsewhere on a guitar with ‘50s wiring?
Yeap. I tend to ride my volume knobs a lot, my tone knobs a little, mostly when using fuzz and Octave pedals.

For reference on this guitar in particular it started off as a 2xP90 Les Paul Special with modern wiring. I had the neck pickup replaced with a Seymour Duncan Soapbar A5 Staple pickup, the stock 300k pots, and had it rewired '50s style. After I got it back I noticed the difference in volume between settings when in the middle position. It isn't a big drop, but it is definitely noticable.

I also have two other guitars with somewhat similar pickiups, but with the modern wiring set up.

1) SG Standard with a BG Pure 90 bridge pickup, and TV Jones Dynasonic clone in the neck, and the four stock Gibson 300k pots. The DC resistance on the pickups are about the same as the stock Gibson P90 and Duncan Staple clone in the LP Special.

2) LP Standard with a BG Pure 90 pickup, and a Seymour Duncan Dynasonic clone in the neck with four CTS 500k pots, a treble bleed on the neck pickup, and a no load tone control on the bridge pickup. Again, the BG Pure 90 is roughly the same in DC resistance rating as the P90, but the Duncan Dynasonic clone is a bit hotter than the Staple or the TV Jones Dynasonic clone.

Neither the SG Standard, nor the LP Standard have any noticeable volume drop when switched to the middle position. Only the LP Special with '50s wiring does.
 
Last edited:

Parisianwalker

New member
Joined
Aug 16, 2023
Messages
24
Gotcha. I can’t help you I’m afraid as I haven’t experienced that.
In fact, with my R7 I’ve experienced the opposite: the middle position has always been anemic on my 2 SGs with ‘50s wiring (a Stamdard rewired with 500k pots and a Special that came out of the factory like that, both have audio pots), so I live on either the bridge or neck pickup.
On my R7, despite having essentially the same electronics (give or take the CS mojo), the middle position actually makes sense. It’s actually usable.
 
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