New pickups and wiring (Lollar content)

Heady Jam Fan · August 08, 2012, 08:42:09 PM

I finally got my Lollar Imperials installed in my guitar, after 18 days!

I tried it myself and it seemed to work until I reinstalled all the electronics, I think I messed up something putting it all back together. Rather than spend another three hours I decided to take it to a tech ASAP...

So two days later I took it to a place I used to go to religiously until three years ago when they f'ed up installing a single coil

then I went to try fuzz pedals a few months ago and not a single sales person knew anything about them, so I gave them a lesson a fuzz. But they said they could fix it that day, called me back 9 days later saying the wiring schema just couldn't possibly work, lol, I hadn't changed anything, but they wouldn't believe me.

I took it directly to the tech who had done my initial wiring and got it back today. I got a nice surprise....

Not only are the Lollars awesome; much better balanced than the Schaller Golden 50's, but I had asked my tech to change the coil tap mini toggle to a parallel switch because I couldn't stand the 60hz hum most of the time (there are other kinda tele-like settings I used instead, but I wanted to use the toggle since it was there). He said he didn't think there were enough lugs on the mini toggle he had put in there, but he would try if he could. When I got to his shop today, he had a 3-way mini toggle in its place that has the typical series setting, coil tap and parallel! Not to mention I still have the master series putting both humbuckers in series with each other.

I also gave some DR Tite-Fit 10's and I really like them, they are actually really slinky, they play like 9's compared to whatever I had on the guitar before (also 10's). I've heard they last a long time as well, even though Trey re-strings every show.

I also switched the volume and tone pot out; I put in an RS CTS volume and CTS tone from Torres along with his .015u Woman Cap and wired it in the 50's wiring. My tech said he would do whatever he could to help me maintain as much treble as possible as I used the volume knob (he said he might try a treble bleed, not sure if he did or not), but I am still getting some treble loss - not bad, but I will see if I feel I need to try something else. I don't notice the treble loss much in a live setting, but I do at home or for recording.

Happyorange27 · August 09, 2012, 08:21:43 AM

Awesome upgrade on the pickups and cool wiring. I love DR MT10 strings. They last for months if you are too lazy or cheap like me.

Heady Jam Fan · August 09, 2012, 08:41:10 AM

Lol, yea, I love the sound of new strings, but I leave mine on for way too long unless I am playing out or sometimes I change them for recording.

I got 4 packs of them with Ebay Bucks (kinda a reward for buying stuff on ebay) over the past few months, so these were essentially free.

Happyorange27 · August 09, 2012, 08:49:52 AM

Yeah you can't let those ebay bucks expire, right?

Heady Jam Fan · August 09, 2012, 09:19:13 AM

hell no

gone phishing · August 09, 2012, 12:15:00 PM

The strings are awesome. Thats all I use. They last pretty long if you arent a really hard player. I can go a month or so without breaking any, and they still have a pretty good sound and feel nice

Heady Jam Fan · August 09, 2012, 01:20:00 PM

Nice, I can't remember the last time I broke a string (knocking on wood) so I have to get to the point when I have a reason to change strings or I get so sick of the dullness that I change them just for myself.

MomaDan · August 09, 2012, 03:47:25 PM

I used the wiring diagram you posted a few months back with 500k push/pulls instead of switches. It confused my tech a little bit but he figured it out after talking to Wolfe from Wolfetone. I just got a compensated nut put on this week, it was so needed for the Les Paul. It used to go out of tune in like 5 minutes, much improved now.

For strings I just bought a pack of Curt Mangan's to try out, they get very good reviews on tgp.

Heady Jam Fan · August 09, 2012, 04:57:22 PM

Yea, that diagram is great - hope your enjoying it! My tech had to use a fancy switch (a double switch I think he called it) to get the parallel and coil-tap on one switch. He is a huge fan of single coils and was against me going with parallel instead of coil-tap in the first iteration of my wiring, so I think he went out of his way to give me both options. The single setting is a little louder and livelier, but the parallel is pretty damn close without the 60hz buzz (and I think there are a lot of electronics on the floor above and below me that cause more noise).

When I mentioned Languedoc mods the pickups to buck hum in the single setting, he said he could see how that is possible, something along the lines of having a switch turn one of the coils into a dummy coil rather than changing the grounding (not sure of how it technically works, but a coil-tap has something to do with either sending one coil to ground or disconnecting the ground...). But obviously you have to mod the pickups, if I knew someone who had a good idea of what they were doing locally, I would have let them try on my Golden 50's if they could also wire them more balanced and repot them well. No one is gonna mod my Lollars, they are too expensive.

picture_of_nectar · August 10, 2012, 02:31:47 AM

Imperials are sweet. good choice!

fulltone1989 · August 11, 2012, 05:24:29 PM

Is there a simple way to see if your pickups are eligible for these mods? Where did you post the diagram Heady?

Heady Jam Fan · August 11, 2012, 11:59:10 PM

Hitting the sack, so you can search for the thread, its on here not too long ago, probably here under the guitar topic - otherwise search guitar electronics - it has the schema, just a few additions you need to request from your tech.

Telling if you can wire pups that way isn't too tough; they either have two or four conductor wires available. If they have two, two of the four are essentially connected internally, if they have four conductor wires, you can do anything with them.

Pulling out the pickup and looking at where they connect to the remainder of the electrical components is the best bet on letting you know if there are two or four conductor wires. If it is a typical wiring, and there are four conductor wires, then you will see some of the conductor wires soldered together most likely. Otherwise you need a new set of pups to achieve this type of wiring schema, which I think is worth it if you can afford it, been loving the parallel setting as I play a lot of SRV and Hendrix in some groups and I only want to bring one guitar, even using it a lot for my own jam tunes.

Your playing a solid body still? Easier to check - your lucky. Just open the back or bring it to a shop and ask.

PS - saw your post on the Lessons board, I will try to double check that for you tomorrow or sometime this week (looks correct in my buzzed state) -been super busy as I neglected most of my doc school work this week aside from teaching all the master student ladies... had to write 14+ pages in a few hours today, and about to try to enjoy two weeks of no work aside from a few days of psych assessments, so I can't promise I will check it, but will try to. Just remember, it will be enharmonic and don't doubt yourself because of that.

fulltone1989 · August 12, 2012, 12:16:18 PM

Quote from: Heady Jam Fan on August 11, 2012, 11:59:10 PM
Hitting the sack, so you can search for the thread, its on here not too long ago, probably here under the guitar topic - otherwise search guitar electronics - it has the schema, just a few additions you need to request from your tech.

Telling if you can wire pups that way isn't too tough; they either have two or four conductor wires available. If they have two, two of the four are essentially connected internally, if they have four conductor wires, you can do anything with them.

Pulling out the pickup and looking at where they connect to the remainder of the electrical components is the best bet on letting you know if there are two or four conductor wires. If it is a typical wiring, and there are four conductor wires, then you will see some of the conductor wires soldered together most likely. Otherwise you need a new set of pups to achieve this type of wiring schema, which I think is worth it if you can afford it, been loving the parallel setting as I play a lot of SRV and Hendrix in some groups and I only want to bring one guitar, even using it a lot for my own jam tunes.

Your playing a solid body still? Easier to check - your lucky. Just open the back or bring it to a shop and ask.

PS - saw your post on the Lessons board, I will try to double check that for you tomorrow or sometime this week (looks correct in my buzzed state) -been super busy as I neglected most of my doc school work this week aside from teaching all the master student ladies... had to write 14+ pages in a few hours today, and about to try to enjoy two weeks of no work aside from a few days of psych assessments, so I can't promise I will check it, but will try to. Just remember, it will be enharmonic and don't doubt yourself because of that.

Very cool - Yes I'd be putting them in my LP and getting some push/pull pots.

Sounds like a good gig, I saw that thread literally right after I posted last night, my bad haha.

On another note the LCC is a pretty cool book, experimenting what lydian scale (aux dim, lydian augmented etc) sounds best over each different chord in the diagrams is working the best for me as far as learning them goes. I'm gonna sit down and write out some movable positions for each scale somewhat like the modes of the major scale and see what overlaps. Although it seems like a daunting task trying to memorize what color chord (m7b5, 7b9) is incorrelation to the lydian chromatic scale (what degree the root represents to the parent chord) seems like the only way to really get the concept under my fingers and being able to freely move around and use the concept. Mapping out movable positions will help though.

I bet if one was to master the LCC other chromatic concepts such as Dorian and Mixolydian exist too!