Chasing Tone: 50's Guitar Wiring

As you know, I, like many other musicians, are always on a quest for tone.  I've written many posts on this blog about the subject.  Whether it is guitars, pickups, electronics, or capacitors, I am always on the hunt for a way to achieve the perfect. tone.

I came across an article a few weeks ago that was talking about a surprisingly easy and inexpensive way to improve the tone of a guitar.  Here's the link:

Mod Garage: Three Ways to Wire a Tone Pot

The author brought up a good point.  We look to the 1950's Gibson PAF pickups as the "Holy Grail" of all pickups.  But in all honesty, pickup makers today can create pickups that are just as good, if not better than those vintage PAF pickups.  So what's the difference?

As I've written before, many players are extremely fickle about their tone capacitors.  Some claim they can hear the differences between cheap ceramic caps and paper in oil caps.  Here are a few blog posts I wrote about trying out different caps.

Squeezing The Tone

Squeezing the Tone, Part 2 

Long story short, changing the capacitors did nothing for me.  For the heck of it I bought an old Russian paper in oil cap, and soldered it into my Dean Dixie Rebel.  Honestly, I couldn't hear a bit of difference.  That cap cost me $5, and that's on the cheap side.  The modern day Emerson paper in oil caps cost $20 a piece.  Let's be honest, $20 is way over the top for a capacitor.

So when I read the article posted above I originally took it with a grain of salt.  But the author said something that I hadn't thought of.  We accept those PAF pickups as the "Holy Grail" of pickups, but we are forgetting one thing.  They were also wired with 50's wiring.

Now I know you are wondering, "What does that have to do with anything?"  Well take a peek here.




From the article:

The tone cap connects to the volume pot’s output lug, rather than its input.

What’s so special about the ’50s wiring? It will influence the guitar’s performance in three major ways:

1. The overall tone gets stronger and more transparent. It’s difficult to describe, but I think of it as more “in your face.”

2. The typical treble loss that occurs when rolling back the volume is greatly reduced, and both the volume and tone controls react more smoothly and evenly without the typical hot spots. As a side effect, it’s easier to clean up an overdriven amp by simply rolling back the volume on your guitar a bit.

3. The tone and volume controls interact with each other—something you may know from certain early Fender tube amps. When you change the volume, the tone also changes a little bit and vice versa. Such interaction may feel strange at first, but it only takes a few minutes to get used to.

I've cut out a lot of the technical jargon, so I'll boil it down here.  The main problem with modern wiring is when you roll back the volume or the tone knobs.  Simply put, it doesn't sound great.  When backing off the tone knob, the biggest problem is the loss of volume in the high/treble sounds.  

So I decided to use my Guild Bluesbird as a guinea pig for this project.  I've written about it before.  Here's the link:

New Guitar Day: Guild Bluesbird

In that blog post I showed a few mods that I had made to "squeeze the tone" out of it.  Namely, I replaced the Alnico 5 magnet in the 59 neck pickup to an Alnico 2.  I also changed the cheap ceramic caps out for "Tropical Fish Capacitors."  (Yes, that really is what they are called.)

So here is the guitar we are working with.

And here is the inside control cavity. 

Let's fast forward to changing the wiring.

Honestly, it wasn't that hard or time consuming.  But here's the question... did it deliver promised results?  I mean, I've heard a lot of rumors, inuendo, and B.S., but did this actually work?  

Yes.  Yes it did.  I noticed a huge difference.  The sound really was more, "In your face" as described by the article.  Where I really noticed it was turning down the tone pots.  The high/treble sound didn't drop out like it had done before.  In other words, there was no loss of volume of the high/treble notes. 

I also noticed the pickups sounded much brighter.  The 59' neck pickup (with an Alnico 2 magnet) sounded extremely balanced.  They might be considered too muddy for high gain/metal players.  But with 50's wiring it sounded amazingly balanced and soulful.  

The 59' bridge pickup (stock) was much brighter.  It actually reminded me of 1950's music.  I know all the advertisements like to say their vintage pickups are warm, blah, blah, blah, etc.  Have you ever listened to late 50's/early 60's music?  Think of the Beach Boys.  Listen to them and realize how bright their sound is.  I know they are playing Fender instruments, but still, the 50's sound was pretty bright.

With 50's wiring the Seymour Duncan 59' sounds exactly like it rolled off the line at Gibson back then.  What also surprised me was that the bridge pickup had quite a bit of bite that it never had before.  I think some folks might mistake it for a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates pickup due to the amount of bite it had.  

The verdict?  The verdict is yes.  In fact, it's a huge yes!  In complete honesty I didn't think it would make that much of a difference.  And the one thing I hadn't thought of was, "How do different types of capacitors react with 50's wiring?"  Those paper in oil caps might make a bit of a difference with 50's wiring.  

I already had quality Tropical Fish Capacitors installed in the Bluesbird.  So I'm not sure how much (or little) of an upgrade they are over cheap ceramic caps.  But to get back to the point, 50's wiring really did make that much of a difference.  I'm going to be doctoring a few of my guitars in the coming weeks.  

I am thankful for Premier Guitar for running the wiring article.  I am reminded of what a violin luthier told me.  He said, "We can make anything as good as Stradivarius these days due to sharing so much information.  We don't have to keep reinventing the wheel every ten years."  

So I have written this blog post to keep sharing information.  I believe it's important.  I've seen the quality of guitars skyrocket in the last twenty years.  I've seen the parts on those guitars skyrocket as well.  Sharing information is pivital to making amazing music.  I hope I've helped you out some.  

Idiot Scoutmasters: I'm The Idiot Scoutmaster!

I've had this Idiot Scoutmaster series going for quite a while now.  When you spend over a decade in the Boys Scouts you are bound to come up with a few head-scratching moments from your adult leaders.  However, I got to thinking.  Yes, I know it's a dangerous thing to do.  But I looked at it from the other end.

I was an Assistant Scoutmaster for two years.  Was I perfect?  The definite answer is a resounding, "No."  So this story is about the time I was the Idiot Scoutmaster.  Yes, I am admitting that even I screw up.

When I became an Assistant Scoutmaster for Troop 180 out of Lutz, Fl. there had been a shift in youth members.  They had lost a lot of  boys to turning sixteen.  I know you are thinking, "But aren't the boys allowed to be youth members until their eighteenth birthday?"  Yes.  That is true.

But when they turn sixteen they start driving, and become more interested in girls than Scouting.
I heard one of my own Scoutmasters say, "We've got to get these boys to Eagle by fifteen, or else they'll never get it."  ("It" being Eagle.)  Again, the subjects of girls and cars were brought up.

So Troop 180 was in the middle of a member shift.  It mostly consisted of Scouts that were one to two years removed from Webelos.  So they were quite young and inexperienced.  I remember the first campout that I somehow ended up being in charge of for the first hour.  I was running ragged answering question after question.  They were coming at me like a machine gun.

That was one of my stronger moments.  But like I said earlier, I've had my Idiot Scoutmaster moments.  It all started with two of the Scouts doing something extremely stupid.  I can't remember what.  But I was giving them unholy hell for doing it.

That's when I said/yelled, "You're acting like a bunch of God Damned twelve year olds!"  Yeah, not one of my better moments.  It was then that one of the Scouts said back to me, "But I'm ten!"  I didn't quite know what to say to that.

So I calmed down a bit, and thought about the situation.  I realized I was dealing with not just kids, but ten year old kids.  They were inexperienced, and when it came to communicating with youth so was I.  So I learned something new that day.

I screwed up a bit, but I tried to be a better Scoutmaster because I now knew what I was working with.  Also, the Scouts quit doing whatever dumb thing I yelled at them for.  So they learned a bit as well.

Does this mean I'm going to quit posting, "Idiot Scoutmaster" stories?  Hell no.  I'm sitting on a goldmine of stupidity stories.  I can't let that go.  But look at this way.  The Scoutmasters who were idiots will have stories told about them, and those who weren't will not.

For further reading, here is my Idiot Scoutmaster collection:

Bored Scoutmasters and the Tale of the Wampus

https://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2014/07/bored-scoutmasters-and-tale-of-wampus.html

Idiot Scoutmasters: A True Story of a Scout's Canteen

https://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2018/09/idiot-scoutmasters-true-story-of-scouts.html

Idiot Scoutmasters: Once Bitten, Forever Stupid

https://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2019/01/idiot-scoutmasters-once-bitten-forever.html

Idiot Scoutmasters: The Dishwashing Paradox

https://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2019/02/idiot-scoutmasters-dishwashing-paradox.html

Idiot Scoutmasters: The Idiot Committee

https://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2019/12/idiot-scoutmasters-idiot-committee.html

Here's a post that goes back over a decade.  This was posted on my old Myspace Blog.

Adrian reminisces about his childhood days with the Boy Scouts

https://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2011/02/adrian-reminisces-about-his-childhood.html

No One Laughed At My "Sad Keanu" Meme

I like to think I am a funny person.  But every comedian has a joke that falls flat.  I recently had that happen.  What upsets me is I really thought this was "the one."  It turned out to be, "the one that nobody thought was funny.

I was cooking dinner when a thought came to me.  Back when I played high school football we had the cheerleaders screaming behind us the whole game.  I never thought much about it.  But one thing stuck out because it's a saying that all, and I mean ALL, cheerleaders yell at each other.

So here's the meme.

I asked my Dad "Why didn't he like my meme?"

His response, "I didn't get it."

"What do you mean you didn't get it?"

"I didn't get it.  It went over my head."

"Dad you went to every one of my football games.  What did the cheerleaders scream at each other?"

Dad said, "I don't know."

"They always yelled, "We have spirit!  Yes we do!  We've got spirit!  How bout you?"  I replied.

"I never thought of that.  It went completely over my head."

Okay, I realize my sense of humor is out there.  Maybe this joke would be funny to cheerleaders and football players?  Of course, I have to consider the possibility that it's just not funny.  Maybe I'm not as funny as I thought I was.

The Crow, Or... Adrian Ruins Wicca Again

On Facebook I follow a Wiccan Private Group.  It's more for shits and giggles than anything else.  Most of the posts are people dealing with tough things in their life, and want magical advice about it.  The problem I have is most people are all too willing to give magical advice, and not real "get it together" advice.  Honestly, it's mostly issues that people should talk to a therapist about.  Not get advice from uneducated amateurs on Facebook.

I've actually never posted on the Wiccan webpage, nor have I responded to a post until today.  I read a post that was in need of more practical advice than any post I have ever seen on the webpage.  Here's how it went.

Robin asked, "So, to me....no question is a dumb question, so here is mine. 9 times out of 10 when I go out back (just right behind my apt.) I have this crow that seems to show up. Either on the lamp post, tree or ground very close to me making his noises.When I go in he leaves. Am I nuts or ??"

Okay, not a bad question.  The responses were less than stellar though.

Chris responded, "The crow is a messenger, but it also connects to many deities. Was there some specific event they happened before the Crow showed up the first time?"

I think Chris meant to say "that happened," and not "they happened."

Cheri also replied, "We have cross on campus at my school...I always feel very special when they visit me."

Okay....

Mel said, "If you have recently lost a loved one it are thinking about a lost loved one more than usual recently it could well be a message from your loved one that they are watching over you! Crows are messenger from the spirits that have crossed ahead of you so don’t be alarmed instead pay closer attention to other signs you may think irrelevant and the message you are meant to receive will reveal itself to you. I follow Reet Psychic Medium she does live feeds and readings for free daily sometime twice daily and as long as you say please when asking for a reading she will read for you if your name draws her to you if she’s drawn to you and you don’t say please she won’t read! She’s a bit crass and very energetic but she has been spot on in the readings she’s done for me!!!"

Well, it sounds like Mel has consumed a few wine coolers, but okay.  I don't agree that the poster needs to visit an "Internet Psychic," but that's just me.

Michelle replied, "The crow represents higher purpose... higher knowledge..crows are also associated with alchemy and transformation , intelligence...stay tuned and tapped in to source..also a call to be fearless and audacious ..take that risk ..and to be flexible and adaptable 🖤

At least it appears Michelle opened a book.  Good for Michelle.  Again, I totally disagree with her, but I'm glad she bothered to crack a book.  

So what does "High and Mighty" Adrian have to say about this?

Adrian replied, "Someone has fed the crow, and it's learned that humans equal food. So when it sees you, it comes over for food. Remember, birdseed not bread."

(Adds tally mark to others.) 

Once again, I've ruined things for others.  Seriously, someone had to do it.  Crows are dang smart, and are one of the best animals on the planet for picking up learned abilities.  Someone had been feeding that crow, and it picked up that "humans equal food" really quickly.  

Think about what Robin originally said.  She steps out her apartment's back door and the crow shows up.  She goes back inside and it goes away.  Someone at that apartment complex has been feeding the crow.  It doesn't take a genius or a Wiccan genius to figure that out.  

When it comes down to it, I really hope I helped Robin out.  Actually, I hope I helped out some of the other posters.  Maybe they can think outside the metaphysical box?  Not everything requires a metaphysical solution.  And for those who have read this to the end, and thought I was going to write about the movie, "The Crow," I apologize.