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.  

Squeezing the Tone, Part 2

In a previous blog post I talked about the difference of opinion when it comes to guitar capacitors.  If you have any hope of understanding what I'm talking about here, you may want to read this first.

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2017/01/squeezing-tone.html

So this is what it boils down to.  I have my guinea pig, my Epiphone Les Paul plain top honeyburst.

Now I'm going to change capacitors... again.  This time I bought an oil in paper cap AKA, the supreme mojo thing-a-ma-bob.  The oil in paper cap is supposedly the "bee's knees" of all tone caps. 

As I did say in my previous post, an oil in paper cap is a "run" capacitor.  The polyester caps are "start" capacitors.  I figured there wouldn't be any difference between poly caps, but I had to hear if oil caps really did have that secret, "mojo."

So I put a 0.022 UF oil in paper cap in the bridge tone pot.  I figured that would be where I would hear the most difference. 

I switched out the Mallory 0.022 UF poly cap for a Mallory 0.0153 UF cap for the neck tone pot.  I heard that was the key to getting the ultra super duper secret tone.  Also, it's suggested for the Eric Clapton woman tone.  Correction.  It's one of many suggestions I've read/heard/seen about achieving the woman tone.  So I went for it.

The black one is the oil in paper cap.  The yellow one is the Mallory. 

First up, the Mallory 0.0153 UF cap.

I know it's a little rough, but I've had a few pickups and a few caps in this guitar. 

Next up is the oil in paper 0.022 UF cap.

Once the solder cooled I immediately went for the sound check.  And you know how it sounded?  Exactly like it did before.  I can't say it improved the tone at all.  In all fairness I was already happy with how it sounded. 

I will give it this.  Changing the Mallory cap from 0.022 UF to 0.0153 changed the tone "a smidge" when I rolled back the tone all the way.  But then again, when do I ever do that? 

So, I'm glad I did this little experiment.  But I have to say, it didn't really change my opinion of paying a lot for "higher end" capacitors.  To me, the value is simply the value.  But I will say, I learnt quite a bit.  It answered a few questions I'd had for a while.  So I feel pretty good about that.  Now, off to play a little guitar. 

Squeezing The Tone

As you know car guys, motorcycle guys, and guitar guys like myself are always trying to "tweek" a little more power out of their equipment. I decided to try an experiment with one of my guitars.

This is not my personal guitar, but looks exactly like my Epiphone Les Paul Honeyburst Plain Top.

There has been a lot of talk on the internet about the different type of capacitors in guitars. Oil in paper caps were in the earliest Gibson guitars, so that's what the gold standard is.

I have read many articles with differing opinions on the subject. Some say if a cap is 0.022 uf., then why change it out for another cap that is the same value, just because it is supposedly a better capacitor? Another article I read ranked the caps from worst to best. The author had a great write-up on how each cap affected the pickups and electronics.

I also read comments where players said it made a difference, and others who said they couldn't hear one lick of difference. Now, I know that not all ears are created equal. I'm not the best player, but thanks to training from my cello teacher Laura, I pride myself on having great ears. 

I was always good at recommending pickups to players due to being able to hear the differences in the EQ, compression, and the presence. So if I could "tweek" out a little more tone out of a pickup by just changing a $1 part, I'll give it a try.

The author of the ranked caps article said that he considered Mallory caps to be just second to a true oil in paper cap. I still had a Mallory cap from an old project. (It was my very last cap in my parts drawer.)  I decided to use my Epiphone Les Paul plain top as a guinea pig.  Here's the Mallory cap.

I sound checked my guitar before changing the cap, and then played it immediately afterward. I only changed the neck tone cap. That way I could focus on one pickup. I also made sure I was taking out a 0.022 cap, and putting in a 0.022 cap.

The result? I couldn't hear one blasted amount of difference. I tried. I really did. I rolled the tone control back and forth. I played through two different amps. I don't think it changed a dang thing.

One thing I will concede is that better made caps are more true to their value.  For instance, better made caps have tight tolerances.  Meaning if a cap is marked 0.022 uf, then a well made one will be within a 5% or less tolerance.  So while one cap may not be better than another type, it could be out of spec.  And that could make a difference

One thing I haven't mentioned is that in electronics there are start caps and run caps.  This is important in high powered machines.  The start cap provides a voltage jump to get the machine started, and the run cap keeps the machine running.  The start cap drops out after a few seconds (45 seconds at the most.)  So there are different types of caps.

So what does this have to do with a guitar cap?  Well, a guitar pickup (for the most part) is passive.  In other words you are not running 220 volts through your pickups, caps and pots.  But here's where it gets interesting.  A run capacitor is usually oil filled, like a oil in paper cap.  In other words those classic caps used in those vintage guitars are run caps.

Even weirder, the poly caps that are used now-a-days are start caps.  So I will say there is a difference in what they were originally created to do.  Here's a great article about run vs. start caps.

http://www.capacitorformotor.com/starting_capacitor.html

Again, I pride myself on having a dang good ear. I also know my equipment. I've had this guitar for 9 years, and the main testing amp for 10 years. I know in my heart and my ears that changing out the original cap to the Mallory cap didn't change the sound at all. 

So, I'm glad I tried. It didn't hurt anything, and I came away with a different point of view.  I admit, I have to rethink what I thought I knew about capacitors.  I am still conflicted on whether I should spend $5 to test out a paper in oil cap.  That's the only thing I can think of that may affect the one that I haven't tried.