Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi everyone!

Okay, long story short, I love my Les Paul. It's a 95 Studio and I had the pickups rewound with vintage AlNiCo II magnets by Wolfe McLeod several years ago and asked that they be left microphonic. GREAT tone and sound.

Now I've begun to read online about a wiring modification that Jimmy Page uses to get some of the more "nasal" sounding humbucker tones. I've always liked those but have never been able to achieve them.

Knowing that I have vintage style 2 conductor pickups, I'm interested in a modification that would let me have that sound in addition to my current sound but without detrimentally affecting the overal sonics of the instrument.

1) I read online that Jimmy has a push-pull pot that does *something* to the phase of the pickups. What exactly does this pot do to the signal path and how does this contribute to the sound?

2) I read online in some places that you have to have a 4 conductor pickup wire to do this, but to be sure Jimmy hasn't done that to the vintage PAF's? Can this be done with 2 conductor pickups?

3) I found one mention in which someone used a "push-push" pot rather than a "push-pull" pot because of a perceived difficulty with the push-pull pot (i.e., pulling shaft out, pulling knob off). Does this matter in reality or is this an "operator headspace" issue for that person?

Any info, thoughts, experiences, etc. is welcome and greatly appreciated!

John

John...Google "Jimmy Page Wiring". There are all kinds of technical descriptions and diagrams answering your q's as well as kits to make it happen.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Been googling this all day and reading all I can. Each place I read makes me a little more confused. If I understand correctly, there are 2 different wiring schemes for this-- one with 4 push-pull pots and one with just one push-pull pot.

I'm confused about this 4 conductor vs 2 conductor business. I don't think you can change a 2 conductor to a 4 conductor without destroying the pickup and rebuilding it, correct? I can't find anything that says Page's pickups have been modified, so I am left wondering what exactly is the truth about this modification. It seems there's as much misinformation as there is information.

Sorry John...I have only one other suggestion. Check out the electric guitar forum at http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/ . I used it extensively during a few of my electric builds and the folks there were quite knowledgeable and helpful

_________________
JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

The coils in a humbucker can be wired together so that their signals are either summed or subtracted - either in phase or out of phase. They're normally wired in phase in a humbucker so you get a a fatter sound. If you wire them out of phase you get the thinner nasal sound you're talking about.
It's possible to convert a 2-conductor pickup to have 4-conductor, but it's easy to do damage if you're not careful. I destroyed a few pickups finding out what you can and can't do, but they were all cheapies (at the time..). Mr Page must have had this done if the pickups are still the original PAFs. The push/pull or pull/pull switch pot choice is just a matter of preference - you just need a DPDT switch for each pickup as one of the coils needs to have it's input and output wires swapped. You could leave the pots standard and fit separate switches if you really wanted to.
Cheers,
Bri