Jimmy Page wiring question

[lespaul59]

I bought a recently bought a 2020 Epiphone Les Custom Modes with a 3rd pickup and a bad wiring. I'm just completely redoing the wiring because not only was it not working right but it was a complete mess. A crazy idea I had was to blend the Jimmy Page wiring with the 3 pickup wiring as seen in the Seymour Duncan 3 pickup wiring diagram. Is this even possible, overly complicated or maybe even pointless. I probably should mention I'm still a newbie and while I don't really have trouble reading diagrams I also don't have the best soldering iron. I'm also looking to spend as little as possible so taking it to the shop is out of the question just because I don't want to spend any more than I have to. I'm basically just researching different ideas right now.

I've temporarily just wired the bridge pickup to one volume but I'm getting crazy buzzing. I check the grounding and discovered I had the bridge ground in the wrong spot. I moved the bridge ground and got rid of a good bit of the buzzing but not all of it. I used cloth covered wire for the ground and hot to the jack. There currently is no shielding and once the control cavity cover touches my leg and you actually get more buzzing. Is this a shielding issue? I checked all of the grounding using a multimeter and I plan on shielding everything when I take everything out to do the complete rewire.

Thanks for any help or advice.

[hamerfan]

This combination doesn‘t sound healthy to me. My advise: get professional help. There are folks out there who can supply a custom made harness for you. In the US i only know Jonesy from personal experience, but he is good starting point for your search.

https://jonesyblues.com

[lespaul59]

This combination doesn‘t sound healthy to me. My advise: get professional help. There are folks out there who can supply a custom made harness for you. In the US i only know Jonesy from personal experience, but he is good starting point for your search.
https://jonesyblues.com

This is what I was wondering. When I first thought about it I instantly thought would this even work. I've even considered putting Gretsch pickups in this guitar just because it would be something different than my 12 other Les Pauls.

Thanks for the reply.

[BeKindRewind]

Regarding wiring and soldering in general. If your soldering iron is a dud I'm assuming you don't have other assistances such as those little "engineer helper" arms with alligator clips to hold the wires for you, a good set of wire strippers, various sizes of heat shrink etc?

If so, I wouldn't recommend taking on this project unless you're willing to invest in those (especially the arm holders, it is immensely difficult without them but can be done) , but if you are willing I think this would be a great project for you to dig into and learn. It might cost almost as much as just having it professionally done, it might come with a couple of headaches and some trial and error. but if you are interested and have a lot of other projects you want to do, you'll save money in the long run by learning the skills now. You can practice everything before you do it "for real" (practice soldering to the back of a pot, practice splicing length onto a cable, etc.) and if you just take it one step at a time and make sure each solder joint is rock solid before moving to the next I think you'd get it done.

The issue you're having I don't think is a shielding issue, it sounds like there is something missing in the ground loop, but all this being said I'm no expert with the ins and outs of guitar wiring, just have a ton of experience soldering and wiring things in general. Cheers

[zionstrat]

Jimmy Page is a lot of work and debugging when things go wrong.. and three pickups bring out all kinds of challenges including which one is RWRP... Combine them together and you have a ton of choices to make before you even consider wiring.. definitely one to get help if you're going this direction.

As far as things you might want to try, you nailed one of my favorites.. there's a lot of fun gretch pups to play with that bring a lot of sparkle and light too heavy Les Paul's.. Good way to test your soldering skills and learn about phase...

[beaubrummels]

I've done JP wiring several times. If you are not good with a solder iron, I would work on that skill first, because it's a lot of testing and troubleshooting to get a JP harness to work properly. I'm not sure the value of it with a 3-PU harness anyway. Just adding all kinds of switching complexity, most of which won't be useful in practice.

If I had a 3-PU Lester I'd just do normal LP wiring on the neck and bridge (except with a master tone, to free up a pot for the middle PU) and put the middle on it's own volume separate from the switch so I could blend it in when I wanted.

The only thing I might consider adding is splits, I'd split the neck and bridge to slug and split the middle to screw (so it would noise cancel with the neck or bridge when combined.). Or something like that. But having standard LP switching on neck and bridge with their own volumes, and the middle on it's own volume as a blend, you'd be surprised how many sounds you'll get out of just that.

[lespaul59]

Regarding wiring and soldering in general. If your soldering iron is a dud I'm assuming you don't have other assistances such as those little "engineer helper" arms with alligator clips to hold the wires for you, a good set of wire strippers, various sizes of heat shrink etc?

If so, I wouldn't recommend taking on this project unless you're willing to invest in those (especially the arm holders, it is immensely difficult without them but can be done) , but if you are willing I think this would be a great project for you to dig into and learn. It might cost almost as much as just having it professionally done, it might come with a couple of headaches and some trial and error. but if you are interested and have a lot of other projects you want to do, you'll save money in the long run by learning the skills now. You can practice everything before you do it "for real" (practice soldering to the back of a pot, practice splicing length onto a cable, etc.) and if you just take it one step at a time and make sure each solder joint is rock solid before moving to the next I think you'd get it done.

The issue you're having I don't think is a shielding issue, it sounds like there is something missing in the ground loop, but all this being said I'm no expert with the ins and outs of guitar wiring, just have a ton of experience soldering and wiring things in general. Cheers

I don't mind investing in tools. My comment about not wanting to spend a lot was more about not wanting to take it to my local shop and have to pay for something I can possibly do myself. I have enough parts to practice on. To be honest I've never really thought about practicing soldering. I've seen it suggested to other people but I honestly never gave it any thought. My first try at pickup replacement was putting a Fishman Fluence in my Gibson Flying V. I ended up taking it to my local shop because my soldering iron couldn't put enough heat in to the large ground wire on my V and I thought I was going to have to use a mini toggle instead of the push pull pot.

As for the grounding/shielding issue I used the Seymour Duncan 1 Humbucker, 1 Volume wiring diagram. I used new cloth covered wire to run the ground and hot from the pot to the jack. The only thing I didn't mention before was I just used a new cheap push pull pot instead of the pot I took out because you can clearly tell it has gotten too hot. As I said before I used a multimeter to check the grounds and every thing read fine after I moved the bridge ground. Am I overlooking something. The only thing I can think of that may be a issue is I used a piece of branded wire that I cut out of the guitar to ground the right lug to the pot.

I plan on buying new quality pots and I already have a new Switchcraft jack. I'm probably gonna use the stock toggle switch unless I absolutely need to buy one. I am gonna completely rewire it as well. And if it still has issues it will go to the shop. By the way if I just go the 3 humbucker rout be it one full size HB and two Gretsch or just 3 regular HBs I'm gonna use the Seymour Duncan 3 HB wiring diagram.

I just want to say thanks to everybody for the help and advice.