500K Pots in Les Paul '56 Historic...

[Lewguitar]

Hi Guys, We've discussed this before but I thought I'd let'cha know that the Gibson labeled pots in the '98 Les Paul '56 Historic Gold Top I just installed new Lindy Fralin -15% Neck/Stock Bridge P90's in were labeled 500K....tho some of them measured as low as 430K!

I replaced two of the volume controls with 500K CTS and moved the tone cap to the middle terminal...the 50's mod. The guitar sounds alot better to me and I can turn the volume controls down below "5" now and still get beautifully clean and bright clear tone.

This guitar did not require long shaft pots either...standard pots went right in.

I also replaced the little ceramic disc caps with .02 Sprague Orange Drops and replaced the standard zinc stop tailpiece with a Gotoh Featherweight aluminum tailpiece.

The reason I made this post is that so many say they have found 300K pots in Gibson Les Pauls and I never have. They're also 500K in my 1999 Gibson '59 Historic with humbuckers.

Lew

 

[Scott_F]

Re: 500K Pots in Les Paul '56 Historic...

The four I took out of my 58 RI LP were all over the freaking place. Two of them (tone perhaps) were much closer to 300 than 500. Two others still were nowhere near the 500 I was expecting.

New pots, problem solved. Blackrose even matched them all up for me.

 

[Falstaff]

Re: 500K Pots in Les Paul '56 Historic...

Lew, have you tried the -10/+5 Fralin set? Would you prefer one set to another in a LP Special? How about a R6 type. Thanks. I am not sure if the different woods might make one set preferable.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: 500K Pots in Les Paul '56 Historic...

Compared to the -15/stock set, I prefer the slightly ballsier tone of the -10/+5 set...especially the +5 bridge pickup. That's what I put in my Hamer Gold Top and I prefer it to the -15/stock set my friend Rondo had me put in the Les Paul mentioned in this post.

However, the -15/stock set still sounds better to me than the stock Gibson P-90's the guitar came with.

I guess I just like the way Lindy voices single coils.

That said, I'd like to try some Duncan Antiquity P-90's...as yet, I have not. I'd expect them to be just as nice as the Fralins.

Lew

 

[captain cavman]

Re: 500K Pots in Les Paul '56 Historic...

Hi Lew

Thanks for the info on the '56 RI , truth that the tone falls down when the stock pots are between 6&5 , I will think about replacing them.

I also can confirm you that the stock pots on my humbucker equiped LPs are stamped (and mesured) 300K (a '89 std and a '00 class 5) while the '56RI has 500K ones.

 

[bryvincent]

Re: 500K Pots in Les Paul '56 Historic...

Hi Guys, We've discussed this before but I thought I'd let'cha know that the Gibson labeled pots in the '98 Les Paul '56 Historic Gold Top I just installed new Lindy Fralin -15% Neck/Stock Bridge P90's in were labeled 500K....tho some of them measured as low as 430K!

I replaced two of the volume controls with 500K CTS and moved the tone cap to the middle terminal...the 50's mod. The guitar sounds alot better to me and I can turn the volume controls down below "5" now and still get beautifully clean and bright clear tone.

This guitar did not require long shaft pots either...standard pots went right in.

I also replaced the little ceramic disc caps with .02 Sprague Orange Drops and replaced the standard zinc stop tailpiece with a Gotoh Featherweight aluminum tailpiece.

The reason I made this post is that so many say they have found 300K pots in Gibson Les Pauls and I never have. They're also 500K in my 1999 Gibson '59 Historic with humbuckers.

Lew

there are 2 kinds of les pauls- standard production (gibson usa) and custom shop (gibson historic division)
standard production LPs (gibson usa) uses long shaft 300k vol and 500k tone pots while historic LPs (gibson custom shop) uses standard shaft 500k vol and tone pots. currently they are using gibson stamped pots on the gibson usa LPs and cts on the historic custom shop LPs.

 

[Falstaff]

Re: 500K Pots in Les Paul '56 Historic...

Thanks, Lew. It sounds like there isn't a huge difference between the two.

Thanks.