Gibson Gothic Explorer pot questions. All ideas welcome :)

[Inkvizitor]

Hi guys,

I have a Gibson Gothic Explorer I like very much. Sadly the bridge volume keeps not wanting to cut volume fully so I guess it is time for a replacement, I believe it has 300K volumes but I'm not too sure. Any info is much appreciated. I like the stock pickups and sound but was thinking of adding more options to the guitar. As I understand the 500T/498R is a two conductor set? I would also like someone to chime in on a Fender TBX tone for this guitar, bad idea or not? Thank you all in advance!

 

[ExplorersRock]

Re: Gibson Gothic Explorer pot questions. All ideas welcome

You are correct. The 500T/496R is in fact a two-conductor set. If the wiring is the same as my Standard Gibson Explorer with the same Pups, the you have two 300k Linear Volumes and 1 500k Audio Taper Tone control. If you're not getting the cut you want from the stock Volume pots, you should replace them with Audio Tapers pots instead. Unlike linear, they cut most of the volume before you get to the "5" on the control. So you can roll off the volume much faster. If you like the sounds you're getting and don't want to change pot values, Allparts has 300k audio taper pots. They also have 250k audio tapers as well if you'd rather go with a more standard value. If you want a brighter sound, bump to 500k on the volumes.

I've never messed with the TBX so I can't help you there. If you want more options, I would swap the Pups for Duncan Distortions as they are similar in output and in design, thus keeping the tone in the same ballpark. Then you can get 4-conductors to do some coil splits. You can then swap out those volume pots for push/pulls (250k or 500k, no 300k) and use them to split. Or you could just swap the tone pot and use it to split both. Many ideas to choose from. Good Luck!

 

[Bludave]

Re: Gibson Gothic Explorer pot questions. All ideas welcome

I have a Les Paul Studio Gothis that had 300K pots. I replaced them with 500K & it was amazing at how much clearer the guitar sounded. It was like someone removed a blanket from my amp. I would change the pots to 500K

 

[tubecrunch]

Re: Gibson Gothic Explorer pot questions. All ideas welcome

+1 for 500k pots. I had a tbx in my Jeff beck strat. Very wide range, very volatile, not very practical for me. Even beck took it out of his circuit. I don't ride the tone knob. For a little extra brightness/bottom, I had much better luck with an eq pedal.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Gibson Gothic Explorer pot questions. All ideas welcome

G&L PTB system FTW. It will greatly benefit what you can do with those high output pickups. The wiring will convert your V/V/T setup to a master volume, master treble rolloff, and master bass rolloff ("clarity" or "de-mud" knob).

 

[blueman335]

Re: Gibson Gothic Explorer pot questions. All ideas welcome

I have a Les Paul Studio Goth that had 300K pots. I replaced them with 500K & it was amazing at how much clearer the guitar sounded. It was like someone removed a blanket from my amp. I would change the pots to 500K

300K pots on a neck HB...what are they thinking?

 

[uOpt]

Re: Gibson Gothic Explorer pot questions. All ideas welcome

The 500/498 set is available in four-conductor. Normally Gibson delivers them inside guitars in two-conductor and as a pickup-only sale as four+shield, but they are known to put 4+ conductor pickups into guitars, too (as always Gibson specs of "xxx" mean "xxx or better").

Before replacing the pots you might want to try running directly into the amp, that tells you how much max headroom of more treble there is. Hence you know whether it's worth bothering with.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Gibson Gothic Explorer pot questions. All ideas welcome

If you like the pickup set but want more options I'd suggest getting a 498/500 set as aftermarket parts...like uOpt pointed out in a guitar, stock from Gibson they are 2 conductor but if you buy them as replacements they are 4 wire.

After that you can add plenty of options!

I dunno if you'll find 300k push/pull pots so you might have to switch to 500k pots unless you want to take a drill to the guitar for mini switches and stuff.

If you're asking for personal opinions I'd go for 3 500k push/pull pots (I like the DiMarzio brand, they are made by CTS, the switch is great quality and the taper is the pot is GREAT!) and then I'd wire one of them to split both pickups into single coil, wire one of them to flip the phase of one of them and the 3rd one to change the pickups from parallel to series...

That's pretty close to what folks call "Jimmy Page wiring" and will yield a BUNCH of sounds.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Gibson Gothic Explorer pot questions. All ideas welcome

I dunno if you'll find 300k push/pull pots ...If you're asking for personal opinions I'd go for 3 500k push/pull pots (I like the DiMarzio brand, they are made by CTS, the switch is great quality and the taper is the pot is GREAT!) and then I'd wire one of them to split both pickups into single coil, wire one of them to flip the phase of one of them and the 3rd one to change the pickups from parallel to series...

That's pretty close to what folks call "Jimmy Page wiring" and will yield a BUNCH of sounds.

StewMac has 250K and 500K push-pulls. And yes, 3 push-pulls for coil cut, phase, and series would make for a very versatile guitar.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Gibson Gothic Explorer pot questions. All ideas welcome

StewMac has 250K and 500K push-pulls. And yes, 3 push-pulls for coil cut, phase, and series would make for a very versatile guitar.

Those alpha brand push/pulls from Stew-Mac are garbage...I went through lots of them before finding the DiMarzio branded CTS push/pulls which are also available in 250k and 500k.