Gibson Les Paul Studio pickup change.

[XANTIOM]

Hi
I wanted to change the bridge pickup on my 2012 studio to a Seymour duncan JB and then change the neck to a jazz later on. when i opened up the guitar i saw that it has the new pcb board on it where the pickups require a 3 pin molex to plug into the board.
I cant gut it and do a traditional wiring harness so i wanted to know how i would attach a JB to the board. The current stock pickup has 5 wires going into the three holes on the molex connector. If i strip the wires on the JB and then crimp them and plug them into the molex housing will it work? also which wires do i crimp together because there are 5 wires and only three imput holes on the molex
That was the molex housing

That is the crimp. can i crimp to wires with one piece?
Thanks

 

[blueman335]

Re: Gibson Les Paul Studio pickup change.

Regarding your PU choice, what kind of music are you playing?

 

[XANTIOM]

Re: Gibson Les Paul Studio pickup change.

Pickup choice is Seymour duncan JB. play mostly blues and some rock

 

[blueman335]

Re: Gibson Les Paul Studio pickup change.

Pickup choice is Seymour duncan JB. play mostly blues and some rock

I'm a blues/classic rock player and JB's don't work for me at all; they're at their best in super Strats playing '80's metal. There's much better choices for blues and rock, like Seth, WLH, and A2P.

 

[XANTIOM]

Re: Gibson Les Paul Studio pickup change.

Oh ok. I dont know much about them i have just heard that JBs are good. Thanks for letting me know about that i will look at some other pickups.
What about seymour duncan '59? or Seth Lover SH-55

 

[Condemnedsoul]

Re: Gibson Les Paul Studio pickup change.

Yeah, I can tell you that the JB is a great pick up in the right guitar. Don't worry, others will chime in and please take a minute and tell us about:

Your playing style

your amp

And most importantly, what you like and dislike about your current pick ups

Have you adjusted the current pick ups or have the guitar set up?

These are all things that can be useful when deciding what pickups you need or if there is really anything that some simple adjustments will correct.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Gibson Les Paul Studio pickup change.

None of this is relevant, in the least. He's asking for help in replacing the pickup, not picking one.

There is a color-code chart somewhere that tells you what various pickup manufacturers' color codes are. Use that chart to figure out which Gibson colors relate to which Duncan colors, and put the JB's wires in the associated slots in the connector. You can't simply match green and red with green and red.

 

[XANTIOM]

Re: Gibson Les Paul Studio pickup change.

Thanks for the reply.
i just found a chart to the seymour duncans
where is the ones to the gibson? i cant find one. if you have one could you please upload a picture?
and how would i know how they relate to each other?

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Gibson Les Paul Studio pickup change.

 

[XANTIOM]

Re: Gibson Les Paul Studio pickup change.

THANKS!!!!!

 

[XANTIOM]

Re: Gibson Les Paul Studio pickup change.

but doesn't the pickup have 5 wires coming from it?

 

[XANTIOM]

Re: Gibson Les Paul Studio pickup change.

my stock pickup has black&green,white,red&black.
So there are two blacks and the white and green aren't going together

 

[blueman335]

Re: Gibson Les Paul Studio pickup change.

Oh ok. I dont know much about them i have just heard that JBs are good. Thanks for letting me know about that i will look at some other pickups.
What about seymour duncan '59? or Seth Lover SH-55

Over the years, JB's have probably gotten more of Duncan's marketing than any other PU they make; that doesn't mean they work well for every genre. Promotion is one of the reasons they're popular. Another is that metal has very been popular since the 1980's, and JB's are very good at that. Metal sells a lot more albums than blues, and players buy a lot more metal guitars and PU's than they do blues guitars and PU's. That's where the money is.

For blues, nothing beats a good PAF. Seth's are one of the world's best, designed by Seymour and Seth Lover himself (who created the original PAF's back in the mid 1950's). '59's are bright, due to the A5 magnets (lots of treble and bass, & mid-scooped). I 'warm' them up with warmer magnets (like an UOA5). For a warmer, fuller-sounding stock PAF, the WLH and A2P are great choices.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Gibson Les Paul Studio pickup change.

You can also cut off the connectors for the existing pickups and splice the wires onto the 'tails' left over (using the right color conversions). But before you buy a JB (who knows, it might be right for you), research some others (I like Seth Lovers). You know, with as many people who have modern gibsons with the PC board, a Liberator system for just the connectors would be a good idea. Not connected to a pot, just a screw-in connector.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Gibson Les Paul Studio pickup change.

None of this is relevant, in the least. He's asking for help in replacing the pickup, not picking one.

As with many of the people who buy the Hot Rodded set, it's the one they see in ads, and they don't know what else Duncan has to offer. They owe it to themselves to look beyond that and determine if it's really a good fit for what they're playing. Seymour wouldn't have spent decades carefully developing dozens of other PU's if JB's were the best choice for every genre and every guitar.

 

[Il_Bès]

Re: Gibson Les Paul Studio pickup change.

... You know, with as many people who have modern gibsons with the PC board, a Liberator system for just the connectors would be a good idea. Not connected to a pot, just a screw-in connector.

Does SD make long-shaft Libs? I contacted them some 5 yrs ago and that option wasn't available

Andrea

 

[XANTIOM]

Re: Gibson Les Paul Studio pickup change.

You can also cut off the connectors for the existing pickups and splice the wires onto the 'tails' left over (using the right color conversions). But before you buy a JB (who knows, it might be right for you), research some others (I like Seth Lovers). You know, with as many people who have modern gibsons with the PC board, a Liberator system for just the connectors would be a good idea. Not connected to a pot, just a screw-in connector.

But the current pickup has 2 black wires when the Gibson diagram has only one black wire
and the white and green wires are not together but in the diagram it says to put these together
and dont most SD pickups have 5 wires not 4 like in diagram? (lets say I'm just installing a Seth Lover PU will it have 5 wires just like the Gibson PU?)

 

[Il_Bès]

Re: Gibson Les Paul Studio pickup change.

... dont most SD pickups have 5 wires not 4 like in diagram? (lets say I'm just installing a Seth Lover PU will it have 5 wires just like the Gibson PU?)

Four wires are the starts/ends of each coil + the bare wire going to ground.
HTH,

Andrea

 

[Mincer]

Re: Gibson Les Paul Studio pickup change.

Does SD make long-shaft Libs? I contacted them some 5 yrs ago and that option wasn't available

Andrea

I don't think so. But I was just talking about a connector that snaps into existing PC boards. No pot connected- just a color-coded screw-based connector to grab the pickup wires, and a snap in connector on the other side. It would make changing pickups in these things easy, and the question wouldn't come up as often as it does.

 

[Shooter.556]

Re: Gibson Les Paul Studio pickup change.

I would personally rip all that pcb crap out and go with 50s wiring.
I run a JB in one of my Les Pauls but I have an Alnico 8 in it.
The stock JB is one of my favorite pickups but it tends to do weird things to the midrange in some Les Pauls.
It's one of them try and find out pickups in a Les Paul. There are many better pickup options for a Lester than a JB but give it a go, I love my JB8 in my Studio and it responds best with 50s wiring, you are leaving a lot of time on the table with that circuit board.