Gibson quick connect & SD P90s

[Mondon]

Hi there

I have bought some SD Phat cat P90s to put into a les Paul. The LP has Gibson easy connect connectors. I was expecting to have to do a bit of soldering, but thought the SD pick ups came with various coloured wires which I could match to the quick connect and solder to it. However, the SD seems to have just the one wire covered in grey mesh. I’ve never attempted anything like this before and am a bit stumped. Does anyone know how this can be done or where info can be found? I’ve trawled YouTube but come up dry.

any help very much appreciated

cheers
David

 

[Mincer]

Welcome to the forum!

You have a single conductor cable. The 'mesh' on the outside is the ground. The wire running through the middle of the mesh is the hot.

 

[Ronnie_Snow]

I have previously bypassed the quick connect but from memory it only works with standard Gibson pots. Not push pull. Also this was a short term remedy. I never noticed any issues with it although, this was at least 7 years ago. But hopefully someone with more knowledge may chime in that this still works...

Carefully disconnect the existing pickup - Dont pull the wires! The wires come out of those Quick connect relatively easy if you yank to hard. Use pliers or fingers and slowly leverage the plastic quick connect out.

Solder the mesh onto the back of the corresponding volume pot and solder the HOT wire onto the left lug on the volume pot (If all 3 lugs are pointing down, it is the one on the left)

WARNING - Be very careful soldering the hot wire onto the left lug. Do not touch the solder joint which connects that lug to the PCB board. Try to join on the lug bend (As it comes out of the pot but before it goes into the PCB.

If this fails, buy some pots and wire the guitar yourself. May take afew hours first time round but you'll learn a lot!

Hopefully someone with more knowledge may chime in that the above method still works...

 

[Mondon]

Thanks both for your welcome and responses, it's much appreciated. The volumes are push/ pull pots so it sounds like I shouldn't attempt your solution Ronnie with this set up. I'm tempted to rip out the circuit board and replace with better pots in the old style configuration. Might experiment on an old epiphone I've got lying around first though, as this is the first open heart surgery I've done on any of my guitars
Best wishes
David

 

[Ace Flibble]

With common 4-conductor humbuckers you can get them to work with the Gibson connections quite easily, and same when replacing Gibson P-90s with other P-90s, but replacing 4-wire humbuckers with Phat Cats... yeah, that's just going to be far more work than it's worth. Plus you'll be left with push-pull pots that don't do anything.

Gibson's pots actually already are about as high-quality as money can buy (there's a strange mentality around guitar that quick connect systems are inherently cheaper and worse than soldering vintage parts, when really it's the exact opposite; there's a reason why NASA use the same Mouser/Molex connection systems!) but with these particular pickups, it definitely is better to just (carefully!) remove all of the existing electronics and wire up a batch of fresh, classic controls. That's what I do whenever I switch one or more pickups in a Gibson from P-90 to humbucker or vice-versa. The Gibson systems are not to be feared but P-90/humbucker switchovers, specifically, with them are just too much hassle.

 

[Mincer]

Yeah, I always try to wire pickups into existing Gibson harnesses. I see no reason to ditch perfectly working parts.