Help me re-wire my Norlin Les Paul Custom... Please

[BaBaBooey]

Hey everybody,

I've used this forum for a while now to get lots of useful information... But now I have a question and I'd love to have everybody's suggestions.

I finally acquired my dream guitar. A 1979 Les Paul Custom... 79 because I wanted one born the same year as me. Thing is, she needs some love in the electronics dept. It looks stock to me except for the bridge pickup, which is a period Duncan Custom. It's wired to an added phase switch...

The 300 and 100k pots have got to go as well as drilling a ground wire.

With this maple neck, I have to get hotter pickups in her.

Anyway, what do I do with the phase toggle hole? I'm thinking along 2 lines to go down... Slap a Jimmy Page harness in there, or get Triple Shots and maybe add another hole for another switch...

I have a question about the P Rails... Can they be used just in the neck along with a hum in the bridge? If I went with triple shots, I thought about the P Rails in the neck.

Jimmy Page and Jerry Cantrell are my guitar and tone Gods. So I need to be able to reach the output of Cantrell but can hit a sweet spot when the gain is backed off.

If I went Page Harness, I'm thinking using the existing phase switch and turning it into a kill switch or something. If I went Triple Shots, I'd add another switch or a push pull pot to work with the existing phase switch to get as many options as possible?

Anyway, I think this NGD can never be eclipsed! I can't get over how clean she is... The binding hasn't yellowed much at all!

Help my new Mistress breath fire, in as many variations as possible!

Thanks for having me & Cheers! Thanks in advance...

 

[trevorus]

Re: Help me re-wire my Norlin Les Paul Custom... Please

I would do an RS Guitarworks kit, and use the switch for coil tapping.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Help me re-wire my Norlin Les Paul Custom... Please

As with any "older" guitar that one is thinking about modifying, I'd strongly suggest pulling out the entire harness as it is, and keeping it aside as unmolested as possible. That is, don't separate any wires or components that you don't need to separate. Just pull everything out, keeping it as connected as possible. Then drop whatever you want into the holes.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Help me re-wire my Norlin Les Paul Custom... Please

Page and Cantrell is a big leap really. All you can hope for is to have one of them. Winding down a hot pickup like a JB (I think thats what Cantrell uses) won't get you near a PAF tone....too thick and lacking in the dynamics. However hit your front end with a boost and you can make a mid-hot PAF do almost anything.

And Page has the same pickup in his #1 as you have - a T-top. In 72 his bridge PAF died, so he replaced it with a T-top. The doubleneck also has T-tops.

If you want something more original Zep, then the WLH set would be it. Hotter PAF style that can get thick.

Nice guitar.....I've seen this one on MLP haven't I??

 

[formula73]

Re: Help me re-wire my Norlin Les Paul Custom... Please

AlexR, he says his bridge pup is a Custom, not the original T Top.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Help me re-wire my Norlin Les Paul Custom... Please

79 LP you say?

#1 It has a hole in the top and it isn't a 59 grail tone - yank that crap out! Make it how you want.

#2 I like the 300k with the Custom. Maybe just me. Ebony board too….mine is rosewood!

#3 Maple = Must have hotter pickups? ??????? Maple makes it much brighter. Part of why I say keep the 300k for the bridge. Now T-top really needs the 500k in the neck!

#4 Still, I like push/pulls, so I'd plug that little hole and do splits if anything.

Sweet ride. I have a 73 and 79 Standard.

Put a PG in the neck, leave the custom, splits for push/pulls, 500k neck/300k bridge. Then… :headbang:

 

[Gibson 1964]

Re: Help me re-wire my Norlin Les Paul Custom... Please

I have an '84 Mine came with shaws and 100k pots all around (that measured much closer to 75k) I would not get an rs kit, being as essentially they are a set of cts pots for way more cost. Mine came with a ground wire. If you have to redo a ground wire you can remove a bushing or... if that is daunting, I have successfully used conductive epoxy to attach a ground wire after drilling the hole to the outside of the bushing. Pulling the bushing is better, but if you can't, there are options. I would do triple shot rings and use the existing hole for a phase switch.

 

[El Supremo]

Re: Help me re-wire my Norlin Les Paul Custom... Please

I have an '82 Norlin Les Paul Custom. Replaced the pots with 500k log. pots and .22 orange drop caps. Mine came with '59 which I replaced with the WLH set. It sounds exactly like I want it to sound and the pots respond how I want them to.
The WLH set is more than just JP. It's got great harmonics and remains tight under high gain while keeping an organic tone with a great clean sound. The neck pickup is the best I've heard in a LP so far. More character than a Jazz and more fluid and less boomy than a '59n.

 

[BaBaBooey]

Re: Help me re-wire my Norlin Les Paul Custom... Please

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I like the sound of the neck T Top, but it ain't gonna work with the JP harness or any sort of splitting.

I plan on pulling the bridge post closest to the cavity and get a ground wire in there.

I seem to be getting different views about the pots... Is your advice, if I was keeping the pickups they way they are, keep a 300k on the bridge?

Should have mentioned that I have a Jimmy Page Les Paul as well... It's got a set of Black Dogs in it, so that will get me those tones. But this Custom is much more fun to play!

I guess I want something versatile... and I know i can't have high gain and PAF in the same package. It just feel like this one needs a boost, at least to me.

No matter what happens, I'll be keep all original parts!

 

[BaBaBooey]

Re: Help me re-wire my Norlin Les Paul Custom... Please

I hate not being able to decide... But hey, nothings permanent right? Swapping pickups frequently only make you better with the soldering iron...

Cantrell used 57 Classics in all of his Customs... I know, wouldn't think so huh? He used JB's in his G&L's... Now he uses Motor City pickups in both G&L's and Les Paul's

I'll have to give the WLH's a listen... Didn't really think of them as an option.

 

[Myaccount876]

Re: Help me re-wire my Norlin Les Paul Custom... Please

I'd leave the mini switch there, swap the pots for new 500K pots, and get either a PGn or Alnico II Pro for the neck. Then use the mini switch as either a series/parallel switch for the Custom, or a switch to just bypass the controls and send the bridge pickup straight to the jack (called a "blower" switch).

Or you could even get a set of Triple Shots mounting rings, and have the "blower switch" for the bridge pickup.

 

[tubecrunch]

Re: Help me re-wire my Norlin Les Paul Custom... Please

I like either ther blower switch or phase switch, and yes, you can mix and match p rails with any humbucker.

 

[BaBaBooey]

Re: Help me re-wire my Norlin Les Paul Custom... Please

Does a 'blower' act the same as the 'bypass' in the JP harness? Like a boost right?

... Just read up on this... It sounds very tasty! I can't find a damn boost/overdrive that sounds good with my Rockerverb anyway.

So... the Triple Shot option is sounding like the way to go. Figured if I went with the TS's I would use the phase switch as-is. I liked the phase sound, but like the idea of a boost better... So I could add another switch to have phase AND a blower.

Triple Shots, phase and blower... I think that sounds badass!

Now to decide on pickups... JB/PG or WLH

 

[AlexR]

Re: Help me re-wire my Norlin Les Paul Custom... Please

I'd stay away from the JB, at all costs actually. There is really only 1 person I know of who is well known running one in a LP....actually with exactly the same age guitar as you have (but silverburst). The general consensus is the the JB is mostly a miss in a LP. The WLH however is made for a LP, and has been getting rave reviews from all and sundry.

 

[Gibson 1964]

Re: Help me re-wire my Norlin Les Paul Custom... Please

as an owner of an '84 LPC I'd go 500k on pots all around. IMO, you can roll off the treble if needed, but you can't roll the treble up past what the pots filter out. Put the 300k back in if you like it better, but I would try a 500k. It is less than $10 for a cts pot.

While I have used a JB and liked it okay in a LP, I would look elsewhere. IMO it can get cocked wah sounding in a hurry. Also, IMO, hold off on deciding what pickups till after you swap the pots. My LPC went from dark mud to actually quite bright.

 

[BaBaBooey]

Re: Help me re-wire my Norlin Les Paul Custom... Please

Is a Duncan Distortin better suited for a les paul. Or what are some moderate to hot pickups that will jive with my paticular guitar?

 

[AlexR]

Re: Help me re-wire my Norlin Les Paul Custom... Please

Distortions work well with the LP, just as long as metal is the main thing you want to be playing. Clean is not a forte.

 

[El Supremo]

Re: Help me re-wire my Norlin Les Paul Custom... Please

Wouldn't consider a Duncan Distortion if you're going for Page and Cantrell tones, but something slightly more vintagey and sleaker.
Screamin' Demon worked for me. DiMarzio Super Distortion sounded pretty rad to me too with a mahogany/ebony combo.

 

[Boogie Bill]

Re: Help me re-wire my Norlin Les Paul Custom... Please

Like trevorus above, I'd go with the RS kit, and use the mini-switch as a coil tap. And for pickups, I'd try to choose between the WLH, Pearlys, Seths, Antiquitys, Gibson Burstbucker 1&2 or the Bonamassa sets. With Page being one of your heroes, the WLH set should do the job. If you go with too hot a humbucker, you'll lose the versatility inherent in that guitar.

Beautiful guitar! Congrats.

Bill