I gave the 50s wiring a try - - thoughts

[Archer250]

After having used the treble bleed mod to tame the high-end loss whenever I rolled down my volume, I recently decided to have my Tokai wired 50s style.

I was told it would make the knobs more interactive, which is good for me since I like to fiddle with them in a live environment.

After 2 weeks, I think I'm a believer. The tones I've been getting when cleaning up have always been usable, whereas with the treble bleed mod, I sometimes thin out in some rigs.

I was also informed that rolling down my tone knobs will affect the volume somewhat, but I haven't encountered that problem, or at least it hasn't been noticeable.

Makes you wonder why this wiring isn't more popular.

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[Jacew]

Re: I gave the 50s wiring a try - - thoughts

Can you elaborate what way you wired it? There multiple different schemes I've seen called 50's wiring. It's always intersting to read about these.

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: I gave the 50s wiring a try - - thoughts

After having used the treble bleed mod to tame the high-end loss whenever I rolled down my volume, I recently decided to have my Tokai wired 50s style.

I was told it would make the knobs more interactive, which is good for me since I like to fiddle with them in a live environment.

After 2 weeks, I think I'm a believer. The tones I've been getting when cleaning up have always been usable, whereas with the treble bleed mod, I sometimes thin out in some rigs.

I was also informed that rolling down my tone knobs will affect the volume somewhat, but I haven't encountered that problem, or at least it hasn't been noticeable.

Makes you wonder why this wiring isn't more popular.

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I agree...the 50’s wiring makes a much more range of usable sounds.
I too had used the TB mod and found the same things you did...sure it kept the highs but it became thin and idk, honky sounding. Not a pleasing tone to my ears.

 

[Archer250]

Re: I gave the 50s wiring a try - - thoughts

Can you elaborate what way you wired it? There multiple different schemes I've seen called 50's wiring. It's always intersting to read about these.

I'll get a clearer picture later. I got a tech to do it so I didn't really know for sure.

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[Aceman]

Re: I gave the 50s wiring a try - - thoughts

50's should have been the new 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and so on.

 

[dystrust]

Re: I gave the 50s wiring a try - - thoughts

Definitely a believer. I even *gasp* have my Strat and Tele wired that way.

 

[Archer250]

Re: I gave the 50s wiring a try - - thoughts

Can you elaborate what way you wired it? There multiple different schemes I've seen called 50's wiring. It's always intersting to read about these.

Same way as in the Seymour Duncan diagram.

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[AlexR]

Re: I gave the 50s wiring a try - - thoughts

There is only 1 form of 50's wiring.

And that because the only thing that makes it so is the tone circuit being attached to the middle lug of the volume pot (where the switch wire is).

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: I gave the 50s wiring a try - - thoughts

After having used the treble bleed mod to tame the high-end loss whenever I rolled down my volume, I recently decided to have my Tokai wired 50s style.

I was told it would make the knobs more interactive, which is good for me since I like to fiddle with them in a live environment.

After 2 weeks, I think I'm a believer. The tones I've been getting when cleaning up have always been usable, whereas with the treble bleed mod, I sometimes thin out in some rigs.

I was also informed that rolling down my tone knobs will affect the volume somewhat, but I haven't encountered that problem, or at least it hasn't been noticeable.

Makes you wonder why this wiring isn't more popular.

Nice work -Are those Emerson Bumblebee Caps? They look so nice in there.

and thats most of the tone battle -feeling good about your stuff.... :lmao:

 

[Gransen]

Re: I gave the 50s wiring a try - - thoughts

After having used the treble bleed mod to tame the high-end loss whenever I rolled down my volume, I recently decided to have my Tokai wired 50s style.

What's funny to me is how so many people say the same thing, and their stuff sounds great. And I'm like, "Nope, not on my guitars!" I actually LIKE that treble roll off with the volume pot! Great mod, and totally understandable, and I can't complain about the stuff that I've heard when it's done...HOW COULD I EVEN NOTICE, right...?!? THAT'S THE POINT!!!

And to me, my stuff just ends up sounding "tinny" to my ear. The highs take over, and then I hate it.

 

[Archer250]

Re: I gave the 50s wiring a try - - thoughts

Nice work -Are those Emerson Bumblebee Caps? They look so nice in there.

and thats most of the tone battle -feeling good about your stuff.... :lmao:

Yep they are.

I don't think they make much of a difference, but hey they look nice, so why not?

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[NegativeEase]

Re: I gave the 50s wiring a try - - thoughts

Yep they are.

I don't think they make much of a difference, but hey they look nice, so why not?

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Agreed. They are good, but the price you pay is for the amazing feeling of looking at them. and they have that in spades.

In my Tele, the tone pot rolling down sounded sounded better with Emersons in the blended pickup positions based on the tone pot wiring scheme. But an Orange Drop with the same value in the pure neck or pure Bridge position was preferred for a single tone pot config. although none of this info means anything to your configuration. I did A/B the configs and did blind tests and I couldn't tell you why exactly -but it's real

Then again, I don't use tone pots very much or dramatically anyways.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: I gave the 50s wiring a try - - thoughts

I prefer the ol' cap and resistor in series method my self. You need to tune it to every single guitar you put it on, which can be a hassle, but I think it's worth it.

50s wiring is okay if you only turn down one knob at a time. But roll down both pots at the same time and it gets a bit tricky to predict what exactly is going to happen with your sound.

 

[AlexR]

Re: I gave the 50s wiring a try - - thoughts

^ 50's can be great for the fiddler thats for sure. But there is a world of possibilities and the same with players......plenty of room to have guitars with all sorts of schemes to suit a variety of playing.

 

[Jacew]

Re: I gave the 50s wiring a try - - thoughts

There is only 1 form of 50's wiring.

And that because the only thing that makes it so is the tone circuit being attached to the middle lug of the volume pot (where the switch wire is).

Sometimes it incorprates pickups connected in the middle lug like in this case. I really like that myself. I've seen diagrams regarded as "50's wiring" without that individual volumes wiring as well.