Jimmy Page Les Paul Wiring - Question...

[beaubrummels]

Re: Jimmy Page Les Paul Wiring - Question...

Question, what pickups do most folks run with this mod? I always hear it's difficult to get usable split tones out of humbuckers, and this does way more than basic splits.

I ran Whole Lotta Humbucker set for over a year with this. Splits well. Every switch setting was useful. Also tried JB and 59 neck (couldn’t split the neck) and JB with Pearly neck. JB splits well, sounded the most Fender like. Usually I never used the splits by themself, however. I’d have the bridge on Humbucker with the neck split, or the bridge split with the neck in parallel coils.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Jimmy Page Les Paul Wiring - Question...

Thanks, SAguitar!

Well, it's all wired up now, but when I plugged it into the amp I only got buzz.. No sound coming through?!
When I touch the bridge, for example, then it goes away, but still no sound?!

What's going on here?
I've followed the diagram, checked things with a multi-meter, making sure connections are all good, but still??

Please help me out, good people.
Thanks!

With a wiring setup that complicated, there are so many connections that could be wrong, any opinion on why you’re getting no sound is guesswork.

But the fact that you get buzz and touching the bridge makes it go away tells me the jack is good and the pickups are getting grounded out or lifted out of circuit through a bad solder joint or incorrect connection.

Possibly your phase switch is grounding out the whole works, or your splits are incomplete or wired in a way that is breaking the series connection between the pickup coils, or you have a ground jumper on a switch where it should’t be, or who knows.

I can’t tell you how many threads are on this forum where the person insists it’s “wired just like the diagram” and “I’ve tested every connection and they are all good” but “i don’t get sound.”

I’d set the switches to a known position, like bridge Humbucker only in phase with no splits, then start from the jack and work backward connection by connection back to the pickup checking continuity across all the connections that should be active. If those are good, then I would start checking all the connection points in that same path that should not be active and see if any of them are interfering with the circuit. Also flip each switch one at a time to see what changes. Then move to the next set of switch positions like neck Humbucker in phase with no splits and do the same.

 

[Kenni]

Re: Jimmy Page Les Paul Wiring - Question...

With a wiring setup that complicated, there are so many connections that could be wrong, any opinion on why you’re getting no sound is guesswork.

But the fact that you get buzz and touching the bridge makes it go away tells me the jack is good and the pickups are getting grounded out or lifted out of circuit through a bad solder joint or incorrect connection.

Possibly your phase switch is grounding out the whole works, or your splits are incomplete or wired in a way that is breaking the series connection between the pickup coils, or you have a ground jumper on a switch where it should’t be, or who knows.

I can’t tell you how many threads are on this forum where the person insists it’s “wired just like the diagram” and “I’ve tested every connection and they are all good” but “i don’t get sound.”

I’d set the switches to a known position, like bridge Humbucker only in phase with no splits, then start from the jack and work backward connection by connection back to the pickup checking continuity across all the connections that should be active. If those are good, then I would start checking all the connection points in that same path that should not be active and see if any of them are interfering with the circuit. Also flip each switch one at a time to see what changes. Then move to the next set of switch positions like neck Humbucker in phase with no splits and do the same.

I went back to check, and I noticed that the switch on the diagram, and the switch in the guitar, had been changed/switched, so I re-soldered two connections - now I have signal, but when I engage the tone controls I still get the hum/buzz - and it goes away when touching metal parts...? When the tone controls are not activated I have no hum/buzz..
Could that narrow things down a little? Any help is much appreciated!

Thanks.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Jimmy Page Les Paul Wiring - Question...

Question, what pickups do most folks run with this mod? I always hear it's difficult to get usable split tones out of humbuckers, and this does way more than basic splits.

I think you just successfully hijacked this thread.

It would be best if you started your own thread with this question. You'll probably get a lot more responses/answers as well.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Jimmy Page Les Paul Wiring - Question...

Have you checked to make sure that the jack is wired correctly...the hot wire going to the tip lug and the ground going to the sleeve lug?

Is your bridge grounded?

 

[Kenni]

Re: Jimmy Page Les Paul Wiring - Question...

Have you checked to make sure that the jack is wired correctly...the hot wire going to the tip lug and the ground going to the sleeve lug?

Is your bridge grounded?

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it!
The jack is wired correctly, with the hot going to tip lug and sleeve going to ground on the bridge tone pot.

The ground from bridge is grounded, yes, to the neck volume.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Jimmy Page Les Paul Wiring - Question...

I went back to check, and I noticed that the switch on the diagram, and the switch in the guitar, had been changed/switched, so I re-soldered two connections - now I have signal, but when I engage the tone controls I still get the hum/buzz - and it goes away when touching metal parts...? When the tone controls are not activated I have no hum/buzz..
Could that narrow things down a little? Any help is much appreciated!

Thanks.

When you say “tone controls engaged, do you really mean when the phase reverse or pickups-in-series switches are engaged? Both of those switches affect the ground of the audio portion of the circuit. Note, on Duncan pickups the bare wire baseplate ground has to be grounded separately and grounded all the time. The bare wire baseplate ground should not be grounded with the green negative wire of the pickup sound producing wires.

 

[Kenni]

Re: Jimmy Page Les Paul Wiring - Question...

When you say “tone controls engaged, do you really mean when the phase reverse or pickups-in-series switches are engaged? Both of those switches affect the ground of the audio portion of the circuit. Note, on Duncan pickups the bare wire baseplate ground has to be grounded separately and grounded all the time. The bare wire baseplate ground should not be grounded with the green negative wire of the pickup sound producing wires.

Sorry, I should have explained that a little better.. My bad.
I mean, when I roll the tone controls from 0 to 10, without any phase or in-series engaged, that's when the noise starts...

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Jimmy Page Les Paul Wiring - Question...

Sorry, I should have explained that a little better.. My bad.
I mean, when I roll the tone controls from 0 to 10, without any phase or in-series engaged, that's when the noise starts...

Sounds like your tone controls aren’t grounded or something is grounded wrong in a way that you are gradually lifting the ground by rolling the pot 0-10. Either that, or you simply have a bad ground all the time and you only hear it when the tones are up.

 

[Kenni]

Re: Jimmy Page Les Paul Wiring - Question...

Note, on Duncan pickups the bare wire baseplate ground has to be grounded separately and grounded all the time. The bare wire baseplate ground should not be grounded with the green negative wire of the pickup sound producing wires.

Bare wire baseplate grounded separately? On the diagram the bare wire from the bridge pickup goes to the back of the bridge tone control, where all other grounds are connected.
The neck pickup bare wire goes to back of the neck volume.. along with the other ground connections..?

Sounds like your tone controls aren’t grounded or something is grounded wrong in a way that you are gradually lifting the ground by rolling the pot 0-10. Either that, or you simply have a bad ground all the time and you only hear it when the tones are up.

Tone controls are grounded using the middle lug on neck tone and bridge tone, with the capacitor soldered to the back of the pots.
Okay, so if it's a bad ground, then I need to go back and check for signal/continuity, right?

 

[beaubrummels]

Jimmy Page Les Paul Wiring - Question...

By separate I just meant it can’t follow with the green from the pickup because the green gets flipped to positive for reverse phase and when pickups are in series (depending on how it’s wired for series). But in general, if you are getting buzz that goes away when touching the bridge, that’s a ground problem. If it follows the tone setting of the pot, either the pot is lifting the ground, or you are just not hearing the problem until the tones are on 10.

You will have to check more than just continuity. You need to double check what is connected to what, and check known settings (like bridge only, in phase, all pots on 10) to make sure only what is supposed to be actively in circuit is active. And from a known setting like I just mentioned, one by one flip each switch to see what changes (that might help identify if something is connected incorrectly). At least that’s how I would approach it.

 

[Kenni]

Re: Jimmy Page Les Paul Wiring - Question...

By separate I just meant it can’t follow with the green from the pickup because the green gets flipped to positive for reverse phase and when pickups are in series (depending on how it’s wired for series). But in general, if you are getting buzz that goes away when touching the bridge, that’s a ground problem. If it follows the tone setting of the pot, either the pot is lifting the ground, or you are just not hearing the problem until the tones are on 10.

You will have to check more than just continuity. You need to double check what is connected to what, and check known settings (like bridge only, in phase, all pots on 10) to make sure only what is supposed to be actively in circuit is active. And from a known setting like I just mentioned, one by one flip each switch to see what changes (that might help identify if something is connected incorrectly). At least that’s how I would approach it.

I see, and that's fine, the green and bare ground are going two different places, shown on the wiring diagram, so they are nowhere near each other.

Okay, I will have to go back, check all wires, then plug the guitar in, try out the different settings, to see what's what and if it's supposed to be there..
I'm not all that experienced in doing all that, so I might have a hard time figuring it all out, but I will have a look at it..
Anything else I should be aware of, or something I could do/should do, when starting to troubleshoot?

Thanks.

 

[Paddymnk]

I am having some confusion about the way the pull pulls are being layed out in the Seymour Duncan diagrams. I can't figure out what is supposed to be Lug 1 or 2 and if the switches are orientated so I am looking at Side 1 or Side 2 of the switches. It's probably so obvious but I'm not sure. Please help. I have the one I hope to use here.

 

[beaubrummels]

Welcome to the forum

On the Duncan drawing, the push-pull switch lugs that are shown nearest the pot are the 'up' position, same as the lugs closest to the pot on the actual push-pull pot. The push-pull switch lugs seen further away from the pot in the drawing are the 'down' position, same as the lugs furthest away from the pot on the actual push-pull pot.