LiveWire Classic h/buckers capacitor value

[Stratomaniac]

G'day everyone,
I've picked up a set of original Livewire Classic humbuckers pretty cheaply. They are not the Classic 2 because the lettering is not colored. They have never been installed and must have been sitting in the shop for years, possibly decades! I'm putting them into an old bolt on neck Japanese SG after it's all customised. - I'll post photos and a sound demo after it's finished.


Getting accurate wiring information on them is quite difficult because they are so old. However, after doing a bit of research (mostly through these threads, thank you) I have determined they require an 18v system with 100k pots. However, I am not sure of the capacitor value. The SD black outs are .47, but they are also a 12v system. I've read a couple of conflicting comments about the values and darkness or brightness of the tone. I play mostly classic rock, Led Zep, ACDC, Pink Floyd, etc, so I don't want a death-metal or punk sound from them. I'm aiming for a clean and bright tone that can be fiddled with effectors.

Any and all input is greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Stratomaniac]

Re: LiveWire Classic h/buckers capacitor value

Wow! Two weeks and no comments? Is that because nobody knows or because nobody cares? I got it sussed without your input. They are 0.047's with 100k pots and 18v wiring. I'll post photos of my 30-year-old Jp Greco SG rebuild when it's done. It has a flat fingerboard and will be a seriously noisy shredder. This is what it looked like when I got it (for free). The fingerboard and frets were totally shot! It will get a re-fret with medium-jumbos. you can see in the photo how the fingerboard came up. The frets will go in later this week.

 

[jmcorey]

Re: LiveWire Classic h/buckers capacitor value

Strato-

There is not a lot of knowledge here about the Live Wires. I actually suggest calling the company.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Stratomaniac]

Re: LiveWire Classic h/buckers capacitor value

Thanks jmcorey. I've searched and searched the whole internet again and again with little info coming up. I guess it's just a generations thing. However, I just went for it and combined any and all diagrams and knowledge I could find. I got the guitar painted, wired and working. I still have to do some finer set up adjusting, but it's a winner! I'll post some photos shortly.

Thank again

 

[Stratomaniac]

Re: LiveWire Classic h/buckers capacitor value

OK! Here's a photo story. This is (was) a 30 year old MIJ Greco SG that was gifted to me as a project. The neck is straight and the body was pretty good, but the rest was just abused! New frets and fingerboard inlays. New paint and routering for the batteries. It's 98% finished. It just needs to be set up. It's bewdiful and sounds awesome! - Excuse the few posts of photos. I'll try to put them in order of the build.

 

[Stratomaniac]

Re: LiveWire Classic h/buckers capacitor value

The fingerboard. Yes, I did cut up an old pearl strat scratch plate to make inlays. It was a bit thick too and I had to sand down the thickness, but it looks great! I drilled a small hole into the old ones, put a screw into them and popped them out with a claw hammer. (I love my hammer). I bought the frets on Amazon. A full set of medium jumbo frets all cut to length for five bucks, straight from China! (big smiles) The set I bought was a 24 fret set, but I knew the size would be correct for an older 22 fret fingerboard.

 

[Stratomaniac]

Re: LiveWire Classic h/buckers capacitor value

A bit of a mixed post. The headstock was pretty ugly, but not too damaged. I gave it a sand with #600 wet and dry and a couple of coats of clear gloss lacquer. The whole guitar is painted in lacquer. The body is matt black with a couple of coats of matt clear over it for protection. All painted with spray cans from the local hardware store. I cooked the paint off with a heat gun and sanded it all back to bare wood. I cooked a bit of the binding when removing the paint. (sigh). So, I rebuilt it with epoxy glue by masking it up and filling a little well and sanding it off. Then, after sanding the neck down I realised there were a lot of fine cracks in the binding. Some from re-fretting, but most from old age. I filled them with super glue, sanded it, masked it off and gave it a coat of white lacquer. It looks brand new! There was a bit of cleaning up to do on the finger board, but it scratched off pretty esaily with a craft knife.

 

[Stratomaniac]

Re: LiveWire Classic h/buckers capacitor value

Now it's starting to look like something.

 

[Stratomaniac]

Re: LiveWire Classic h/buckers capacitor value

And, here it is! It's bewdiful! I wanna get it set up and play it! Not bad for a 30 year old freeby! I spent about 150 bucks on bits to do it up.