Master volume (single volume, no tone) on a Gibson Les Paul using SD humbuckers?

[LEOVAN83]

Hello!

I own a Gibson LP Standard and I just bought a pair of SD pups (Pearly Gates and Custom).

I need to wire the guitar in order to bypass/avoid the 2 tones and just have a single MASTER volume to control both pickups.

I've done this to all of my guitars and it's all been great, but, those other guitars have the 3 way toggle inside the control cavity and for some reason - even on the Seymour Duncan wiring diagrams tool, all the diagrams I've seen don't seem to work with my Les Paul.

Here are the issues after having tried 3 times in a row now:

1) On one of the attempts, everything seemed to work... meaning, I got a full sound, but it was the "wrong" sound, like, the bridge pickup sounded muddy and similar to the sound you get when you select the 2 pups together (but, only the bridge pickup was actually working - tried it with a screw driver on the poles) so I dunno what happened. The neck pickup sounded normally, but for some reason, the lower row of poles on the bridge pup was also "on" when selecting the neck pup.

2) Last night after carefully re-wiring everything - and this was common on all the problems I'm listing - the volume pot it's not "fading" the sound in and out correctly, it's so sudden that basically when you turn it down a little it fades almost all the way off, and it only becomes "hot" when you have it around 9 or 10.

3) On today's attempt, the guitar was sounding at 20% of it's volume.

As you can see, regardless of the different attempts, something is wrong...

I could REALLY appreciate it if someone could take the time and be kind enough to help me out with a wiring diagram that would help me get this thing going since I need to play live with it on Thursday

Here's what I need in order to avoid getting confused...

1) Make sure it's "understandable" for a Les Paul, meaning the 3 way is a Switchcraft style switch and it's located outside the cavity.

2) I'm using Gibsons wires for all the connections except the SD pups of course which I currently have wired as usual (red+white together and taped off and green+bare are my ground, black is hot).

3) Master volume (single volume) and no tones.

Thanks SO much!!!

Leo

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Master volume (single volume, no tone) on a Gibson Les Paul using SD humbuckers?

1. Improve your soldering skills. Most of the problems you describe (weak sound one day, both pickups putting out sound when only one selected, etc) are classic examples of bad solder joints.

2. Wire both pickups to the 3-way, then run the 3-way to the volume pot you intend to use, then run that out to the jack. If it does not work properly, it's something you've done wrong, not a problem with the diagram.

3. When searching SD diagrams for these things, do not select "2 hums, 4 knobs" when you want to use only one knob. You select the desired result - i.e. 2 hum master volume - not the current base configuration of 2-hums, 2 vol 2 tone.

 

[LEOVAN83]

Re: Master volume (single volume, no tone) on a Gibson Les Paul using SD humbuckers?

1. Improve your soldering skills. Most of the problems you describe (weak sound one day, both pickups putting out sound when only one selected, etc) are classic examples of bad solder joints.

2. Wire both pickups to the 3-way, then run the 3-way to the volume pot you intend to use, then run that out to the jack. If it does not work properly, it's something you've done wrong, not a problem with the diagram.

3. When searching SD diagrams for these things, do not select "2 hums, 4 knobs" when you want to use only one knob. You select the desired result - i.e. 2 hum master volume - not the current base configuration of 2-hums, 2 vol 2 tone.

I am using the right diagrams (2 humbuckers - 1 volume - 0 tones). The thing is that I'm pretty sure I'm getting "lost in translation" somewhere since the diagrams show the connections done very differently than what Gibson does inside.

I am going to join the black wires from the SD pups with the wires coming from the toggle (remember it's a LP and the toggle is away from the cavity running wires down the pickup cavities) to the white (neck) and red (bridge) wires from the 3 way toggle's wiring. Will that work?

 

[AlexR]

Re: Master volume (single volume, no tone) on a Gibson Les Paul using SD humbuckers?

There are several types of 3-way switches in the leaf orientation, but pots are standard. Look at the switch and see physically what soldered contact corresponds to what part of the physical switch operation.

Gibson has a few separate connections for the switch back to the output jack if its a 4-pots-on-a-metal-plate wiring. But this will be negated of course with what you want to do.

Edit - you will need to look at the switch for sure if you want to know what colours to solder the pickup hot wires to.

 

[LEOVAN83]

Re: Master volume (single volume, no tone) on a Gibson Les Paul using SD humbuckers?

There are several types of 3-way switches in the leaf orientation, but pots are standard. Look at the switch and see physically what soldered contact corresponds to what part of the physical switch operation.

Gibson has a few separate connections for the switch back to the output jack if its a 4-pots-on-a-metal-plate wiring. But this will be negated of course with what you want to do.

Edit - you will need to look at the switch for sure if you want to know what colours to solder the pickup hot wires to.

Yeah, actually I haven't modified the wiring for the 3 way toggle and I have tested it so it's wired the Gibson way.... white is neck, red is bridge, black is hot and bare is ground.