Mixing 50s and Modern Wiring

[SunIsLoco]

So I had an idea to wire up the bridge and neck pickups differently on my les paul. I want to go with modern wiring on the bridge, because I tend to mess with the tone pot at all volumes, and don't mind cutting some highs when rolling that one down. But for the neck, I want to preserve clarity and brightness at lower volumes, and I tend to leave the tone dimed, so I'm gonna wire it up 50s style.

Will doing this cause any unintended consequences at the selector switch, especially in middle position? I know it changes how things are loaded at certain points in each circuit, but I imagine the same thing happens with all 50s or all modern wiring when the pot configurations differ greatly between bridge and neck.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Mixing 50s and Modern Wiring

Nope, that wiring has been done many times before by many people without any unexpected consequences. It does make it harder to dial in a middle tone however.

 

[SunIsLoco]

Re: Mixing 50s and Modern Wiring

So it does affect middle position? Do they interact differently? I always worry about these tradeoffs, especially since I really like my middle as-is.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Mixing 50s and Modern Wiring

To the best of my knowledge, it makes no difference electrically between the neck and bridge electrically, between the volume and tone. All 4 pots will react differently from each other with different tapers and the 5os wiring is interactive while modern isn't. This makes it tricky to dial in the tone you want in the middle. It takes some getting used to is what I'm saying.

 

[SunIsLoco]

Re: Mixing 50s and Modern Wiring

Ah okay I get you. In middle position I usually have bridge and neck tones dimed, at which point 50s is effectively identical to modern, so I don't think that'll be an issue.

Thanks for your help!