Re: Shrill Les Paul with WLH & BB3 in Bridge: Losing Hope...
Thats 50's. The tone cap is connected to the middle vol pot lug.
You happen to be correct that this seems to be 50's, but your premise is incorrect. The determination is not which specific physical volume pot lug the tone pot is connected to, but whether that lug is used as the electrical input or output of the vol pot.
If the tone pot is connected to the
output of the vol pot it is
50's (in this case the output appears to be the middle lug
because the black wire from the pup is connected to the outside lug and there is also a red wire attached to the middle lug which I assume is going to the switch and then to the
output jack).
If the tone pot is connected to the
input of the vol pot, it is
modern. So if in this case, the black wire (from the pup) was connected to the middle lug of the vol pot (with the cap leading to the tone pot), and if the red wire (output to the switch) was connected to the outside lug of the vol pot, you would have modern tone wiring (even though the cap wire to the tone pot is still on the middle lug of the vol pot).
To make it more complicated, the specific vol pot lugs used for input and output determine whether your guitar (with 2 pups) is dependent or independent volumes. If the output is the
middle lug (irregardless of tone connection), you will have
dependent vol controls. If the output is the
outside lug, you will have
independent controls.
So, in this case the op's guitar is wired
50's/vintage tone with dependent vol control. Simply by moving the red (output) wire with the cap wire to the outside lug, and moving the black wire (input) to the middle lug, you would still have
50's/vintage tone but
with independent vol control.