What Is The '50s Wiring? | Guitar Tech Tips | Ep. 75 | Thomann

What is the Gibson '50s wiring? How to do this mod? On which guitars and basses will it work?
Let's heat up the soldering iron and then compare the modern with the '50s wiring.
Enjoy Guitar Tech Tips!

Interesting bits and pieces:
0:00 Introduction
0:40 What is the '50s wiring
1:22 Let's do the '50s wiring mod
2:05 It's time for a test ride
2:13 Comparison | Bridge PU modern VS '50s wiring
3:14 Comparison | Neck PU modern VS '50s wiring
4:27 Outtakes

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[marceloventurelli]

Bridge Modern Vol 10 2:13
Bridge 50s Vol 10 2:44

[ampturcoguitarwerks]

50’s wiring is the absolute best tone wise for me and my customers. You also get a killer cocked wah tone with the tone at zero and the volume cranked and the tone pot sweep seems much more gradual and usable throughout its entire range. Great Video!! 👏🏻

[fdodasilva]

A “must to do” mod! I did it on my SG (60s wiring) and the improve was astonishing specially on neck pickup (more clear and open) and now I have a bigger palette sounds in middle position… AMAZING! Thank you for the vid! ✌🏼

[kosmonument]

I was going to try this and then realized my Paul already has this wiring. Win!

[deanallen]

I heard the 50s wiring have less effect on the high end on the volume and tone controls. Very interesting. Great video, especially since I'm getting ready to rewire a IBG Epi LP Custom.

[Gerhard]

Great video Kris! This is actually a no brainer for a LP guitar which NEVER lacks low-end. Something that you did not comment on and was also evident is that the sound with the volume on 10 also changes. I felt like there was more clarity and note definition.

[cpamiseso]

Interesting! Thanks Kris and friends for the upload. So in a nutshell, with 50s wiring, volume sweep is volume sweep without losing brightness yet tone sweep works like volume sweep in modern wiring (volume and tone goes together gradually). this is very handy! So I can do volume sweep for cleaning up gain and i could do tone sweep for mellowrr clean up.

[bradt.]

50's wiring as it's called (actually both way's were used) is a mistake electronically. It doesn't actually keep it brighter, it alters the mid resonant freq. Problem is it makes the tone control useless. In fact it acts almost like a volume and really screws the taper of the volume pot. This among other things is why everybody abandoned it for the correct way, ( cap on input lug of vol pot ). I just turn my guitar to 8 or 9 adjust my tone then if I turn guitar all the way up, just back off the tone a couple. This way I maintain the proper function of the controls and keep even tone. If you dont use your tone I guess it doesn't matter, but if that's the case just disconnect it then no cap at all. And if you keep tour guitar vol on 10 all the time either way is the same as the 2 lugs on the vol are shorted together. I still know people who haven't advanced to actually using both vol and tone knobs yet. Hell, Eddie had no tone control at all. Some very good pro's like R.Ford keep both on 10. He just seems to use clean and dirty for the changes. If you play with other guitars in the band that's not allway's a good option. It also really screw's up the middle position on a 4 knob set up like an LP.

[Santaheckler]

Obsidian Wire has a drop control for this, you can flip the switch for neck and bridge individually for 50’s or 60’s wiring…damn cool and it’s solderless.

[michaelmalkosky]

Great video. I just wired my Epiphone Junior to the 50’s specs and your video confirmed there is a little more “spank” and clarity to the pickup. Thanks man.

[nielsvanderplas]

Modded my Epi LP to 50's wiring today. A bit more tricky since it was a variation on the modern wiring. Caps on tone directly to ground and a wire between the tone and volume with the shielding used for ground. Had to disconnect the cores of the wire between the pots but kept the shielding for grounding as is. Fun job, learned a lot!

[raftidchilem]

Very useful on guitars with P90 where you can set your amp in overdrive and go from clean to drive with the volume pot !

[irmasil]

I recently changed to a 50s' harness in my Les Paul as the neck pickup was way too muddy when rolling the tone down and....well, it is not any more :) I was so used to the mud that for the first few seconds there after the change I thought the tone pot was not working...lol...However there is more than meets the eye. The tone pot interacts with the volume pot as well now so it can get darker as you roll off both pots, which means more tones available. AND, despite the fact there should be minimal change when all is at 10, honestly as you have a bit LESS circuit in the input of the volume pot, there is defo a bit more clarity even when everything is at 10.

[dazetake]

So 50s wiring basically kills a lot of tone roll off when using the tone knob, is what I'm hearing, but you don't lose more treble when tuning down the volume knob, not sure if the trade off is worth it, if you are use to modern wiring and you use your tone knob a lot, like I do, I do like the treble coming thru when you turn down, I'd think about adding a few mini switches, to go back and forth between the two, that might work for me.

[wiwiksundari]

*sorry for my English. Great presentation, very nice playing too! I wired my humble hollow body Epiphone IBJL Casino (made in china) to the '50s specs wired from Gibson. Definitely more snappy, clarity & less bassy bottom end I think, with kind a "airy" vibe especially in the neck & middle position switch. I much much prefer the '50s Gibson wired specs than the modern ones for my Epiphone hollow body solid guitar. Thank you very much indeed, Sir. Keep Rock & Roll !

[meeno_the_man]

You skipped the important explanation of why the 50’s wiring is so great: you can dial in your Overdrive to be explosive at full volume and then use your volume knob to clean up your tone. Now all your tone variations are at your fingertips. If the volume only turns down your amplification but keeps the tone unchanged then you don’t have this fantastic feature.

[johnterpack]

My new budget bass has the same control setup as the Les Paul. Going to see how it's wired and give this mod a try.

[LMGuitarCorner]

What a coincidence. I just finished cutting a step by step tutorial video how to make a 50s wiring harness from scratch and how to install it today at 2am.
That's going to be released next week. I put it in my Harley Benton SC-550, and I really like it there with an amp on the edge of breakup.
I really like that lick you're using on the neck PU demo, I think I'll have to slow that video down and borrow a little bit. :)
Cheers,
Martin

[betternamechosen]

To fix the taper on the volume pots add a 130k resistor between lugs 1&2 on each volume pot. Same sweet sound but a more useable volume pot range.

[lupilawless]

What is the difference or benefit of a treble bleed and the 50s wiring?