Epiphone - Les Paul (got me a new axe)

Papa_lazerous · Post by **Papa_lazerous** » 21 Oct 2007, 14:13

haha you ran away with my thread

Like I care mate

We are all here to help each other its not like its DIYSB over here or anything lo

Anyway I got my replacement Les Paul on Friday, do you want photos still or you sorted out? If you do let me know and I will do it within 10 mins of your reply

seeing how we are going off topic, I just had a major sort out in my workshop, well still doing it, finally got everything in drawers and labelled everything. Also stocked up on pretty much every resistor and cap I will ever need for making pedals, was fed up never having what I needed just when I felt like building something

bajaman · Post by **bajaman** » 21 Oct 2007, 19:36

How do I know what I see is alnico?

Sometimes it is hard to see from the slab ends but the faces touching the screws and pole pieces will be shiny like steel if it is alnico, and dull grey like pencil lead if ceramic.
Good Luck

cheers
bajaman

Aharon · Post by **Aharon** » 21 Oct 2007, 23:55

I also have an Epi Les PAul (emerald green),love the way it feels and plays,the neck is fast and easy to play.
The only thing is the guitar needs to be worked on a few areas to play nicely but that's expected of every guitar I guess..
Areas that I had to pay attention to are:
1)New pick ups,the originals are dull and darkish,no life to them.
2)The nut needs to be filed and gresed(G string binds badly,I use 10s)
3)One of the vol pots went dead on me within 4 months of buying the axe.
4)Will have to change the selector SW,cracle not ok.
5)Could use new tuners.

All in all a decent playing guitar for $500 new off the rack plus I bought a Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro HB for the neck,had a Dimarzio X2N already to replace the bridge,had pots to replace all 4 so I had no problem there.

I also have a real Gibson Studio and honestly I play the Epi more.

By the way modman,my epi came with 500K pots,shielded wire between pots and a crappy selector sw.

Aharon

Koltun · Post by **Koltun** » 22 Oct 2007, 06:42

I have an EPI LP from 90's made in Bohemia Musico-Delica, Czech Repblic (info from serial number). It guitar good but it was necessary to correct some things. Tuners: They were installed factory type "vintage" (currently they assemble Grovers) I changed it to locking Sperzel. Also i change bridge pickup to PRS HFS. It has given clear low end and more highs.

Post by **modman** » 22 Oct 2007, 08:56

Thanks for the feedback guys,

Really excited about that magnet swapping trick baja proposed, but other stuff comes first. Just played it again and must say that volume problem is completely gone or I imagined it in the first place.

If I get round to swapping the cores, that would be a great subject for a picture tutorial.

Papa,

Still interested in that wiring shot, will try to get one from a friend's brand new Gibson SG for comparison.

Also still interested in anybody's opinion on why my tone pot works great at 100K. It's never about losing treble, of course, with the pot a 0 ohm it doesn't matter what the pot value is.

modman

AfterDarkMusic · Post by **AfterDarkMusic** » 09 Dec 2007, 07:02

Hey guys, I'm planning to rewire my Epi LP here, too. Love the feel of it, but there are a few issues. The bridge pickup sounds super shitty. Thin, dead, etc. I'd like to get new caps and see if that helps. Both tone caps are 47n. Any suggestions as far as values here?

I've also heard/read that the stock pots (which these are) are of bad quality on the Epis. Can cheap pots hurt your tone? I wouldn't mind replacing them as well though I'd have to stick with 16mm pots; the mounting hole placement is horrific and there simply isn't space for 24mm pots.

If you've got any other suggestions as far as bringing a pickup to life, lay it on me.

Just for kicks, here's a picture of the two of us circa January 2004

Post by **modman** » 14 Dec 2007, 00:30

First thing I would check is string height on that bridge pickup. Remember that pickup screws are tone controls. The old LPs came standard with 22n/400V caps but this isn't going to help giving you what might not be there. Tone controls just cut treble.

Before new pickups, you could try and replace the magnets, as Bajaman suggested above: 5$/pcs at Stew I believe.

Let us know how it goes!

AfterDarkMusic · Post by **AfterDarkMusic** » 14 Dec 2007, 05:56

I actually went ahead and did that earlier this week. I like the guitar. I'm thinking about switching to p90s though (GFS Mean 90s). Simply put, I can cop all the tones I get right now with my MM Stingray II. I dunno, I'll see where I end up. I'm thinking about getting a tele, so I might just keep the LP as is. The Stingray's pickups are extremely hot due to the active preamp (op-amp based, LM4250CN). I was testing the output using the same method discussed earlier in the thread, trainwrecks method, and they were coming in between 36 and 39K...

My LP's are 8.4K.

Long story short, you gave good advice and I like the sound of my LP right now.