Pickup conductors?

Oeneus

I'm on a mission to buy new pickups for my Les Paul. One of them being the seymour duncan '59 pickup. They have two options to have it as a 2 conductor or 4 conductor (the 4 is an addition $4).

Does anyone know what this means? It's something I've never been aware of before,

Jaicster

I don't know and i'm no expert but maybe its to do with the pickup selector switch?
Never heard of it before myself.

NeMiSiS

WHAT IS FOUR-CONDUCTOR WIRING?
Four conductor wiring is the practice of independent termination of the beginning and ending leads from each coil of a humbucking pickup to a cable with a common shield. This approach allows much versatility in wiring and switching configurations ie. series/split/parallel, splitting with coil selection, in/out of phase with itself, in/out of phase with another pickup, etc.

So 4 is better for tapping/splitting pickups as in combining them uncombining them,more versitility in sound..worth while if your getting another different type of pickup..

The pickups in my Les Paul (Standard) are **** hot .. 490R Alnico magnet humbucker and 498T Alnico magnet humbucker,same as all standards,what kind of Les Paul is it..? Maybe I could with a bit more mid's somedays but thats about it..

See ive seen a few poeple pretty dissappionted over changing pickups 'its not the sound I want' like if the guitar sounds ****e,changing the pickups wont make a huge difference regardless.What sound are you after ? What do you want as in more tone/warmth /body/ mid's /highs etc ?

Hope that was enlightening..

NeM

Oeneus

I'm going to get an SD Alnico 2 and a '59 pickup. I'm picking them out from listening to the samples on the SD website.

So is there much point me getting a 4 conductor pickup then? Considering my Les Paul only has a 3-way switch?

(It's an Epiphone Les Paul Classic)

I'm actually completely cleaning out my guitar and replacing all it's hardware, wiring etc. It's all crap and it's starting to do my head in!

OSiriS

Since you are changing everything, why not get a 5 position switch;)

Oeneus

Well...because (duh:rolleyes: ) Les Pauls don't!

NeMiSiS

"So is there much point me getting a 4 conductor pickup then? Considering my Les Paul only has a 3-way switch?"
"Well...because (duh ) Les Pauls don't!"

Not true.

The switch doesnt have to be the 'switch' you can,you can install a little switch or set up another switch so that when you pull out the tone knobs they become a switch..

So you could your guitar doing say: bridge pickup,neck pickup,both pickups,single part of single one part of other (same reversed),1 pickup and single part of the other,theres alot of possibilities..

I dont get why your gutting the whole guitar,the build quality on Epiphones isnt in my opinion all that good,I mean ive seen some awful ones,theres better ways to spend money as in : nice secondhand geetars.

The body and woods a guitar is made from is where the tone starts. Id go buy a secondhand SG or Les Paul,play that then decide if i would or would not change the pickups,secondhand SG is like around 900 bucks..thats a good deal for essientialy a Les Paul in a different shape.Buts thats just me.

NeM

Giblet

I had the same wiring with my hotrails. You have more options with it as Nem said, but you can just wire it as a normal pickup. There will be wiring diagrams with it so you can choose which configuration you want. Most likely you will just use the Ground and live wires and just solder the extra two together. As I've said, you will get diagrams. You could buy a push/pull pot and wire it up so you can have a coil tap for a single coil sound on your humbuckers. Just make sure they are not out of phase, as you may get a drastic loss of sound.

Oeneus

Well I've ordered standard pots for now, but I'll get the 4 conductor anyway. 'Tis only an extra $4.

And I am actually perfectly happy with the body of the guitar. It's not causing any problems whatsoever.

The axe has the following problems:

1. The switch has been screwed from the beginning.
2. The Machineheads just generally suck!
3. One of the volume knobs crackle.
4. I had to resolder the jack last week.
5. The bridge is slicing my A string! (even after filing it)
6. And I don't like the look of the hardware (It's black)

As you can see it's mostly electronic faults! But I also want to completely change it's appearance!

Lovely sound, Lovely finish... Crap Hardware, Crap electronics

Slosh

2. The Machineheads just generally suck!

This is true even for Gibsons.. I have 5 and have replaced the machine heads on all but one.. They really were awful...

Jaicster

I don't like the look of the les pauls so i've no idea of what you'd like, so i found one that was alright lookin (in shiney black) but u said u didn't like black so..
Here buy this



Its a Gibson ES-135 Semi-hollow body with a Florentine cutaway and classic '57 humbuckers. Includes Gibson hardshell case ($159 value).
Cost:
Natural (Gold Hardware) #33298
$999.99 + $70 P+P thats not bad considiering the normal price $2,537.00 + $70 P+P
Its from music123.com and they'll delivier in about a (working)week. I think at the mo that it would cost you less in euros.

---

you can,you can install a little switch or set up another switch so that when you pull out the tone knobs they become a switch

I have a 5 way selector switch and this thing called a 'coil tap' when i pull it out it changes the tone and i can get some weird sounds out of the guitar using it,
Its seems it would be used for getting nice clean sounds and seems like a bit of a waste on my guitar with i generally use for making high gain/dist noise.

If you've got any ideas for getting a cool/weird/funney sound out with this thing post em up.

Oeneus

Eh... Now you've lost me. For a start, I love the look of the Les Paul! And it's going to cost me $200 to buy all this new hardware, where's that costs a thousand!

And also, if I had the cash to buy a Gibson, I'd get one of these Mother's!


*Droooooolll

I don't quite know why your advising me to buy another guitar. I know what I'm doing! I just wanted to know what the difference between a 2 and 4 conductor pickup was!

Jaicster

That one isn't so bad, but i' sure you could get it cheaper from music123
I don't work for them or anything i just have a gripe with the rip off prices in this country (on everything)
ppl have said to me no don't buy off the internet their all second rate guitars (maybe true of some sites) but the ones i use, your stuff ships from the factory...

Any way hope you get things set up the way you like, I'll try not to go off topic so much

Oeneus

Not Bad? Not bad, my friend?! That's as good as it gets!!

But I agree, Music123.com are pretty damn good! The Ibanez's are stupidly cheap. Something silly like $300 for a RG570 where in Dublin it costs nearly a grand! (sad)

nesthead

/me pukes at horribulness of LesPauls

alfonso*

nest tbh you can go back to your ****ty mexicano made 5 dolla guitar,les pauls look and feel great:D

Oeneus

Originally posted by nesthead
/me pukes at horribulness of LesPauls

Are you on drugs?! That Particular Les Paul in that picture is every (serious) guitarist's dream!

alfonso*

i think you hit the nail on the head with that "serious" comment :rolleyes:

Oeneus

Heh! I know.