Strange LP Custom wiring

[Rick201]

I was fortunate enough to buy a 1981 Black Beauty used. I’ve had it for over twenty-five years, but always was curious about the tone operation. I opened it up last night to investigate. It sounds awesome and I would not change a thing. My concern is that the wiring does not match anything I have found online.

I have cobbled together a schematic using LibreOffice Draw. It seems strange to me why anyone would short the output of a pickup to ground, but that’s just what happens if the volume is set to zero. The tone operation is another story again. I also am including a snapshot of the control wiring. That’s how I bought it. It is NOT my work!

Any thoughts?

Rick

 

[PaulD]

Strange indeed. I first thought it might be a form of independent wiring (i.e. with the switch in the middle position you can turn one volume all the way down without muting all output) but in order to do this the switch should be connected to the outer lug of the volume pot, not the wiper. The way it is wired at the moment is that the volume is working as a simple variable resistance to ground, this means that as you turn the volume down it will affect the output impedance of the guitar and will likely result in quite a bit of high frequency roll off meaning that the tone will get darker as you turn down the volume. Also I would think that with the volume turned up the tone control will have very little if any effect on the tone?

I've never seen anything wired like this before and have no idea why anyone would but if it works for you all is good.

P.S. With any volume control the output of the pickup gets shorted to ground when it is turned to zero, that is how volume controls work

 

[PaulD]

Join the forum and ask a question with your first post........ someone takes the time to respond........ deathly silence, never to be heard from again. Why do so many people do this? (Rhetorical question!)

 

[Rick201]

Sorry, Paul, but I haven't had time to investigate the situation further. I will let you know what develops. I didn't think this was that important.
I guess I usually have the controls full-on anyway.
Thanks for your input.

 

[TheArchitect]

I was fortunate enough to buy a 1981 Black Beauty used. I’ve had it for over twenty-five years, but always was curious about the tone operation. I opened it up last night to investigate. It sounds awesome and I would not change a thing. My concern is that the wiring does not match anything I have found online.

I have cobbled together a schematic using LibreOffice Draw. It seems strange to me why anyone would short the output of a pickup to ground, but that’s just what happens if the volume is set to zero. The tone operation is another story again. I also am including a snapshot of the control wiring. That’s how I bought it. It is NOT my work!

Any thoughts?

Rick

Thats how volumes controls work. What is so surprising about that?

 

[GreenBurst]

Sorry, Paul, but I haven't had time to investigate the situation further. I will let you know what develops. I didn't think this was that important.
I guess I usually have the controls full-on anyway.
Thanks for your input.

If you didn't have time to investigate then why ask the question? Best to post when you are prepared to deal with the support responses.

 

[poor man's burst]

Thats how volumes controls work. What is so surprising about that?

The wiring is wrong: the wire coming from the pickups should be soldered to the top lug and the wire going to the switch soldered to the wiper. In the op guitar, both are soldered to the wiper, that's what is surprising. The capacitor wire can be soldered to either lug (so-called '60s wiring and '50s wiring)