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changing out PU on Epiphone doubleneck

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  • changing out PU on Epiphone doubleneck

    I'm upgrading my treble PU on the six string side of my Epiphone doubleneck. Trouble is that only a single wire from the original PU is only attached to the switch and not the pot. Whereas, my new PU (Bill Lawrence L-500XL) has several leads (red, black, white, green and bare wire). I want to keep it simple with no inverting or split coils, so...What connects to what?
    Thanx,
    Rudeness

  • #2
    The instructions with the pickup should give you the hook up wiring code. Tie the two coil tap wires together, Lawrence I believe is white and green together and do not connect these to anything if you do not want the tap option. Red is the hot output and black and bare together hook up to ground. If the pickup is out of phase with your existing pickup, swap the red and black wires.

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    • #3
      Yeah the problem I have is where would I solder the ground wires to? The current stock pickup only has one blue wire coming out of it, I'm sure that's not ground and that's soldered to the PU selector. Where do the ground wires go? Bill Lawrence has nothing on this on their site in regards to wiring in a Gibson doubleneck guitar.

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      • #4
        The Epiphone pickup lead should be a single conductor shielded lead. A hot wire with a bare stranded shield wire. The bare wire is the ground.

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        • #5
          Thanx Down Time for the guidance. Very much appreciated.
          Take Care,
          Rudeness

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          • #6
            I hope you got it working

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            • #7
              Final reply to swapping out bridge PU on Epiphone doubleneck

              OK, here's the gist of it all. The original PU on the Epiphone doubleneck, on the six string neck, has a single blue wire that is connected to the PU selector, also on the six string part of the neck.

              Upon closer inspection it turns out that the blue wire is actually housing a bare wire (ground) and a white wire (hot). On the Bill Lawrence PU I taped together the green and white wires as advised by "Down Time", and insulated and taped down the bare wire (as it was too wide and thick for this application).

              I then soldered the black wire and red wire onto the respective points of the PU selector switch and was finished with the solder job. I did minimal screw replacements (in case I screwed up--no puns intended), restrung it, and tested the axe. TADAHHH! It sounded great!! I then finished with the rest of the screws and played the night away

              Thanx Down Time for your input on this project without which I could not have tackled this job.

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              • #8
                Glad to help. Wiring new pickups can be confusing with all the different manufactures color codes.

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                • #9
                  Right about that

                  Right about that! I didn't get that finished until Thursday though. Turns out the PU I bought was blemished badly so I had to wait for a replacement. Someone mentioned to me later that Bill Lawrence PUs are made in China now even though they're based out of La Jolla, Cali and that there's some questions about their quality control. The PU still sounds as great as the one I bought back in the early 80s.

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                  • #10
                    I haven't heard about the China thing. Shouldn't it say "Made in China" somewhere on the pickup or the packaging?

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Rudeness View Post
                      Right about that! I didn't get that finished until Thursday though. Turns out the PU I bought was blemished badly so I had to wait for a replacement. Someone mentioned to me later that Bill Lawrence PUs are made in China now even though they're based out of La Jolla, Cali and that there's some questions about their quality control. The PU still sounds as great as the one I bought back in the early 80s.
                      But these are not the real Bill Lawrence pickups from the 80's. These are BillLawrenceUSA pickups which are made by his former partner who ended up owning the trademark Bill Lawrence.

                      I've owned both, and the new ones are not as good as the originals.

                      The real Bill Lawrence and his pickups are here:

                      Bill Lawrence: Musician, Designer, Craftsman

                      Wilde Pickups
                      It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure. — Albert Einstein


                      http://coneyislandguitars.com
                      www.soundcloud.com/davidravenmoon

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                      • #12
                        "These are Bill Lawrence USA pickups" Are they made in China? I say buy a set of Fralins, Lollars, Duncans etc.......... and call it a day. This whole Bill Lawrence partner trademark USA China thing sounds like a train wreck for the real Bill Lawrence.
                        Last edited by Down Time; 04-07-2010, 03:20 AM.

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