Tim Shaw PAF reissue interview

[Possum]

50s wiring....

Wow, Jon that sounds cool, do you have a wiring chart or link to how they were wired? What tone caps did they use?

[Possum]

50s wiring....

found this easy to understand wiring guide for 50s les pauls:
http://www.dominocs.com/ToneWorks/mod50s.html

[JGundry]

That diagram is correct. I just used the capacitor that was already in the guitar which is a .022 uf cap. If you search wiring library at the Les Paul forum you will get a thread with several diagrams of 50's and modern wiring as seen from the control cavity. The magnet flip and the wiring switch is a pretty dramatic change for the better IMHO. It's an easy mod to do. Also make sure your pots in the guitar are 500K. I think some older Gibson Les Pauls and Epiphone Les Pauls have 300K pots.

[David Schwab]

well your pic doesn't actually show the slugs touching the baseplate the pickup is tilted up too far to see that. The Shaw I have there is a tiny gap between the slugs and baseplate. Don't forget to count winds per layer. Those magnets are cool wish we could get similar, those were alnico II in the Shaws pretty sure. If this isn't neck space would like to know the magnet length used as well as the other dimensions. Mine is neck spaced so the magnet is shorter, the thickness is more than 1/8" as he mentioned in the article and I also found this in most 50s alnico bars too.

Yeah, you cant see the slugs touching in the photo... but they were. That was the best photo I got after trying a bunch of shots. I could also see them from the bottom of the baseplate, since it has two sets of screw pole holes, but they looked like some kind of white plastic spacer, since they have oxidized... They really look like shiny plastic! I guess depending how how thick the magnet is, or the two plastic spacers, would determine if they touch or not (assuming they are long enough).

Both the pickups on my '83 Les Paul had the same spacing... what year is your pickup? I'm going to have my friend measure his Pauls... I'm curious how many had different spaced poles for Neck and bridge.

Thanks for the tip on steaming the tape. I started thinking along those lines... hadn't thought of steam though. I used to have one of those portable clothes steamers.

The tape is no longer sticky after removing it, so I'll be replacing it with new tape.

I'll probably get to it next weekend...

[Possum]

>>>>>>>

Don't forget I never actually tried steaming but don't see why it wouldn't work pretty well.

Jon: I read that 50s wiring if you have the switch in the middle and turn the volume down you lose both pickups all the way down, did you have anything like that happen with this wiring?

[JGundry]

Jon: I read that 50s wiring if you have the switch in the middle and turn the volume down you lose both pickups all the way down, did you have anything like that happen with this wiring?

Yes this is the case. But you would have to be extremely drunk to be confused by it. It does not create a problem. If you are familiar with the live Fleetwood Mac version of "If You Let Me Love You" you can tell that Peter Green is using both the 50's wiring and the out of phase mod to great effect in this song. The tone is much clearer when the volume is rolled back with the 50's wiring. You can get quite a range of tones in the middle position by backing both volume controls off together.

[JGundry]

Dave: Here is Youtube link to a LPF member demonstrating the Peter Green mod with 50's wiring. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6qkF_6LNPA

[Possum]

mmm....

its more about the out of phase thing than 50s wiring tone...LP goldtops with P90s actually do it way better than buckers, all my P90 guitars have phase switches in them. I do have a question if anyone knows. What kind of wire was used from the switch to the pots and jack? Did they use the braided ground stuff, from what I've been able to find looking on the net it looks like they used that and had multiple grounds with two , two conductor wires coming off the switch? I've never seen the inside of a real old LP before...

[Zhangliqun]

Hey, maybe we can all get together and talk with 1 magnet maker and get the specs of the originals made, could be a good thing for us and them.

Talk to Magnetic Hold -- they'll make you just about anything you want. I've got some 3/16" thick A2's made by them, plus some other crazy stuff.

[NightWinder]

Hows their customer support and pricing, shipping etc. ?

[Zhangliqun]

Hows their customer support and pricing, shipping etc. ?

Good, really good. They even send me free samples from time to time when I want to try something new. I got a bad batch from them once (just wouldn't charge up) but they sent new ones to replace them all right away without even having to receive the bad ones back first.

They are very responsive and will make you damn near anything you want, and in very small quantities. I had to pay a tooling charge for the thicker bars and shorter bars, but the samples were free. But no tooling charge for rod mags of any combination of alnico grade, length or diameter I've asked for so far, and I've asked for some very unorthodox stuff.

The only thing they don't do is Alnico 4, and I've been a little curious about A4 rods, but oh well. They even made me some A6 rods though.

Price-wise, can't give exact figures because it varies from batch to batch depending on order size, but definitely cheaper than Allstar.

[kevinT]

Good, really good.

I can vouch for that. I recently sent in a quote request around 7:30 pm EST and around 10:30 pm the same night I received a quote. I was very suprised. If that ain't customer service I don't know what is.

They are very responsive

Shea, who is the rep I've been working with is very cool. He sent out free samples the next morning after I talked to him

Price-wise, can't give exact figures because it varies from batch to batch depending on order size, but definitely cheaper than Allstar.

a lot better!