Gibson les Paul 50’s wiring and ground issues (solved)

My name is mud said:
But yeah throwing all the electronic and putting a emg kit is a solution too… whatever they say about these pickups they work. But you will lose the spirit of the guitar a little bit . This guitar by default sound very good and that’s why I ve bought it after trying it. It breath. A little bit too much maybe 😅
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My Orville came with some low output, metal-covered pickups that I think are supposed to be their version of Burst Buckers. While I wanted to keep it stock and as close to a classic LP as much as possible with it, the bridge (and sometimes the neck) were/are borderline microphonic depending on the amp/tone I was using. Ultimately I decided it was taking away from my enjoyment of playing it, so I put a Suhr Aldrich in the bridge and that thing sounds ridiculous now.

While I wasn’t digging that pickup, there‘s this awesome ‘air’ around all the notes on that guitar and I thought for sure it was the pickups doing that, but after I changed it out, it’s still there. I kept the neck stock but I might change that for an Aldrich as well. It’s a higher output pickup than I thought I wanted to go for, but it sounds great using less gain on an amp or rolling the volume back. The sound of the guitar is still 100% there, it just has balls now. It’s no surprise a pickup designed around a guy who primarily plays Les Pauls sounds awesome in a….Les Paul.

And I put the Zakk Wylde EMG’s in my Edwards LP Custom, same deal with that, the low end of the guitar is still totally there, it just has all the stuff EMG’s add as well.
 
+1 on Aldrich PUs...I have them in my #1 superstrat for years, end of search! I recently put a set in my LP, but still not bonding with the LP...i guess I´m a strat guy...as much as I love LP tones. BTW my superstrat has a mahogany body...;)
 
Peromustejn said:
yes for me shielding fixed it. But only when I had shielded the toggle switch cavity the guitars became completely quiet
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And it’s also funny that the moment I get total silence was after shielding the cavity of the 3 position ! strange no?

Also the guy I saw in a video about the cavity of the pickup wasn’t wrong : I don’t have tape this part and the problem is fixed . It is not obliged to tape this part when you have humbuckers
 
RevDrucifer said:
My Orville came with some low output, metal-covered pickups that I think are supposed to be their version of Burst Buckers. While I wanted to keep it stock and as close to a classic LP as much as possible with it, the bridge (and sometimes the neck) were/are borderline microphonic depending on the amp/tone I was using. Ultimately I decided it was taking away from my enjoyment of playing it, so I put a Suhr Aldrich in the bridge and that thing sounds ridiculous now.

While I wasn’t digging that pickup, there‘s this awesome ‘air’ around all the notes on that guitar and I thought for sure it was the pickups doing that, but after I changed it out, it’s still there. I kept the neck stock but I might change that for an Aldrich as well. It’s a higher output pickup than I thought I wanted to go for, but it sounds great using less gain on an amp or rolling the volume back. The sound of the guitar is still 100% there, it just has balls now. It’s no surprise a pickup designed around a guy who primarily plays Les Pauls sounds awesome in a….Les Paul.
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Interesting. But now that I don’t have ground noise anymore I don’t have anymore reason to change pickups . I will retry the guitar tomorrow to see if I got no surprises.

Some pickups like Seymour Duncan are so expensive now that’s crazy. I think the price jump to 40% in 6/7 years . Wtf. 350 euros 2 pickups ! Whhhhattt? 350 a pair of Duncan seriously? They were 100 per unit not so long time ago .
 
Randalljax said:
Now tell us if you palm mute on the E with modern gate do you still have noise and hum or is it quieted that too?
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I have quickly tried because I needed to go to a show tonight, and there was no ground noise anymore while palm muting. I need to retry all of this tomorrow .
It don’t change the fact that a good noise gate should clean even vintage single coils ☺️. They are made for this. With knobs now grounded 2 times, and cooper tapes, fortunately the noise is gone using a gate 😅
 
Randalljax said:
Now tell us if you palm mute on the E with modern gate do you still have noise and hum or is it quieted that too?
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After a small test, the noise still non filtered when you do a palm mute, but as the amount of noise is ridiculous now, this is not a problem.
 
My name is mud said:
Interesting. But now that I don’t have ground noise anymore I don’t have anymore reason to change pickups . I will retry the guitar tomorrow to see if I got no surprises.

Some pickups like Seymour Duncan are so expensive now that’s crazy. I think the price jump to 40% in 6/7 years . Wtf. 350 euros 2 pickups ! Whhhhattt? 350 a pair of Duncan seriously? They were 100 per unit not so long time ago .
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Yeah, the Aldrich’s are $150 a piece, the most I ever spent on a pickup before. Got the Wylde EMG set for $199 with 6 packs of strings! It’s worth it and I’m glad I did it, the lower mids are boosted a bit and has such a wonderful growl with high gain amps. Hahaha you see Duncan’s Zephyr pickups or whatever they’re called, something like $1200 for a set? :tearsofjoy:

Glad you got it working, man! Nothing worse than having something you REALLY want to use have an issue like buzzing!
 
RevDrucifer said:
you see Duncan’s Zephyr pickups or whatever they’re called, something like $1200 for a set? :tearsofjoy:
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😳
To me Seymour Duncan as always been “ok…” pickups when you just want to upgrade some cheap Chinese one. I ve never been fan of them. They are dark, too much mids globally. I have a sh4 in one guitar, it work yes … but I always prefered di marzio as replacement pickups. They are cheap and globally great. I try and got …don’t know … maybe 10 different pickups from them and they all sounded cool.
Don’t know yeah they do business … maybe that’s me but putting more than 150 a pickup is … well. Maybe I m wrong . But it reminds me the hype around bkp some years ago. I ve tried some on them on guitar and the clean tone was bad, they where “over everything”. I like mid gain pickups, having the purest clean tone possible first, and then with all the tools we have for heavy distortion, no need to have heavy output ones imo
 
Joe Bfstplk said:
but they don't back up the mechanical ground with a proper soldered ground because it'd cost them a dollar more
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Yes I agree… this guitar for exemple got zero shielding in cavities… at this price … but you know, if they put some “modern” adjustments, purist will tell you that this is not a Gibson anymore 🤣. ( and for them my guitar isn’t a Gibson because it’s not build in the 60’s you know,only old things are great 🤣).
Personably I’m not a purist . I like to respect the original but the guitar should cover my needs. I m not in vintage things… I like buying things “new”.

I have also changed The bridge in the first weeks, because the saddle were falling without strings on it… the traditional ABR1 is like that…. There is not the metal cable that prevent the saddles to fall when you broke a string . So I change it for a little bit more modern one . Until now it’s ok . Just a bridge, some cooper tape and time . All the rest is fine, no problem with finish etc . I like this guitar a lot for a non les Paul guy first.
 
My name is mud said:
😳
To me Seymour Duncan as always been “ok…” pickups when you just want to upgrade some cheap Chinese one. I ve never been fan of them. They are dark, too much mids globally. I have a sh4 in one guitar, it work yes … but I always prefered di marzio as replacement pickups. They are cheap and globally great. I try and got …don’t know … maybe 10 different pickups from them and they all sounded cool.
Don’t know yeah they do business … maybe that’s me but putting more than 150 a pickup is … well. Maybe I m wrong . But it reminds me the hype around bkp some years ago. I ve tried some on them on guitar and the clean tone was bad, they where “over everything”. I like mid gain pickups, having the purest clean tone possible first, and then with all the tools we have for heavy distortion, no need to have heavy output ones imo
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I’m with ya there. I removed a JB and a ’59 from the Edwards LP Custom when I put the EMGs in it, your description sums up everything I didn’t like about the JB. I barely spent any time with the neck pickup, those pickups were only in there about 2 days because I knew I wanted to put the EMGs in it, regardless of how the Duncans sounded.

I grew up with Dimarzio’s in all the Ibanez stuff I’ve had over the years, they just feel like home to me. The only reason I went with the Suhr Aldrich was because I really dug the demos and by the countless testimonials/comments that all seemed to indicate I’d really dig it.
 
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