Jimmy Page wiring

hannaugh

Master Member
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I'm trying to figure out what stuff to get for my carved top LP, which should be arriving very shortly.  I have 2 humbuckers and a planetwaves jack already, but I need to decide on the other electrical parts.  I want the Jimmy Page wiring, so push/pull pots are a must.  What kind of pots and capacitors should I get?  CTS?  I was looking at some Sprague Vitamin Q caps online, but I really don't know which things are worth the extra cash and which things are not.  What about switches?

So guys, if it were your project, which parts would you choose and why?

I'm gonna go back to work now, won't be back for a few days.  Thanks ahead of time!

 
well, to save me a LOT of headache, I'd buy the seymour duncan triple shot mounting rings, solder the 4 wires to the designated places, so I have for each pickup single/series/parallel. that combined with 1 mega ohm pots for volume (CTS, ofcourse!!) and 2 500k ohm pots for push PUSH pots (warmoth sells them; I believe, CTS too!) for neck+bridge in/out fase and series/parallel for maximum versatility.

thats what I'd do.
 
I have the Jimmy Page wiring on my LP.

I had trouble getting the one listed on the seymourduncan.com site working right.

this diagram works though  - it's different than the one in the sd wiring diagrams section. it's based on the original Gibson schematic.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/showthread.php?t=73043

I just used the .047 caps that Warmoth sells.

I bought long shaft 500k push pull pots from StewMac. I believe they're Alpha pots. They're audio taper. Not sure why the diagram says linear taper. I got push pull because I don't care for the push push type Warmoth sells.

People have come up with other schemes that give you better options, with more hum canceling options. I'm pretty happy with the set up the way it is though. If you search around the seymourduncan.com forum you can find improved versions.

You might not find the out of phase sounds all that useful, unless you enjoy odd tones or want to do some Queen solos. ;)  It is fun to have so many different options though. Some of the options are not convenient at all to switch to while playing, but that's not really a problem if just messing around or recording - or just leaving a certain setting on.

Good luck
 
Cool, thanks for the info!

I think I'll get the JPLP kit from Stewmac and buy some extra orange drop caps to switch out with the regular ceramics.  I wish Acme Guitar Works had a JPLP kit. 

I'm doing the Jimmy Page wiring because I like the weird sounds you can get out of it.  I don't know that much about wiring, but I've been slowly working my way through Tim Swike's book on the subject, taking notes and trying to figure out exactly what I want.  I just want a large number of different sounds to choose from. 

My drummer and I are trying to get a band off the ground in the near future, and our main influences are all pretty eccentric.  So I think I will use any odd tone I can get out of this new LP a least a few times.  And hell yes, I would want to do Queen solos!  Brian May freaking rocks. 
 
hannaugh said:
Cool, thanks for the info!

I think I'll get the JPLP kit from Stewmac and buy some extra orange drop caps to switch out with the regular ceramics.  I wish Acme Guitar Works had a JPLP kit. 

I'm doing the Jimmy Page wiring because I like the weird sounds you can get out of it.  I don't know that much about wiring, but I've been slowly working my way through Tim Swike's book on the subject, taking notes and trying to figure out exactly what I want.  I just want a large number of different sounds to choose from. 

My drummer and I are trying to get a band off the ground in the near future, and our main influences are all pretty eccentric.  So I think I will use any odd tone I can get out of this new LP a least a few times.  And hell yes, I would want to do Queen solos!  Brian May freaking rocks. 

This thing from Stew Mac:
http://www.stewmac.com/shopby/item/0126

is not the wiring that I have that does 21 different tones - - that stew mac kit only does coil splitting with one push pull pot.

#0126 JPLP Wiring Kit

The JPLP (Jimmy Page Les Paul) wiring kit allows you to coil-cut the bridge pickup using a push-pull tone control. The other feature of the JPLP wiring is that in the middle position of the pickup selector, the bridge pickup is out-of-phase with the neck pickup.

not really the same thing at all - but still nice.
 
Oh snap, it does only have 1 push/pull!  Damn my dislexia!  Okay, I'll just get parts individually then. 

I want as many different options as possible, so I'm going with the seymour duncan diagram.  I hate the StewMac diagrams anyways, they're all in black and white, and are confusing to my eyes. 
 
http://www.torresengineering.com/noname7.html

This is too complicated for me but if you want it, go for it.
 
As far as the caps go, there are a bunch of opinions on those.  The ceramic are the noisiest from an electronic standpoint, but cheap.  Spragues are nice, I have one on order.  I can't remember who sent Max a vintage looking film cap, it looked like a Mallory 150'S one from here, and mentioned that it did make quite a difference.  I don't really know, I do not have anything but ceramics in my guitars at the moment so it is hard to compare.
Patrick

 
Just be sure to get the long shaft pots.  Standard length shafts will be too short.  I found that one out the hard way and was very sad... :(
 
Patrick from Davis said:
They are surprisingly large things.  It should be fun to see if I can hear a big difference with the one I have on order.
Patrick

I know!  When I got them I was like "WTF. These things are fricken huge!"

And yes, Fish, I got the long pots.  :icon_biggrin:
 
I think push-push pots feel CHEAP.  Push pulls are much nicer.

I think I have heard bad things about Torres Engineering.  I guess they have good design, bad customer support... or maybe the other way around.  :icon_scratch:  Anyway that's big money for 4 pots and some caps  :eek:
 
I agree, it's big money.  It's a lot cheaper to buy them separately and bring them to your guitar tech to solder, if the instructions are two confusing ... but it gives you an idea of what's involved.  He gives a pretty good description of what H is looking for.

I got a pretty cool switch from Torres for my tele, it's a concentric/center tone knob.  The inner knob cuts or boosts midrange, while the outer knob is a regular tone knob.  A pretty subtle effect, but it works as advertised, scooping out the mids or adding mid.  I paid about 30 bucks for it.  So I have no complaints.  Except I wish I got it for free.
 
I think the push/push ones are a good idea, but I didn't hear anything good about the actual product from anyone, so I went with push/pull, Alpha audio taper of course.  Push/push seems like a good design, but if the manufacturer doesn't execute it well, I'll just stick with the standard. 
 
I agree that push push is a good idea.  But they feel cheap to me.  The push-push action is fine, it's just the feel of the pot itself... too loose
 
another bad thing about the push/push type is you can ruin them if you pull them up by mistake.
 
I've never gotten a chance to mess around with push-push or push-pull...

Am I right in guessing you actually push in or pull the push-pulls, but for the push-push, it's like a power switch on a remote- you push it once for one mode, and push it again for the other?
 
Max said:
I've never gotten a chance to mess around with push-push or push-pull...

Am I right in guessing you actually push in or pull the push-pulls, but for the push-push, it's like a power switch on a remote- you push it once for one mode, and push it again for the other?
push pulls appear normal, but you can pull them and they click to a slightly higher position. you then just push them down and they click down.

push/push works in a similar way except you push down on the pot and it pops up to the up position. Then you push it down and it clicks to the down position. If you pull a push/push pot up when it's down you can ruin it. the pots warmoth sells even come with a warning about it.
 
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