WTF?! GIBSON

[bucketshred]

When the hell did Gibson start wiring things up in their guitars with a PCB. I am totally not impressed. This means I actually have to get someone who really knows what they are doing to wire up my WarPig into my SG.

:(

Paddy

[Dmoney]

eh!

can you do a pic?

[Frank]

I gave up trying to figure out what goes through the minds of Gibson guitar designers a long time ago. Can't you just desolder the pickup wires off the PCB and wire in the new pickup?

[MDV]

I've seen this in an old yamaha (70s old).

Nothings different electrically, its just that a portion of the wiring is as near wireless as its gonna get, because its printed on a PCB. Makes it easier, actually. Unless you want a different control scheme, hen you have to scr@p it.

[MDV]

I gave up trying to figure out what goes through the minds of Gibson guitar designers a long time ago. Can't you just desolder the pickup wires off the PCB and wire in the new pickup?

Yes, and without any other wires getting in the way.

[bucketshred]

So...

If my Gibson currenty has green and black connected to the board then I will have to connect red and black from my BKP there? Where would I then connect my ground?

Paddy

[ericsabbath]

So...

If my Gibson currenty has green and black connected to the board then I will have to connect red and black from my BKP there? Where would I then connect my ground?

Paddy

[MrBump]

I've seen this in an old yamaha (70s old).

Nothings different electrically, its just that a portion of the wiring is as near wireless as its gonna get, because its printed on a PCB. Makes it easier, actually. Unless you want a different control scheme, hen you have to scr@p it.

Yeah, my 1980s Yam SG had a pcb.  I just pulled the whole thing out and started from wood.

[Frank]

Yeah, my 1980s Yam SG had a pcb.  I just pulled the whole thing out and started from wood.

Hooray for ripping things out if you don't like them!

[AndyR]

Yeah, I had dreadful trouble transferring my Riff Raffs into my Faded SG earlier this year. The pickups plug in to the board. The plugs don't appear to be "re-usable", and I couldn't track down the right ones in my haste to get the BKPs into the guitar (it was kinda bought for them...). So I ended up having to cut the plug off the old pickups with an inch or so wire left, solder the end of the BKP hookups to the wire, insulate, and then plug em in...

Changing a pot or capacitor will probably mean ripping the whole lot out and replacing (with my skills, anyway :lol:). However, it's not broke, it works, I'm not gigging... so I'm not opening it up again until it stops working!

[badgermark]

Yeah, I had dreadful trouble transferring my Riff Raffs into my Faded SG earlier this year. The pickups plug in to the board. The plugs don't appear to be "re-usable", and I couldn't track down the right ones in my haste to get the BKPs into the guitar (it was kinda bought for them...). So I ended up having to cut the plug off the old pickups with an inch or so wire left, solder the end of the BKP hookups to the wire, insulate, and then plug em in...

Changing a pot or capacitor will probably mean ripping the whole lot out and replacing (with my skills, anyway :lol:). However, it's not broke, it works, I'm not gigging... so I'm not opening it up again until it stops working!

That's odd, my Faded SG is all natural, all the time. Not a pcb in sight. Though I suspect mine is a little older than yours, and the fretboard looks suspiciously like ebony to me...

[gooch]

i got a 2006 gibson SG standard.. and there's no PCB... when did they start using them?

[hunter]

A few years down the line and we'll pay extra for handwired guitars. Maybe Gibson thought that's be a way to differentiate their lineup and justify VOS and CS prices in the future, if they handwire those  :lol:

[AndyR]

Yep, my SG is, er, "handwired" now, if that's what we could call it :lol:

Did it last weekend.

Wanted to put some new caps in, so I further cannibalised my old Epi SG to steal the CTS pots rig I put in there a couple of years ago.

It does NOT look pretty inside now ... but it works ... and it sounds fantastic :D

[Tim]

Gibson have decided in their wisdom that it is quicker and easier to mount their electrics onto PCBs and then attach the pickups to the board using computer connectors - fine until something goes wrong or you want to change the pots. It is possible to wire new pickups into the connector you just need to identify which wire is ground and which is hot.
You can of course remove the whole PCB and rewire yourself with quality pots and caps of your choice - we're just about to take delivery of new custom pots I've had made for us by CTS which will be 550K with +/- 10% tolerance and a custom taper and torque. I've also tracked down a supply of NOS '60s paper in oil caps both .022mfd and .015mfd. These will all be available from the site as soon as we get them.