You sir are awesome! This video literally resolved an issue I was trying to find a solution for all over the internet! Thanks a lot! Greetings from Seattle 💪🏾
One thing worth to be mentioned, original high adjustment screws are imperial, so if you change pickups make sure that holes for adjustment screws are also imperial. In case ther aren't you also have to change adjustment screws.
One of the next Guitar Tech Tip episodes should be. How to remove your PCB board in your USA line Les Paul to install new pickups. I went for the Mojo Tone prewired kit, as it was impossible to find replacement connectors for my pickups and I didn`t wanted to order prepared conector cabels as Gibson used different PCB-connectors in different model years.
Thank you sir , for your instructions on Humbucker swap on the Les Paul !!! I’ll be back many times, I don’t expect to ever master this , so I’ll keep this on my memory, for future reference . Thanks again . 🤠🤠🤠
So glad to hear that Michael! You can save this video and keep it in your favourites. That makes it way easier to find it again when you need it. I do that all the time with certain videos on YT. Cheers //Kris
Hint: once de-soldered, tie a 2' length of dental floss or string to the solder end of the pickups coming out. Remove the pickup and lead but leave the string in the body. Tie it to the solder end of the new pickup and draw the lead through the body.
Sustainiac? How much cutting is needed on … let’s say you have Harley Benton SC custom Fr and you wanna put a sustainiac in it ? How much headache medicine should I buy before starting?
How much headache medicine? All of it! haha! The pickup should fit in easily so that's not an issue. You have to swap the jack for a stereo jack though, make a cavity for the battery and you need some more space for the switches + wires too. //Kris
Como siempre excelente video y muy buen trabajo Kris. No entendí mucho el por qué el cambio de micrófonos debido a problemas con el idioma. Saludos y felicitaciones!!!
¡Gracias! ¿Sabes que puedes activar los subtítulos traducidos en TH-cam? Lo probé en español, funciona bien. Gracias por ver los videos. ¡Adios! //Kris
Which model of humbackers you prefer for a les paul gibson guitar? I mean, there are people that uses other brands than gibson ones. Some recommendation?
Hey, there are so many really good PAF style humbuckers... I love these Lollars a lot, Gibson's humbuckers are also great (my fav. from them is the 57 Classic), Mojotone 59 clone is insane, Seymour Duncan Antiquity, Bare Knuckle Mule and even the Fishman Fluence Classic set is mind blowing. It's impossible to choose one out of these fantastic humbuckers. Cheers //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses good! Once I installes gibsons P-57 and 498T on my epiphone custom LP and P-57 onbthe neck is amazing. Thanks for the recommendations!👍
I have a Chinese chibson Les Paul black beauty . The body looks great but the pick ups and wiring is terrible cheaply made. What would you suggest for pickup replacement and volume and tone control replacement. I'm looking for a late 60's sound. Thank's from Canada, Ron.
Hey Kris! I‘ve have a question related to this topic. The neck pickup in my HB Les Pauls SC 550 plus is terribly angled. The front (towards the neck) of the pickup is far deeper inside than the back of the pickup (difference is easily 4 mm) It cant be regulated with the side screws. Any idea what do?
Any thoughts on why my neck pickup seems to have a weak signal. It’s sounds like volume 10 is volume 4. I’ve swapped pickups before and my soldering isn’t too bad.
Kris, Absolutely love the Les Paul. This was some great information. You are quite the technician now. Still makes me nervous to mess with my guitars though lol
So I watched this and came to the conclusion that I could do this. So I order the New pick-ups. Turns out that my Gibson LP2016 has quick connect. And those are hard to get. You dont have them, had to go on e-bay to get some.
Hi i was wondering if you can help me , i purchase a new assembled harness kit for my les paul.I also purchased 1x 490 and 498 pick ups, unfortunately the 498 has 5 wires and the 490 has 1 wire wrapped with a neutral and i dont know where they should be soldered.can you help me.Thanks
Hi, as for the bridge pickup: Red wire goes to the bridge PUs volume pot input, white-green needs to be soldered together and doesn't get attached to anything, black and bare wires go to ground, which is the backside of the bridge volume pot. And the neck PU is easy: the core of that one braided wire is hot and goes to the neck PUs volume pot input and the wire shielding is the ground, which gets soldered to the backside of the neck volume pot. Check out Seymour Duncan's installation guides, they have tons of really good wiring diagrams and other things that help when changing the electronics: www.seymourduncan.com/blog/latest-updates/humbucker-wire-color-translation Cheers //Kris
stupid question, why did you only touch the volume pots and not tone? Thinking of upgrading to custom buckers in my 60's standard and have never worked on a guitar.
There are no stupid questions. :) I only touched the volume pots, because I was only swapping the pickups and those get soldered directly to the volume pot. The tone pots can stay wired just how they were in this case. Cheers //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses Thanks for responding, i am looking to upgrade to the custom buckers, so it should be the exact same process and i can handle it i think lol.
Most definitely not. For example my Les Paul has a Seymour Duncan bridge pickup and a Raw Vintage neck pickup. There are just a few thing to keep in mind when mixing brands: sometimes you have to swap the phase on one of them to stay in phase when having both selected (middle position on the switch). That's the case for example if you mix a Seymour Duncan pickup with Fender pickups, or with DiMarzios. Cheers //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses Thanks a lot Kris 🙏, I was planning to buy Seymour Duncan Humbucker SH4JB to replace my Bridge pickup that come with the guitar (PAC212VFM) some people says it fits with '59 pickup from Seymour Duncan so I searched the product on SD website and it was Humbucker model, doesn't match with my single-single coils guitar. I didn't have any experiences about pickups so little bit confused 😋. Thanks a lot Kris...I appreciate your most valuable replies/info for me. Subscribe and Notification Checked ✅✅
Hey, if you're happy with the sound and it works well, don't bother. I would only replace anything, if something was faulty or if I really didn't like the tone of the pickups. Cheers //Kris
Hi Benoit, I just changed my pickups today and it wasn't easy. Not because it is high tech or anything, just that the connectors are so tiny!!! If i had to do it again i think i would scrap the PCB and use wires
Hi, ground wires should be connected to the backside of the volume pot. Ground from neck pickup goes to the back of the neck volume pot, ground of the bridge pickup to the back of the bridge volume pot. Cheers //Kris
Luckily yes, I do. haha! Sometimes it's still really hard to find guitars for certain GTT episodes. 😅 I'm not complaining, just stating facts. lol //Kris
Hey Kris... S.O.S. ich hab da ein problem, ich hab meine lieblingsgitarren falsch gefüttert, die haben mich heute angebrüllt wie die löwen, kann man da was machen 🤠???
Oh nein, oh nein... Gib sie schnell in Hafermilch und Eukalyptus marinierten Alnico Magnet Eintopf. Hafermilch macht sie instant vegan und Eukalyptus macht sie schläfrig. Erst dann bist du wieder safe. 😂//Kris
STOP SWAPPING PICKUPS! I'm going to help you drastically change your guitar for 1/2 the price of pickups.. #1) If you're running Gibson burstbucker pickups change the saddles to brass and tail piece to aluminum! These pickups are designed to be ran with this set up to produce a singing or bell like tone! If your using a burstbucker equipped Gibson standard usa or epiphone or even every single import on the market it likely has a zinc bridge, saddles and tail piece,this material produces a loud harsh attack and will make guitars sound overly trebley and cold and actually reduce sustain as zinc soaks vibration and doesn't react like steel, aluminum or brass... #2) Swap magnets, this will alter your guitars voice more than you can fathom and it costs around $10-$20 bucks.. It's not a difficult process and there's tons of videos showing you how to do it,it takes 15-20 mins and give your instrument a completely new tone.. #3) Also just simply covering or uncovering pickups changes the tone, most pickup covers are either brass or zinc and they effectively block more tone than people realize.. #4) swapping slugs and pole pieces! Most pole pieces are made of zinc and pot metal and or contain very little actual steel.. You want actual steel poles and slugs as they conduct the magnetic field better and produce a more defined attack from your strings..Along with this swapping the metal pole piece spacers inside the pickup to actual steel will make a difference in how you your pickup reacts.. All of these mods are cheaply and easily accomplished and will change any pickups tone, whether it's a cheap Chinese, Indonesian, Korean and even American humbucker these mods will produce a wayyyyy better more dynamic and user friendly pickup.. These parts add more to a pickup than the winding itself... You're welcome...
I would never unscrew anything on a gorgeous guitar like this. Why buy a guitar and take out those buitiful humbucker pros. Just messed up a good guitar. It was already perfect. I'd like to see you put it back together that's what I would like to see.
Hi, do you mean the bridge and the stop tail piece? Because they fall off all the time without the strings pulling them. You can also tape them on the guitar but since it's a nitro finished guitar (like all Gibsons) I prefer not leaving marks on the body. Adhesive of tapes can do "funny things" to nitro. I hope that answered your question. //Kris
You sir are awesome! This video literally resolved an issue I was trying to find a solution for all over the internet! Thanks a lot! Greetings from Seattle 💪🏾
That is awesome Paolo, glad it was useful! //Kris
One thing worth to be mentioned, original high adjustment screws are imperial, so if you change pickups make sure that holes for adjustment screws are also imperial. In case ther aren't you also have to change adjustment screws.
can you please explain more clearly where exactly your soldering and to which pot?
Whatever pick up you buy their website should have a diagram
Link in the description. As our guy said in the video.
One of the next Guitar Tech Tip episodes should be. How to remove your PCB board in your USA line Les Paul to install new pickups. I went for the Mojo Tone prewired kit, as it was impossible to find replacement connectors for my pickups and I didn`t wanted to order prepared conector cabels as Gibson used different PCB-connectors in different model years.
thanks for that video, you make things simple and efficient... looking at this I'm not afraid anymore to do it by myself ! :)
Thanks, Chris. Your videos are very clear and informative.
Great Instruction video. good camera angles for each step.. Thanks Kris.
I have to personally Thank you for this Video, this is the next Job.on.my.Les Paul Custom .
2:42 this has become an ASMR video and YOU KNOW IT
Great Video , I thank you so very much.!!!!! I have to check my Lead pickup to see why it's sounding different !!
Thank you sir , for your instructions
on Humbucker swap on the
Les Paul !!!
I’ll be back many times, I don’t expect to ever master this , so
I’ll keep this on my memory,
for future reference .
Thanks again .
🤠🤠🤠
So glad to hear that Michael! You can save this video and keep it in your favourites. That makes it way easier to find it again when you need it. I do that all the time with certain videos on YT. Cheers //Kris
Hint: once de-soldered, tie a 2' length of dental floss or string to the solder end of the pickups coming out. Remove the pickup and lead but leave the string in the body. Tie it to the solder end of the new pickup and draw the lead through the body.
Great video..you make it all look so easy..thank's for posting..2thumbs up.
You're the best James, thanks! //Kris
Thanks for this! I’ll be watching the soldering video as well. I don’t want to have to pay the ego tax thinking I can “figure it out”.
Sustainiac? How much cutting is needed on … let’s say you have Harley Benton SC custom Fr and you wanna put a sustainiac in it ? How much headache medicine should I buy before starting?
How much headache medicine? All of it! haha! The pickup should fit in easily so that's not an issue. You have to swap the jack for a stereo jack though, make a cavity for the battery and you need some more space for the switches + wires too. //Kris
question, how much Watt should a soldering Iron have? I'm strugling heating up the soldering on top the pots. Thank you
will the tone knobs also work after this?
Como siempre excelente video y muy buen trabajo Kris. No entendí mucho el por qué el cambio de micrófonos debido a problemas con el idioma. Saludos y felicitaciones!!!
¡Gracias! ¿Sabes que puedes activar los subtítulos traducidos en TH-cam? Lo probé en español, funciona bien. Gracias por ver los videos. ¡Adios! //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses que bueno, perfecto, nuevamente muchas gracias por el dato. Saludos Kris, un abrazo!!!
Which model of humbackers you prefer for a les paul gibson guitar? I mean, there are people that uses other brands than gibson ones. Some recommendation?
Hey, there are so many really good PAF style humbuckers... I love these Lollars a lot, Gibson's humbuckers are also great (my fav. from them is the 57 Classic), Mojotone 59 clone is insane, Seymour Duncan Antiquity, Bare Knuckle Mule and even the Fishman Fluence Classic set is mind blowing. It's impossible to choose one out of these fantastic humbuckers. Cheers //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses good! Once I installes gibsons P-57 and 498T on my epiphone custom LP and P-57 onbthe neck is amazing. Thanks for the recommendations!👍
Les Paul and newer flying Vs have the same proceudre with switching pickups or has FLying V a bit difference?
I have a Chinese chibson Les Paul black beauty . The body looks great
but the pick ups and wiring is terrible cheaply made. What would you suggest
for pickup replacement and volume and tone control replacement. I'm looking for a late 60's sound. Thank's from Canada, Ron.
Hey Kris! I‘ve have a question related to this topic.
The neck pickup in my HB Les Pauls SC 550 plus is terribly angled. The front (towards the neck) of the pickup is far deeper inside than the back of the pickup (difference is easily 4 mm) It cant be regulated with the side screws. Any idea what do?
Are those pickups any good?
Any thoughts on why my neck pickup seems to have a weak signal. It’s sounds like volume 10 is volume 4. I’ve swapped pickups before and my soldering isn’t too bad.
Excellent work. Proper.
THANK YOU ....CAN YOU DO A TOGGLE SWITCH FO US PLEASE ????
Kris,
Absolutely love the Les Paul. This was some great information. You are quite the technician now. Still makes me nervous to mess with my guitars though lol
If you aren’t sure about changing pickups, it’s okay sending it to a guitar tech to change it out. Even the best guitarist have guitar techs
My word man, get that drill away from the guitar!! got shivers watching that
Good job!!!
are all standard pickups for les paul fits?
Hello what size of screws are the pickup ring
Is it that easy to swap in mini humbuckers for humbuckers?
Great Video !!!!!
So I watched this and came to the conclusion that I could do this. So I order the New pick-ups. Turns out that my Gibson LP2016 has quick connect. And those are hard to get. You dont have them, had to go on e-bay to get some.
Thank you so much!
Show us how to switch a Stratocaster bridge!
Hi i was wondering if you can help me , i purchase a new assembled harness kit for my les paul.I also purchased 1x 490 and 498 pick ups, unfortunately the 498 has 5 wires and the 490 has 1 wire wrapped with a neutral and i dont know where they should be soldered.can you help me.Thanks
Hi, as for the bridge pickup: Red wire goes to the bridge PUs volume pot input, white-green needs to be soldered together and doesn't get attached to anything, black and bare wires go to ground, which is the backside of the bridge volume pot.
And the neck PU is easy: the core of that one braided wire is hot and goes to the neck PUs volume pot input and the wire shielding is the ground, which gets soldered to the backside of the neck volume pot. Check out Seymour Duncan's installation guides, they have tons of really good wiring diagrams and other things that help when changing the electronics: www.seymourduncan.com/blog/latest-updates/humbucker-wire-color-translation
Cheers //Kris
stupid question, why did you only touch the volume pots and not tone? Thinking of upgrading to custom buckers in my 60's standard and have never worked on a guitar.
There are no stupid questions. :) I only touched the volume pots, because I was only swapping the pickups and those get soldered directly to the volume pot. The tone pots can stay wired just how they were in this case. Cheers //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses Thanks for responding, i am looking to upgrade to the custom buckers, so it should be the exact same process and i can handle it i think lol.
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses Do i need any special solder type? I was going to go with the custom buckers, but any thoughts on good alternatives?
Is it permissible to only replace one pickup or must all pickups be replaced with the same brand?
Most definitely not. For example my Les Paul has a Seymour Duncan bridge pickup and a Raw Vintage neck pickup. There are just a few thing to keep in mind when mixing brands: sometimes you have to swap the phase on one of them to stay in phase when having both selected (middle position on the switch). That's the case for example if you mix a Seymour Duncan pickup with Fender pickups, or with DiMarzios. Cheers //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses Thanks a lot Kris 🙏, I was planning to buy Seymour Duncan Humbucker SH4JB to replace my Bridge pickup that come with the guitar (PAC212VFM) some people says it fits with '59 pickup from Seymour Duncan so I searched the product on SD website and it was Humbucker model, doesn't match with my single-single coils guitar. I didn't have any experiences about pickups so little bit confused 😋. Thanks a lot Kris...I appreciate your most valuable replies/info for me. Subscribe and Notification Checked ✅✅
Mine has a PCB, is it worth replacing it by a standard wiring?... Gibson Std 2009
Hey, if you're happy with the sound and it works well, don't bother. I would only replace anything, if something was faulty or if I really didn't like the tone of the pickups. Cheers //Kris
Hi Benoit,
I just changed my pickups today and it wasn't easy. Not because it is high tech or anything, just that the connectors are so tiny!!! If i had to do it again i think i would scrap the PCB and use wires
Does anyone know where the ground wire goes when you put the pickup back?
I had the same question
Hi, ground wires should be connected to the backside of the volume pot. Ground from neck pickup goes to the back of the neck volume pot, ground of the bridge pickup to the back of the bridge volume pot. Cheers //Kris
Don't you have some decent guitars laying around to work on. :) Nice job.
Luckily yes, I do. haha! Sometimes it's still really hard to find guitars for certain GTT episodes. 😅 I'm not complaining, just stating facts. lol
//Kris
Hey Kris... S.O.S.
ich hab da ein problem, ich hab meine lieblingsgitarren falsch gefüttert, die haben mich heute angebrüllt wie die löwen, kann man da was machen 🤠???
Oh nein, oh nein... Gib sie schnell in Hafermilch und Eukalyptus marinierten Alnico Magnet Eintopf. Hafermilch macht sie instant vegan und Eukalyptus macht sie schläfrig. Erst dann bist du wieder safe. 😂//Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses Hahahaaaaalololooool 😅🌊🌊🌊 Danke dir für's rezept aus dem erstehilfe kasten 😄👍V.G.
🤭🐈
Seems complicated.
STOP SWAPPING PICKUPS! I'm going to help you drastically change your guitar for 1/2 the price of pickups..
#1) If you're running Gibson burstbucker pickups change the saddles to brass and tail piece to aluminum!
These pickups are designed to be ran with this set up to produce a singing or bell like tone!
If your using a burstbucker equipped Gibson standard usa or epiphone or even every single import on the market it likely has a zinc bridge, saddles and tail piece,this material produces a loud harsh attack and will make guitars sound overly trebley and cold and actually reduce sustain as zinc soaks vibration and doesn't react like steel, aluminum or brass...
#2) Swap magnets, this will alter your guitars voice more than you can fathom and it costs around $10-$20 bucks.. It's not a difficult process and there's tons of videos showing you how to do it,it takes 15-20 mins and give your instrument a completely new tone..
#3) Also just simply covering or uncovering pickups changes the tone, most pickup covers are either brass or zinc and they effectively block more tone than people realize..
#4) swapping slugs and pole pieces! Most pole pieces are made of zinc and pot metal and or contain very little actual steel.. You want actual steel poles and slugs as they conduct the magnetic field better and produce a more defined attack from your strings..Along with this swapping the metal pole piece spacers inside the pickup to actual steel will make a difference in how you your pickup reacts..
All of these mods are cheaply and easily accomplished and will change any pickups tone, whether it's a cheap Chinese, Indonesian, Korean and even American humbucker these mods will produce a wayyyyy better more dynamic and user friendly pickup..
These parts add more to a pickup than the winding itself...
You're welcome...
Wow those bridge hardware came out flying. Poor finish. This hurts me to see!
I would never unscrew anything on a gorgeous guitar like this. Why buy a guitar and take out those buitiful humbucker pros. Just messed up a good guitar. It was already perfect.
I'd like to see you put it back together that's what I would like to see.
Play dem bluuuuzzzzz!!!😓😓😅😅🐦
😆 🔵zzzzz //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses seriously nice playing. Sounds good.
That was way too fast.
UUUHHHH, why did u remove the bridge and saddle?? lmaoo
Hi, do you mean the bridge and the stop tail piece? Because they fall off all the time without the strings pulling them. You can also tape them on the guitar but since it's a nitro finished guitar (like all Gibsons) I prefer not leaving marks on the body. Adhesive of tapes can do "funny things" to nitro. I hope that answered your question. //Kris