Gibson wiring harness PCB

[Aentons]

Other than the molex type connector clips on you pickup wires, is there anything really wrong with the Gibson wiring pcb's? How could they be made better?

Could they have used a speaker type compression connector for the pickups instead?

Should they cater more to drop-in type mods like independantly replaceable pots and/or switchable max resistance change, and things like a dip switch for 50's wiring?

I'm interested to hear opinions and ideas, especially those with experience since I have none. I like the concept and have a similar handwired config (4 push/pulls w spilt, phase, series, and 50's wiring) in my 2005 SG, but (of course) I have read a bunch of general negativity amongst fellow internetees.



Edit: There are some interesting insights from Randall Smith in this article about PCB vs PTP where he talks about wiring "black magic" that includes tone shaping from wire/trace coupling capacitance. He also talks about the wide surface area of the PCB trace being better for carrying the top end... Food for thought.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070205090818/http://www.mesaboogie.com/US/Smith/point-to-point.html


Here is what mine looks like... a big bowl of spaghetti... I wonder if there is any black magic in there?

[Rockhorst]

That's uncanny you bring that up today as I just received from the factory these wiring plates for a Gibson LP (see attached). I had to rewire a 90s LP that had been modded and the only way to do it was hammering out the pots, rendering the metal plate in the cavity useless (cuz bend out of shape). So I reproduced it as a PCB, including a ground plane so you don't have to solder bus wire across the pots. It has nothing of the fancy options of the 2019 Standard of course. I was going to throw these up on the BST area of the forum to see if there's any interest in these things.

[culturejam]

My main gripe with the recent PCB is that replacing a pot requires removing all the knobs and pulling the whole assembly out. Granted, that's not something you do all the time, so it's probably not going to be a big problem very often.

I've actually got a project in the works that is a PCB per pot with molex connectors between the boards. Also has cap switching/stacking options via dip switch.

[jimilee]

Pickups don't come with molex adapters wired. I find it easier to just bypass the board completely.


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[Aentons]

That's uncanny you bring that up today as I just received from the factory these wiring plates for a Gibson LP (see attached). I had to rewire a 90s LP that had been modded and the only way to do it was hammering out the pots, rendering the metal plate in the cavity useless (cuz bend out of shape). So I reproduced it as a PCB, including a ground plane so you don't have to solder bus wire across the pots. It has nothing of the fancy options of the 2019 Standard of course. I was going to throw these up on the BST area of the forum to see if there's any interest in these things.

That's great! If it were SG size I'd def be interested. I might just grab one anyway.

My main gripe with the recent PCB is that replacing a pot requires removing all the knobs and pulling the whole assembly out. Granted, that's not something you do all the time, so it's probably not going to be a big problem very often.

I've actually got a project in the works that is a PCB per pot with molex connectors between the boards. Also has cap switching/stacking options via dip switch.

That's actually one of the main gripes I've seen about them. The individual board project sounds interesting. Since day one I've been scheming how to out a varitone on mine.

Pickups don't come with molex adapters wired. I find it easier to just bypass the board completely.


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That's the other big gripe I've seen. Would there be any way to connect pickups that would not make One want to bypass the PCB?

[jimilee]

That's uncanny you bring that up today as I just received from the factory these wiring plates for a Gibson LP (see attached). I had to rewire a 90s LP that had been modded and the only way to do it was hammering out the pots, rendering the metal plate in the cavity useless (cuz bend out of shape). So I reproduced it as a PCB, including a ground plane so you don't have to solder bus wire across the pots. It has nothing of the fancy options of the 2019 Standard of course. I was going to throw these up on the BST area of the forum to see if there's any interest in these things.

That's great! If it were SG size I'd def be interested. I might just grab one anyway.

My main gripe with the recent PCB is that replacing a pot requires removing all the knobs and pulling the whole assembly out. Granted, that's not something you do all the time, so it's probably not going to be a big problem very often.

I've actually got a project in the works that is a PCB per pot with molex connectors between the boards. Also has cap switching/stacking options via dip switch.

That's actually one of the main gripes I've seen about them. The individual board project sounds interesting. Since day one I've been scheming how to out a varitone on mine.

Pickups don't come with molex adapters wired. I find it easier to just bypass the board completely.


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That's the other big gripe I've seen. Would there be any way to connect pickups that would not make One want to bypass the PCB?

A way to quickly connect the actual pickup wires to the pcb without soldering new connectors, and alternate wiring like standard and 50s style.


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[Rockhorst]

That's great! If it were SG size I'd def be interested. I might just grab one anyway.

I'm working with some people/techs in guitar shops and they are going to test this thing on a Tokai and a Gibson tomorrow. I'm more than happy to provide you with an SG one when I get the measurements done. I'm currently looking into the routings of Gibson cavities, to see if 'one size fits all' is possible or that things have changed too much from series to series over the decades. Keep an eye out on the B/S/T

About the Molex connectors...EMG was on to something I guess

[lars]

Here is what mine looks like... a big bowl of spaghetti... I wonder if there is any black magic in there?

That Gibson wiring is the scariest thing I've seen today.

[Aentons]

That Gibson wiring is the scariest thing I've seen today.

I know... I did it about 8 years ago and was fighting what ended up being an internal short on one of the coils of a brand new Gibson 4-wire pickup. It was a real bummer... Once they replaced it, I didn't even try to pretty it up.

Here is the wiring diagram I used. I'm hoping to redo it at some point with some extra features/mods and that is why I was looking into the PCB stuff

[Aentons]

That's great! If it were SG size I'd def be interested. I might just grab one anyway.

I'm working with some people/techs in guitar shops and they are going to test this thing on a Tokai and a Gibson tomorrow. I'm more than happy to provide you with an SG one when I get the measurements done. I'm currently looking into the routings of Gibson cavities, to see if 'one size fits all' is possible or that things have changed too much from series to series over the decades. Keep an eye out on the B/S/T

Cool... I can certainly provide you any dimensions you want for my SG. It's the only Gibson electric I have at the moment. I've got a buddy that will surely let me measure his 2007 LP Classic if you are interested in that.

About the Molex connectors...EMG was on to something I guess

Doesn't EMG use a similar molex type connector/header underneath the pickup and the other end of the wire is soldered? You have to remove the pickups to disconnect it... and could you even pull those connectors through the tiny boar hole if you wanted to remove the wiring harness?

I don't work on guitars much, but it seems like something like terminal blocks on the pcb would work better as a no-solder
type solution for regular pickups without a connector

[jimilee]

^^^^thats what I was thinking, but I wasn't sure what to call them. Seems like someone makes a stray switch system with that kind of versatility.


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