Tone Man Wire Harness:

that's a fine comparison that shows the subtle differences when you install
500k pots instead of the 300k hardware that was stock during the early oughts.

My 2012 SG special came stock with 500k pots so it seemed Gibson was aware of
how many players were making the switch.

My own experience led me to feel that if your style is normally playing with the volume pots wide
open, the difference between 500k and 300k would be slight.
 
Col Mustard said:
that's a fine comparison that shows the subtle differences when you install
500k pots instead of the 300k hardware that was stock during the early oughts.

My 2012 SG special came stock with 500k pots so it seemed Gibson was aware of
how many players were making the switch.

My own experience led me to feel that if your style is normally playing with the volume pots wide
open, the difference between 500k and 300k would be slight.
Click to expand...
Agreed....
 
On one of my last custom builds, I added ferrite clamp-ons around the pick wires under the pickguard...not sure what it did, but the guitar was super quiet... :-)
 
The custom Tone Man harness for the SG shipped today...Gary built it specifically for the small 2016 Gibson SG control cavity. The ground loop is on the inside circumference of the pot group and the Russian K40Y PIO caps are tucked between the Bourne pots...
 
I put mine in last night. Really like how smooth these pots roll. I didn't get ro fancy, just some orange drops.

I still have a hum I've been chasing, though. It has to be that main ground wire. It stops when I touch the jack plate, so I don't think it's the pickups? Can I run a long wire from the cavity out to the bridge, to test it?

20170130_212034.jpg
 
Bocc69 said:
I put mine in last night. Really like how smooth these pots roll. I didn't get ro fancy, just some orange drops.

I still have a hum I've been chasing, though. It has to be that main ground wire. It stops when I touch the jack plate, so I don't think it's the pickups? Can I run a long wire from the cavity out to the bridge, to test it?

View attachment 2395
Click to expand...

Check ground status with a volt/ohm meter....Yes, you can use a jumper for testing...
 
OK - it is pickup in the control cavity. You need to get some copper foil in there - at least onto the cover plate, and solder a wire to the case of one of the pots. That will fix it. Even better, get a reasonable covering of foil within the cavity too, although that isn't as important as the cover plate.
 
That sounds like a good idea. I'll try the cover plate first, to see if there is a change. So, I just need to do the inside of cover plate at a minimum....and make sure there is contact with the wire when I replace the cover plate?
 
Yeah I've been thinking about it I may as well just do it all right once.

If I do the pickup cavities and not the wire routes, can I run a wire from the pickup cavity to the control cavity to connect them?
 
If your pickups have covers there is no point in doing the pickup cavities - they are already screened.
 
I have been upgrading the wiring on my guitars and friends guitars for years. The wire is changed from loose strand junk to solid coated copper wire with less resistance. That makes the caps and pot deliver the amps, voltage and to the specs you choose. I replace the pots with CTS pots and caps are what ever I have. I used a paper clip on one of my guitars. I can't remember what one, I didn't have any pots, so the paper clip works fine. True thing gentlemen, no one can tell what cap is in any guitar. Someone says they can tell, I need them for invasive, painful medical experiments. Put a 500 or 550 k in place of a 250k pot can cut your head off with treble, if they are good single coil pickups.
Pay attention to the important stuff like pickups and getting your true tone out them.
 
OK, it is worth putting some foil in there, but don't be too fussy about it. It will be easy to slip a grounding wire through alongside the pickup wire to ground the copper to the other cavity.
 
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