Gahr
Ambassador of Blues & Brews
Yes, New Vintage T-Tops Day!
A while back, I scored no less than four old Gibson T-Tops in two different deals. I finally got around to putting a couple of them in a guitar.
The guitar is my 2018 SG Standard. I have already said here on the forum that this guitar sounded great with the stock PCB harness and 61R/T pickups. I have been playing it quite a lot since I got it earlier this year, and quite frankly, I didn't really see the need to change anything about it (apart from getting a blank TRC, a wide bevelled pickguard, knob pointers and tall pickup rings, of course!). The only thing, and it is a rather minor detail, really, is that I felt the pickups were somewhat more bassy than necessary. They have a sweet top end and I dig the sound, but I feel they could be a tad less boomy in the low end (and, yes, I have messed around quite a bit with the pickup height!).
I got a new SG wiring harness as well a while back (I forget where I bought it, I found it on eBay), with 500K CTS pots, a Switchcraft jack and switch and .022 caps. And today I suddenly felt adventurous and went ahead and swapped the harness and pickups.
Mr. Herndon's obsession with shielding has rubbed off on me, so I broke out a roll of copper slug tape (we use it in our garden to prevent slugs from crawling into our flower pots) and taped the control cavity and cover. It is so silent you can now hear a gnat stinker over the hum.
Here's what the cavity looks like now:
I got hold of two different sets of T-Tops. One set from the mid-late 1960s with patent stickers, Philips base plate screws and regular braided wires, and one set from around 1969 with patent stickers, slotted screws and plastic covered wires. Based on the kΩ readings and the fact that one of the 1969 pickups came with a cover, I chose one pickup from each set. The oldest bridge pickup measured a rather high (for a T-Top) 8.3 kΩ and the one I chose from the neck a more typical 7.53 kΩ.
So, does the guitar sound radically different? Not really. Does it sound a lot better? Not a lot. Does it sound better? Yes, I think so. The boominess isn't there anymore. I know @gball likes T-Tops, and I can see why. They are nice and bright, with a sweet punch. I have yet to play the guitar at "proper" volumes for any length of time after the pickup swap, but I am happy. They are nice and balanced. Absolute killer pickups.
I think I might be done modding this guitar. Looks-wise there is certainly nothing I want to change. I absolutely LOVE the Grover locking tuners. Changing strings is a breeze. They are not traditional, but why change a winning team, eh?
This is what it looks like:
A while back, I scored no less than four old Gibson T-Tops in two different deals. I finally got around to putting a couple of them in a guitar.
The guitar is my 2018 SG Standard. I have already said here on the forum that this guitar sounded great with the stock PCB harness and 61R/T pickups. I have been playing it quite a lot since I got it earlier this year, and quite frankly, I didn't really see the need to change anything about it (apart from getting a blank TRC, a wide bevelled pickguard, knob pointers and tall pickup rings, of course!). The only thing, and it is a rather minor detail, really, is that I felt the pickups were somewhat more bassy than necessary. They have a sweet top end and I dig the sound, but I feel they could be a tad less boomy in the low end (and, yes, I have messed around quite a bit with the pickup height!).
I got a new SG wiring harness as well a while back (I forget where I bought it, I found it on eBay), with 500K CTS pots, a Switchcraft jack and switch and .022 caps. And today I suddenly felt adventurous and went ahead and swapped the harness and pickups.
Mr. Herndon's obsession with shielding has rubbed off on me, so I broke out a roll of copper slug tape (we use it in our garden to prevent slugs from crawling into our flower pots) and taped the control cavity and cover. It is so silent you can now hear a gnat stinker over the hum.
Here's what the cavity looks like now:
I got hold of two different sets of T-Tops. One set from the mid-late 1960s with patent stickers, Philips base plate screws and regular braided wires, and one set from around 1969 with patent stickers, slotted screws and plastic covered wires. Based on the kΩ readings and the fact that one of the 1969 pickups came with a cover, I chose one pickup from each set. The oldest bridge pickup measured a rather high (for a T-Top) 8.3 kΩ and the one I chose from the neck a more typical 7.53 kΩ.
So, does the guitar sound radically different? Not really. Does it sound a lot better? Not a lot. Does it sound better? Yes, I think so. The boominess isn't there anymore. I know @gball likes T-Tops, and I can see why. They are nice and bright, with a sweet punch. I have yet to play the guitar at "proper" volumes for any length of time after the pickup swap, but I am happy. They are nice and balanced. Absolute killer pickups.
I think I might be done modding this guitar. Looks-wise there is certainly nothing I want to change. I absolutely LOVE the Grover locking tuners. Changing strings is a breeze. They are not traditional, but why change a winning team, eh?
This is what it looks like:
Last edited:
)
I mean its Bobby --- I gotta poke the bear now and again