A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

Some of you may remember that I wanted to do the 50's wiring on my AL3000 (@andrewsrea Rob, thanks again for the tip); I still haven´t done it.

But a couple of days ago decided on doing a dual cap mod on it, for experimenting. It was simpler and faster to do. Brian sent me some caps some months ago, so I thought it was time. Read a little about it and learned that HBs usually go with 0.022, and SCs with 0.047.

I was surprised to find 0.047 on my Agile.

So it fueled me to go with it. Why it had 47s? I don´t know, My best guess is that one of the previous owners wanted to experiment. But well, it doesn´t matter for the purpose of this thread.

My idea was to mount a switch on the back lid covering the pots area. But didn´t have much time and patience and proper tools to cut it properly and well done, so my mind started figuring alternate solutions. Searching in a scrap box I found a pc component that had a multiple pin female connector; one of those that is connected to the motherboard. I thought I could use that connector, leaving only four wires on it - two for ground and other two for the lug of each tone pot - and then inserting the caps on the connector, so I can actually easily replace them if I want/need to, without having to unsolder anything.

What I did was to unsolder the caps, and then solder each wire from the connector to ground and lug of both tone pots; four wires.

This is a momentary solution, I still want to install the switches so I can have the dual cap mod on my guitar, but I wanted to hear if there was a noticeable difference in sound with the 22s, since I´ve always found the sound to be a little in the dark/muddy area.

With the 22s on, I think it sounds just a little bit brighter, although I expected more. But what I did notice is that, when rolling down the tone pot, the sound just darkens a little bit. It was different with the 47s on; rolling the tone pot all the way down had a big effect on the sound, it would make it sound much more dark.

For me, I like it. But maybe what I need are different HBs, with a more articulated and brighter sound. I wouldn´t know how to describe what I need - hotter pickups? Different wound? Different magnets? -. But I have to live with what the guitar has. What I try to do is to EQ the sound on the multi effects unit to compensate for that.

So, here are some pics to show what I did; pics are worth a thousand words, they say. For the experimented modders and DIYers here this might be a child´s game, but this is a milestone for me; my first real experimenting. I have always wanted to experiment different things on guitars, I have a tweaker and DIY soul; I could do this thanks to what Brian sent me: switches and leads and shrinking sleeves, push/pull pots, tape, a helping hands unit, the hardware of his AL3200 - except for the pickups - that fell and broke the headstock, fretboard oil and some other things. Next will be the 50's wiring and series/parallel mod!

Ok, too much talk; pics:

So the bigger the number of the cap (or the smaller number of decimal points) the darker it will sound.

I am guessing but, I believe the 0.047uF caps started and continued on Agiles with humbuckers, because the originals all had humbuckers with strong ceramic magnets. The darker load help make their pickups sound more like their expensive competitors'.

You kind of have the same rule as me for tone caps: 0.022uF (neck + middle) and 0.33uF to 0.047uF for the bridge using single coils. Humbuckers, I use 0.018uF (neck) and 0.022uF (bridge). I'll occasionally put on 0.033uF on a super distortion type bridge.

andrewsrea wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 4:22 pm So the bigger the number of the cap (or the smaller number of decimal points) the darker it will sound.

I am guessing but, I believe the 0.047uF caps started and continued on Agiles with humbuckers, because the originals all had humbuckers with strong ceramic magnets. The darker load help make their pickups sound more like their expensive competitors'.

You kind of have the same rule as me for tone caps: 0.022uF (neck + middle) and 0.33uF to 0.047uF for the bridge using single coils. Humbuckers, I use 0.018uF (neck) and 0.022uF (bridge). I'll occasionally put on 0.033uF on a super distortion type bridge.

Well, I don´t really know if 47s were "OEM" caps from Rondo; maybe you´re right about it and these were its original caps.

Haha no rules, really. I´ve just read about it. I know there is some room to experiment with cap+pickup combinations. I like your approach, and will keep it in mind for future projects. Thanks!

Sabas, don't worry about using connectors in your wiring, it is fine. There is no reason everything has to be soldered. Solder does not apply magic to your tone. I use all kinds of (gauge appropriate) connectors in guitars I experiment with for the same reason as you are - to quickly swap components. Series vs Parallel switching with humbuckers sounds like an interesting experiment too. I'm curious.

Good on you for tackling the job.

BatUtilityBelt wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 4:44 pm Sabas, don't worry about using connectors in your wiring, it is fine. There is no reason everything has to be soldered. Solder does not apply magic to your tone. I use all kinds of (gauge appropriate) connectors in guitars I experiment with for the same reason as you are - to quickly swap components. Series vs Parallel switching with humbuckers sounds like an interesting experiment too. I'm curious.

Good to know, Steve! Although I thought the same. I´ve actually wondered why there are no quick connectors for pots and pickups as a standard equipment, given that most guitar players like to replace them. I believe Gibson or Epiphone have something like a quick connect pot board, or something like that. I suppose the main reason is money; more money to add to the final guitar price.

Yes, the Series vs Parallel mod should make them sound "thinner", similar to a SC, but without the hum - I´m sure you know what it is about -. That will be my next project, and I have the things I need to do it.

As for series/parallel, I have ALL my guitars wired with the neck pickup in parallel. Every single one. They also have virtually the same pickups, an alnico 5 humbucker there with similar specs.

I never found any use for neck humbucker sounds, I know it'd be good for fast solos as it masks mistakes and makes for a smooth, violin like sounds, but I don't play those....so I just wire them as parallel. Gives me single coil type sound an impedance drops to like 2K or so, so I can also use it almost like an extra amp channel. I really like it.

Such as for drives, switching from neck to bridge takes me from blues drive to metal just like that. Very handy.

Interesting about the caps, but I never use the tone knob at all so I've not thought about them myself. I only wire my tone pots in because I'm unsure how to correctly wire them out of the circuit.

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An example of my sound with parallel wired neck humbucker (Gibson LP Standard with I believe a 490r)...recorded in the 90s. I play the clean guitar and sing, and when it goes to hard chorus I just flip to bridge.

Didn't use any pedals, it's just the LP direct to a Fender Blues DeVille turned up loud.


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Another, modern example with parallel neck...here I play the intro and verse semi clean 'funk' with it, and switch to bridge for full heavy sound. Again no 'extra' pedals...I probably was already playing direct to a Boss GX-100 here for recording.

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One more, same song as before but live for comparison...you know it's funny when I listen to my stuff from the 90s up till today, my sound is basically just the same. But it's no wonder, since I'm still using the same 490r or similar at neck and 498t in all my guitars and still use no pedals but here in this live I would be playing thru a Marshall Origin 20 head into a 4x10" cab.

The only thing that seems to vary is compression and slight drive amount changes but aside from that it doesn't matter whether I play into a Fender, a Marshall or some DI modeler thingy. And the point is...I believe it's largely because I've always used the parallel bridge and normal Gibson pickup.

In the 2010's I did use an EMG85 for a while but I reckon that didn't sound much different....I didn't use a neck pickup at all in that time really, or seldom an EMG SA.

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sabasgr68 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 9:30 pm Yes, the Series vs Parallel mod should make them sound "thinner", similar to a SC, but without the hum - I´m sure you know what it is about -. That will be my next project, and I have the things I need to do it.

Oh! I misundersood. By series/parallel, you mean coil tapping or splitting the humbuckers. I took it as combining both pickups in series or parallel like the popular 4-way tele mod.

BatUtilityBelt wrote: ↑Wed Aug 30, 2023 11:02 am

sabasgr68 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 9:30 pm Yes, the Series vs Parallel mod should make them sound "thinner", similar to a SC, but without the hum - I´m sure you know what it is about -. That will be my next project, and I have the things I need to do it.

Oh! I misundersood. By series/parallel, you mean coil tapping or splitting the humbuckers. I took it as combining both pickups in series or parallel like the popular 4-way tele mod.

Yes, that´s what i mean.

I´m ignorant about all the possibilities that can be done. I have no idea about that 4-way tele mod, for example

sabasgr68 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 30, 2023 6:00 pm Yes, that´s what i mean.

I´m ignorant about all the possibilities that can be done. I have no idea about that 4-way tele mod, for example

I'm glad I understand better now. The 4-way tele mod is kinda like the opposite of coil tapping in a way, for teles. Normally tele pickups in the middle position work in parallel. The 4th position puts them in series. It makes the sound darker and fatter. Some say it's more like a neck humbucker, but only using single coil pickups. I followed a Seymour Duncan wiring diagram to do that to one of my Classic Vibe teles, and it is now my favorite tele.

deeaa wrote: ↑Wed Aug 30, 2023 12:19 am

An example of my sound with parallel wired neck humbucker (Gibson LP Standard with I believe a 490r)...recorded in the 90s. I play the clean guitar and sing, and when it goes to hard chorus I just flip to bridge.

Didn't use any pedals, it's just the LP direct to a Fender Blues DeVille turned up loud.


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I think this was not the video you´re talking about.

BatUtilityBelt wrote: ↑Wed Aug 30, 2023 6:37 pm

sabasgr68 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 30, 2023 6:00 pm Yes, that´s what i mean.

I´m ignorant about all the possibilities that can be done. I have no idea about that 4-way tele mod, for example

I'm glad I understand better now. The 4-way tele mod is kinda like the opposite of coil tapping in a way, for teles. Normally tele pickups in the middle position work in parallel. The 4th position puts them in series. It makes the sound darker and fatter. Some say it's more like a neck humbucker, but only using single coil pickups. I followed a Seymour Duncan wiring diagram to do that to one of my Classic Vibe teles, and it is now my favorite tele.

Thanks for the description of the mod. I´m glad you like it!

Wiring combinations is a whole new world on itself. I just knew about a few, but it goes well deep! I suppose it partly answers my question as to why have many guitars. You can have a wide arsenal of sounds just with different wiring/pickup combinations on each one. Heck, you could have 10 Les Pauls wired differently and (now) I´ll get it! And yes, I know that we guitar players own guitars not because we need them, it´s because we just want them!

And to complement your first comment here, I found this from a pickup builder. I don´t know if they sell it or they have them made, but that´s what I mean: easier ways for wiring.

deeaa wrote: ↑Wed Aug 30, 2023 12:15 am As for series/parallel, I have ALL my guitars wired with the neck pickup in parallel. Every single one. They also have virtually the same pickups, an alnico 5 humbucker there with similar specs.

I never found any use for neck humbucker sounds, I know it'd be good for fast solos as it masks mistakes and makes for a smooth, violin like sounds, but I don't play those....so I just wire them as parallel. Gives me single coil type sound an impedance drops to like 2K or so, so I can also use it almost like an extra amp channel. I really like it.

Such as for drives, switching from neck to bridge takes me from blues drive to metal just like that. Very handy.

Interesting about the caps, but I never use the tone knob at all so I've not thought about them myself. I only wire my tone pots in because I'm unsure how to correctly wire them out of the circuit.

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Really? It´s interesting you have all your neck pickups wired that way. But I get it. As we always say, if it works for you, that´s all that matters.

Now, since I want to do this mod on my Agile LP, once I have it done I´ll see how it works for me, having the neck pickup selected in parallel and the bridge in series.

It also seems that you´re happy with the 490/498 set!

I had never seen those little connector things that snap onto the pot terminals, very cool. I wish I had them back in the day when I was wiring guitars all the time.

tonebender wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 12:38 pm I had never seen those little connector things that snap onto the pot terminals, very cool. I wish I had them back in the day when I was wiring guitars all the time.

Yes, I think they´re very cool and practical!

I've swapped a lot of electronics in guitars including caps but for years and years I had to replace my pot errr pots every week or so.