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I have two questions for you. First, I have an old Epiphone Les Paul Standard, which I bought in the late 90s. I decided to recommission it for recording purposes, but, annoyingly, it has a fault, cutting out intermittently.
When I opened it up, I was a bit surprised at how cheaplooking the wiring loom was. My question is, can I upgrade to the US-style components that you would find on a real deal Gibson Les Paul? Is it a straight swap?
Second part. A mate has offered me a set of pickups from a Japanese-made 70s Kay Les Paul copy. Are these an upgrade on what I have in my Epiphone? He’s not looking for much loot for these things. Thanks. Eric Wilson, via email Unless you own the world’s only Norman Collier signature model (look him up, kids) it seems likely that a faulty switch or jack socket is causing your LP to cut out. And replacing the wiring loom and its perishable items – the switch, socket, potentiometers – with more capable stuff is a perfect fix.
While you could faff about assembling all the components to install and solder together, we’d recommend you snap up a high-quality pre-assembled upgrade kit from somewhere like RS Guitarworks (£95 from www.charlesguitars.co.uk). Before placing your order, measure the shafts on your guitar’s old potentiometers. Les Paul pots come in long and short shaft lengths. Your Epiphone will probably be happiest with the short ones, but it’s always worth checking the measurements with the vendor first. The new pot’s shafts are wider in diameter too, so you might have to increase the size of the holes in your LP’s top. Get a pro to do this if you’re worried about damaging your guitar. Oh, and you’ll need new control knobs. Trust us, it’ll be worth all the messing about.
As for your second question, no, the Kay pickups are not an upgrade. Some amazing guitars came out of Japan in the 1970s. Pickups, too. The Maxon-made ’buckers in Greco LP ‘tributes’ are particularly tonally blessed. Kay LP copies of that era, and similar Avon, Arbiter and Columbus badged stuff, are cheap-as-they-come beginner models. What looks like a humbucker is often a cover with a microphonic-as-hell single coil hidden inside. If you’re unhappy with the Epiphone pups, consider upgrading to pro-quality jobs from Bare Knuckle, Seymour Duncan et al.