Converting a 3 PU Les Paul into a Jerry Guitar

[1960strat]

Has anyone done it? Pitfalls etc? I love the way LP's play and am thinking about making one into a Jerry project guitar.

[tcsned]

Has anyone done it? Pitfalls etc? I love the way LP's play and am thinking about making one into a Jerry project guitar.

I think Jonnyboy did.

[gr8fullfred]

Not sure how far you want to go, but it seems like the easy thing to do would be to swap the middle pickup with a Super 2, change one of the controls to split it and whala! instant Jerry. You could just wire the Super 2 permanently split if you want. This is the easy way to get close, not sure how the controls work on a three pickup LP.

[JonnyBoy]

Yes, it sounded great! You can use what you want for bridge and neck IMO, just put a super II in the middle, and you have a default Jerry tone. I think any good playing guitar with a split super II in the middle is gonna get you in that ball park. At least that has been my experience so far. Les Paul's are great sounding guitars, you won't be disappointed in its tone either way. It wound up being very versatile using the PAF's in the bridge and neck for other types of sounds. Go for it!

[playingdead]

You'll pretty much need to rewire the guitar completely to get it right ...

On a 3-pickup LP, you either have volumes for neck and bridge only (middle is always full volume and out of phase for a hollow sound), or it's been modified to have individual volume controls for three pickups, and a master tone.

To use a unity gain buffer and effects loop, the guitar needs a master volume control. It will also be challenging to get the "in-between" sounds using the three-position pickup selector.

It's probably conceivable to disconnect the original pickup selector, run one master volume, two tones and use a rotary selector (ala a PRS) in the fourth pot position. You could either add a toggle or two or, if you want to keep the guitar returnable to stock condition, use pull pots for the coil taps and effects loop, or maybe use the 3-position selector for some of that functionality.

I'd be tempted to put the Super II in the middle and get some full-size P90s for neck and bridge, the LP goldtop I just got has P90s and it is a killer sound, much more useful than the DiMarzios overall. Lollar makes a good looking single coil humbucker that has p-90 characteristics that would drop right in.

[hogan]

I'd be tempted to put the Super II in the middle and get some full-size P90s for neck and bridge, the LP goldtop I just got has P90s and it is a killer sound, much more useful than the DiMarzios overall. Lollar makes a good looking single coil humbucker that has p-90 characteristics that would drop right in.

**** brief thread Hijack****

P90's do, in fact, rule. Anybody that says otherwise is a power chode. If I ever do another custom guitar, it'll probably be a 3 p90 5way switch setup.

***hijack over****

[JonnyBoy]

Yes, forgot to mention, I had to gut the entire guitar and used the Rosebud schematic. It won't work with Les Paul standard wiring using a 5 way due to the volume control set up. Not sure how the 3 PU guitars a wired, I routed a middle into a 2 pickup version and that for sure had to be totally rewired.

[gr8fullfred]

Seems like you could swap the standard pick up selector for a 5 way rotary?

[tcsned]

I'd be tempted to put the Super II in the middle and get some full-size P90s for neck and bridge, the LP goldtop I just got has P90s and it is a killer sound, much more useful than the DiMarzios overall. Lollar makes a good looking single coil humbucker that has p-90 characteristics that would drop right in.

**** brief thread Hijack****

P90's do, in fact, rule. Anybody that says otherwise is a power chode. If I ever do another custom guitar, it'll probably be a 3 p90 5way switch setup.

***hijack over****

I agree, I used P-94s (Gibson's Humbucker sized P-90) in a guitar and they are awesome. I think they still make them. I think that guitar is going to be my next project - it's a maple/cocobolo carved top tele (my first guitar assembly project) I'm gonna get a new neck and route it for a middle humbucker (Super II), OBEL and buffer.

You'll probably have to do some routing of your jack hole (that's kind of sick sounding ) if you do an OBEL for the second jack.

[JonnyBoy]

Seems like you could swap the standard pick up selector for a 5 way rotary?

No it won't work because the pickup wires go to the vol pots first then to the switch for blending reasons I assume. If you pile the wires on the switch and go to a master volume that would work like vic added.

[playingdead]

It might be a little awkward to reach up that high to twist the pot when you want to do a quick change ... okay, that sounds a little weird.

Someone should wire a 5-pin DIN jack to handle the two guitar outputs ... you could power the buffer that way, too and avoid routing a battery compartment in an LP, which would be a challenge.

[JonnyBoy]

didn't know we could talk so dirty about a guitar. I can guess its time for sex night in many a household tonight.

If you used a five pin wouldn't you have to have a converter to route the signals and power? Sounds cool though. It would be cool for the new MIDI stuff to have an input for that purpose, it sounds like it wouldn't be that complicated to do. Does the effects loop work on a standard midi output also?

[Pete B.]

I'm thinking about getting another Les Paul.
I have two 7-string guitars with two humbuckers that have split coils.
I would prefer the neck pickup to be in the middle position.
I've been thinking about just routing the middle position and put the neck pickup in there, then just covering up the other pickup hole with some cool piece of something.
No new parts needed.
I was thinking you could do this with a Les Paul, too.
Route out the Middle position, put a Super 2 in there (and swap wires with the neck Pickup), then just leave the neck puckup in there, not hooked up.
No more neck pickup[shrug], but I personally didn't use the neck pickup on my old Les Paul much, unless we were playing "Spooky".
Just a thought.
Also, I picked up a new fine tuning tailpiece for a Les Paul for $25 bucks the other day (those TP6's are getting pricey), so now I have my eye out for another Les.
Some 3-pickup model Les Pauls include the Custom Black Beauty, the Ace Frehley model, the Peter Frampton Model, some of which are avialable by Epiphone.
Here's a Chinese nock off (dig the Blue Sparkleburst with Lightnin' Bolt fret markers). Are these guitars actualy playable I wonder?
http://www.tradetang.com/for-sale/New-A ... 0099.html#

[jenkins]

I jerry-ized my Les Paul and I love the thing. I've never played a true jerry custom like some of you guys have but it is my favorite guitar that I've ever played. It really nails the jerry tone great, once I got it back from being rewired I was shocked at how great it sounded. It was the first time I ever played a guitar that actually sounded like I wanted to. Not trying to coax a sound that almost sounds lke jerry out of it but actually sounds like jerry's.

Mine was a classic 2 pickup double cutaway DC studio and I put super 2's in place of the humbuckers and then I added a single coil dimarzio as the middle pickup.
I also had the 3 way rewired into a 5-way rotary selector knob with a push-pull for the coil split.
I also had the OBEL added with an on/off switch and I just use one volume and one tone knob. I always liked how the singel volume and tone knobs worked and I just wanted to keep it that way instead of adding another pot.
I just love the way les pauls play but the guitar never sounded like jerry very much at all, I could get like 69 jerry but never the tone I wanted.
Jerry-ize it I bet you'll love the results

[Rusty the Scoob]

Also, I picked up a new fine tuning tailpiece for a Les Paul for $25 bucks the other day (those TP6's are getting pricey), so now I have my eye out for another Les.

This sounds like me. "I have this pickup and tuning peg, now I need a neck, body, bridge, pickguard...."