Upgrading pickups in Epiphone Inspired by Gibson 335

Dave_Mc

Seziertisch said:

In terms of pickup upgrades there are other more affordable options out there other than Monty’s. Fletcher and Catswhiskers both come to mind. Contact them directly, tell them what you are looking for and they will advise accordingly. 

Yeah definitely. Bloodstone (ask for nickel-silver baseplates if you care, I think brass is the default option) and Johnston in Belfast are great value (around £100 for a pair) and compare well with anything I've tried (I've tried Fletcher, Catswhisker and Q too, fwiw- they're all great as well, but they're a bit more money and I'm not sure they're really any better). I'd also add that, while I haven't tried a Gibson 335, the stock Gibson pickups in my SG (498T and 490R) were very murky-sounding and I changed them to brighter pickups (Bulldog Patent Labels, which are excellent, but again a bit more money if you're really trying to keep the money down). So getting the Gibson doesn't guarantee you won't have to swap the pickups in it- not saying it won't be a better guitar, just saying that buying the more expensive option doesn't necessarily mean you won't have to upgrade it too!

noisepolluter

If you’re changing pickups in a 335 to get more clarity, also check whether you have 300k or 500k volume pots - 500k will give a bit more clarity. Also consider having a treble bypass network installed on the pots so you don’t lose treble if you roll the volume back. 

Starplayer91

noisepolluter said:

If you’re changing pickups in a 335 to get more clarity, also check whether you have 300k or 500k volume pots - 500k will give a bit more clarity. Also consider having a treble bypass network installed on the pots so you don’t lose treble if you roll the volume back. 

Is that what 50s wiring is? 

I don’t know much about wiring looms and pots/ capacitors so any advice or recommendations would help a lot!

RichAC

Starplayer91 said:

I don’t know much about wiring looms and pots/ capacitors so any advice or recommendations would help a lot!

Possibly not what you had in mind, but Complete Guitar Wiring by Gerry Hayes is an excellent book that a lot of the mystery out of guitar electronics for me.

https://hazeguitars.com/complete-guitar-wiring

jw_H-535

Depends on budget and the tone you are chasing. Lollar and throwbak are who you want for vintage tone but they’re pricey. 

Dave_Mc

Starplayer91 said:

noisepolluter said:

If you’re changing pickups in a 335 to get more clarity, also check whether you have 300k or 500k volume pots - 500k will give a bit more clarity. Also consider having a treble bypass network installed on the pots so you don’t lose treble if you roll the volume back. 

Is that what 50s wiring is? 

I don’t know much about wiring looms and pots/ capacitors so any advice or recommendations would help a lot!

50s wiring retains a bit more treble when you roll back the volume knob, but not as much as a treble bleed. 50s wiring is connecting the wire between the volume and tone pots to the middle lug rather than the more usual first lug of the volume pot. It also has some other unintended consequences- the volume and tone knobs become "interactive", which basically means that rolling down the tone pot when the volume is below 10 will lower the volume a bit before it lowers the tone. Or if you already have the tone knob down a bit and the volume on 10, lowering the volume will result in a more abrupt lowering of volume.

Treble bypass/treble bleed (treble bleed is actually not the right term but it's the one almost everyone uses!) is basically a capacitor or a capacitor and resistor (either in parallel or series) connected between the first and middle lug of the volume pot. This retains a lot more treble, but can retain too much if you don't get the values of those components just right (or even if you do) and doesn't always sound that natural. It tends to have some settings which sound right, but others which don't, and it's virtually impossible to come up with values which sound correct at all volume knob settings. The resistor helps with the naturalness, but messes with the pot taper.

There's a slight variation on the treble bleed which I think works better- if you connect the capacitor (or capacitor and resistor) between the middle lug of the volume pot and the unused lug of the tone pot (you have to have the wire coming from the volume pot go to the middle lug of the tone pot, and then the tone capacitor connected from the tone pot's first lug to ground) you get a circuit which works better if you use the tone pot. The more standard circuit can sound a little thin and flat if you want to use the tone pot with the volume pot turned down- which is something you may well want to do because of what I said earlier, that a treble bleed circuit often retains too much treble!

victorludorum

Have you adjusted the height of the pickups?

Starplayer91

victorludorum said:

Have you adjusted the height of the pickups?

I have not, wouldn't say they look low though. After more tweaking with my amp settings I'm happier with the tone of stock pickups. Probably still going to swap them out for SD Seth lover or 59's. Also swpping bridge out for a Gotoh GE103B to stop the buzz on the low E which I've noticed.  

VeggieShark

lovestrat74 said:

I believe they come with CTS pots but from what I can remember,  changing the harness was a big improvement in the Guitarista vids.

I didn't realise there were "grades" of CTS pots. When you see CTS pots you automatically think, quality,  but obviously not...

I've not seen or heard of this...but CTS pots...they don't seem to offer cheaper ones?

photek

Try lowering the pickups slightly as @victorludorum mentions, lowering makes them brighter and clearer particularly with a neck humbucker. You can also raise the pole pieces to bring a bit of clarity.

My dad has an Inspired by 339 which I assume has the same pickups, lowering them made quite a bit of difference.

Sounds pretty good in the clip by the way  

NelsonP

Starplayer91 said:

Made a quick demo of the current pickups. Do you think they sound dark/ wooly?



This is my first 335 semi so not sure if this design of guitar just naturally sounds a little darker/ wooly than a solid body or if it's the stock pups? 

For those who have changed the stock pups would you say it made a noticeable difference? I'm on the fence about whether to keep it and do the pups and electronics upgrade (making the total spend about £1000) or go all in for a Gibson 335. 

Love the build, feel for the money and would be happy if a pup and electronics upgrade made the difference. If not, I'd probably rather put the money into a Gibson. I know this guitar will never sound exactly like a Gibson but I'd be happy with the Epiphone if it were just a bit clearer with more top end as finish and build feels on par if not better than some Gibson USA's I've played. 

335 into Boss Katana 

Thoughts appreciated 

I A/B'd my Epi IBG ES-335 in a shop vs several of the Gibson equivalents. It was very clear that the marginal differences were not worth the £2k price increase.

So I kept the Epi and bought a Gibson Custom Shop 57 special instead. The epi is over 90% of the guitar for 20% of the money.

I do sometimes feel like it deserves a pickup upgrade but the guitaristas fella said the bridge and tailpiece were the biggest bang for buck mod, so I did that.

The Alnico Classic Pros are decent enough, maybe a 7-8 out of 10 and I often wonder about an upgrade to 57 classics or similar. The switch is a bit shit and could do with replacing, but the rest of it is decent enough, even when compared to my custom shop Gibson.

Dave_Mc

photek said:

Try lowering the pickups slightly as @victorludorum mentions, lowering makes them brighter and clearer particularly with a neck humbucker. You can also raise the pole pieces to bring a bit of clarity.

My dad has an Inspired by 339 which I assume has the same pickups, lowering them made quite a bit of difference.

Sounds pretty good in the clip by the way  

Yeah it's worth a try- don't expect a night and day difference, but it does make a difference and sometimes it's enough. It's definitely worth a try before spending money!

Agreed it sounds good in the clip, and some nice playing too. But it's very, very hard to tell from clips... in some parts it sounded bright enough to me and then in others it didn't!

NelsonP

@Starplayer91 Did you change the pickups in the end?

rossi

tTonerider Rocksongs .If you dont souynd good on these you aint gonner sound good on anyrthing .

Starplayer91

NelsonP said:

@Starplayer91 Did you change the pickups in the end?

I did not, I think they sound good as is

Tall_martin

I think the guitar sounds excellent as is