Epiphone plug and play pickups?

[Space1999]

So with the new wiring in the new Epiphone’s they have greatly improved their harnessing and such. I thought it was known that the Pro pickups just had a plastic connector from the pickup to the main wiring and thereby you could buy other Epiphone pickups that had the same connectors. Then you could just swap them out easy, plug and play.

Did I eat too much pizza one night and dreamt this up? I have looked and yet never found new Epiphone Pro pickups for sale. Anyone know what the 411 is on this?

Thanks,

Pat

 

[Zero]

I recall the Epiphone site having this listed on the Standard 50’s Les Paul description:


But while exploring my JJN, it doesn’t look like that option is there for the P90’s.
Also in the 59’s control cavity (I haven’t confirmed yet, mine will be here Tuesday) I think it supposed to have more of a hand wired look as seen from the guitar.com review:

As you said, I think it’s the ProBuckers that have them. But from the few standards I’ve played in the wild, they sound pretty good.

 

[Jeffytune]

It depends on the model, of the three Epi Les Paul's I own, only my 2015 Les Paul Pro has the probuckers with the connector ends.
It looks like it plug directly onto a PCB board on the push/pull volume pots.
But if you look up into the wire channel, it looks like yet another connector. I would have to remove the puck ups and all to be sure.

 

[grinwer]

Another connector to 3 way switch.

 

[Space1999]

Thanks guys. I thought Epiphone was going to run with a sort of swappable pickup program where you could mix and match different brands of their pickups, but I guess not.


Pat

 

[Jeffytune]

You could Pat, all you need is a set of those connectors.

I have no clue as to if there available or not.

 

[Raiyn]

You could Pat, all you need is a set of those connectors.

I have no clue as to if there available or not.

You don't even have to go the fully proprietary route, depending on your skill set and imagination you can do quick change p'ups any number of ways. Just depends where you wanna unplug from.

There's the GFS Kwikplug system that they sell certain conversion pieces for.

https://www.guitarfetish.com/Kwikpl...NY-Pickup-to-the-Kwikplug-System_p_24132.html

https://www.guitarfetish.com/Kwikpl...NY-Pickup-to-the-Kwikplug-System_p_24133.html

Granted, those are both the Female ends, but a while back I reverse enginerded the male end (that they don't sell separately - cheeky bastards) because of the tiny wires they expected me to play with. I rebuilt mine with sterner stuff at two A.M. out of sheer boredom.

It'd be a simple trick with a multimeter to adapt something like this to work as your male end. All you really need is a 2.5mm TRRS plug, some wire, and some skill with a soldering iron.

Of course, if said solder skills don't pay the bills, you could always go the lazy way and get a set of Liberator pots from Seymour Duncan.

 

[Space1999]

The little teeny tiny wires coming out of Seymour Duncan pickups is just inexcusable to me. Not a fan of SD anymore, and I don’t solder pickups anymore mainly because of them!

Pat

 

[Jeffytune]

You don't even have to go the fully proprietary route, depending on your skill set and imagination you can do quick change p'ups any number of ways. Just depends where you wanna unplug from.

There's the GFS Kwikplug system that they sell certain conversion pieces for.

https://www.guitarfetish.com/Kwikpl...NY-Pickup-to-the-Kwikplug-System_p_24132.html

https://www.guitarfetish.com/Kwikpl...NY-Pickup-to-the-Kwikplug-System_p_24133.html

Granted, those are both the Female ends, but a while back I reverse enginerded the male end (that they don't sell separately - cheeky bastards) because of the tiny wires they expected me to play with. I rebuilt mine with sterner stuff at two A.M. out of sheer boredom.

It'd be a simple trick with a multimeter to adapt something like this to work as your male end. All you really need is a 2.5mm TRRS plug, some wire, and some skill with a soldering iron.

Of course, if said solder skills don't pay the bills, you could always go the lazy way and get a set of Liberator pots from Seymour Duncan.

A quick "Internet" search found them on Reverb for 19.99

https://reverb.com/item/2575814-2-q...iphone-guitar-5-wire-pickup-crimps-solderless

I am sure if I were to search harder I could find them fore less, but this comes with both plugs and the terminal ends.

 

[Raiyn]

A quick "Internet" search found them on Reverb for 19.99

https://reverb.com/item/2575814-2-q...iphone-guitar-5-wire-pickup-crimps-solderless

I am sure if I were to search harder I could find them fore less, but this comes with both plugs and the terminal ends.

Nice. I've got other sources for similar items. I was mainly attempting to illustrate one avenue a guy could go down.

I usually just solder in what I want, or in the case of my other guitars make it so the pickguard can be unplugged and swapped.

The little teeny tiny wires coming out of Seymour Duncan pickups is just inexcusable to me. Not a fan of SD anymore, and I don’t solder pickups anymore mainly because of them!

Pat

You're using too much heat. I'm not going to call this a "cheat", but it's darn close - Use 63/37 (aka eutectic) solder next time.

Forgive the copypasta:

Eutectic Solder
The words eutectic solder describe a solder alloy that melts and freezes at one single temperature. A good example of this is Tin 63% / Lead 37% solder which melts and freezes at 183 °C. This melting point is much lower than the melting points of either pure metal which are 232 °C (tin) and 327 °C (lead).

The phase diagram for tin and lead is shown below.

If the concentration of tin and lead is shifted away from Sn63/Pb37 then the melting point becomes a melting range.

For example, Sn 60% / Pb 40% melts in the range of 183 to 191 °C. As this alloy is heated it starts to melt at 183 °C, is slushy between 183 °C and 191 °C, and becomes fully liquid at 191 °C.​

You might not think 8°C is a big deal until you convert it to F when you see it's 46.4° which is a lot of extra heat in the joint.

I smelled the flux (another thing you want) about 5 years ago and never looked back. I'm using it on guitars, point to point, PCBs, the occasional SMD repair, basically anything electronic that gets handed to me.

 

[Vanaspatti]

I realize it’s a year old but I am interested in the GFS Quick Plug system too. You can get the male pigtail on their site in 3, 4, or 2 wire with push back shielding. Go to the GFS Pickups menu and to wiring harnesses, then scroll all the way down and there is a section for Quick Plug parts. I have also seen pigtails on eBay with the factory Epiphone plugs. So you can really go either way. I like the GFS a little more because if you attached the female plug to the bottom of the pickup then when you swap out pickups you only have the pickup to store somewhere and no wires to get in the way or tangled and damaged. Inside the guitar is not as important since it’s usually sealed and out of sight. I have a Classic Worn purple burst and I am liking the idea of dressing it up as an old rust bucket with some of the Slick Rockers in zebra. I would also love to play some Pro Buckers if I could find a set

 

[Space1999]

So what I have noticed is any semi-hollow body with pull up single coil options use the Epiphone plugs.

On the P-93 with P-90 s and no pull up option its just a two wire job with each pickup so you can basically cut the old ones away and solder the new ones in anywhere along the line.

This is what I plan to do with my P-93 since I found out about Vintage Vibes 3 P-90 setup with the appropriate spacer for the bridge pu.

I don’t plan on replacing the 2018 wiring harness since it already has a treble bleed and the master tone is very useable.

Replacing the Alnico Pros in one of my Sheraton II’s was as easy as unplugging the old ones and plugging in the ProBuckers.

And let me tell you that guitar sounds so damn good now! It’s dripping with tone and has a much bolder clean sound. Using it with overdrive it just sound so hot!

Very happy with that mod! And it took less than 30 minutes.

Pat

 

[Noodling Guitars]

Kind of blasphemy . but you could always do this to quick connect a quick connect

 

[Raiyn]

I am interested in the GFS Quick Plug system too. You can get the male pigtail on their site in 3, 4, or 2 wire with push back shielding.

As I mentioned before, the main issue I had with the GFS Kwikplug system was the thin cheap wires they used.

These are the leads I re-engineered for a two conductor Strat pickup



You *could* build your own using the following diagram

I based the diagram off the work I did on that set of Strat pickups - which were 2 wire. The original illustration is of a garden variety 2.5mm plug - functionally identical for all intents and purposes.
The plug GFS provided in the kit didn't have the shield lug (labeled "doesn't exist") but I wager that the four wire version does have that lug for the 2nd coil end. I'd also make an educated guess that the blue labeled ring / connection would be for the additional coil start.

Again, the main knock on them is the cheapo wires.