RS Guitarworks kit for Les Paul

I'm contemplating one of the RS Guitarworks upgrade kits for my all mahogany LP. I love the tone I'm getting with the Burstbucker pros, but my control pots aren't doing a lot for me. Which kit do you all recommend and why? They have quite a lot of interesting choices on the website, just want to see what you guys think.

Thanks..... :mrgreen:

If your Les Paul has individual pots (no the recent PCB) I would just get a set of RS Guitarworks 500k long shaft Superpots to use as the volume pots. Wire it up '50s style and use the existing tone pots and caps.

These pots have a really nice taper and they're on sale for 1/2 price right now.

Have you seen this forum: http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/ There's a welath of info there, especially under the Tonefreaks subforum.

1/2 price. Going to snag that stuff SO FAST!

Now I need to figure out how to do a coil tap.

I got a rs guitar works complete Les paul upgrade kit with all the pots, caps and a new toggle switch for my Gibson Pat Martino a couple of years back when I installed Lollar Imperials and it was well worth it the money. The pots all have a really smooth taper and are capable of giving you dozens of different tonal flavors and the switch is top notch.

giantstepjoe said:

I got a rs guitar works complete Les paul upgrade kit with all the pots, caps and a new toggle switch for my Gibson Pat Martino a couple of years back when I installed Lollar Imperials and it was well worth it the money. The pots all have a really smooth taper and are capable of giving you dozens of different tonal flavors and the switch is top notch.

Click to expand...

Electronics upgrade is the best kept secret out there when it comes to guitars. When I first got my Bare Knuckle pickups for my Les Paul, the upgrade from the Burstbuckers was really slight. After this, I got CTS 500k audio taper pots and 0.22 UF paper in oil caps for my Gibson Les Paul and I hooked them all up using 50s style wiring. The results were honestly nothing short of astounding. I bet the Volume Super Pots would be better but the standard Audio Taper CTS pots were great for using the volume with distortion. Best of all, I didn't lose tone as I rolled back the volume pots.

Right now, I just ordered a couple of CTS pots and a paper in Oil cap from RS Guitarworks. The One pot is a Superpot and the other is a 500k push pull audio taper pot. I am going to wire up my Godin LG to have a coil tap for a total of six possible tones from the guitar. This will allow me to cop the more raw 'strat - esque' type single coil tones as well as the smoother, darker, and more buttery humbucker tones. Given that the guitar is a short scale hefty lump of mahogany with a bolt on neck, it really sounds like a cross between a LP and a Strat. This will make it great for covers!!

giantstepjoe said:

I got a rs guitar works complete Les paul upgrade kit with all the pots, caps and a new toggle switch for my Gibson Pat Martino a couple of years back when I installed Lollar Imperials and it was well worth it the money. The pots all have a really smooth taper and are capable of giving you dozens of different tonal flavors and the switch is top notch.

Click to expand...

+1000
I installed this exact set-up, except for the toggle switch, in my '71 LP Deluxe.

The tone controls are entirely usable in every position. This is one of the only guitars I have ever felt a need to actually use the tone controls.

Fantastic!

Upgrading guitar electronics is definitely a necessary mod for any guitar!!

How do you do this? I just decided to replace my volume pot for my Custom 22 as it's going out and I'd like to know more. I think I bought a CTS pot but there is a cap on there and another wire soldered on the back. the cap is ceramic. Any suggestions?

Greetings Mo1A,
It really isn't complicated, but if you have never used a soldering iron, it is not something you would want to learn on a Cu22. It sounds like you are actually describing the tone pot, not the volume pot. The cap bleeds high frequencies off to ground, which makes what we hear "bassier".

I am sure there are vids on YouTube but I imagine a local guitar tech would charge a reasonable fee. It is a simple procedure if you are comfortable with a soldering iron.

The key to successful soldering is prepping the pot and wires, then heating the surface of the pot so the solder flows and finally introducing the wire(s).

It usually takes longer to wait for the iron to heat up then to actually perform the "surgery".

Best wishes to you!

:wink:

Masterof1angel said:

How do you do this? I just decided to replace my volume pot for my Custom 22 as it's going out and I'd like to know more. I think I bought a CTS pot but there is a cap on there and another wire soldered on the back. the cap is ceramic. Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

Have you tried cleaning the pot? A couple of sprays with a quality contact cleaner like DeOxIt can work wonders.

If it is the volume pot, the capacitor is a 'treble bleed' used to prevent high-end roll-off when lowering the volume. The wire on the back grounds the pot.

Dom

domct203 said:

Masterof1angel said:

How do you do this? I just decided to replace my volume pot for my Custom 22 as it's going out and I'd like to know more. I think I bought a CTS pot but there is a cap on there and another wire soldered on the back. the cap is ceramic. Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

Have you tried cleaning the pot? A couple of sprays with a quality contact cleaner like DeOxIt can work wonders.

If it is the volume pot, the capacitor is a 'treble bleed' used to prevent high-end roll-off when lowering the volume. The wire on the back grounds the pot.

Dom

Click to expand...

Thanks for catching that Dom. Yes it is probably a treble bleed, if it is attached to the volume pot.

RS Guitarworks definitely has some of the best kits you can get. The hardware totally blows away the crap the average music retailer will sell you, without question.