Vintage Gold Top Les Paul in the house!

[Jimi75]

Congrats! This is a beautiful Goldtop. Vintage guitars are awesome.

[Lev]

I have to blame Lev for the gas on this one. He got me started last year with his Lemon Drop from Vintage. I almost bought one but they could not get one in stock. I called the same dealear about the Gold Top and they had one.

I think the least you can do is fly me out to Florida for a week for helping you save all those dollars!

[ZMAN]

I got an email from Lorne Deedigan today he is the Sales Manager for JHS. I was enquiring where the Vintage guitars were made. I thought they were Korean but he says they are Chinese. But that is OK because one of my nicest Strats, the CV50s is Chinese.
Sorry Lev, no room. We have a bunch of family, flying/driving to spend a couple of weeks there together. Of course I will be thinking of you when I have that extra Maragarita at Jimmy Buffets in Key West. I can't wait to get away from this cold. It has been -15 C for a couple of weeks. It has been as low as 1 F a couple of times for all you US guys. We have had the Metric system for 30 years and I still have everything calibrated in Farenheit.
Still tweaking my amps for the P90 tone. I will try again today.

[ZMAN]

Well so much for my Vintage Goldtop. I gave it another workout today and there is definitely something wrong with the wiring. There is a gigantic hum and it will go away when I have the volume dimed and put the selector switch in the middle position. Also each volume pot will work in the centre position while the other is in the 0 or off position. I have never had a Gibson style guitar work this way. I tried it with all of my amps and I can't even chalk it up to P90s because I tried my P90 Gibby and no humm at all.
I am really pissed because they don't have another one. So I am back to square one on my Gold top quest. Maybe I should just go and get the Gibby.
ARRRRGGG.

[Katastrophe]

Is it just a shielding issue? That's a cheap fix.

[marnold***]

My guess is that inexpensive P90s + no shielding = noise except in the middle position.

Having said that, I'm not sure what you mean by this:

Also each volume pot will work in the centre position while the other is in the 0 or off position

You should be able to control the volume of both pickups in the middle position, but maybe I'm misunderstanding.

[ZMAN]

Every one of my Gibson Gutars or even Gibson copies will not work in the middle positions unless both voume controls are "on" or above zero. A lot of guys don't know that but it is true.
Also it is not noiseless in the middle position it is noiseless in the middle position only when both controls are at 10. So if I move below 10 the noise comes back.
Either a bad pot or some bad wiring.
Either way I don't want the hassle.
I have a 7 day window and it is gone.

[Tibernius]

Every one of my Gibson Gutars or even Gibson copies will not work in the middle positions unless both voume controls are "on" or above zero. A lot of guys don't know that but it is true.

That's the most common way of wiring an LP style. But there are other ways which mean that you can use the guitar with the switch in the middle and one pickup's volume set to 0.

I agree with Marnold: sounds like the guitar hasn't been shielded properly for single-coils.

[ZMAN]

I would agree with you except that the guitar is averstised with hum bucking stacked p90s. I tried even my cheapest Strat and there was nothing like this.
It was almost drowning out the music.
It sounds like when you touch the input jack when you have it plugged into the amp and not into the guitar.
I was playing it at a very low volume in the store. I didn't expect this when I cranked her up.

[marnold***]

I would agree with you except that the guitar is averstised with hum bucking stacked p90s. I tried even my cheapest Strat and there was nothing like this.
It was almost drowning out the music.
It sounds like when you touch the input jack when you have it plugged into the amp and not into the guitar.

Hmm. That is weird. Granted, P90s are going to be noisier than regular single coils but if they are actually supposed to be humbucking . . .

I was thinking maybe a ground loop, but I don't know how it would go away in the middle position.

[marnold***]

That's the most common way of wiring an LP style. But there are other ways which mean that you can use the guitar with the switch in the middle and one pickup's volume set to 0.

Is there some benefit to doing it the typical Gibson way? Just to make it easy to cut the volume between songs? Obviously you couldn't do the EVH pseudo-kill-switch trick that way.

[ZMAN]

It might be a simple fix. Maybe a wire touching something but I was a little worried about the p90s from the start and was hoping for a lot better.
One thing that absolutley drives me crazy is 60 cycle hum. I have gone to great lengths to not have any background noise. I even have a conditioned power supply. I only use house current with no extension. And I have almost no noise. So this was very noticable.

[marnold***]

One thing that absolutley drives me crazy is 60 cycle hum.

If it's any consolation, I'm in complete agreement with you. That's why my Floyd sports Dimarzio Area 61s.

[ZMAN]

Yea I am a little bummed out. I would love for this thing to work out it is a very nice playing and looking guitar.
Thanks for your input but I should have listened to my inner voice and waited for a Gibby.
Update:
I did a little bit of digging and I found that the centre position is a hum cancelling position. Also I moved a couple of my wall warts that were plugged into a power bar and the noise is much lower. I can lower the volume on the guitar and the hum is almost gone. So I will be keeping it.
Not to say a set of mini buckers won't find their way into it. I just feels so good.
I now realize why I chose Accounting as my career.

[Lev]

Cool, glad you worked it out. I've never had a P90 guitar before, I guess they are ultra sensitive. A pickup swap in the future could really make that guitar!

[ZMAN]

I have owned a P90 Gibson SG for 40 years and I tested it against the GT. There is no comparison, the SG is very quiet. I am thinking that there is some wiring issues or just cheap electronics, but for the amount of money I have in it and the cost to change it to a "Deluxe" It will be a decent guitar.

[ZMAN]

Update:
I sent the guitar in to my tech and asked him to take a look at the pickups and the set up. I had some fret buzz. He set the neck but he said it needed a fret job. Just too many high and low frets. (cost 100 dollars less 25 dollar credit I had). Also he said that the wiring was perfect and that the reason for the hum was that they WERE stacked but they were not matched I don''t quite know what he meant.
I got it back to day and it plays like a dream. The hum is still there but I will live with it. So far I have 500 in this guitar and it looks and plays very nice.
Maybe down the road I will change out the pickups but so far I like the tone.
I already have a lot of humbuckers so this is a nice alternative.

[msteeln]

www.vanzandtpu.com
Pretty much unbeatable vintage sounding singles and hummers.

[ZMAN]

I thought I would update on the hum. I was playing the other day and everything went dead. I started messing with my pedal board and one of the patch cords must have died. I pulled it and replaced it with a better one. When I got my Vintage GT back I plugged it in and there was a lot less noise. Also I was using one of the wall warts on my pedal boards aux power plug. I moved it to a wall socket and now things are much quieter. It didn't seem to affect the Humbuckers but the p90s picked it up. I am a lot happier with the guitar now that she is set up and much quieter.