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Okay, I e-mailed Ralph @ RH Factor. Waiting for his reply concerning pots and caps..
Any of you forum members have opinions concerning pot and cap values for a new Firebird? Pros and cons?
I heard 300K pots for both volume and tone on the bridge pup will help tame the harsh treble a little?
I read that Gibson now uses Asian pots in their new guitars, not the ones they used before? How crappy are the new Asian pots?
As far as caps go, would you recommend a 0.015 in the neck and a 0.022 in the bridge, or 0.022 for both positions?
Also, I got a quote from a very prominent luthier in my area for a new bone nut and a complete set up for total $125.00
The same guy refretted my LP, replaced the bridge and installed a new bone nut on her 2 years ago.
He does good work, but it took him a while to get it done and he's kind of a whack-o, so I may wait a little on set up and new nut. He was in the same stripmall for years, but recently moved. I heard he was fooling around w/ a pistol and it went off shooting a hole in the wall between his shop and the beauty parlor next store.
Here's a link to his web site. Take a gander if you want. http://www.richbeckguitars.com/
Anyway please enlighten me with some opinions on my questions above

Pappy, its to bad you aren't closer. From the link I assume your in PHX area... Im in Sacramento.

Personally, if you have a soldering iron or feel like learning, this is all stuff you can handle yourself. The pots and caps are cheap.. I'd order a few caps of different values and a couple 300k pots and 4 500k pots and experiment till your happy.

The 300k should take some of the harshness off and I wouldn't go smaller than a .022 cap personally.

Doug,
I got a reply from Ralph @ RH with great $$$ on 500K pots and some Ruskie 0.022 PIO caps. Thanks for the tip. Much cheaper than R.S. I'm definitely going to place an order w/ him.
Fear not on my soldering ability, I've totally rewired and installed new pups in both of my LP's, a PRS SE ONE and my Tele. So, I'm not shy on diving in, ripping out and all that other good stuff.
The reason for all the questions is because I want to do a 1 time install and not have to tear stuff out and redo it.
I'm going w/ Ralph's recommendations and I'll let you know what I think when I'm all done in a week, or so.
Thanks
Pappy

Good to hear, Ralph's a good guy. Those 500k's should be in stock for him.

If you find it still to bright, I'd try a 300k pot, then switch pickups to make Tony happy

Yeah, I'm a stubborn SOB when it comes to those newer FB pickups.
Most luthiers that I'VE met are a bit whack-o...not Doug though. I've know some that are VERY talented, but have poor business/people skills. It's really a shame...

Tony

Sleepingtiger wrote:Yeah, I'm a stubborn SOB when it comes to those newer FB pickups.
Most luthiers that I'VE met are a bit whack-o...not Doug though. I've know some that are VERY talented, but have poor business/people skills. It's really a shame...

Tony

I have good people skills (I think) and decent business sense... just not enough hours in the day to keep everyone happy

In all seriousness, I really wasn't referring to you,Doug, but experiences with others. One advantage you have is that your guitar business grew out of another business. I think that's a truly good thing! I think it keeps you grounded.
Take a young talented guy, add some early success = an inflated ego, possible bad attitude & a lack of "common" sense.
Of course, there ARE some good balanced guys out there. You seem to be one of them, Doug. You seem to have a lot of fun & put a lil love in there too! I also like the way you seem to be willing to share your knowledge with others.
I just wanted to clarify myself.,,,yet again

Tony

Hey Pappy,

Have struggled with the stock pu's for years.

Swapped out the neck pu with mixed results.

Currently have lowered the neck pu to be level with the pickup surround with excellent results!

The bridge pickup has the tone control rolled back quite abit.
This is done on a stock 1990 Firebird V.

Almost sold this guitar several times but glad that I didn't.
Would appreciate other comments as well.

Cheers
Bman

Bman,
I think you'd be best served by a pickup change. The only way to get vintage tone, IMO.

Tony

Sleepingtiger wrote:In all seriousness, I really wasn't referring to you,Doug, but experiences with others. One advantage you have is that your guitar business grew out of another business. I think that's a truly good thing! I think it keeps you grounded.
Take a young talented guy, add some early success = an inflated ego, possible bad attitude & a lack of "common" sense.
Of course, there ARE some good balanced guys out there. You seem to be one of them, Doug. You seem to have a lot of fun & put a lil love in there too! I also like the way you seem to be willing to share your knowledge with others.
I just wanted to clarify myself.,,,yet again

Tony

I appreciate that Tony. I knew you weren't referring to me!

I'm actually at the point now where between the few locals I do work for and Nick Greer's work Im actually turning away stuff right now. My normal day-job shop stuff has become so stressful with the current economy its hard for me to find extra time to work on fun stuff again.