Les Paul Junior Guitar Wiring Harness

Description

Where it all began…

The Les Paul Junior was first released in 1954 as a stripped-down version of the Les Paul. Gibson wanted to create a version that was much more affordable but still a high quality guitar. As a result, the Les Paul Jr. was born.

Even though the Les Paul Jr. started life as an entry level guitar, it has been a favourite by many well-known players such as Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day and John Lennon in his years following the Beatles.

The Les Paul Jr. has been produced intermittently by Gibson over the years but soon became a must-have among musicians due to its simplicity and unmistakable tone when played through a high gain amp. The Les Paul Jr. usually features a very basic electronic setup consisting of a single dog-ear P90 pickup and single volume and tone controls.

A raw, stripped back guitar for playing raw music!

The electrical low-down…

The electrical components inside your guitar are almost never seen and thus, easily forgotten. A number of large guitar manufacturers know this and often “skimp” on the quality of components used and the way they wire them to save on costs.

Something not every player considers…

Replacing your guitar’s pickups is an easy way to improve or alter your tone. But what a lot of players don’t think about is how their signal is carried from the pickups to the amp.

Your signal passes through the guitars wiring harness before traveling to your amp. You do not want crappy components or dodgy wiring robbing you of tone!

This is where Guitar Sauce comes in…

I build your wiring harnesses using the best premium components available and I build them with 110% attention to detail. I also offer unlimited support for the lifetime of your harness.

Your new wiring harness will also help if your guitar is suffering from any of the following:

• Scratchy pots
• Signal cuts in and out
• Tone controls make no difference to your tone
• Tone becomes too muddy when rolling back the volume
• Volume or tone controls have no “sweep” and are very abrupt

Your Les Paul Junior wiring harness includes:

2x Premium CTS 500K audio pots (with a 250K no-load tone pot option)
I’ve tried CTS pots from various suppliers and these are the best I have found. Solid brass shaft and bushing. C-clip reinforced shaft and a 30% taper which offers a perfect sweep. I make sure they are all matched to within a +/- 2% tolerance.

2x Sprague Orange Drop .022uf capacitors
The classic capacitor used since the 1960’s. Known for their tone and reliability, these capacitors are used by many high-end guitar manufacturers and builders around the world.

Switchcraft mono output jack
The industry standard for output jacks. Solid and dependable.

Vintage style cloth covered 22 gauge black wiring
This quality vintage style wiring is pre-tinned which means it holds its shape and makes soldering a lot easier for you.

All kits are wired with 50’s style wiring.

Some extra info to help you out…

What are no-load tone pots?

Whilst they look exactly like a regular tone pot, a no-load tone pot will help open up a little tonal diversity in your Jr. When the pot is rolled to “10”, it acts as a true bypass system and essentially removes the tone pot and capacitor from the wiring circuit. Read more about no-load guitar tone pots.

Compatibility with your guitar

Your new wiring kit will fit directly into American made Gibson Les Paul Juniors and any other Les Paul Junior style guitar which use imperial sized pots.

If your guitar is an Epiphone Les Paul Jr. or a Les Paul Jr. style guitar which currently uses metric sized pots then you will need to slightly widen the holes in the body to fit the upgraded CTS pots.

I have written a helpful guide here which covers the difference between imperial and metric guitar pots, how to check your current pots, and making sure your knobs will fit your new pots.