DIY Les Paul Wiring - Vintage versus Modern 

The best video, no abracadabra, no crap, no comedy. Brilliant, thank you!

That's the simplest, clearest explanation I've seen anywhere! Thank you for that.

Working on my first kit build and finally made it to the wiring stage , best video out there I have found , very easy to follow , great diagrams

Best tutorial on the internet period.well thought out easy to understand.you just saved me a lot of money and took the frustration out of understanding something I have allways wanted to do myself.thanks a zillion

Thank you SO much for this video! Got my LP re-wired and working on the first try. Watched a handful of other videos and they all left a few questions unanswered. This was complete and succinct.

THANK YOU! This is by FAR the best, clearest demo of how this is to be one. You've just saved me hours of time and hunting. Appreciate it! -Jeff

Dood, you rock! I did the vintage wiring in my 339, and did the Gilmour switch in my strat build with your help. I can't thank you enough!

This was so concise and clear...... I've literalliy been watching wiring videos for weeks. This was the best of any video I've seen.

I recently (last night, ha!) replaced the guts on my '95 SG with stew mac's premium SG wiring kit and I ended with so many problems. The volumes didn't turn down to zero and the tone knobs were working in reverse. I found your video here and it saved the day. I was so frustrated, so I retraced my steps and then followed your directions. Very poignant and concise. So I say, Thank you! Keep up the good work. …And I subscribed. Thank you again!

Finally, a guide that explains what's going on, and why. This should be the first result on RU-vid for LP wiring. Thanks!

Just rewired my les Paul to your diagram, now it sounds brighter and cleaner, just the way I want it to sound. Thank you man!

Best and most clearly laid out video here. I fixed a Yamaha SBG500 with a Les Paul wiring rig and used this video to clean up the kinks in the wiring. The guitar sounds like it did when I bought it more years ago than I care to name. Thanks again for the great instructions.

10 yrs on and still best on YT. You helped yet one more knuckle-dragger understand the why and the how. Thank you.

Don, I just want to let u know how informative your video's are. And I want to thank U for taking time to put together the audio to the diagram video in the best way possible. It's been immensely helpful. Thanks again!

Far and away the BEST wiring guide on RU-vid. Thank you VERY much!

I'm late to the party but I wanted to say that you are a legend sir! Thanks for an amazing explanation. I was sitting her confounded by two different schematics and you gave me the path to complete this project lol. Thanks!

Thank you for making this excellent video. You have made it so easy and clear. I was getting confused by all the complicated layouts and videos but yours is easy to understand. Thank you!

An outstandingly clear set of instructions, with great summaries. You have a great voice for presentation and fantastic elocution. Professional and up there with those sites that charge for learning. Thanks so much.

Wiring up my Les paul and this is the number one video that explains it. Thank you sir! Def. Going with vintage wiring. Just waiting on my pots switch and jack now!

Seriously helped me out with my first rewiring project on my sons les Paul custom. Thanks for the easy to understand walk through.

Hands down the best video on this wiring I've seen. I've watched hundreds

Fantastic! Clear, precise, really informative and very useful - thank you very much!

This was AMAZING! I’m trying to put new humbuckers in a single cut PRS body (nothing in it currently) with two volumes and two tones. I think this will finally get me there. Thank you so much!

That was the best explanation I've seen on the subject. Thanks.

Thanks for taking the time to post this tutorial. Very clear and helpful explanation - just what I was looking for (and not easily finding!!). Most appreciated :)

Wow! Thank you so much! I bought new humbuckers off amazon for 16 bucks and a new wiring kit for 56. Never worked w soldering or anything before. Threw this video on and Boom! This guitar sounds INSANE! Went w the 50s tone and im in love! No hum whatsoever and sounds angelic. Thank you very much for this tutorial!

Echoing the comments. By far the best explanation of a wiring diagram. Other tutorials always had something not clear. From a person who is a lousy solderer thank you, thank you!

I had a guy rewire a les Paul that was gutted out with some 490 pickups off an SG Special but he used a poor quality 3-way switch and broke the neck pickup tab in the bargain. It didn't fully break until later but since I never liked the way it sounded it sat in the case in need of the repair until I found this truly fantastic explanation that put me to exploring the wiring he did. He had wired it modern style so I figured since I had to do so much rewiring anyway I'd try the classic style out. HUGE, POSITIVE, difference. Thanks for all your hard work making this video.

This is perfect in explaining 50s vs modern wiring on LPs. I added this to my favorites so I can come back to it. This video also clarified the dilemma of which wiring to go with on my LPs. I'm gonna go with 50's wiring. Thanks again! = )

I hope you win a million dollars in the lottery!! This is an EXCELLENT video, and EXACTLY what I needed!! All these books and diagrams are so confusing--this is perfect. THANK YOU!!!!

Thank you for this, I'm currently designing a solder less pcb harness for my LP and this was immensely useful never having done this before.

Thank you so much for this, it's been so hard to find simple compiled information that goes through it thorougly but straight to the point, have had to wade through so much crap to find this awesome video.

You just made les Paul electronics look so simple, great video with clear examples to follow.

Awesome instructional video!! No waste of time with jokes or advertisements, just straight to the point!!!

Thank you for the tutorial. I get guitars and they are usually a disaster and I have wanted to learn how to get them fixed. And you did not go "on and on", you provided an excellent learning experience.

Agree with others ...visual and audio explanations are the BEST I have found. Thank you kind sir !!

This is a clear and simple way to explain a process that could turn into a serious issue

Thanks to you now I got a new fresh guitar sound, I bought a Les Paul Modern Graphite Top 2021, as a beginner I was ok with the sound but then so many different ways and pulls, and pushes just to get a simple tone was driving me crazy, so base on this tutorial a was able to swap all the electronics from a modern to a vintage sound with bumblebee capacitor, I got this awesome harness kit from creamtone, really amazing harness, but I had to do some modification because I really like the Modern capacitor wiring, also I got the Slash Alnico 2 Pro and I'm speechless, beyond satisfied with this combination, and this video, Thank You, bro!! 🤟🤟🤘🤘

Thanks for the instruction! It truly made my headache go away. With not wanting to keep soldering joints to achieve what I'm looking for I was able to with only minimal soldering get it right fairly painlessly. Nice job on 50's - Modern wiring. Vettster.

Great video. Everything is clearly shown, clearly explained, and easy to understand. Thanks for the help.

This just might be the best video on RU-vid concerning this subject, thank you!!

THIS VIDEO goes to and STAYS in my files !! THIS is the BEST video on how to do this operation . EXCELLENT !!

Thanks for taking the time to do this, which I'm sure is substantial..... you job well done!

Thanks for posting this video, your explanation and diagrams make perfect sense.

If its accurate and I have no reason to believe its not (but I know nothing), this is an outstanding video. Extremely easy to follow and very clear. You cant ask for more than this. Superb instruction video thanks for sharing, it's even easy for a layman to understand and that's when you know its good.

Thanks for posting really helped out 9 years later Cheers!!

Excellent. No BS or over explaining, just right to the how to. Thanks.

Thank you so much!!! I need to go through the wiring on my Less Paul Studio as it started making like a disorted sound... so was thinking of unsoldering everything, giving it a good clean and putting it all back together again... and this video is gonna really help me to get on with it! Thanks again! :)

Thank you for this...building my own guitar in woodshop, completely clueless when it comes to electronics, this will help

Great and helpful video. Re built my epi les paul today with duncans and new gibson electronics. Wired it all up with good quality heavy gauge wire. 500k Gibson pots, 22f ceramic caps, and the vintage mod. Sounds incredible! Thanks so much.

Great video Thanks for taking the time to show us all!

Brilliant! Very informative, well presented and thought-out. Thank you so much.

Good explaining, helpful layout, very effective. Thank you!

Great crystal clear explanation! Hats off, hands down.

really useful video, exactly what I was looking for after weeks. Thanks!

This is exactly the explanation and diagram that I needed. Thank you!

This video is so incredibly helpful! Thank you!

Thank you for the simple and clear instructions and explanation !

Great video, Love the diagrams with the explanation. Thanks for sharing this info.

Nice presentation. Much appreciated!

Glad you liked the video. I've tried both and for me the Vintage works best but I don't think you can go wrong either way. Best of luck.

Thank you for that video. I've re-wired my SG with 50's method. It works f***ing well!

Thank you. I just wiored an Epiphone Les Paul with 50s/Vintage style and I love it love it love it... no more muddy Les paul... I'm also using push/pulls for coil split on the volumes, and I have a bah-zillion percent better tone options... Your video inspired me to try the 50s wiring... never going back to "Modern" wiring...

Don, that's a ton of good honest information and I appreciate you taking the time to tell me (and all the rest of us) the real deal on tone and what makes it all happen. I did buy top quality CTS pots and GOOD caps and GOOD quality wire and I'm ready to do at least one of my Epi LP's to see what I think. I've got Gibson classic 57s in my Gibson Traditional and it's tremendous so I'm thinking of using those. Altho the pickups in my latest Epi are pretty good really. I do ride tone knobs so.....

Brilliant. Best video I’ve seen on this subject. Now I understand.

All your wiring videos are great , thanks!

Thanks so much ! I did the 50'S style to my 335 it is "Nickel" Very easy to understand great video !

Thanks for this video man! I wish I had seen it earlier after spending hours of analyzing different schematics… But this explanation is christal clear! I know that there are a few other options but I'll start with the ones you suggested. After that I'll let my ears do the work. Hold my beer while I warm up my soldering iron… Cheers!

Best explanation I have found. Thanks

This explained everything so well, thanks so much man.

Awesome video. I'm definitely going to avoid soldering the lugs straight off to the pot ground. Your tip on using a bit of guitar string or wire is great. I will be trying vintage and then modern to see which i prefer. Good one!

Excellent video. Clear and to the point.

cant believe im the only person to comment on this video, its outstanding. very helpful. thanks again.

Thanks, simple explanation and diagrams. Good work!

Thanks for this. Excellent job explaining and the diagrams are great!

this is exactly what I was looking for. Too bad I only found AFTER I spent 4 hours trying to figure this out last night. Thank for a very straight forward video.

wow... most concise explanation of the "vintage" vs "modern" wiring schemes I've been reading so many forums and tutorials and this still cleared things up. I have a dumb question and I don't think it would make much of a difference in the guitar circuit but isn't joining the string ground to the closest volume pot creating a ground loop, it should go to the further one so the ground signal only has one path to ground. I think that your instructions kept to the typical wiring as to not confuse anyone, so my question is purely for advancing my knowledge by double checking newly learnt principals.

Video is 9 years old but still brilliant and easy to understand!

Great video and well explained information. Subscribed

Excellent video. Very clearly explained. Great teaching.

Fantastic !!, the best explained and in a simple way. Thanks

Thanks, just what we all need in under 7 mins. Awesome!

Thank you I've learned a lot about the wiring of a les Paul.

Thanks for this. I always wondered what the difference was.

Very good video. Thanks for your efforts!

Great video and great info on tone control wiring. You would get less 60 cycle hum with shielded wires to the switch and output jack and shielding on the control cavity

thanks for cheering this info, very useful!!

Thanks for the video helped me wire 3 les Paul’s now

Glad you enjoyed the video and that it helped. Best of luck

thank you for your video, I install exactly as modern to my LP Robot 07 sound is fanstastic and amazing.

Great video and explanation!

I have been looking at diagrams of wiring for weeks now off and on and I believe I have turned the project into a NASA space mission. Not to dumb down this process in anyway, but my gosh its so clear now. I don't know if its cuz i slept at a holiday inn express last night or watched this video, as i can wire this Gibson flying V with confidence now. Thank you so much!!

Thank you, clear and precise instructions, is just what the doctor ordered....

Fantastic vid. I'm going to play around with my setup and see if I can even tell the difference. Thanks!!!!!

Perfect demonstration! Thank you a lot...

Excellent Video.. Answered all my questions.. Thanks

Very useful review, thanks a lot

Man, straight to the point! Thx for your time!!

Hey Don, I don't know where you are or what happened to you but I want to thank you for this channel and leaving it up. Way too handy.

Really helpful - thanks so much!