LS-80 - what's up with the wiring ?

Hope you guys don't mind some more questions about my newly acquired 1981 Tokai LS-80. As I suspected might be the case, these guitars came with linear taper pots, which I really dislike in any guitar. So today I took the back off to see the pots and wiring, and see this circuit board in there, which is going to make swapping out the pots a bit more cumbersome. Here's a shot of the pots and wiring in this guitar.



So is this the stock wiring and how they wired them back then? I have seen dozens of Gibsons, and have never seen any guitars wired with a board like this in there. Is there any reason for me to keep this board in there when I swap out the pots for Audio Tapers, and not just wire it like any normal Les Paul?

With regards to the pots, am I going to have any issues with the new pots fitting through the holes on the guitar, since these are probably all metric pots? My plan is to swap them out with four 500k Audio Tapers.

Much appreciated

Yep, that's original. Pull the whole thing, keep it intact in case you want to sell it, and put a whole new harness in there.

Thanks again Ryan. That's what I am going to do.

So I have been looking at 500k audio taper CTS pots (part # EP-0086-000) at this link:

http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/electrical_ctspots.htm

Will these work in this guitar with regards to fitting properly in the holes? Or am I going to need to look for special pots for this guitar? Also, is there any need to get long shafts over short shafts. I was going to just get them from Warmoth, but they only have long shafts.

After the new bridge, new Sheptone pickups and new pots, I think she's going to be a nice player!

t

In my experience, short shaft pots are what you need.

As for the brand, CTS pots will fit if you ream the existing holes ever so slightly.

However, for a less invasive install, Alpha brand pots require no reaming at all.

This is what I did to my LS150, it never had the board like yours but I just couldn't handle the plastic coated wire and Orange Drops that comes stock even in the newer Tokai's like mine. And by the way, Gibson has started to put the electronics boards in some of their guitars now. Looks like things are really getting space aged these days, I'll stick with the nostalgia myself.

Hey Easy . . . . what brand pots did you use, and did you have to make the holes bigger for them? I am reluctant to want to make any permanent changes to this guitar, and would prefer to leave the holes stock size. Also, what brand and value of caps do you guys prefer?

Man, it seems impossible to find an online seller for pots in Canada. What dealer do you guys recommend in the US for ordering pots from?

t

Tim Z said:

Hey Easy . . . . what brand pots did you use, and did you have to make the holes bigger for them? I am reluctant to want to make any permanent changes to this guitar, and would prefer to leave the holes stock size. Also, what brand and value of caps do you guys prefer?

Man, it seems impossible to find an online seller for pots in Canada. What dealer do you guys recommend in the US for ordering pots from?

t

Click to expand...

What you see in the photo above, with exception to the vintage Sprague tone caps, comes from RS Guitarworks, it's an upgrade well worth the money! The pots are not only hand picked and matched CTS pots, but the control pots have a custom taper for guitar as well as have an average value of about 540k (more sweep), unlike the stock CTS pots which average about 430k (less sweep). The hole sizes for my Tokai LS150 are imperial 3/8" diameter, thus NO drilling required. Your's being an older model Tokai may have the metric measurements (unsure) requiring slight reaming (NOT DRILLING) to do the CTS imperial upgrade. As for the tone cap values I recommend .022 for the bridge p/u and .005 for the neck P/U which is not as dark as the normally installed .022 typically is. Also, you don't have to buy the whole kit if you just want to upgrade the pots, as they sell the CTS pots alone, just make sure you get the 500k Super Pots for the volume controls and the regular 500K CTS pots for the tone controls. Check to make sure if your guitar uses the short or long shaft pots. Save the vintage correctness of your guitar buy just desoldering the hook-up wires from the circuit board for possible reinstall, take a photo of where the wires go back to the board. Follow this links below for more info on the upgrade. Hope this helps.

http://www.rsguitarworks.net/rsstore/product_info.php?cPath=31_60&products_id=400

http://www.rsguitarworks.net/rsstore/product_info.php?cPath=45_65&products_id=388

http://www.rsguitarworks.net/rsstore/product_info.php?cPath=45_65&products_id=218


Here's the wiring schematic for the 50's wiring.

Thanks man, that helps a lot. I would not get the whole kit as I do not need the parts other than the pots and caps.

Tim Z said:

Thanks man, that helps a lot. I would not get the whole kit as I do not need the parts other than the pots and caps.

Click to expand...

If your just buying the pots let them know that all the pots are going into the same guitar and therefore, you'd like them to match their pot values as close as possible. IMO it seems the pot controls have a better feel when they're reasonably close matched.

Tim Z said:

Hey Easy . . . . what brand pots did you use, and did you have to make the holes bigger for them? I am reluctant to want to make any permanent changes to this guitar, and would prefer to leave the holes stock size. Also, what brand and value of caps do you guys prefer?

Man, it seems impossible to find an online seller for pots in Canada. What dealer do you guys recommend in the US for ordering pots from?

t

Click to expand...

http://www.guitarpartscanada.com/index.php?cPath=52_57_74

Jason

Big Willie Style said:

http://www.guitarpartscanada.com/index.php?cPath=52_57_74

Jason

Click to expand...

Unfortunately those guys are total crooks. After waiting many months for my parts from them, I eventually had to go to the Canadian Better Business Bureau to final resolve my issues with them. They still never got me my parts, but did finally refund my money. Besides, they have no stock at all and just turn around and order the pots from All Parts in the USA, which I can do myself. No way I would ever deal with those guys again.