Epiphone® Special II - Upgrade Series Guitar Upgrade Series

Upgrading Epi Linda to Hot Humbuckers © Darrell Young I scratched her headstock! Noooooooo! My brand new Gibson Les Paul® Standard Double Cut Plus -- Lady Lisa -- has a scratch, and I did it! My polishing cloth, with which I lovingly rubbed her down after playing, must have had a microscopic grain of something, because LOOK....a scratch. I'm sure that no one will ever see this tiny headstock scratch and wouldn't care if they did, but I was horrified. I put Lisa in her case. I'll not take her out again, unless I am wearing soft clothes, no belt, and have a brand new polishing cloth. She just costs too much. But I gotta play! I need a cheaper guitar that still sounds great. So....I bought Linda, an Epiphone Special II in Wine Red. Only a couple hundred bucks! YAY! Linda is not in the same class as Lisa. Lisa is a fine lady, Linda is not....yet! But, I can toss her on the couch without worrying that she might fall off. If she gets a scratch, well, it adds character. No worries! I played my new Epi Linda, and compared her to Lisa Les Paul. Sigh! The sound was not the same. The bass was not quite as bassy, the mid-range only middling, and the highs were lower. I want Lisa Les Paul's sound, but in a less costly guitar. Epi Linda needs an upgrade. A new set of hot pickups will help. Before - Stock After - 490R & 498T

Why not the same pickups that Lisa Les Paul has. (490R & 498T) I'm going to upgrade Epi Linda so that she sounds like Lisa Les Paul. Then I can take her everywhere without worrying that I might scratch her, and I'll still have that solid blues rock Gibson sound. A set of Gibson® 490R & 498T pickups are around $80.00 USD each (street price), so you can expect to pay well less than $200.00 USD to bring your sound quality to the highest level. Below is my exact experience. Maybe YOU could do this too? You've always wanted to, so why not now? These step-by-step instructions make it relatively easy to do. Is it difficult for the average person to upgrade a set of stock pickups? From my experience, NO! Why not upgrade YOUR guitar with some real Gibson® Brand Screamers?

Upgrade Your Axe's Pickups Here's how.......Step-by-step: If your guitar has a bolt-on neck, you should remove it. Clamp the strings with a capo so that they won't unwind from the tuning pegs. Next, remove the neck. Epiphone makes this relatively easy by using a detachable stopbar type tailpiece.

Next remove the "rings" around the old pickups. There are a total of six screws in each ring. Only remove the screws at the four corners of the ring at this time. Notice that the ring nearest the bridge is thicker than the one near the neck. That is because the neck of a Gibson or Epiphone is angled. The bridge pickup sticks up farther. See ring difference back-to-back below.

With the corner screws removed, you'll be able to lift the pickups out of the body of the guitar. At this point, I suggest you get a towel and place it on top of your guitar, else the point edges of screw will tend to mar your finish. I accidentally dropped one of my pickups onto the top, and left a small mark. Sigh! Next time, I'll use a cloth to set the pickups on. Notice how the wires extend from the pickups into the body. Carefully turn the guitar over so that you can start examining and cutting the pickup wires from the old solder points. Take your time and carefully examine everything. Note the wire colors and positions of each part. When you are comfortable, proceed.

What we are seeing in the picture above is a switch in the middle, and two 500K potentiometers (pots) on the left and right. The switch and pot shafts stick out the front of the guitar. You use them to set the tone, volume, and pickup(s) in use. All we do in this upgrade will involve only the switch in the middle. It has a common ground solder joint on the left, and the neck and bridge wire solder joints on the right. (See Figures 1 - 3 below). The big red wire runs to the neck pickup, and the big black wire to the bridge pickup. Inside the big red wire is a small red wire and a ground (shield) wire. The big black wire contains a small white wire and ground wire. We'll become familiar with these wires as we cut and resolder. We must disconnect our old pickups in order to install the new ones. You could unsolder each of these wires, or you could snip them right off the solder joint. I snipped mine and then resoldered the new ones in place. In these pictures I'm using a small screwdriver to point the the various elements we must deal with.

Figure 1 shows the "common ground" of the pickup circuits. All the ground (shield) wires solder to here. Figure 2 shows the small white bridge pickup wire and its solder joint. Figure 3 shows the small red neck pickup wire, and its solder joint. Figures 4 to 8 show the snipping of the ground and pickup wires in preparation for resoldering the new pickup wires in place. So, we have all the wires disconnected now, and it's time to start preparing our new pickups for connection to their new home. The 490R and 498T pickups come with four wires, but our current pickup switch requires only two wires for normal humbucker operation. Fortunately Gibson® has kindly provided a nice wiring diagram (PDF file) that we can use to connect a four-wire pickup to a two-wire switch. That's another reason I like Gibson! Check out the small wiring diagram below. It shows how to set the wires. Then check out the picture where I have done it as shown:

490R and 498T Green & White is Paired - Black & Shield is Paired. Red is all by itself. It's important that the wires are pre-soldered and trimmed to a short length for the small circuit involved. This particular job required that I trim the soldered wire ends to 1/4 inch or so. Extra exposed wire could cause an accidental short-circuit from wires touching. As you can see, the wiring preparation is not particularly difficult. For those who have not soldered much, the key is to heat the wire first, then apply the solder. The solder will run between the wire's strands sort of like it is being sucked into the wire. Be careful not to overheat the wire so that the coating melts. I am using a soldering gun, but it's probably better to use a smaller soldering iron from Radio Shack® or the like. And, don't burn yourself. The tip of a soldering iron exceeds 700 degrees F. After the wires have been prepared on both of the new pickups it's time to solder them to the switch.

Please remember to insert the wires through the guitar body first. It is helpful to twist the wires together a bit before putting them through the holes. Mark each wire for pickup position, neck or bridge. Double check that you have all the wires in the proper holes BEFORE you start soldering them to the switch. Especially make sure that your neck pickup wire is going through the three inch piece of wood between the two pickups routings (see below). I am not going to mention why I remind you of this, but let me just say that it is really really aggravating to unsolder a beautiful soldering job just to reroute a wire. Take your time! Look it all over carefully before you begin your soldering job.

The first items to solder to the switch are the two ground wire sets (see right). Remember, these are the black and shield wires twisted together and soldered. There is a set for each pickup. When you are trying to solder down inside a guitar body like this, it's best to use a pair of needle-nose pliers to hold onto the wire being soldered. The first reason is that you really don't want to put your fingers that close to a 750 degree F soldering gun, and second is that the heat needs a place to go so that it won't damage the circuitry in the switch. In this case you are using your needle nose pliers for protection and as a "heat sink." Take your time. Look things over carefully before beginning the soldering job. Don't overheat anything.

Next, we will solder the pickup wire for the neck pickup. I have marked the end of each wire so that I know which one is which. I'm not using a pair of need-nose pliers on this one, since the solder job is well exposed, and I can get my fingers away from the heat. When you're not using pliers for a heat sink, work fast so that you don't overheat important parts. Be careful not to put too much solder on the things you are soldering. If a blob of solder falls down into the switch, it could easily ruin it. Also, be sure that you don't breath any of the smoke that comes up from the melted solder. Take your time! Your guitar, fingers, and nose will appreciate it.

Notice in the picture to the right that the ground wire is soldered into place, the neck pickup wire is too, and...we have an extra wire pair. See the green and white wire sticking up. Gibson simply wants those two wires to be soldered together. Of course, we do not want to leave them just hanging around. They need to be isolated and covered so that they won't short out the pickup. An easy and effective way to accomplish this is with a small piece of black electrical tape. Cut a piece about 1/2 inch long, and fold it over the wire so that the glue of the tape is glued together. See the two pictures below for a visual understanding. I will not repeat the description of these steps for the second pickup. Just duplicate your efforts. Below are a couple of images showing the completed soldering job. Notice that the wires are neatly soldered, separated from other wires, and the extra taped pairs are tucked down out of the way. So now, we can put our pot and switch cover on, and flip our axe over for the final fastening of our new pickups. One thing to beware of with the Epiphone Les Paul Special II, is that the two pickup wires come out of a hole in the body that is directly below a screw hole that holds the cover on. Of course, these little 1/2 inch long screw are very pointy. Guess what happened? I tested the guitar by plugging the amp in and tapping on the pickups with a metal object. It was obvious that they were both working. I then tested the switch, and turned the volume knobs, and all worked well. With happiness I put the cover on the back and inserted the little pointy screws. Guess what one of the little nasty (gollum gollum) pointy screws did. Yep, it screwed right into one of the wires, and my pickup would not work. I, of course, didn't find this out until I had reassembled the entire guitar and sat down to play. To my chagrin, only ONE pickup worked. I pulled the switch cover off, and voila, they both worked again. I put the cover back on, only to note with great aggravation that one pickup was again in silence. What's going on? Is my switch cover inhabited by creatures intent on preventing my guitar from working? Only after removing the cover again and looking carefully, did I notice the "unfortunate" (more like idiotic) location of the cover screw. If I were a cursing man, I would have been cursing at this point. As it was, I simply (and patiently) said NOTHING, repaired the punctured wire, and made a mental note to send a nasty e-mail to Epiphone's body design engineer. (Gaaack!) Below you will note the picture on the below left. I am holding the bare pickup and have neatly coiled the extra wire. Now, I'll need to attach the pickup rings to the pickups. Remember from earlier that the bridge pickup ring is taller than the neck pickup ring. So, grab the tallest ring and lets assemble this baby. The tallest end of the beveled ring goes toward the bridge. Same with the neck ring. The picture on the below right shows how to mount the screws that hold the plastic rings to the metal ears of the pickup. You will note that the pickup has two extra screw holes NOT on the corners. These holes are for the mounting screws to fasten the ring to the metal ears of the pickup. Of course, you will have to take the rings off of the old pickups, before you can use them on the new ones. Look carefully at how the rings mount, including the direction of the springs (pointy side down). So, the back ring and pickup is sitting snugly in its routing, and the four corner screws are in place. (Yes!) Now its time to put the neck pickup in, reassemble the neck and play like a wild man. Only problem is that the pickup won't go all the way down in the body of the Epi. It seems that the pickup adjustment screws (the long ones inside the springs) are too long. The fact that the bridge pickup is so tall, and that there are special holes drilled under the screws to make room, guaranteed no problem with the bridge. Look carefully at these two pictures below. Note that the neck pickup has about a 1/8 inch gap between the ring and body. (Sigh!) Why would Epiphone drill relief holes in the bridge pickup routing, but not in the neck pickup routing? The problem is a simple one. The screws are longer on Gibson pickup, and there are no relief holes under the screws for them to go into. Looks like I'll have to be come a guitar body engineer myself now. Where's my drill? Using a 5/16 inch drill bit, I make two holes about 1/4 inch deep. The routing only extends about 3/4 of the way into the wood, but still I am nervous. How will I explain a 5/16 inch hole in the back of my guitar if I go too far with this sharp bit. But, it turns out that 1/4 inch was plenty. My drill holes aren't as neat, maybe, as the "professional" ones in the bridge routing. I wonder how much money Epi saves each year in electricity costs by not drilling these two extra holes in the neck routing. Well, this is one difference between a cheaper Epi guitar and a full-price Gibson. This is a shame, truthfully. Were I the engineer who made the decision to leave out front pickup screw relief holes, and who put the switch cover screw hole over the top of the tunnel the pickup wires come out of, I think I'd be really ashamed and quit my job. (Buzzard!) Before Enhancement Surgery Enhanced !     Epilog When we played "Dust In The Wind" through Epi Linda's new pickups, I was in love. The tones are every bit as pure and powerful as my $2,000.00 USD Lady Lisa Gibson Les Paul® Standard . I guess they'd have to be, with the same pickups. What a nice way to make an vastly superior sounding guitar, without spending megabucks to do it. My initial investment in Epi Linda was $200.00 USD. My Pickups cost me about $165.00 USD. So, I have about $365.00 USD total and a couple of hours work in Linda. Where will our relationship go in the future? Well, I know one thing...whereas Lady Lisa Les Paul is fine, refined, lacy, and luxurious...my new Epi Linda is a wild thang! (I think they wrote a song about her!) She's a guitar with four-wheel drive, a fast neck, dual knobs, and a powerful voice. She ain't afraid of a little rough playing, and with this "hot" 498T bridge pickup, and our new Fender® Cyber-Twin amp, I think Epi Linda and I will go a long way together. Look to this website for future adventures as I upgrade Epi Linda on up into the realms of Lady Lisa. A couple hundred bucks more should get her a new chrome bridge, tailpiece, winder, and new Gibson 500K pots and switch. Then we'll see how she looks...and sounds. Make room Lady Lisa, Epi Linda is here to stay!

Buyer Alert: If you've enjoyed this article and it stimulates you to creatively make your axe even better, then, I'm happy. Of course, if you clicked my pickup sales page link below, and bought a nice set of pickups for your guitar, I'd be even happier, and so would you when your guitar roars its approval.

Go to the Gibson® 490R/498T Pickup Review and Sales Page