Guitar Electronics Comparisons

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In this video, I finally bring together the results of the last 20 or so videos, and demo the results of my Epiphone Riviera P93 electronics overhaul.  I first demonstrate the original Epi setup, then swap in my new electronics, and then replace the pickups with a matched set of new Vintage Vibe Guitars P-90’s.

The new electronics include CTS 500k audio taper pots, no-load mod on the tone pot, an Orange Drop .01uF tone cap, all new shielded wire, and a new Switchraft L12A jack.  So, if you’re wondering what it might sound like if you change out your pots and caps in your guitar, this should be a good example.   (Note, I’m changing the jack for mechanical reasons, not to improve the sound). 

The recordings are made with a Rode NT1 large diaphragm mic, placed 4 inches away from and slightly below center of the speaker grill of my Vox VT30 amp.

I was very careful to record the three different combinations all on the same day, with precisely the same setup (same strings, same amp settings, same mic and mic placement).  I made every effort to play the same riffs with the pick in the same position over the strings, playing with the same strength.  Alas my skills are not quite exact enough, but I did my best.    I went through this whole process last month, and discarded the resulting recordings because I realized that the microphone had been bumped and shifted a few inches, half way through the process.  It’s surprising (or obvious depending on your point of view) what a hugely significant difference there is in the recorded tone with the mic in a slightly different place!

To summarize the results, the original Epi pickups and electronics have nice mellow sound, but there’s not a lot of dynamics in the brightness when I play hard.  Swapping in the new electronics definitely increases the brightness, adds some upper-mid resonance, and is more dynamic when I dig in. This is more evident in the clean examples – not so much when playing distorted.   I attribute the improvement in brightness mostly to the no-load tone pot mod.

I like the taper of the CTS pots more than the original Epi pots, which sound way more linear than log to me.  This matches the pot taper measurements I showed in my pot tapers video.  The difference is more noticeable with the volume pot than with the tone pot.

The biggest change in sound obviously comes with the new pickups. They’re not as boomy, and are much brighter with far greater dynamics when digging in. There’s more clarity and bite when playing distorted.  They really sound great to me, but I can understand if some people prefer the mellower sound of the Epi pickups.  I find these VVG pickups to be much more versatile since you can always roll off some of the brightness with the tone knob.

In an amusing twist of fate, the sun came out from behind the clouds while I was recording the examples of the new pickups, so the video gets brighter along with the brighter sounds 🙂