Low-tech no-solder hardwire for Les Paul frets

[gamerkim28]

[gamerkim28]

[dave0113]

Awesome guide; I did have a few problems though:

Problem 1 - It took me a while to figure out there was a screw under the warranty sticker. I think it would help if that was mentioned in the original post. I noticed a couple of other people had this same problem.

Problem 2 - The first time I wired the neck to the body I had the wires backwards. Below are a few diagrams of how the wires should be attached so that no one else will make this mistake.







Suggestion 1 - I found it much easier to just cut a hole in the side of the neck/body of the guitar right next to where the wires come out of the circuit board on the body of the guitar and feed the wires through that hole. The little bit of extra length that this gave me (from not having to bend the wires from the body of the guitar around the end of the neck of the guitar) allowed me to wire the neck and the body of the guitar together using only the wires that were already in the guitar (cut the work in half since I only had to make 8 connections instead of 16). Below is a picture of the hole I cut in the neck.



Suggestion 2 - I found that putting electrical tape along the edges of the neck stabilized the neck when it was inserted into the body, which had 2 benefits; 1) It was easier to connect the wires when the neck wasn't moving, 2) When I finished the neck didn't move at all making it more comfortable while I was playing. Below is a picture



Suggestion 3 - For those of you out there who are like me and don't use the straps, remove the strap pegs before putting the guitar back together. The guitar feels more comfortable to me when I'm playing without the strap pegs. If you do remove the pegs though, you should cover the holes with some electrical tape that way dust doesn't get into the interior of the guitar.

Suggestion 4 - Remove the cover to the Ethernet port before putting the guitar back together. Just cover up the hole with electrical tape. I can't even remember how many times that cover came loose and got caught on my clothes while playing, causing me to miss notes.
_________________

GH3 750k on 4 songs rivalry
SEBN GH3 Tourny
SEBN GH:M Tourny
My Accomplishment Thread
My YouTube Channel

[dave0113]

Awesome guide; I did have a few problems though:

Problem 1 - It took me a while to figure out there was a screw under the warranty sticker. I think it would help if that was mentioned in the original post. I noticed a couple of other people had this same problem.

Problem 2 - The first time I wired the neck to the body I had the wires backwards. Below are a few diagrams of how the wires should be attached so that no one else will make this mistake.







Suggestion 1 - I found it much easier to just cut a hole in the side of the neck/body of the guitar right next to where the wires come out of the circuit board on the body of the guitar and feed the wires through that hole. The little bit of extra length that this gave me (from not having to bend the wires from the body of the guitar around the end of the neck of the guitar) allowed me to wire the neck and the body of the guitar together using only the wires that were already in the guitar (cut the work in half since I only had to make 8 connections instead of 16). Below is a picture of the hole I cut in the neck.



Suggestion 2 - I found that putting electrical tape along the edges of the neck stabilized the neck when it was inserted into the body, which had 2 benefits; 1) It was easier to connect the wires when the neck wasn't moving, 2) When I finished the neck didn't move at all making it more comfortable while I was playing. Below is a picture



Suggestion 3 - For those of you out there who are like me and don't use the straps, remove the strap pegs before putting the guitar back together. The guitar feels more comfortable to me when I'm playing without the strap pegs. If you do remove the pegs though, you should cover the holes with some electrical tape that way dust doesn't get into the interior of the guitar.

Suggestion 4 - Remove the cover to the Ethernet port before putting the guitar back together. Just cover up the hole with electrical tape. I can't even remember how many times that cover came loose and got caught on my clothes while playing, causing me to miss notes.
_________________

GH3 750k on 4 songs rivalry
SEBN GH3 Tourny
SEBN GH:M Tourny
My Accomplishment Thread
My YouTube Channel

[Master-Tesuch]

[Master-Tesuch]

[GP69]

i got this at Radio Shack the other day...will this work?

[GP69]

i got this at Radio Shack the other day...will this work?

[Desertman123]

[Desertman123]

[brad16752]

I did this little fix on another Les Paul controller. This controller was only about a month old and I noticed something interesting;the ribbon cable in the neck of the controller seemed to be longer. This time around, I was able to attach the ribbon cable from the neck directly to the ribbon cable in the body with no bridge wiring. This made things a lot easier for me because like stated in this thread, 8 connections are easier than 16.

I was just wondering if this is standard on all new models of the Les Paul or if maybe they are all like this and I somehow failed to notice this the first time I did the mod.

[brad16752]

I did this little fix on another Les Paul controller. This controller was only about a month old and I noticed something interesting;the ribbon cable in the neck of the controller seemed to be longer. This time around, I was able to attach the ribbon cable from the neck directly to the ribbon cable in the body with no bridge wiring. This made things a lot easier for me because like stated in this thread, 8 connections are easier than 16.

I was just wondering if this is standard on all new models of the Les Paul or if maybe they are all like this and I somehow failed to notice this the first time I did the mod.

[JR626]

Haha I'm such a dumbass.....I did the same thing about 924 other people in this thread did and wired it backwards causing the yellow/blue problem. Woo!!!

Anyway, I went back and re-wired it and it works perfectly. Both of my guitars were fucking up so much it was getting to the point where I would throw them to the ground and just shut the game off. No more of that shit haha. Thanks for the guide.
_________________

psxfreak101, regarding jaimeclaude's 1st place league score on BttW wrote:

<psx> not our fault she can squeeze balls to the wall

[JR626]

Haha I'm such a dumbass.....I did the same thing about 924 other people in this thread did and wired it backwards causing the yellow/blue problem. Woo!!!

Anyway, I went back and re-wired it and it works perfectly. Both of my guitars were fucking up so much it was getting to the point where I would throw them to the ground and just shut the game off. No more of that shit haha. Thanks for the guide.
_________________

psxfreak101, regarding jaimeclaude's 1st place league score on BttW wrote:

<psx> not our fault she can squeeze balls to the wall

[AppleNick]

I just finished doing this. I soldered as well for good measure. I accidentally wired it backwards, but since I soldered it I couldn't just go back, unwind everything and reverse it. So, I snipped the ribbon on the neck near the fretboard, seperated it, stripped it, and reversed it up there because I had a bit of excess wire. The connections are *perfect* with the soldering.

Someone should make a visual aid to prevent people from wiring it backwards and get it added to the OP.

[AppleNick]

I just finished doing this. I soldered as well for good measure. I accidentally wired it backwards, but since I soldered it I couldn't just go back, unwind everything and reverse it. So, I snipped the ribbon on the neck near the fretboard, seperated it, stripped it, and reversed it up there because I had a bit of excess wire. The connections are *perfect* with the soldering.

Someone should make a visual aid to prevent people from wiring it backwards and get it added to the OP.

[JizzleWright]

I did this and it worked fine a few points though,
1 - People always say to use a TORX screwdriver, I used a normal one and it worked fine (A small flat head one)
2 - I didn't use electrical tape instead I used parcel tape, I assumed that as the controller would (probably) have quite a low ampage/voltage it wouldn't really matter, it has worked fine (so far)
3 - I cut out a bit from the back of the neck, I didn't get a picture of it though

4 - The wire I used was quite wierd, inside the plastic wire was some copper plus 2 smaller plastic coated wires, the picture is a bit rubbish. What I did was tape the 2 small wires down so they were out of the way.

[JizzleWright]

I did this and it worked fine a few points though,
1 - People always say to use a TORX screwdriver, I used a normal one and it worked fine (A small flat head one)
2 - I didn't use electrical tape instead I used parcel tape, I assumed that as the controller would (probably) have quite a low ampage/voltage it wouldn't really matter, it has worked fine (so far)
3 - I cut out a bit from the back of the neck, I didn't get a picture of it though

4 - The wire I used was quite wierd, inside the plastic wire was some copper plus 2 smaller plastic coated wires, the picture is a bit rubbish. What I did was tape the 2 small wires down so they were out of the way.

[iLLegit]

alright so, i did what he did. and i used a copper wire similiar to his, but only one button responds. and then i tried it today, and none of them do. i believe i have the connection right. its 1-1 2-2 etc right?

[iLLegit]

alright so, i did what he did. and i used a copper wire similiar to his, but only one button responds. and then i tried it today, and none of them do. i believe i have the connection right. its 1-1 2-2 etc right?

[deathleprchaun]

just wanted to give a big thanks to the OP. I did this a few days ago and now my LP works just as good as it did out of the box. It was a little time consuming but well worth it. thanks man
_________________

[deathleprchaun]

just wanted to give a big thanks to the OP. I did this a few days ago and now my LP works just as good as it did out of the box. It was a little time consuming but well worth it. thanks man
_________________

[Ningamer]

Is this possible without any extra wire and without cutting the neck? Someone a few posts up cut part of the neck out to use no extra wire, but I don't want to do that.

[Ningamer]

Is this possible without any extra wire and without cutting the neck? Someone a few posts up cut part of the neck out to use no extra wire, but I don't want to do that.

[yayomg1337lol]

it seems like i did everything correctly, but my guitar won't sync to my xbox. it hasn't had this problem before and the sync button seems to be connected with the other wires and is in the correct spot. also my batteries are fully charged. anyone know what i could try to fix this?

thanks.

[yayomg1337lol]

it seems like i did everything correctly, but my guitar won't sync to my xbox. it hasn't had this problem before and the sync button seems to be connected with the other wires and is in the correct spot. also my batteries are fully charged. anyone know what i could try to fix this?

thanks.

[Gio]

I just want to say this worked perfectly.I soldered the ribbons to ribbons with 22-gauge wire.The First time I tried it orange didnt work.I went back and resoldered it.Tried it again still no orange.So then I opened it up and cleaned the fret button circuit board contacts (underneath the rubber pads) with rubbing alcohol.This did the trick.Everything works perfect and my guitar no longer drops hold.Thanks alot.
By the way I Ended up with 2 extra screws somehow.But everythings tight and Secure.
_________________

[Gio]

I just want to say this worked perfectly.I soldered the ribbons to ribbons with 22-gauge wire.The First time I tried it orange didnt work.I went back and resoldered it.Tried it again still no orange.So then I opened it up and cleaned the fret button circuit board contacts (underneath the rubber pads) with rubbing alcohol.This did the trick.Everything works perfect and my guitar no longer drops hold.Thanks alot.
By the way I Ended up with 2 extra screws somehow.But everythings tight and Secure.
_________________

[Master-Tesuch]

Okay, I've had this problem for several months now, but my damn post freeze prevented me from posting here and getting the problem fixed. Argh. Well, that's over now, hopefully someone can help me.

Okay, I've already used this guide on one LP, and it worked great. The guitar is still working wonderfully, and I love it. I got another LP, though, and I attempted to do the mod again. I accidently wired it backwards, just like I (and lots of other people, apparently, lol) did the first time with the first guitar. Having already made this mistake, I just reversed the wiring, expecting the problem to be fixed now (like it was with the first guitar). This is where things get weird.

Here are how the frets register now, with the wiring still reversed:

Pressing green registers as: downstrum (wtf, never even heard of this happening)
Red registers as yellow
Yellow registers as red
Blue registers as Blue
And pressing orange doesn't register as anything

This is very frustrating, because I have no idea why it's doing this. As far as I know, I just reversed the wiring mistake that many people encounter on their first trial of the mod, so it should be working correctly, right? If anyone can figure out what kind of mistake I made (or what's wrong with the guitar) based on how it reacts to how it registers, I would be very grateful!

[Master-Tesuch]

Okay, I've had this problem for several months now, but my damn post freeze prevented me from posting here and getting the problem fixed. Argh. Well, that's over now, hopefully someone can help me.

Okay, I've already used this guide on one LP, and it worked great. The guitar is still working wonderfully, and I love it. I got another LP, though, and I attempted to do the mod again. I accidently wired it backwards, just like I (and lots of other people, apparently, lol) did the first time with the first guitar. Having already made this mistake, I just reversed the wiring, expecting the problem to be fixed now (like it was with the first guitar). This is where things get weird.

Here are how the frets register now, with the wiring still reversed:

Pressing green registers as: downstrum (wtf, never even heard of this happening)
Red registers as yellow
Yellow registers as red
Blue registers as Blue
And pressing orange doesn't register as anything

This is very frustrating, because I have no idea why it's doing this. As far as I know, I just reversed the wiring mistake that many people encounter on their first trial of the mod, so it should be working correctly, right? If anyone can figure out what kind of mistake I made (or what's wrong with the guitar) based on how it reacts to how it registers, I would be very grateful!