Gibson® Les Paul® PCB Upgrades

Don’t ditch your PCB, upgrade it!

Even some of the better guitars can use a little bit of tweaking here and there! Here are a couple of mods that can help to further improve upon the tone of your Gibson Les Paul. The PCBs found in Les Pauls and SG’s are getting an undeserved bad rap! It’s not the PBC that’s the problem, rather it’s the components that are mounted to the PCBs that you should be concerned about! For example, Gibson uses 20% tolerance Volume & Tone pots in their guitars… That means their “500K” pots could potentially be as low as 400K - and everybody knows that the lower the value of the pots, the darker/muddier the tone. And as is often the case, the pots aren’t matched either, so you can end up with a PCB loaded with different value pots which can result in a dramatic difference between the Bridge and Neck circuits. At StayTuned Custom Shop, we use +/- 5% tolerance CTS pots plus we strive to match them all, resulting in a well-balanced circuit. This includes measuring and potentially replacing out-of-spec Tone pots with pots that are better matched to the new Volume pots. Similarly, we replace the little ceramic disc and plastic tone capacitors with higher quality +/-10% tolerance CDE Orange Drop or optional high-end Bumble Bee capacitors.

Gibson® Les Paul® Circuit Board Push/pull Upgrade

Newer versions of the Gibson Les Paul circuit board (with the white 5-pin Quick Connect pickup connectors - but without push/pull pots) are ideal candidates for an upgrade of a different kind as the circuitry exists to allow for push/pull pots and the ability to coil-split the 4-conductor pickups already installed in your guitar! Our Custom Shop Circuit Board push/pull upgrade features two 500K CTS push/pull audio taper Volume pots and a pair of Orange Drop .022uf tone capacitors, and now includes a pair of Orange Drop Treble Bleed circuits as shown here.

Unlock the full potential of your guitar and your pickups - not to mention an expanded palette of single coil tones - with this simple and cost-effective upgrade!

Note: your circuit board must have the two unused solder pads located in front of each Volume control and the small, white 5-pin QuickConnect plugs in order for this mod to work. This provides the necessary circuitry to allow for coil splitting.

$100 parts & labour + S&H to upgrade your PCB

$200 + S&H to purchase a fully upgraded PCB outright, plus a $75 core return credit upon receipt of your old PCB.

Note: the core return PCB must have the 5-pin QuickConnect plugs. The older 2-pin PCBs do not qualify for a core return credit.

Premium Gibson® Les Paul® Circuit Board Push/pull Upgrade with Bumble bees

This is an upgrade to the standard PCB upgrade! In addition to adding a matched pair of CTS 500K push/pull Volume pots with Orange Drop Treble Bleed circuits we’ve added a pair of .022uf Sprague Bumble Bee tone capacitors.

$200 parts & labour + S&H to upgrade your PCB

$300 + S&H to purchase a fully upgraded PCB outright, plus a $75 core return credit upon receipt of your old PCB.

Note: the core return PCB must have the 5-pin QuickConnect plugs. The older 2-pin PCBs do not qualify for a core return credit.

Gibson® Les Paul® Circuit Board Capacitor Upgrade

Newer versions of the Gibson Les Paul circuit board with the white 5-pin Quick Connect pickup connectors and CTS push/pull pots all around as shown here are also ideal candidates for a Tone capacitor and Treble Bleed upgrade. Our Custom Shop 4P/P Circuit Board upgrade features a pair of Orange Drop .022uf tone capacitors and a pair of Orange Drop Treble Bleed circuits.

$50 parts & labour + S&H to upgrade your PCB.