Gibson® SG® Circuit Board Upgrades

Don’t ditch your PCB, upgrade it!

The PCBs found in later model Gibson 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 capacitors. And because the stock Gibson PCBs are hard-wired to the Modern wiring spec, we also add a pair of Orange Drop treble bleed circuits to the Volume pots to help retain the high frequencies when rolling off the Volume.

Gibson® SG® Circuit Board Push/pull Upgrade

The first-gen Gibson SG circuit board (mainly the ones with the 5-pin Quick Connect pickup connectors) are also ideal candidates for an upgrade of a different kind by adding push/pull pots giving you the ability to coil-split the 4-conductor pickups that are already installed in your guitar! Our Custom Shop SG Circuit Board push/pull upgrade features two 500K CTS SPST push/pull Volume pots with pair of Orange Drop Treble Bleed circuits plus a pair of Orange Drop .022uf tone capacitors and a new long thread Switchcraft output jack.

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

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

OR - $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.

*** Please note: we’re learning that these early monolithic PCBs (i.e. with the integrated output jack) will not fit late model Gibson SGs with the smaller Version 2 modular PCB (with the separate external output jack assembly) without modification. Please include a pic of your existing PCB to ensure that the upgraded PCB will fit in your control cavity.

Gibson® SG® V2 Circuit Board push/pull Upgrade

Later model Gibson SG’s feature a smaller circuit board (with the external output jack assembly) that can also be upgraded with push/pull pots giving you the ability to coil-split the 4-conductor pickups that already installed in your guitar! Our Custom Shop SG Circuit Board push/pull upgrade features two 500K CTS SPST push/pull audio taper Volume pots with pair of Orange Drop Treble Bleed circuits plus a pair of Orange Drop .022uf tone capacitors.

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

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

OR - $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.

Gibson® SG® TRUE LEFTY Circuit Board Push/pull Upgrade

Gibson also produced PCBs for LEFT-handed SGs, but much to the disappointment of many left-handed players, the Gibson Lefty PCBs were configured and loaded up with standard Gibson right-handed pots, so despite having a left-handed guitar, left-handed players still have to turn the Volume and Tone controls “the wrong way” when turning them up and down.

Our StayTuned Custom Shop SG True Lefty Circuit Board push/pull upgrade built on a Gibson SG Lefty PCB features a proper set of of custom-built Reverse Audio / Reverse Logarithmic (aka: “left-handed”) CTS push/pull Volume pots, a pair of CTS EP086L 500K left-handed Tone pots, and a pair of Orange Drop .022uf tone capacitors. Unfortunately due to the lack of real estate around the Volume pots we are unable to install the Treble Bleed circuits. Please see our Left Handed Wiring Harnesses and Pots page for more info on how we go about making our custom-build left-handed CTS push/pull pots.

Note: This is a labour-intensive upgrade that requires we remove all of the stock components (pots and tone capacitors) from the PCB and replace them with left-handed pots, upgraded tone capacitors and jumpers where appropriate to provide the necessary circuitry to accommodate the left-handed components and to enable coil-splitting via the on-board QuickConnect inputs.

$150 parts & labour + S&H to upgrade your PCB

$250 + 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.