Gibson L6S guitar questions

[blackba]

A friend of mine would like me to fix up his Gibson L6S. He would like me to try to locate some stock pickups and get it all cleaned up. I don't have the guitar in my possession yet. This one is an L6-S deluxe, so there is no chickenhead pickup selector. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson_L6-S I have a few questions I was hoping you could help me with.

1. Were the stock pickups T-tops? If they are T-tops, are the T-tops wax potted or not? If not I may wax pot them.
2. The pickup rings are not original, one is cracked. Anyone know where to get ones that will cover the holes?
3. One of the knobs is missing, will a standard production gibson knob from today work?
4. I was going to replace the 500K pots with some CTS 500kohm pots, anything special about the pots? I am assuming they are short shaft pots.

Hopefully this lemon oil and bore doctor will do the trick too. Just got the stuff in. There is tones of black gunk on the fret board. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=80602

 

[blackba]

I found out a few things.

The stock pickups should be made and designed by Bill Lawerence, they are not T-tops. No idea if I am going to be able to find some used or if Bill Lawerence will make a set. Also, it looks like the stock volume pot is 300k, and the stock tone is 100k. I think changing both to 500k would be a good improvement. Still no luck on finding any pickups rings for the guitar....

 

[blackba]

bump

 

[blackba]

Bump, still looking for help, mainly on the pickup rings. I hope I can get something that will work, but haven't found any yet...

 

[JTyson]

The only one I've seen had super humbuckers, but it was an L-6S midnight special. It also had a maple neck, and fingerboard
Sounds like this is a different animal, dont the super humbuckers take a standard pup ring? I guess I have not seen the model you are speaking of. The one I played looked just like the pic in the link you posted, but had a body with a red finish (natural, like an SG) and strings through-the-body. The neck was a set-neck. also a LP type toggle for pup selection
I got nothing on the pots, but I would think that would not be too big a fish to fry compared to those pup mounting rings
Sorry, Jim

 

[JTyson]

BTW, those pups sounded fantastic back then
It developed a twist in the neck and was retired. Later it was stolen from the guy who owned it, I guess they figured out it was nearly unplayable once they tried to play it, so it was stolen for nothing

 

[blackba]

^ Thanks for the info. That stinks the guitar got stolen and got a twisted neck.

I will be picking up the guitar tomorrow night. This guitar was my Friend's Dad, so I know it means alot to him. I have another friend with some extra 490R/498T set, so I may just put those in there if I can't find the originals. Since the originals sound good, its unlikely I will be able to track them down. This is only the 2nd L6S I have every seen. I should have pictures soon.

 

[JTyson]

You might try a couple of different value vol pots, the body is maple, seems like it was pretty bright if I remember right, it was a long time ago. just something to consider while trying to decide what your gonna do.
cool piece, its one of the Gibsons you barely see at all

 

[blackba]

Here is a picture of the L6S

 

[JTyson]

For some reason, all I can think about when I see them is bighorn sheep
she's got some mojo going for sure

 

[blackba]

For some reason, all I can think about when I see them is bighorn sheep
she's got some mojo going for sure

Yep, plenty of mojo. This guitar has been well loved. Here is a picture of the back. I also found some original pickups on ebay. The seller says the neck and bridge are the same, just the leads exit differently, but the leads are long enough to work. I am encouraging my friend to buy the pickups. Now if I can just find the 'home plate' sized pickup rings.

https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... TM:US:1123

 

[1big1]

i've got supers on my '73 sg standard. nothing special about the rings.. so a regular ring should work. on the sg the ring heights vary with the neck being thinner than the bridge. i've had good luck using a belt sander when i've had to make parts like that fit. just go slowly. if you are going to get a hold of bill and becky about pups you could always ask bill about pot values. since he designed the pups he might know. the supers had epoxy on the back of the pup and it was impossible for me to remove the covers without potentially damaging something.. so i left them as is.

 

[JTyson]

I dont remember them being any bigger either, but those do look bigger in the pic esp the front one
Good idea about contacting Bill L, he could answer all of those questions

 

[1big1]

i see it's got a gibson nashville bridge. so does my standard. stew mac has the speed knobs in black.. gold and amber. a bit pricey at 3.37 a piece.. but it's what they used. i have them on my standard.

 

[blackba]

Round 1 is done. Got all the gunk off the fretboard, boy was it on thick. It was this black/green gunk, from years of playing. Never seen a fretboard that dirty.

The pickups in there are Dimarzios. Got them reset for now. There was a cold solder joint for the bridge, so I got that fixed.

I plan to order some new pickup rings, screws, and 2 new speed knobs. I will see what stew mac has. My friend is going to get the original pickups off ebay.

 

[JTyson]

IT's ALIVE

 

[1big1]

ya gotta love it! if you like i can pop the cover off the pup cavity on my sg and check the pot values for you if that would help. can't do it today.. but monday afternoon would work for me.

 

[blackba]

ya gotta love it! if you like i can pop the cover off the pup cavity on my sg and check the pot values for you if that would help. can't do it today.. but monday afternoon would work for me.

Thanks for the offer, but I think I am just going to do some trial and error. The volume pot is already an audio 500kohm. Not sure what the tone pot is. I am planning on putting in 2 500kohm pots I have in stock, both audio taper. I have a couple of 250kohm pots if my friend thinks the guitar is too bright. He has it back right now, going to get all the parts in again and then take it home again to work on it. Its his backup guitar at the moment.

I know on my '73 LP custom that I worked on as well as my friends, changing the pots to 500kohm really helped open the guitar up, but those LP customs were both dark guitars to start with. The L6S is all maple, which makes it a good deal brighter than a similar era Les Paul custom.

 

[1big1]

you're welcome. have fun.

 

[blackba]

Finally got the L6S Deluxe done. I did it in 2 parts, first cleaning it up. Then we found some NOS original pickups with rings, so I installed those, replaced the switch and pots. Found from the original tone pot that the guitar dates to Week 8 of 1975. The original pickups are pretty nice, they are pretty low output, but sound good. They both measured around 6kohms with my DMM. The strings were so dead it was hard to get an idea of the pickups, hopefully after my friend restrings it, I will get to try it out again.

Anyway here are a few pictures. Sorry for the blurry first one, the guitar is back with my friend, so I can't take another at the moment. On a side note, I am working on 3 bass guitars now, starting to feel like a repair shop.