2013 Epiphone Prophecy Custom Plus GX - Upgrade

[mike]

Hi all,


A couple of months ago I picked up a 2013 Epiphone Prophecy Custom Plus GX in Heritage Cherry Sunburst. While this played ok, I wasn’t overly happy with the instrument as a whole (especially the wiring) as one of the coil splitting pots was a bit flaky.


So I decided to pickup a wiring upgrade for the guitar, then the GAS took over and the results below are what followed…..


Stage 1:

the original guitar before any work started.


Stage 2:


the upgrade list of items purchased for the guitar.


IronGear Tesla Shark Pickups Gold – I’m a big fan of the Slash tone. I have a set of SD Slash Signature in my SGj, but these Irongear pickups have received quite good reviews, so I though I’d give them a try, if I don’t like them later they can always be swapped out for something else..

Rs Guitarworks Pre-Wired Vintage Electronics Upgrade Kit with Repro Luxe Bumble Bees- Long shaft – I have used RS Guitarworks in the past for wiring kits for my Strats, so I thought I’d try their Les Paul offerings.

Gibson Grover PMMH-025 Gold keystone tuners – didn’t like the kidney bean tuners, so picked up some keystone ones.

Gotoh® TI103-B-T - Gold tune-o-matic bridge – got some excellent reviews, so I thought I’d give it a try

Faber Vintage Tailpiece and Tone Lok kit – was looking for something that would secure the tailpiece and hopefully add to the guitars sustain.

Tusq XL Graphite Nut – was torn between this and a Stewmac Zero fret nut (which I also have), so this might change later.

Gold Humbucker Rings – this will probably have the angry mob out in force. I know people like to leave the original rings on the guitar, but with gold pickups I figured matching rings would look better. If they bont look right I can always swap back later

Switchcraft long shaft toggle switch – the Epiphone switch was a bit noisy in switching between positions, so I thought it needed changing

Switchcraft Jack Socket – picked it up at the same time as the switch

Braded wire for switch – makes everything look nice on the wiring front

Gibson Gold Jack plate – to replace the black original cover

Slash Truss rod cover – what can I say about this really…


Stage 3


Down to business… strip all of the hardware from the guitar.

Installation of Copper shielding tape in the Humbucker and control cavities

I also checked with a multimeter that the bridge ground wire was still working OK


Stage 4

Wiring…


Soldered the braded wire to the toggle switch.. had to then do it again, as I read on the site, that the switchcraft toggle has a different wiring pattern to the Epiphone one.. A BIG thanks on that one guys, you saved me a lot of hassle later in troubleshooting.

I’m using heat shrink tubing to neaten the ends of the braded cable, where I’ve stripped back the shield

Switch installed into cavity

installation of the RS Guitarworks pre wired loom

Prophecy Knobs on the CTS pots.. as standard the knobs don’t fit, due to the Metric/Imperial spline differences, so I had to removed some of the internal material in the knob with a dowelled rod and some sandpaper. Took about 5 minutes.

More in focus body shot of the knobs

Rear body shot


Tune in next week for the finale…

 

[JohnnyGoo]

Nice Guitar,Nice work.im a habitual tinkerer myself and im impressed with the effort and work youve put into this.good job

 

[IGRocker]

Nice job so far! Did these have ebony fretboards?

 

[mike]

Nice job so far! Did these have ebony fretboards?

no, the GX has a Rosewood Fretboard

 

[Paruwi]

You did a great work on this Epi

 

[DPaulCustom]

Lots of quality work there mike, & a good selection on the parts
I'll be waiting to hear your impression of the Tesla Sharks

 

[Doug.Jarrold]

Nicely done, good job

 

[mike]

Quick Update

not much happening with this build hopefully I'll get to spend a couple of hours with the wiring at the weekend, but have installed the pickups and mounting rings, so i thought i'd post a quick pic..

 

[DPaulCustom]

Quick Update

not much happening with this build hopefully I'll get to spend a couple of hours with the wiring at the weekend, but have installed the pickups and mounting rings, so i thought i'd post a quick pic..

Those look pretty cool, but it seems like a lot of chrome.
Keep up the good work

 

[Juke Box]

Professional looking work and the hardware is gorgeous. Beware the shielding changes capacitance.

 

[mike]

Professional looking work and the hardware is gorgeous. Beware the shielding changes capacitance.

i've read loads on the ongoing debates about whether shielding affects capacitance, alters tone (muddies the sound), creates more problems with multiple ground loops etc...

my experience is that in all of the guitars i've built (3x strats & 1 SGj) shielding has reduced hum and noise, without greatly altering the perceived tone.

to me they've only sounded better. its also easy to remove the copper tape if it's causing problem.

 

[DPaulCustom]

i've read loads on the ongoing debates about whether shielding affects capacitance, alters tone (muddies the sound), creates more problems with multiple ground loops etc...

my experience is that in all of the guitars i've built (3x strats & 1 SGj) shielding has reduced hum and noise, without greatly altering the perceived tone.

to me they've only sounded better. its also easy to remove the copper tape if it's causing problem.

As you said, the effect on capacitance is pretty slight, but I've found that when wired correctly (like your doing) there really isn't any need for shielding in a humbucker guitar YMMV

 

[ScottMarlowe]

A longer guitar lead creates WAY more capacitance than shielding.

 

[Juke Box]

Shielding is capacitance. A capacitor is rolls of foil. Shielding is foil.

The knobs, pickup switch and washer are classy as well. That guitar rivals a Gibby custom in esthetics. One of the nicest designer jobs I've seen. Have you totaled up the price yet? I'd be curious what that would run to end up with something that looks like that. I've never seen a quilted topped Epi in a store. Flame top yea but quilted no. How did you end up with a quilt top?

 

[mike]

Shielding is capacitance. A capacitor is rolls of foil. Shielding is foil.

The knobs, pickup switch and washer are classy as well. That guitar rivals a Gibby custom in esthetics. One of the nicest designer jobs I've seen. Have you totaled up the price yet? I'd be curious what that would run to end up with something that looks like that. I've never seen a quilted topped Epi in a store. Flame top yea but quilted no. How did you end up with a quilt top?

The Epi Prophecy Series (both the GX and EX) have quilted tops and the same pearled knobs, just liked the look rather than a flame top.

as for price... currently the total is running at £915 (about $1,400)... essentially the mods are the same price as the purchase cost of the guitar

 

[DPaulCustom]

The Epi Prophecy Series (both the GX and EX) have quilted tops and the same pearled knobs, just liked the look rather than a flame top.

as for price... currently the total is running at £915 (about $1,400)... essentially the mods are the same price as the purchase cost of the guitar

If you like where you're at when it's done, the money is no problem.
I can think of a lot worse ways to spend the cash

 

[ScottMarlowe]

Shielding is capacitance. A capacitor is rolls of foil. Shielding is foil.

The knobs, pickup switch and washer are classy as well. That guitar rivals a Gibby custom in esthetics. One of the nicest designer jobs I've seen. Have you totaled up the price yet? I'd be curious what that would run to end up with something that looks like that. I've never seen a quilted topped Epi in a store. Flame top yea but quilted no. How did you end up with a quilt top?

But capacitance is inversely proportional to distance, and the distance, in the cavity, is orders of magnitude greater than it is in a guitar lead. Meanwhile it is directly proportional to size, which is far greater in a long lead.

 

[mike]

Stage 5...

where the magic happens

finally got around to soldering the pickups and selector switch into the cavity.

tidied the ends of the vintage braiding with 2.5mm heat shrink tubing, made it look far neater

realised that i haven't shown all of the bling... here's the jack socket.

put on some 10-46's and spent the next couple of hours having some fun... wow this guitar sounds amazing with all the mods...

The sustain goes on forever.... once you get used to the way the vintage wiring works the tonal range is epic..

As for the Tesla sharks wow.. you wouldn't think they were cheap pickups, they give the Slash Duncans a good run in...

the slash tone shootout.. (as my SGj has Slash Alcino II's installed)

the more i look i don't think the amount of gold is ott

the main tone ingredient.. the slash truss rod cover


will have to dig out my Nikon DSR and get some proper shots at some point, but for now you'll have to excuse me.. I have some riffs to bang out...

 

[Juke Box]

But capacitance is inversely proportional to distance, and the distance, in the cavity, is orders of magnitude greater than it is in a guitar lead. Meanwhile it is directly proportional to size, which is far greater in a long lead.

Electronics sophistry.

 

[Mark]

Nice job so far! Did these have ebony fretboards?

The originals had ebony, then they switched to rosewood soon after.

Mine;