What’s worse than not having a vintage wiring harness to put into your project? Having a vintage instrument where the electronics have been robbed!

What I’m offering is an alternative to the would-be scavenger, and an opportunity for the dreamer who would never do that to an instrument (whether due to ethical considerations or simply being priced out!). If you’ve read this far, I assume you’re already familiar with Centralab potentiometers, vintage capacitors, and that many believe the majority of the sound from a ‘50s Les Paul comes from what’s in the control cavity. This listing is for a Les Paul wiring harness made from vintage and modern parts (including from Centralab and your choice of vintage capacitors as described below), and is hand-built in the USA to ‘50s vintage specs. Here are a few details about what makes this harness so special:

Potentiometers--AUDIO TAPER

• New old stock Centralab components from 1962 production. All electrical circuitry is 100% vintage Centralab.
• The resistance readings on these pots can range from the high 600ks to the high 900ks (please let us know roughly where you'd like your readings, and we can try to accommodate values and positions). Centralab pots pulled from vintage Les Pauls are notorious for having higher resistance ratings, which allow a greater range of sounds to flow through the instrument to the amplifier. Although 500k pots were used in vintage Les Pauls, most resources indicate that the readings are actually in the range of 600-1000k. We think these higher values are necessary to get the tone produced today from a real '59 Les Paul.  NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT SPECIFY VALUES IN YOUR ORDER NOTES THEN YOU WILL RECEIVE VALUES AT RANDOM (HIGH 600K UP TO A MEG).
• The Centralab pots are considered the “holy grail” of potentiometers. The carbon resistance element was built differently (in terms of composition and physical structure) than pots are today, and this has been argued as being responsible (at least in part) for what gives vintage Les Pauls their unique tone.
• We have been able to source a limited number of NOS potentiometers where the housing was intended for installation in machinery or other electronic equipment. However, we’re able to interchange the housing and shaft with that of a modern CTS potentiometer—which allows these vintage pots to be used in musical instruments. Note that the housing and shaft do not impact the internal electronic circuitry, which is entirely vintage Centralab.
• Note that these are AUDIO TAPER pots. These pots are the correct taper of the pots installed in Gibson Les Pauls in the '50s and '60s. Our less expensive harnesses utilize linear taper pots, as NOS audio taper Centralab pots of appropriate value are more difficult and expensive to obtain. While they offer the same level of performance at a given resistance level, there is a difference in values for a given number on the knob. Most of the audible change in an audio taper is between 7 and 10 (which many guitar players prefer, as it allows for a greater change in sound for a small change in the knob). Regardless, if you're looking for the correct vintage taper to upgrade or repair your guitar--this is it! Nobody (even VIP--though they come close) quite duplicates the taper of a true vintage Centralab.  
• We can accommodate both long shaft and short shaft requests.  

Capacitors

• Your choice of vintage capacitors!  We have a number of vintage capacitors on hand to choose from. Let us know what capacitor you're interested in below (or mix different types), and the approximate values. However, please note that we will need to confirm actual values of capacitors on hand depending on your request. Vintage capacitor values (like potentiometer values) increase over time. We’ve seen NOS capacitors, still in packaging, be double or more than their original values. While the .022s in a 1959 Les Paul may have read at the rated value at the time, they will not have that same reading 63 years later (nor will a 500k pot after hundreds of turns rubbing away the carbon track). Note that unless otherwise specified, these are all vintage (and often new old stock). And to clarify, we refer to certain capacitors as "Russian" capacitors; however, they are surplus Russian and were actually acquired from Ukraine sellers prior to the Russian invasion.  
• Russian bm-2 (or 6m-2) (grey/tan); rated at .015 (original tolerances)
• Tiny Chief (red); rated at .01 (generally drifted to around .014) (appear to be mylar)
• Centralab (grey); rated at .018 (original tolerances) (polystyrene, newer production)
• Unknown (likely Goodall) (brown); rated at .015 (drifted around .02) (appear to be mylar)
• Russian mbm (or m6m) (grey); rated at .025 (reading .04 or higher)
• Russian k73-16 (grey); rated .027
• Sangamo Type-33M (green); rated .015 (drifted around .02) (appear to be mylar)

• We also have a limited stock of Sprague and other premium capacitors (which may include new reproduction Luxe, Jupiter, etc.); however, those would be an additional cost and we would list in a separate listing.
• Many believe the capacitor to be the 2nd largest contributor to the tones coming from the electrical cavity of the guitar. Vintage PIO or MIO are considered the best for achieving classic tone.

We also use coated fiberglass “spaghetti tubing” to insulate the capacitor leads like Gibson would have used, leaded solder (modern solder is typically lead-free), and an 18 AWG tinned copper grounding wire. You can’t get much closer to original than this, and certainly not in the price range. Do your project a favor and go with the real deal—or at least as close as you can get without victimizing a vintage instrument!  

A WORD OF CAUTION:  There is another seller on eBay offering a similar product, but claiming that their pots are assembled from full Centralab components (and stating that hybrid pots such as what we offer are unreliable and cheesy).  Please do your research before buying from this seller, as a number of folks have recently posted very negative experiences in online forums.  We also have repaired one such harness and posted our findings upon disassembling these pots in forums and on our Nostalgic Guitars website.  

NOTE THAT PRICES HAVE INCREASED VERSUS OUR WEBSITE DUE TO EBAY FEES.