Sounds amazing using in gigs
The little"tone" knob does not sit low to the control panel like the other two regular size knobs. It looks pretty wierd .. please send me a regular sized knob.
After the second delivery by Thomann i have had hopes to plug and play.
However:
It will take you hours to get the wires into the miniportals! And once stuck, they simple unlock themselves!
Then i extended the wires to work more easely! Same problem with the portals.
The irritation is overwhelming….
So back goes the second unit!
I was a bit anxious about installing it after seeing the instructions but it was incredibly easy, and the end result was amazingly clean sound, great controls.
I replaced my 2023 Affinity series Squier Strat's pickup and electronics with this one here and the installation was rather trivial. I did add an improvement to my guitar apart from this excellently packaged, made electronics upgrade for my strat. Specifically, I shielded the electronics cavity and, along with the shielding this Obsidian Wire pickguard comes with, my electronics is now fully shielded! The tones--I went with the TRS4 (Tonerider Alnico 2 blues)--nice, fat, bluesy and yes, like the description says, no distortion even at full volume. I did have to add some insulation to the top of the pickup switch as it was touching my copper shielding but that was trivial. I went with paper insulation. There were three _additional_ ground pins available for use after I connected my guitar output jack so I used it for the tremelo base grounding.
My strat is fantastic sounding now! STRONGLY recommend this product. Compares favorably with my PRS which is multiple times more expensive in price.
Oh--after sales service from Obsidian wire is frikkin excellent! They threw in a guitar output jack for me and I very much appreciated that thoughtful gesture. And the shipping was quite fast, actually. From the time I ordered it in Massachusetts, I got my package, all the way from New Zealand in one week!!!!
I did the Obsidion 4-way switch mod for my CV 50's Tele which required a new plate and knobs. As was the case with the solder free 4-way switch and new switch plate, the knobs - required to fit the new 1/4" pot stems - was high quality and fit perfectly. I highly recommend all of these products.
Super nice unit, although the Schaller 5 way switch should come with both black & white switch tips. They're not a standard fit like most all else, and really had to hunt for for one in white that would fit. It's still a bit loose but will do. Other than that, super happy with it. Much easier than a soldier job no doubt.
Easy set up. Sounds great. I'm impressed with the service and quality.
Vintage Plus for Strat® Gen2 // NEW
I did the 4-way switch mod to my Classic Vibe 50's Squire Telecaster and the new plate I purchased works perfectly with the "Obsidion" no-solder kit. Highly recommended.
I haven’t had a chance to install it yet, but I’m confident your product will be exactly what I’m looking for based on other reviews I’ve read.
I’ll submit another review after i have installed it.
This was a outstanding purchase to up grade this guitar. The quality is absolutely great top notch.
I'm not a guitar expert but electronics I get and this fits the build.50/60s selection is great knob function is Smooth and positive the coil spilt was really not needed but tried it anyhow.id say the pickup wire from the dimarzio pickups are a little fine I tinned the wires before trying to get them in the slots,once anchored they work fine.
Myself I'd like to see a small screw terminal instead of a push to connect. Maybe a Farrell and male end for the insert to be more positive. Once it's all in it works perfectly and as expected.
I have 2 more guitars to play with so I'm sure I'll be buying again.
I decided to upgrade the stock pots, switches and output jack for my Classic Vibe 50's Telecaster and realized that I could do the 4-way switch mod at the same time. The Obsidion "Solderless" with a new plate and knobs was the perfect solution. Easy to install, and sounds great. Highly recommended!!!
After replacing the pickups I noticed a clearer sound and tone , I replaced the originals in a squire jazz bass, this was a DIY, and it was easy took about 10min.
Not a pro. Musician, but love the sound.
The post took forever. The package actually languished for a solid week in a single facility. When I finally got it, it wasn't a compatible size despite what I was led to believe. Suffice to say I am struggling to take a dremel to my gibson to accomodate a wiring harness; I haven't been able to try the product yet.
I am building a new guitar now. Sunk cost fallacy.
If I could go back, I'd just wire it up myself. The payout to effort ratio isn't worth this headache to me. Leaving all slidersfor ratings in the middle because I can't give it an earnest review.
I'm honestly surprised that obsidian wire isn't a standard! It's super easy to use and very easy to follow.. I would highly recommend for all folks who hate soldering and prefer an easier alternative.
I bought a loaded pickguard with the HSS configuration with a Gilmour mod. I did have to tweak the neck pocket of the pickguard because it was a Squier body with an after market neck. Also had to dremel a litle bit to expand room for the 7 way switch. Overall it was worth it! Connections were easy and very simple. Surprised that this type of connection isn't the standard. The guitar plays like a dream, pickups were fantastic. I ended up shielding the cavity in the body just in case but it seems to have reduced some humming here and there.
Overall, highly recommend!
Fit the Obsidian Les Paul plugin play perfectly (which literally just drops into place on my Gibson) if I could improve just one thing it would be that the numbers were black. I’m 70 now and don’t see so good anymore 😁
After several years of frustrating tones out of my 2017 Gibson Les Paul I decided to go back to basics on my wiring. My LP model was a Traditional Pro IV and I absolutely hated the wiring complexity, options, pickups and tone. I bought a set of Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates and let a local guitar shop install them, coil split. Awful. They wired it so the volume controls did nothing and mixing volume and tone was the only way to get anything out of it; volume had to be changed at the amp. Useless. I bought the Vintage MKII and installed it. Very small pickup wires made it challenging but it was worth it. My LP never sounded better and grounding is absolutely silent. Getting the Obsidian was an inspired choice and now I love playing with complete control of my volume and tone mixing and I do not miss the coil split at all. 50s and 60s choices is great. Thanks, Obsidian for making a great product.
I got mine installed yesterday with little difficulty. I put it on my Squier Vintage 60s Custom Tele, and it works just fine. If you have a Squier, you do need the knobs and new plate to replace the factory hardware. The Obsidian hardware has different size posts for the knobs, so make sure you get the proper pieces.
New switch and knobs all work as expected. I enjoy having the extra setting of a sort of humbucker now. Definitely worth this upgrade.
I’m in my 70s & has taken up learning bass , inexperienced in upgrading the instrument, found on YouTube Osidianwire easy upgrade, no soldering-WOW , so easy, bass sounds much better.
There were no instructions relevant to the pickups I was installing which are Fender Gen 4 Noiseless Telecaster pickups. Each of those pickups has 2 grounding wires and, sans specific instructions, it took me a couple of hours of experimenting on where to attach each wire. I finally realized that I need to leave one wire uninstalled and then *voila* it works. Would've been nice to have been able to get in touch with someone at Obsidian about this. I tried reaching out but the question I asked was met with a very generic and unrelated answer. Once I got it working (the next day) it worked fine.
Have been busy for hours to get it connected. The bridge pickup delivers a signal, the neck pickup nothing. I have tried all options. No solution! The wirebank is very fragile and wites tend to loosen. Sorry guys, its a return.
This is my 3rd purchase of Obsidian products.
Highly recommend! However with this latest purchase the 3 way switch fell apart during installation. Also the speed knobs do not fit properly. They set to high above the body of the guitar.
This plug and play system it’s one of the best wiring system I have ever used. Every time I have the opportunity to use Obsidian wire it’ll be installed on my guitars. Super smooth knob and solid construction.
I thought it would be a fun project to upgrade all the hardware and electronics in my circa 2000 Epiphone Les Paul Studio since that was not exactly a high water mark for Chinese imports. After I had ripped everything out, I realized it was not a fun project. Playing guitar is fun. Futzing with soldering irons and fiddly little wires is not fun. Fortunately, I had heard about Obsidian Wire, so I thought it give it a shot. Long story short, I'm back to playing my Les Paul, not futzing. Easy not instant was very accurate. Most of my install time was filing out bigger holes. Great product. Pots are great. Switch is firm. Jack holds nicely. Everything sounds great. If I'm ever stupid enough to undertake another project like this again, I'll definitely come straight here first.
