Here's the inside of an untouched virgin '73. The guts of mine will be restored like so...but a bit neater!

Note that the banded or 'outside foil' end of the cap goes to the volume pot. This has been true on other Deluxes I have examined, although common knowledge says the direction doesn't matter (they're not polarized or directional). However, it's elsewhere usual to connect the outside foil end to ground...in this case the Tone pot. So does it matter or not? Would the outside foil shield or a lowered impedance to ground have any effect?

Not knowing for certain, I re-installed my caps in the same direction as these...since it's the direction apparently used most often on this model year as far as I can see.

My re-installation will also follow the exact same Gibson wiring scheme, the standard method often called Modern Wiring and one that has been used exclusively on all Les Pauls for over 50 years. Some people try a variant of this called '50s Wiring that Gibson hasn't used since...well, the '50s. For a reason: '50s wiring causes the Volume and Tone controls to interact in a less desirable way. Modern Wiring's controls function more intuitively. (The very term '50s Wiring causes some to think it means vintage, and anything called vintage must therefore be better). Modern Wiring means better performance, too: You can't get Modern Wiring sounds from '50s Wiring, but you can get '50s Wiring sounds from Modern Wiring. This doesn't prevent some from rewiring their Les Pauls to hear angels sing and the breeze through the trees. Just say no.

In this passive circuit, the potentiometers' audio (also called logarithmic, or log) taper allows the Volume rolloff to behave more usefully (versus using a linear pot like an amp's Volume knob), with coarser control at the top end. The only non-intuitive aspect of this wiring scheme is that, when both pickups are On, either Volume becomes a master volume (rather than truly blending the outputs as might be expected). Independent volume control wiring, however, is noise-inducing and, again, less desirable.

Why do Les Pauls use audio taper pots for Tone controls? Other than tradition, it's probably not the best choice. In practice, a linear taper pot would provide a smoother and more predictable rolloff of treble. With an audio-tapered Tone pot, the transition from bright to mellow is not a gradually smooth one. Nevertheless, for whatever reason, all four pots are typically audio taper, and players become accustomed to the way they respond.

Gibson used all four 500K audio taper pots until mid-'73. Under Norlin they switched to four 300K until '77 or so. Then from '77 until the late '80s they used 100K tone pots (!). In '90 or so they started using 300K linear taper (!) pots for Volume and 500K audio taper for Tone. And that's what they use today -- except most Historic and Custom Shop models, for which they use all four 500K audio tapers once again (and on some dropped the cheap ceramic caps for foil as before, too). It's difficult to confirm the exact when where and what of all this. But it's something to consider if you think your Les Paul should sound better or your controls don't act right.

Why 500K potentiometers? Because for relatively high-output humbucking and single-coil pickups, 500K of resistance produces an ideal range of sound. A 1 Meg pot passes a less compressed but un-musical amount of gain and treble; 300K or 250K as commonly used for smaller single-coils is too compressed and bleeds off too much treble.