software

I've been reading these forums for a while and decided to experement with changing pickups. I ordered the Korean built distortion(cheap college student ) to replace the stock humbucker in my guitar and just want to make sure I know how to install this thing.

Here's the wiring schematic for my guitar: from : localhost/want to wire it back up the same way the stock one is in there just because i'm a newb at this and figure that would be easiest

The dirictions say I should have a red, white, black, and green wire, but I have a red and white(twisted together at the ends), a fat black wire, and a thin black wire that's the same size as the red and white ones.

The directions are printed badly and hard to read, but from what I can tell, the red and white should go to the switch(although I don't know if they match up the same as the stock ones or not).

I'm starting to ramble on, so basically I just need some help with where to put these wires.

It didn't want to let me upload an attachment, so here's a picture of the actual guitar, if that helps

from : localhost/www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=getamp;tp=230868

Hey Cody, welcome to the forum man!

I'm going to start this off with a question. Do you have a multi-meter?

As far as what you should do with the wires I'll help you to the best of my ability.

Now from the looks of your schematic I'm guessing you have a mega-switch that way you can achieve the dual single sound in pos. 2. I'm not too sure about Ibanez's color codes matching SD's, but you can start off wiring the new pup in like the old pup. My guess is that the fat black wire is the ground, which you should solder to the shell of the pot, like where the old one was. Now on the Duncan Designed the red and white wires are for the coil taps. After you get everything soldered together plug you guitar into an amp and put the switch on postion 1. Take a screwdriver and tap both sets of polepieces to make sure the pup is wired on correctly. If everything checks out push the switch to position 2 and tap on the middle coil and the slug coil of the bucker with your screwdriver. If it doesn't react switch the white and red wires.

Hopefully that will get you there. You also might want to keep an eye on the trading post, lots of great deals on Duncans in there. Hope that helps!

Luke

Hey Codyj; Welcome to the forum. First, the easy part.

The Distortion red and white go together, and then connect where the red wire in the Ibby diagram go. In other words, SD red/white = Ibby red.

The thin black wire goes where the Ibby white goes. SD thin black = Ibby white.

Now here's the tricky part. You really should have a green and bare left over. Are you sure that the big black wire isn't just the outside insulation with the other wires poking through it? Look closely and see if maybe the green is poking out the end. Thats should be the ground that connects to the back of the volume pot.

Let us know what you find.

Artie

Alright. I got it soldered up and in position 1, touching a screwdriver to the pole pieces makes noise on the amp. The flat ones near the middle are a lot louder than the ones that are adjustable near the bridge.

In position 2, tapping the middle pickup and the half of the humbucker closest to the middle puts noise throught the amp. The first time when I soldered to the same color as the stock pickup, the half closest the the bridge made noise, so I switched them.

You didn't mention the small black wire for anything, so I didn't put it anywhere. Just checking back to make sure I didn't need to put it anywhere. I guess I'll try to string it back up and see how it sounds. Hopefully I've got it right

Look at my post above. The small black wire should be the pups output. It needs to be connected to where the Ibby white wire is.

Like this:
Alright. I just put it back together, so guess I'll take it back apart and change it


Originally Posted by CodyJAlright. I just put it back together, so guess I'll take it back apart and change it

I know it's a pain in the butt . . . but it's worth it when it all comes together.

I got it apart and put the red/white and black in the right spot. I dug in the shielding and lo and behold I found a green wire hidden in there Just making sure so I don't have to take it apart again, the green wire goes to the outside of the volume pot, or the green wire and the shielding. The directions that came with it say the shielding should go to ground, so I wanted to make sure. Thanks for all the help. It's not going as bad as I thought it would and it's pretty fun working on it myself instead of just taking it somewhere. Cheaper too


Originally Posted by CodyJI dug in the shielding and lo and behold I found a green wire hidden in there

I knew it!

The green and bare, (if there is one - dig deeper), both go to ground. Like the back of the pot.

There should be a bare wire, not just foil.

Alright. I got everything hooked up, but the humbucker is buzzing just as loud as the single coils. Position 4(Neck and middle, still haven't figured out these numbers yet) is silent, and Position 2(Middle and half of the bucker) Has a quieter hum to it, but loud enough to where I think something is wrong. When I play with just the bridge humbucker it sounds really thin and heavy on the highs. Is it the groud that's the problem or something else? Sorry to bug you guys so much. Maybe I should've studied up a bit more before trying this

Edit: oh, forgot to say, I found the bare wire as well and grounded, or at least tried to ground, both it and the green

Okay, I'm definitely an idiot I looked at the wiring diagram more closely, and apparantly that isn't the right one for my guitar. I've edited it to show what the wires going from the pickups to the switch look like. Theres some other stuff going on over there at the pots too that I didn't notice. The capacitor is in the middle of the tone and volume and the volume pot is connected to the input instead of the tone. I can't seem to find the right one for my guitar on ibanez's website. I'll keep looking though. It's weird because I know mine is a GRX40, but none of the digrams match what the inside of my guitar looks like.

I'll see what I can do to figure this out for you, but you're editted drawing is definitely wrong. You have the quot;hotquot; wire of the bridge going to ground through the 5-way.

It doesn't matter on the tone cap whether it goes between the tone and volume pot, or between the tone pot and ground. Its just two different ways to do the same thing.

I'll look this over and try to post a working diagram tonight.

Okay, I got a multimeter and took some readings. I was using this site as a guide on what to do with the thing.

from : localhost/multimeter was set to read resistance and the dial was at 20K ohms. Here's what I got

Bridge 8.31
Middle 4.91
Neck 4.91
N M 2.47
B M 2.27

Using the guide from that site it would seem to be wired up right, although I don't know if it would be different for mine since he specifies the directions are for a standard strat. Maybe those numbers will help some

Ok, this is going to take some studying, and thinking.

(I hate when that happens!)

Give me some time, and I'll see what I can come up with.


Originally Posted by CodyJ

In position 2, tapping the middle pickup and the half of the humbucker closest to the middle puts noise throught the amp. The first time when I soldered to the same color as the stock pickup, the half closest the the bridge made noise, so I switched them...

Mixing and matching pickups from different vendors can be a real bear since the polarities are not always the same. To properly switch the inner and outer coils on a SD pickup you need to reverse all of the wires:

B to G
W to R
R to W
G to B

Since W amp; R are just soldered together you can leave them alone, but you need to remove the Green wire from the ground bundle and replace it with the thin black wire. And then solder the green wire to the selector switch.

If after reversing the wires you find Position #4 to be out of phase (very thin and whine-y) you will need to flip the magnet in the humbucker. There are instructions in the FAQ on how to do that but let us know here if that is the case and we can step you through that as well.

BTW for the middle and inside bridge coils to be humcancelling and in phase the magnetic fields at the top of the pickups needs to be opposite; you can check this with a compass or a regular bar magnet.

Good luck!

If the humbucker is noisy maybe it is wired in parallel by accident? Alright your meter readings are off, or I'm confused about what you are saying.

Put your meter on the continuity check and make sure all your grounds are good. Your meter should beep or the needle jump if there is continuity. Anyways after you make sure everything is grounded make sure that all the hots have a good solder joint. Like they blueline said combining pup brands makes for a royal pain.

Luke