dimarzio hs3 in fgm100

[potatohead]

Recently refinished the guitar. When I got it back together I got a dead hs3 in the middle position. I played around with the wiring but can tunderstand whats going on with it.

THe original wiring involved the white and red wires connected together and taped up.
The only way I can get a sound out of the pickup is to wire the red to live. This cant have ever been the way it was before as they were taped up from new.

The middle settings are now very thin (much more than before)

Can anyone think of anything that may have caused this??

I remember having this problem before but it was years ago and cant quite remember how I resolved it.

Please help!!

[rockboy999]

I just recently wired a HS2,which is similar, myself. The HS3 is a stacked hum cancelling single coil. It has 4 wires like a regular humbucker,but it can be wired as a true single coil,which is what I think you did either that or you reversed the wires which made the coils run in parallel. That may explain the thin sound. Just check the Ibanez wiring diagrams on their site and that should help you out.

[potatohead]

Unfortunately, my FGM is a 1991 and the diagrams on the ibanez site start from 94 and are totally different. The later FGMs apparently had different PUPs and wiring colours.
Thanks for your reply though. Food for thought!!

[Fizzy]

I'll try to have a look at how my FGM100 is wired up over the weekend. I love the sound of the HS3 in the middle position, it's a great pup for that guitar.

[potatohead]

Hey thanks,
I am so so sure I drew the right wires in the right places when I took the thing apart. I am getting very frustrated having it sound so thin. I agree about the Pup. It does sound great. Until I reqire it wrongly!!!
Any suggestions would be vastly appreciated.

Regards

[Fizzy]

I just had a look at my FGM100, it's a 1991 as well.

The red and white wires are certainly joined together and taped. It's difficult to see the rest clearly as there's a load of wires in there all within a very small space!

Of the wires coming into the control cavity, I can see the two bigger cables from the two humbuckers, so I'll ignore them.

The rest are single wires coming into the control cavity, there's a red and white, joined together as mentioned above.

A black goes to ground on the back of the pot.

A green goes to ground on the back of the pot.

Another black goes to the selector switch, onto the 4th connector down from the top on the left, on the trem side of the selector connections.

Finally there's an uncoloured wire going to ground on the back of the pot.

Not much help, I know.

If you've got yours wired up the same from the pup itself, maybe it's the switch connections that are causing your problem, perhaps a short or missing connection on there?

Probably safest to take it into a tech for a looksee if you're still stuck.

[potatohead]

Thanks for that.
the way you describe you wiring is the way I put mine back after the refinish when it didnt work.
Ive now wired it differently to get something out of it but it sounds terrible. Im gonna try putting it right back to stardard over the next few days to see what happens.

Thanks again for your responses.

Neil

[5RV]

Originally Posted by potatohead

Thanks for that.
the way you describe you wiring is the way I put mine back after the refinish when it didnt work.
Ive now wired it differently to get something out of it but it sounds terrible. Im gonna try putting it right back to stardard over the next few days to see what happens.

Thanks again for your responses.

Neil

Hey Neil - did you figure this out? I'm having a similar problem in my Strat with a really thin sounding HS-3 in the bridge. I've obeyed all diagrams I could find, but no luck. Any troubleshooting advice would be greatly appreciated.

[_FR0D0]

try with
black -> live
red -> ground
wihite & green -> not used