IDIOT needs help with wiring !!

[ric232]

I just bought a 4-conductor humbucking pickup (Dimarzio Fred) to replace the std pickup in my 1991 Ibanez EX360. The stock pickup had 3 wires: red, white and bare. The new pickup has 5: red, white, green, black and bare. The instructions don't make sense to me.

My stock pickup was wired as follows:

5-way blade switch with 8 metal tabs on the back:

Tab 1 = single-coil neck pickup (w/ blk ground wired to back of volume knob)
Tab 2 = single-coil middle pickup (w/ blk ground wired to back volume knob)
Tab 3 = white wire from stock humbucking (w/ bare ground wire to back of volume knob)
Tab 4 = red wire running to volume knob
Tab 5 = nothing
Tab 6 = nothing
Tab 7 = blk wire grounded to back of volume knob
Tab 8 = red wire from stock humbucking

So, for the new pickup, it seems obvious that the green and bare wires should be grounded to the back of the volume knob. But I don't know about the red, white and black wires. The instructions say to solder black and white together but it does not say to connect them to anything. It says red should go to HOT. Can I assume that Tab 8 is HOT since it previously had a red wire? Does anything get connected to tab 3? Perhaps the white and black go there? HELP !!!!

[ET Guitars]

Check out the wiring diagrams in the tech section. I followed them when I installed Freds in my guitar and it worked perfectly.

[pinto79]

Originally Posted by ric232

I just bought a 4-conductor humbucking pickup (Dimarzio Fred) to replace the std pickup in my 1991 Ibanez EX360. The stock pickup had 3 wires: red, white and bare. The new pickup has 5: red, white, green, black and bare. The instructions don't make sense to me.

My stock pickup was wired as follows:

5-way blade switch with 8 metal tabs on the back:

Tab 1 = single-coil neck pickup (w/ blk ground wired to back of volume knob)
Tab 2 = single-coil middle pickup (w/ blk ground wired to back volume knob)
Tab 3 = white wire from stock humbucking (w/ bare ground wire to back of volume knob)
Tab 4 = red wire running to volume knob
Tab 5 = nothing
Tab 6 = nothing
Tab 7 = blk wire grounded to back of volume knob
Tab 8 = red wire from stock humbucking

The red wire goes where the white one from the stock bucker was (TAB3). The black and white are BOTH connected to TAB 8. Green and bare to ground. If the position on the switch that uses the middle and bridge pups sounds really weak and thin, swap the red and green wires on FRED.

Hope this helped!

[ric232]

Originally Posted by pinto79

The red wire goes where the white one from the stock bucker was (TAB3). The black and white are BOTH connected to TAB 8. Green and bare to ground. If the position on the switch that uses the middle and bridge pups sounds really weak and thin, swap the red and green wires on FRED.

Hope this helped!

This definitely helped !!

I just got around to this message. I searched around on the web last week and ended up coming to the same conclusion as your recommendation (without realizing you had responded), but I was not sure. It's good to see confirmation from you. And yes, the switch that uses both bridge and middle pickups sounds weak and thin. I will swap red and green as you've suggested. I guess that's the same as turning the pickup around.

Thanks again.

UPDATE: I was wrong about turning the pickup around. That did not work. So I swapped the red and green wires. Now it works great.

[guitarshredder7]

cool i hope it works nice