need help with new pickups

teddyastuffed · #1 10-25-2005, 08:40 PM

hey everyone! i just recently got an air norton and a evo2 for my rg570 and installed them (first time installing pickups...). everything worked out great, i think, but when i plug it in, there seems to be a lot of noise, esspecially when touching the pickup itself. is this normal? when i switch over to my S1 (stock middle pickup), that noise seems to disappear and i can touch the pickup as much as i want without any reprecussions. i dunno if thats cuz of a lower output or is there something i messed up on. i pretty much used to standard humbucking series wiring that dimarzio said was the most basic setup, and assumed that my previous pickups (v1, v2) wiring was red being hot and white being the ground. then i just connected the dimarzio wires black and white together (with tape), then linked the red wire to where the v1/v2 red was and the green to where the v1/v2 white was.

does any of this sound incorrect? what could be the problem, if this is even a problem with the wiring...? if its another issue, im WELCOME to new ideas -_-. thanks everyone in advanced

j.arledge · #2 10-25-2005, 08:53 PM

if you touch the pickup and the noise goes away you have a grounding problem.

white is the coil split and the bare is ground.

there shouuld have been three wires from the old pickup. A bare, a white and a red .

the red is hot and goes to the hot wire (red) of the dimarzio
the white goes to the BLACK AND WHITE FROM THE DIMARZIO
the bare goes to the GREEN AND BLACK FROM THE DIMARZIO.

teddyastuffed · #3 10-25-2005, 09:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jra2217

if you touch the pickup and the noise goes away you have a grounding problem.

white is the coil split and the bare is ground.

there shouuld have been three wires from the old pickup. A bare, a white and a red .

the red is hot and goes to the hot wire (red) of the dimarzio
the white goes to the BLACK AND WHITE FROM THE DIMARZIO
the bare goes to the GREEN AND BLACK FROM THE DIMARZIO.

oooo ok i didnt know that the black and white = white (v1/v2) thanks a bunch ! so i just connect the green and bare to the volume connector right?

j.arledge · #4 10-25-2005, 09:41 PM

yep .

teddyastuffed · #5 10-26-2005, 04:41 AM

ok, i set up the guitar wiring like u told me to, and it works great! but it seems that i have some sort of grounding problem now. i have a certain amount of noise when im not touching the strings at all, but when i touch the strings that noise seems to go away. also, when i touch a pickup, it seems to gain more noise. whats wrong now? (btw, i set up the wiring exacly how explained by jra)

j.arledge · #6 10-26-2005, 11:51 AM

do you have the ground from the tone pot connected to the ground of the volume pot ? I did that once where i forgot to re-solder the wire from the tone pot to volume pot.

Also there is a ground on the switch . You should have one solder terminal that connectes to the ground on the switch with a wire from the switch's ground to the volume pot. I also forgot to connect this up one time and i got a lot of noise .

Anyways i'll find you a wiring diagram and post it. I know that is sort of hard somtimes to explain it, i had A LOT of trouble the first time i tried to put in new pickups.

teddyastuffed · #7 10-26-2005, 06:18 PM

all of that seems to be in place.. hrmmmm maybe i made a mistake that im not catching.. ill try to get pictures up asap. like i said, maybe its something that im missing and cant recognize. anyways, a wiring diagram would be GREAT if u could do that. and thanks for all ur help

j.arledge · #8 10-26-2005, 10:00 PM

http://www.ibanez.com/wiring/wire.asp?y=2004&w=JEM7V

http://www.jemsite.com/tech/img/t_wd_777.gif

http://www.jemsite.com/tech/img/t_wd_7ap1.gif

those are all a little different in the way they are layed but the wiring should be the same.

frankfalbo · #9 10-27-2005, 12:13 PM

Have you soldered the shield of the cable to ground? That's what connects the pickup chassis to ground. Also the noise when you aren't touching the strings is totally normal. You don't have a problem. The strings are grounded, and when you touch them you become grounded, so your body acts as a shield. Only extreme shielding of all the pickups/cavities would cut down on that effect.

teddyastuffed · #10 10-27-2005, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankfalbo

Have you soldered the shield of the cable to ground?

is the shield of the cable the sheet of foil/plastic that was wrapped around the smaller cables? if so, i have no soldered that to anything, i simply pulled it back then cut it off. i didnt think that would be necessary. and thanks for the information about the touching the strings thing. i had a feeling that was somewhat normal, i just wasnt sure. now im wondering, is the touching the pickup (mainly on the magnetic opening of the pickup) supposed to cause noise? i did this simply to test if it was working, cuz theres never an instance where i would touch that in any other case. im just wondering if this is normal. and as for those wire diagrams, thanks ! i just realized something that is weird though. on the wiring diagrams, it shows the neck pickup's hot cable connected to the far left part of the switch, and then the middle pickup, then the bridge. i have it the other way around (bridge and neck r reversed), but when i switch to the bridge setting, the bridge pickup is activated, and vica versa for the neck pickup. i dont think id have to change that back, considering it seems its already how its supposed to be. but yeah, other than that, it seems that everything is OK. theres just one more issue that im kinda worried about, but honestly i dont know if this is normal or not. my bridge and neck pickup both have pickup 'rims' or cases with an incline. for example, the case for the bridge pickup inclines from the middle pickup to the bridge itself, and then the neck pickup inclines from the middle pickup to the neck itself. (btw, this is mostly referring to pickup position). it looks like my bridge and middle pickup r both parallel to the strings, but the neck pickup sorta has an incline towards the middle pickup. ill try to get digital photos of what im talking about, cuz i know this is kinda hard to explain, but if anyone understands what im talkin about, please help me out and tell me if this is normal or if i need to reverse the direction of that pickup casing.

thanks for everyones help

j.arledge · #11 10-27-2005, 08:54 PM

i always cut off the shield and nothing like this has ever happended to me.

The evo is a higher output pickup, and it does get a good bit of hum from other electrical things around it. I know that on all my guitars there is no hum when my computer monitor is turned off but if the monitor is on i get a buzzy hum noise. I am not saying that shield being soldered to the ground is wrong or anything, i have never done it or even heard of it being done. So you could try, it wouldn't hurt anything.

frankfalbo · #12 10-28-2005, 12:47 AM

Guys, the bare wire makes contact with the foil shielding. So I mean "did you solder the bare wire to ground?" The bare wire represents the shield. Some pickups had shielding that was braided or wrapped, so you actually soldered the shield. On a pickup with foil, the extra bare wire is in there for that purpose.

The magnets and chassis are connected to that shield wire. If the pickup makes more noise when you touch the magnets or the height adjustment screw, it means the chassis isn't grounded. So if you DID solder that bare wire to ground, then it should not be making extra noise when you touch the pickup.