Pickup Question

dragsternj · #1 03-31-2005, 10:39 AM

Hello

This is probably the dumbest question ever asked.

Yesterday i changed the Pups on my S470. Super Distortion Bridge/ Paf Pro Neck. everything seems to work well, but i am not sure if they sound "right". I think they sound kinda thin/muddy... not sure how to explain.

How do you know that they are wired properly. If they work are they automatically wired right??

Sorry

jimmyfingersminion · #2 03-31-2005, 10:54 AM

sounds like they are out of phase. i'm not a wiring whizz though, so i dont know how to put it right.

frankfalbo · #3 03-31-2005, 12:31 PM

It's not a phasing problem if they sound that way when they're on by themselves, unless you have the individual wires of each pickup reversed, like if you have black and red soldered together, or green and white soldered together. Did you set the pickup height nice and close, maybe 3/16" away from each E string? If you can take a picture of your electronics cavity I could tell you everything you needed to know. Its also possible that a glob of solder is barely touching the shielding paint, or another component, so some of your signal is being drained to ground. And maybe they're not grounded properly so all you're getting is residual current through the pickups. Is it noisy, too?

dragsternj · #4 03-31-2005, 06:47 PM

First thanks for answering.

Nope no real noise. A little more noise than the stock ones. I called Di Marzio, and it appears i wired it properly. Black and Whites together where the whites have been, red where the reds have been. Green and the bare one together on a pot.

I noticed that especially the setting "hum - single coil" sounds like played out of a beer can, by far not as loud as hum alone or the single alone. Also bridge and single coil and neck and single coil sound very much the same.

Weird.

AirGuitarHero · #5 03-31-2005, 09:57 PM

Than I guess the single must be out of phase with the hums, so just reverse the single's wires.

Have you checked for shortcircuits? It's happened to me on occasions that I have a big blot of solderin tin on a switch lug (I'm cr@p at soldering) and two adjacent lugs are making contact. That'll screw up the whole circuit.

See if that works

Shep · #6 03-31-2005, 10:18 PM

what sort of pick up's were in there before because the wire colours can change depending who make them. so you may have them wired right by the colours but the colours might be wrong. it happends all the time. if this is the case the p/up's won't sound out of phase but more thin and trebley.

dragsternj · #7 03-31-2005, 10:43 PM

Original Ibanez Pubs

I will try to reverse polarity on the Single. Does it actually matter what direction the humbuckers are in?

horstausmforst · #8 04-01-2005, 07:17 AM

There is no unified colorcode for stock ibanez pickups.
Your wiring is indeed correct and should work in all positions if you had V pickups installed before.

Assuming you got one of the newer 470s, I think you had the INF or powersound pickups. I honestly don't know the colorcodes of them. Maybe they are like the V colors. BUT I remember rewiring an axe with AH humbuckers, and they had the red and white leads crossed; meaning the hot lead was white and the tap lead was red.

What you could do to 'test' your humbuckers, is switching to full humbucking mode, turning your amp up and touching the pole pieces of each coil with a screwdriver or allen wrench. You should hear a clear, loud, "ploink" on both coils. If thats not the case, there indeed is a problem with the wiring.

horstausmforst · #9 04-01-2005, 07:30 AM

Just crawled though the wiring diagrams:

On the most recent models, it seems like they unified the powersound codes with the v codes:

http://www.ibanez.com/wiring/wire.asp?y=2004&w=S470
(or they simply screwed up the diagram)

Howewer, on older guitars, it's like I mentioned:

http://www.ibanez.com/wiring/wire.asp?y=2000&w=S470

frankfalbo · #10 04-01-2005, 08:09 AM

Well from what you described you clearly are out of phase with the middle single, and those wires should be reversed. That's the only way that position 2 and 4 could be much lower in output than the single alone. It's also why 2 and 4 sound alike. But if you seem to have other problems with the sound, in the outside humbucking positions, there could be more going on. Without a picture it's futile to diagnose. Reverse the middle single wires and then report back.

Shep · #11 04-01-2005, 09:12 AM

i had ibanez inf1 and inf2 in my 450 which i replaced with evo's but when i replaced them i wired it right to the diagram. but hot is green for ibanez and the red is hot for dimarzio. so when i wired the p/up's into my guitar i had all sort of problems with the way the coils in each humbucker were wireed together . this might be the case.

dragsternj · #12 04-01-2005, 09:09 PM

First, thanks for the wealth of information received.

Think finally i figured it out, it was not the wires for the single to be switched but both wires for the hum's. I receievd a plan from dimarzio (btw great customer service for such a low cost item) which showed the right switch for the s470 and after that it was a snap. Now sadly i have to say that i don't really like how the super distortion sounds and will probably replace with a tone zone. Any suggestions what goes with it on the neck are welcome.

I attched the plan if someone is in need.

lyconxero · #13 04-02-2005, 02:06 AM

Well if you like the PAF Pro that you have, then just keep it in the neck. Some other options that will go well with the Tone Zone would be either the Humbucker From Hell or the Air Norton. The Air Norton/Tone Zone combo is what a lot of the J-custom guitars from Japan use and they sound just AWESOME. Paul Gilbert is the first person who I've heard used the Humbucker From Hell/Tone Zone combo. That's personally my fav combo because the clean tone you get from the Humbucker From Hell in the neck is TO DIE FOR! In my opinion, of course.