Problems wiring pickups

[Lamejohn]

Hi. This question is kinda long and involved and I really appreciate any help that I get. I've been reading the forums/site and everything I can find on the net but I'm still having some problems wiring two Bill Lawrence L-500's into my S470QS

This is the diagram for the 2000 s470, thought it is not exactly how mine was wired it's close (mine had no cap on the vol pot). http://www.ibanez.com/wiring/wire.asp?y=2000&w=S470

This is what I've been going crazy trying to wire up: http://www.ibanez.com/wiring/wire.asp?y=2004&w=SAS32

I read the forums for a while and discovered that the 5-way switch on my H/S/H guitar is different than the one in the H/H schematic I'm trying to wire up. That answers a lot of questions I had as to why it just refused to work.

I'd like to accomplish the switching options of this schematic: http://www.ibanez.com/wiring/wire.asp?y=2004&w=SAS32 It may sound weird, but I'm leaving out the middle pickup, at least for now, and trying a H/H config. Is it possible to accomplish this with the 5-way I have now, or do I need to buy a different switch? If I do need to get a new switch is there anything I can rig up in the meantime to get the pickups working so I can test them out?

Also, if anyone has any links for sites that deal with pickup wiring I'd love to read them. I'd like to be able to draw out my own wiring schemes, but I have not been able to find a site that explains what the different prongs on pots and switches do, how wiring them differently changes stuff, etc.

I also have not been able to find any info on Ibanez color schemes. Well, that's not entirely true, there's this http://www.ibanez.com/wiring/wire.asp?y=2004&w=SZ320MH is that pretty standard as far as Ibanez pickups go? Does that correspond with the ones I'm trying to work with above?

Sorry to just show up and ask so many questions. Thanks for reading it.

[j.arledge]

i belive that you need a different switch to wire your guitar up like that . There multiple model 5 ways switchs that can give different combinations .

here are the ones made and how you wire them up along with which pickup and pickup coils are being used .

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electron...aswitches.html

i bought one of these switches and had hell getting it wired , come to find out i was just using the wrong schematic .

http://guitarpartsdepot.com/Merchant...ronic-Hardware

this is the right schematic for the switch in the link above
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electron...aswitches.html

i really like the switch's options . The paf pro and tone zone can have a little bit too much bass in them clean and this switch makes the cleans sound great not to mention it can cover a lot of sonic ground with the same setting on your amp .

[Lamejohn]

Thanks for the reply. I like the sound of the Megaswitch, I read up on it and it seems to make wiring it up pretty easy.


EDIT: Has anyone put a Megaswitch or a 24 pole super switch into an S series Ibanez? There ain't much room back there and I don't want something to end up peeking out. It just doesn't look like it's going to fit, so my options may be quite limited. Does anyone know what model number Ibanez's 2-humbucker 5-way switches are?

[Scott of Actual Time]

Originally Posted by Lamejohn

EDIT: Has anyone put a Megaswitch or a 24 pole super switch into an S series Ibanez? There ain't much room back there and I don't want something to end up peeking out.

yes--i put a Megaswitch in my 540S7 years ago. it was tricky, but here's how i got it to work.

the switch is just barely too wide to go into the slot. so i loosened the two gold screws that hold the wafer, the circuit board, onto the metal body of the switch. this let me squeeze the wafer closer to the switch and gave me just enough clearance to cram it into the slot. then, after the switch was in the slot, i tightened those two gold screws back as much as possible.

i also had to bend the tabs on the switch down so they were perpendicular to the switch, because those tabs stick out just above the edge of the control cavity. and i covered the tabs with a peice of electrical tape so they wouldn't short out against the shielding on the cavity cover plate.

the action on the switch is a little stiff from being crammed in there. and there were some dropouts in the signal before i tightened the screws, from contacts not touching each other right. but after i tighened those screws, it has worked fine for many years.


the common 24-pole superswitch models from Fender and DiMarzio have two wafers, not just one. the only way i've found to install those in an S guitar is to use long mounting screws and spacers so the switch hangs below the slot. this however will not work in a stock S; it only work in a custom S with a thicker body. the switch hangs down so low that on a stock S, the cavity cover plate won't close. that's just one reason i'm building my own thicker custom S7 bodies.

[Lamejohn]

Thanks a lot, that will help me out for sure. I went ahead and ordered the Megaswitch P model. I would have probably gotten the E model, but didn't want to wait the 1+ months before stewmac has them in stock. I haven't played on a PRS before, so I wasn't sure what the switching was like, but I guess I'll be finding out soon enough.

After reading a lot in the past day and figuring some things out this wiring business isn't so hard after all. It's just one of those things that can be daunting to try to learn in a day.