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Questionable wiring job on RG550

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5-way hsh rg550
4K views 12 replies 4 participants last post by  Meechy 
#1 ·
Looking for some direct feedback here.

My amateur soldering jobs had left a terrible mess on the pots of my 550, so I had my guitar shop's wiring guy clean it up and re-install the original pickups.

Pics: (http://www.flickr.com/photos/79693669@N05/sets/72157631160691410/)

As you can see the soldering is quite clean, but I don't think he had dealt with a HSH guitar before where the humbuckers didn't have 4-conductor wire (like the V1 & V2). When he brought it into the shop he said something about it, how the pickups "couldn't be split" because of the lack of 4-conductor wire. I didn't know what he meant since obviously (to Ibby heads) they can be split. You can see how all the wires are attached to the last 4 points on the splitter (don't know the term), which I'm sure is not how it was before.

The concern is that it seems to sound a little funny. The humbuckers in particular don't have the girth I (think I) remember. The neck in particular has a very thin and unusually bright sound- it reminds me of the Humbucker from Hell I had in the neck slot for a few days and couldn't stand. The bridge pickup sounds not quite as bad, but just weak compared to what I remember.

Is this in my head, or does it need to be fixed?
 
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#4 ·
My boyfriend told me he's run into a lot of so called 'techs' that are clueless.
He has a Stratocaster with single/single/humbucker and the tech he brought it to to replace the humbucker couldn't figure out how to wire it so that it split the coils.
It had four wires so I'm sure it can be done. I'll get him to look at the wiring section here.
This site is going to be a treasure trove of information for us. :D
Thank you!
 
#7 ·
Out of curiosity, AB (or others) do you know what sound is resulting from the current wiring job? In positions 1 and 5 I can tap the pole pieces of each coil on either humbucker and sound comes through, but seems louder on one coil than the other. So both coils are working (not coil tapped per se), but it sounds thinner. Are they in series?

Just trying to learn. The sound is somewhat reminiscent of a single coil but fatter... again kind of like the Humbucker from Hell tone.

Now the unsavory job of breaking this news to the tech!
 
#10 ·
As I'm going about resoldering this job it strikes me that I would like to take the single coil out of the equation. I prefer the wiring setup on my old 520 (no middle pickup) where the middle position activates both humbuckers like a Les Paul.

To achieve this, could I simply not attach the single coil leads to anything (or remove it) and then wire the humbuckers like one would a 520?
 
#11 ·
If I read it correctly in another post <i can't find it now> you need a 'special' five-way switch for that.
The 'standard' switch won't give you the proper single coil or the two picups together options that you get on a 520.
I could have read it wrong, hopefully someone with more knowledge than i can chime in.
:)
 
#13 ·
I know it's been MONTHS, but just wanted to let AlaskaBat know his 'sticky' helped with Jeff's Stratocaster.

I got it wired up so it turns off the bridge side coil on the bridge pickup when it's on with the middle pickup.

It wasn't hard at all. :)

Thanks again, AlaskaBat.
 
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