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1993 RG Pickup Angle

6K views 12 replies 6 participants last post by  Takin' a Ride 
#1 ·
Hello Everyone.

I have a bit of a silly question regarding the angle of my pickups.

I have a 1993 RG of some sort (I think it's an RG570) I have just replaced the standard pickups with some EMG HZ's.
I have an RG320 with the exact same pickups and it's ballsy, but this one just sounds weak, and has very little sustain.
I have adjusted the pickup height to no avail.

The difference I have noticed with this guitar compared to my 320 is the angle of the pickups.

The bridge pickup is angled towards the bridge (so it's NOT parallel with the strings) and the neck pickup is angled towards the neck, so both facing away from each other.
*note the plastic pickup housings are angled, not just the pickups themselves.

Logic says to me that the pickups (or at least the bridge pickup) is angled the wrong way.
I would have thought you would want the pickup facing the more resonant part of the strings, as opposed to pointing towards the bridge.

I don't want to accuse the install tech of installing it incorrectly, as I didn't actually take note of the angle before the installation (this guitar sat in the closet for a few years before I decided to upgrade the pickups).

Would this have been the original angle of the pickups? Or has the tech installed them wrong?
And would the angle make that much of a difference?

I have a pic, but I can't post it because I'm still a noob to the forum.

On that note, sorry for the lack of introduction.

My name is Tom, and I have been playing for about 15 years.
I have this 93 RG, a satin grey RG320, 2 ESP DV8-R's (one black, one white), a jackson dinky and an Agile Septor 7.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Tom
 
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#3 ·
Can you physically press on the pickup at one end and hold it at the correct position? If you can, you can at least play a palm-muted chug or something and see if the sound improves when you straighten it out. If it does, just unscrew the pickup from the ring, turn the ring around and screw it back in. It's fiddly and kinda annoying but worth it if it solves the problem.

But there's no guarantee that the guitar will sound the same as your other one just because it has the same pickups. I moved the Blazes out of my Universe into my RG7620, and the exact same pickups sounded different in each guitar, both of which were made of basswood with maple necks and rosewood fretboards.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Hey there Tom. Welcome to Jemsite!!!

You can rest assured that there is nothing wrong with your guitar.....just your tech. He DID do the install completely wrong using the wrong pickup rings. I'll post your image for others to see.



He used pickup rings intended for a carved top guitar (Les Paul, PRS...etc) The rings for a flat top guitar (like all of our RG's) are supposed to be the same height all the way around. This is an easy fix because the correct rings are widely available and pretty cheap too.

My guess is that; since this "tech" didn't catch such a simple thing, he probably wired your HZ's incorrectly too. Not that the HZ's are very high output, but they should be comparable to your RG320 (depending on the wiring diagram used for each).

BTW...do you have more pics of your guitar?? It looks like an RG520 ('97-'01)
 
#10 ·
Weird! Every one of my Ibanez RGs with pickup rings are the angled ones like the ones you posted. The archtop rings I've seen, and had on my old Les Paul, were actually curved on the bottom to match the contour of the body top. There are different height angled rings: tall and short.
I have all of my rings installed with the tall side facing the bridge.

The tech that installed those sure did an odd job, though--they are not facing the same direction.

Another solution, and I'm thinking of doing this to my RGs with rings--just direct-mount the pickups. I just like the tone I get from direct-mounts better.

The obvious solution is to just get the flat-top rings if this is really that annoying to you.
 
#5 · (Edited)
I have a 1993 RG370 with exact the same pickup rings. It's an odd guitar: made in Japan, Edge bridge, full block neck joint, bought brand new in 1993, as far as I've been able to tell it was a model only found in Oz. All the ones I've ever heard about with this spec were bought through the exact same chain of stores in the same year.

Not a great pic but you can see it here.

http://www.jemsite.com/blog/ibanez-geek/
 
#6 ·
Thanks for your responses gents.

I can't move the pickup in its current position, so I'm going to have to unscrew it and turn it around to see if it makes a difference.
I assume it's that easy?
If that doesn't work I'll hunt down some flat rings and get it completely re-wired.

I understand there will be some differences between the two RG's, and I don't mind that at all. In fact that's good, but at the moment the difference is too substantial.
As RGTFanatic pointed out, they should at least be somewhat comparable.



It's definitely a 93 model (as denoted by the serial number).
I've had it since 2004 and I bought it from my friend who also bought it second hand back in 97.

I'd say it's the exact same model as Petie's. RG370.
That was a very interesting read.
I faced the same confusion myself, where I've not been able to find any other models the same, or any real info on any Ibanez sites.
That's the only one I've seen that matches the same description as mine.

To quote:
"Although I'll probably make sure the model number is printed somewhere that's easily visible, to avoid a lot of confusion for some poor kid some time in the future."
- yep, that's me haha

I did read somewhere that between 93 and 94 Ibanez manufactured a whole bunch of RG570 variants that were not in the official catalogue.
So this could indeed be a special batch for Australia.


Petie, are your pickup rings angled in the same direction as mine? or facing the other way?


Here are some pics btw (minus the http)

://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt233/helicopterspew/93RG1.jpg
://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt233/helicopterspew/93RG2.jpg
://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt233/helicopterspew/93RG3.jpg
://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt233/helicopterspew/93RG4.jpg
://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt233/helicopterspew/93RG5.jpg
 
#7 ·
Thanks for the pics man......Very nice. You've kept her in amazing condition.

Definitely an RG370/470 (same guitars, different markets), but yours is for sure part of a special order group. That's a rare beast you have.

I was thrown off be the chrome Edge and tape over the middle pup cavity.....
 
#12 ·
Well I turned that bridge pickup around and it made an unbelievable difference.
Now it sounds like a beast.
Strangely enough, with the rings turned around, the pickup seems to sit slightly on an angle in the ring itself.
So it's actually much more parallel with the strings now, rather than just being angled the other way.
I don't know if it's meant to be like that or is just a coincidence, but it works.

Thanks for the pics man......Very nice. You've kept her in amazing condition.

I was thrown off be the chrome Edge and tape over the middle pup cavity.....
Thanks. Unfortunately there is a few dings here and there which you can't see in the photos, but they were from the original owner (from before my friend owned it). But for the most part it's pretty straight.
The chrome Edge is also what was throwing me off in determining what model it was. Similar RG's from that period all seem to have black hardware.
 
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