[Sponge Monkey]

Ok err... folks. i tried this last night aaanndd.... well, it doesnt work
haha! a real pain for me #_# ill take a look at it when i have more time. sunday probably.

 

[vai n maiden]

Uh - oh. I left my strat with a tech and this diagram.

 

[Sponge Monkey]

aha! oh dear! maybe it'll be ok, it may just be my poor wiring.
the main problem is, no output in parallel mode for positions 1 and 5. but im sure if he's a good tech he'll get it!

 

[chafinlw]

Hey, Spnge Monkey, don't let the solution go unposted. I'm in the process of putting together a similar wiring scheme - with DiMarzio Evos in the bridge and neck and a SC in the mid position, push pull pots to coil tap the 2 Evos, and a 5-way switch to direct the action. I'm really pretty much a spedhead on this stuff, but I can read a schematic, do a decent job of soldering without it looking like it was done in Dresden during the firestorm, and am looking to wire this thing up for my kid kinda like Vai's rig, but with coil tapping. (Is that redundent?) I'm really looking for guidance on how to do this stuff, and this is the best stop I've made on the web so far. Looks like your first schematic would do what I'm trying to do - assuming the colors are right for the DiMarzios. Any advice folks?

 

[djohns74]

Hey, Spnge Monkey, don't let the solution go unposted. I'm in the process of putting together a similar wiring scheme - with DiMarzio Evos in the bridge and neck and a SC in the mid position, push pull pots to coil tap the 2 Evos, and a 5-way switch to direct the action. I'm really pretty much a spedhead on this stuff, but I can read a schematic, do a decent job of soldering without it looking like it was done in Dresden during the firestorm, and am looking to wire this thing up for my kid kinda like Vai's rig, but with coil tapping. (Is that redundent?) I'm really looking for guidance on how to do this stuff, and this is the best stop I've made on the web so far. Looks like your first schematic would do what I'm trying to do - assuming the colors are right for the DiMarzios. Any advice folks?

Hey, I just realized that to start with, the OP here was trying to achieve a series/parallel switch along with standard Ibanez 5-way wiring, not a coil tap, which should be relatively simple. So I don't think any of these diagrams will be appropriate for you. I found the following in another thread, which should do the trick:

The red and green wires in the diagram should be the only addition to the existing wiring. This shuts off one coil of each humbucker when the switch is pulled up, so you get single coil sounds in the 1 and 5 positions. Positions 2-4 are unaffected by the push-pull as there is already automatic coil-tapping in those positions.

Now, as for whether this is worthwhile, that's up to the individual player of course. I personally don't care for coil-tapped humbuckers by themselves that much. You tend to end up with something that reduces the output level a lot, which of course is expected, but I think it reduces it to the point that it's ever lower than a standard single coil pickup. In addition, guitars with humbuckers tend to have 500K pots, so a single coil, especially in the bridge position, can tend to sound really bright, to the point of being somewhat harsh.

I'm not really a big fan of single coil sounds in general, so my opinion in the matter should be taken with a larger grain of salt than usual. As such, I'd have a hard time recommending an appropriate replacement middle pickup, though if you're going with Evos, I should think the Evo middle (sometimes called the ISCV2) might be a good bet. Someone else might have more thoughts on that issue.

As for where to get parts, there are a couple of good resources online. I generally like Stewart-MacDonald (http://www.stewmac.com/) even though some of their stuff is a little overpriced. For something small like pots and switches, the difference, if any, is negligible. You may only need to get a single push-pull pot, found here.

 

[Sponge Monkey]

Yeah, i was going for parallel switching on each humbucker with standard ibanez 5 way switch.

it didn't work

i WAS gonna have a split coil option like you're going for but decided that parallel switching would be more worthwhile.
sorry i can't be of any more help, and goodluck!

 

[Vim Fuego]

I'm shure the scematic should work, have you got the coil wire colours correct?
Why not check the schematic with the guys at Bareknuckle?
I don't suppose you're anywhere near the South West UK are you?
Jim

 

[chafinlw]

Hey, thanks for the help - I'll let th' rotten kid go sit with a coil tapped guitar and see if he likes the sounds that come out. He's got a Jem77V to compare it to. Now about that switch - is it a standard one or is it an Ibanez designed for the JEM?

 

[Sponge Monkey]

The 5-way or the DPDT?

the DPDT is just a push/pull i ordered from bareknuckles for about £7.50

and the 5-way is a standard 5 way that was already in my RG.

and @Vim, nope im the other side: south east

 

[Vim Fuego]

Ok too far for me to check it for you...
@chafinlw: The Jem has a different switch, or at least the new ones do, it should be possible to work out the equivalent schematic. If not I can paste the jem version if that helps.
Jim

 

[Sponge Monkey]

@Vim Fuego, i'd just like to point out... you are an incredibly helpful person

thankyou!

 

[vai n maiden]

Well the tech's not called me to say mine's not working and I'll be picking it up on Saturday - so I'm hoping Vim's right! Those were DiMarzio colours though weren't they? Not sure whether BKP have them another way around!

 

[Sponge Monkey]

yeah they were dimarzio colours, and BKP's ARE a bit different. BKP's go Red, Green, White, Black (from the top down), i believe...

if i'm wrong then... that would explain my botched installation

 

[Vim Fuego]

Just to put this to bed... from the Bareknuckle site, this is correct:

as posted earlier, so the final diagram would be:

With the correct wire colours for the BKPs
Jim

 

[lwchafin]

OK, djohns & vim - thanks for the help - I've ordered everything I think I'll need to do this, plus a couple of extra pots and such to keep around for this or that miscellaneous dabbling. I ended up ordereing enough parts (after all they're pretty cheap) to use either push-pull or standard pots - 250 or 500 ohm, and after not being able to find an Ibanez JEM switch, ordered a 5 way mega switch from Stew-Mac. If I can't get it to behave, I'll post its schematic on the site and elicit your further help - will probably be a couple of weeks at least before I dive in, but I'll post to let you know how it goes.

btw, lwchafin is the new ID since the old one (chafinlw) got lost (story of my life I guess) along with the password I forgot and the link to change it that didn't work.:?

 

[Vim Fuego]

I'd be happy to help, pm me when you have the schematic and I'll check it.
Jim

 

[vai n maiden]

Just to update guys - I got my strat back. When the tech wired up as per the diagram when the dpdts were engaged positions 2 and 4 went dead. That may have been to do with the strat having a middle and neck tone control though as the middle tone's now wired to the bridge pup and it works fine. With the splitting already there when you have the pups in parallel you're essentially doing the same thing but with coils from the same pickup - it's quite a subtle difference but it's nice to open up a few more sounds!

Overall experience gained - probably a better plan for an HH guitar rather than an HSH one, or perhaps if one is using a neck humbucker that doesn't pretty much sound like a single coil anyway. Regardless my pristine, beautiful, tasteful white strat now looks like frankenstein's monster so I'm happy

 

[Sponge Monkey]

nice to hear you're happy with the result!
when i have the time, im gonna go in and switch the DPDT switches for regular.
i dont hink im getting the most out of my pickups (probably due to some dodgy wiring) so im just gonna stick to standard, and keep it clean!

 

[vai n maiden]

I probably wouldn't bother in future for an HSH but it's a nice option with an H-H on a superswitch or what have you. (position 4 on superswitch RGs has neck pickup wired parallel as standard if I recall correctly)