[cooldude42]

New to modding guitars and wanted my first mod to be me replacing the single coils in my Ibanez AZES. The only issue is I don't understand how the wiring would work when adding new single coils. Most of the single coils I have looked at all have two wires, the ground and lead. But on the Ibanez switch, there is a Hot, cold and ground. How would that work when adding new single coils, and how does the dynamix-8 get affected by adding new coils? Also, are there any wiring diagrams that would be helpful for wiring this guitar?

 

[3bolt79]

If you got an AZES 31 you might consider keeping it stock, as some of the folks have tried to replace the pickups, only to discover they don’t just “drop in”.

I thought the pickups sounded really good through a cranked Mesa/Boogie Mark V with the gain backed off a bit.

 

[LonePhantom]

Yep, I'd read that the routes are not quite standard single coil size. I'm wanting to perform some sort of upgrade to mine, particularly around the bridge pickup. It sounds great in single coil mode, but when in "humbucker" mode it doesn't quite stack up to my ideal tone/performance. Tossing up switching the guard and getting a humbucker in place, so I can then split to single, like the AZES40 already does, or playing around with a single sized rail, etc, and doing something similar with the wiring still. I believe the wiring diagrams are pretty much like the higher end prestiges that use the same switching system, so search on that and you might get some ideas.

 

[3bolt79]

I wonder if the OP is coming back?

 

[liamonguitar]

This is a question from me too. I'm confused about replacing the azes pickup that has 3 wires with a new pickup that has 2 wires.

 

[LonePhantom]

So you have a traditional single coil pickup then? There will be colour codes for your pickup. One is the "hot" wire, it goes to the spot on the pickup selector that the old pickup connected to, and the other will be ground, attach to the back of a pot, etc.

 

[liamonguitar]

So you have a traditional single coil pickup then? There will be colour codes for your pickup. One is the "hot" wire, it goes to the spot on the pickup selector that the old pickup connected to, and the other will be ground, attach to the back of a pot, etc.

I tried like that. But alternative positions 1 and 5 don't work. And the sound of the guitar sounds like it's compressed.

 

[liamonguitar]

Just finished and finally successful. For 2-wire pickups, the ground wire must be connected to the cold on the switch board. At first I tried to connect the ground pickup to the volume pot. But there are 2 alternative positions that become inactive, and the sound sounds like it's compressed. After I moved the ground wire of each pickup to the cold slot on the switch board, only then did all positions function properly and the sound sounded normal, not compressed.

 

[LonePhantom]

Good to know! I've been interested in replacing mine. What did you put in, and did you find that the humbucker sounds were closer to sounding like a real humbucker? I've love the single coil sound from the stock pickups, but the bridge "humbucker" sound is a little lacklustre for my tastes, not tight enough and a little too muddy.

 

[3bolt79]

I am debating getting another one, the SSS in the new blue color, or the Ivory. I had them, and sold them. Actually I had a big gear purge to help a family member. The AZES in Ivory is the one That I wished I had kept.