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Wiring help needed for RT450 - HSH with 5-way & push/pull

18K views 9 replies 5 participants last post by  fastlerner 
#1 ·
Hi guys, guitar noob and first time poster so be gentle! :)

I have an Ibanez RT-450 with the HSH and a push-pull for the split on the humbuckers. The original 5-way finally got so bad that I decided to replace it. The local guitar store did not have the original YM-50 in stock and sold me a Fender 5-way.

Obviously I learned the hard way (after installing) that the switch is not the same. It also looked like the wiring had been toyed with before I got it so I'd like to restore it to original. No luck finding the wiring on Ibanez site as I believe mine is a 91 and they only go back to 94.

Does anyone either have this diagram or can they point me to another newer model that would use the same wiring?

Also, do I need to stick with the YM-50 or is there another 5-way out there that will do the same job?

Finally, does anyone have any insight into what's going on inside the YM-50? I found one post where someone took it apart and posted what they found, but it's so old the site hosing the info is no more.

THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!
 
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#3 ·
Thanks! I think I found the one you're talking about:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=HSH_1v_1t_5w_pushpull

The wiring looks considerably different, presumably because of the different 5-way. Do you know if this will give me the same pickup combos? I'm no wiring genius, but it looks like it will. (neck, neck + center, center, center + bridge, bridge)

Also, is there anything special going on inside that YM-50 that I'll need to account for when replacing with the standard switch?

Thanks again. I'm trying to keep from re-stringing over and over. :)
 
#4 · (Edited)
Huh, looking deeper at that diagram and it does not appear to do what I want. The 5 way should work like this:

1 Position is the Bridge Humbucker.
2 Position is the Inside Bridge coil and Middle single.
3 Position is just the Single.
4 Position is the Inside Neck coil and the Middle single.
5 Position is the Neck Humbucker.


And the push/pull split the Humbucker to a single in positions 1 & 5. I can't see how that can be what the Seymour diagram does.

EDIT: It looks like the Seymour diagram would change from H-S-H to S-S-S when you pull the knob. If I can't find anything else I might go that route, but I'd rather have the original combos as I listed above.

On the upside, I found a page that gives a good description of the switch contacts. Using that I should be able to map the connections to the fender 5-way, but it would be great to confirm the original wiring diagram.
http://www.guitarnucleus.com/wiring.html#switchwire

Anyone else have a similarly wired Jem out there?
 
#5 ·
Well, after doing enough reading I decided to open her back up and see if I could repair the mess. That's when I discovered that the stock bridge HB only has 2 leads, so it COULDN'T have been doing what I was told it was doing. (The neck HB had been replaced with a Duncan with split.)

I ended up rewiring the whole mess using this Seymour Duncan diagram and everything worked great:
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=HSH_1v_1t_5w_pushpull

Then today I was looking back at one of the Jem diagrams I had discarded because it didn't have the correct config (no push/pull switch) and with what I had learned reading, I had a EUREKA moment.

Here's the two I had initially passed over for lack of switch:
http://www.dimarzio.com/media/diagrams/C.pdf
http://static.keebali.com/jemsite.com/tech/img/t_wd_777.gif

I suddenly realized that if I connected the output of the second half of the 5-way (the only open tab) to the switch and then switch to ground, I could turn the HB to singles in positions 1 & 5 by pulling the switch!

The diagram below shows the mod I'm talking about. Tone is a push/pull and the new wires are in color.

My next mod will be to replace the bridge HB with a better quality and split. At that point I'll most likely go with the new modified Jem wiring below.

THANKS GUYS! I learned a lot with this little project.

 
#6 ·
sorry you went through all that trouble. i have a wiring diagram for the rt450 that i can email you. i went through a nightmare-ish time with a couple of luthiers who screwed up the wiring after changing out the humbuckers, but i was able to find the wiring scheme a few years ago. let me know if you still need it.
 
#9 ·
Wow, thanks phantoms. That actually clears things up a bit. The modified Jem schematic I came up with should do exactly the same thing but is for 4-wire Humbuckers.

Also I can infer from the one you posted that the original humbuckers do indeed have a split, but only use 2 wires and a bare ground. So red-bare equals full humbucker and when you send white to ground it cancels the second coil and turns into single. I didn't know they made a 2 wire humbucker with a split, but that's the only way the schematic makes sense. I always thought the bare wire was just to ground the shield but I guess Ibanez made it part of the pickup circuit.

As I have a 4 wire and a 2 wire, next string change I'm going to play with the setup some more to get mine closer to factory.

I also thought it a nice example of "engrish" on the schematic you posted. Under model, it's listed as "SPRIT-5" instead of Split-5. :D
 
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