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Wiring for Slightly Odd Pickup Choices

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  • Wiring for Slightly Odd Pickup Choices

    This is my first post so I appreciate any assistance (although I have yet to contribute anything myself).

    I should note I have some electronics/soldering experience but the Zen of pickup wiring -- especially when it comes to phase and hum -- continues to elude me! I have been back and forth with SD on this but the responses take several days and are pretty brief. I'm pulling my hair out so I apologize for the wordy-ness. I still have most of the items on order and could change up if I do it fairly quickly.

    So...

    I am planning to rewire a H/S/H Ibanez (1 vol, 1 tone) with the following:
    ____
    JB in bridge

    Staggered Vintage RW/RP in middle (on backorder, I could change the RW/RP if i do it soon)

    Phat Cat bridge model in neck (originally ordered neck model but SD has indicated the bridge model is needed to hum cancel with the JB)
    ____
    According to my last clue from SD: "The JB's slug-coil will hum-cancel with the Phat Cat. The vintage rw/rp coil will also hum-cancel with the Phat Cat. The vintage rw/rp will NOT hum-cancel with the JB slug coil, though."

    I always figured the point of RW/RP was to hum-cancel in a typical H/S/H or S/S/S config but that's the Zen thing agian... Also using the bridge model Phat Cat seems wierd too but I guess I have to trust the source.

    What I'd like to do is wire this in the following way. Note I ordered a new 5 way Import switch form Guitar Electronics so it's probably more of a standard Fender type than the Ibanez type.

    Pos 1 -- JB
    Pos 2 -- JB (tapped slug coil) plus Phat Cat
    Pos 3 -- Phat Cat
    Pos 4 -- Phat Cat plus Vintage single
    Pos 5 -- Vintage single

    I realize this will be a little odd since the middle position will actually be wired to the Phat Cat in the neck but that's the only way to take advantage of the typical 5-way.

    So I have a few questions about this:

    1 -- Other than the swapped switch positions, would the wiring for this be fairly straightforward or are there any pitfalls you can see? I think (or hope) I can interpolate it from one of the available diagrams.

    2 -- If I added a push/pull to the Vol, how hard would it be to add the tapped JB plus Vintage to the mix? If I understand correctly, this would have to be the screw coil in the JB to hum-cancel.

    3 -- Would there be much advantage to doing so? I'm going for good tonal variety without complicating things or drilling/routing. If it seems like I would be better off replacing one of the 5 positions with the JB/Vintage, I could do that as well.

    The last question is pretty subjective, I know. I guess I'm going for the best variety using these pickups. I've never owned a P90 before so this will be the biggest novelty of the three. I decided on this partially because I really love the hot tone from guys like Jimmy Herring and Warren Haynes. My style is pretty eclectic but generally based in classic/progressive/jam style rock.

    Thanks for hearing my case.

    chrisL

  • #2
    Re: Wiring for Slightly Odd Pickup Choices

    i can't really see anything wrong with it, i hope it works well for you

    about not having the jb and the vintage position, i think the bridge/neck position is much more usable and it should have an interesting tone.
    Cleveland Guitars

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