Need wiring help?

[Michael_S]

I just got a 59 neck pickup, but turns out I got the one conductor version. I'm not too fussed about it, but I had my wiring all planned out expecting the 4 conductor one. I already have a Distortion Trembucker in the bridge, and it's with a 5 way switch on an Ibanez.
I replicated the wiring I had previously, but in that case both of my pickups had 4 conductors as well. The plan for the switch was as follows:

Pin 1 - Neck Red
Pin 2 - Neck White, links to pin 7
Pin 3 - Ground
Pin 4 - Bridge Red + White
Pin 5 - To tone pot
Pin 6 - Neck Green
Pin 7 - links to pin 2
Pin 8 - Bridge Black

That would give me the following arrangements:

Pos 1 - Neck
Pos 2 - Neck (parallel)
Pos 3 - Both pickups
Pos 4 - Inner single coils
Pos 5 - Bridge

Now, the Distortion is already connected in for those options, it's just the neck that's completely disconnected right now. The 5 way switch just confuses me. So, how should I wire it to get let's say

Pos 1 - Neck
Pos 2 - Neck
Pos 3 - Both
Pos 4 - Bridge single coil
Pos 5 - Bridge

??

Any help with the wiring arrangements would be appreciated, and if you could explain to me how the 5 way switch works for future reference, even better!

EDIT: And I should say, I probably got the pins wrong. I don't really know which pin is 8 and which is 1, but the order of them is right

[925SS]

Re: Need wiring help?

Why not just convert the 59 to 4 wire, it's not hard, just takes a little skill with an iron & some patients.
Or you could send it to SD to have it converted, or maybe someone here could help you out, find someone close to you.

[Michael_S]

Re: Need wiring help?

Why not just convert the 59 to 4 wire, it's not hard, just takes a little skill with an iron & some patients.
Or you could send it to SD to have it converted, or maybe someone here could help you out, find someone close to you.

I don't really think it'd be worth the hassle, especially sending it back all the way from the UK. And I could probably do with just a 2 way switch, to go from neck to bridge so the rest is really a formality.

[925SS]

Re: Need wiring help?

Yea, it would probably cost more then the pup itself to ship, convert, & ship back. There are many options here http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/ for different wiring setups

[Michael_S]

Re: Need wiring help?

I've already looked through those, there's little love for guitars like mine. I already have half of the wiring done, I just need to understand the 5 way switch a bit better to figure out how to wire in that one conductor wire I have

[925SS]

Re: Need wiring help?

I just need to understand the 5 way switch a bit better to figure out how to wire in that one conductor wire I have

I don't know if you've been here yet, but it may help you understand, just type in your model & year, hope this helps

http://www.ibanez.com/support/wiringdiagrams

Which year & model do you have, maybe someone here might be able to help.

[uOpt]

Re: Need wiring help?

You cannot have splits with 2-conductor pickups. Your "both inner coils" is a split.

However, to enable splitting you don't strictly have to convert all the way to 4-wire. You can just run a single wire to the middle of the pickup and put that on the switch to either shortcut one coil or to use the other.

[Myaccount876]

Re: Need wiring help?

Sell or trade it for a 4-conductor version of the '59. Easiest way to go other than converting it yourself.

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Need wiring help?

Adding that third wire as suggested by uOpt is really a piece of cake. Definitely worth it...simple and quick.

If you want to do it we will be glad to help you. All you have to do is take the black tape off and locate the two wires that are connected together. Take off the insulating tape and solder a third/additional wire to those two (you will have three wires soldered together). Tape them with a small amount of tape to insulate them. Put the black tape back on. You're done.

Now that you see how simple that was, you might as well convert your 59 to 4 conductor. 4 conductor will allow you to do both parallel and split like in your wiring plan.

After you take off the black tape and locate the two wires which are connected together, separate those wires and solder an additional wire to each of them and insulate them. Now you have 4 conductors.

For labeling purposes: one of those wires will show some continuity to the lead/hot/center/black wire of your pickup (measured on a multimeter it should be somewhere around 4k ohms). That wire is equivalent to the white wire of a 4 cond. pup (label that wire "white"). The other wire that you added will be equivalent to the red wire of a 4 cond pup and should read about 4k ohms with the ground/shield wire (label that wire "red"). The existing outer shield wire is equivalent to the green + plain wires of a 4 cond pup.

Replace the black tape around the coils and you're good to go...you've got a four conductor pup.