Wiring help Ibanez RG 721 Premium

[Rocksmitson]

Helou
I installed SD Sentiel&Peagus combo for my Ibanez RG 721 (five way switch). Its working decently but i want to check and confirm that everything is wired correctly. This is what makes me wonder: Stock pups my presets gain is on 0. This is still more then enough for good distortion with Mesa sneaky amp modeller in Katana 100. With new SD pup i have to adjust the gain higher even when they are marked as "high output" Thats why im suspecting there is something wrong with the wiring.
Link for guitar:

https://ibanez.fandom.com/wiki/RG721RW

Link for the new pups:

https://www.seymourduncan.com/pickup/pegasus-sentient-set

[BeKindRewind]

Re: Wiring help Ibanez RG 721 Premium

I think there's a good chance the SD set you put in are lower output than the Ibanez pickups. They're not exactly high gain screamers, but the default Ibanez ones could be something like 15-17k

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[Rocksmitson]

Re: Wiring help Ibanez RG 721 Premium

The sustain is also low. How much distance is recommended between pickup and the strings ?

[BeKindRewind]

Re: Wiring help Ibanez RG 721 Premium

The sustain is also low. How much distance is recommended between pickup and the strings ?

Ok that is definitely odd. They should have plenty of sustain , usually if the sustain is abnormally low you might have your pickups too close to the strings (the magnets pull too hard to let the strings vibrate freely) but it shouldn't be noticeably low. Maybe it is a wiring issue after all. There are some wiring gurus around here who may be able to help you if you post some pictures of your wiring

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[ArtieToo]

Re: Wiring help Ibanez RG 721 Premium

This may be a long shot, but you do realize that the color codes of the Ibby pups and Duncans is different. You can't just wire them up color for color.

[Rocksmitson]

Re: Wiring help Ibanez RG 721 Premium

Some photos of wiring. On the left is stock and on the right is SD. Volume and tone nobs are working fine and the blade.

[ArtieToo]

Re: Wiring help Ibanez RG 721 Premium

There are several problems here. The first, is that Ibanez now makes it difficult, or impossible, to get their wiring diagrams. I can't just download the RG721 diagram to inspect it. Second, in your first pic, that doesn't look like Ibby factory soldering, so it may have been messed with. In the 2nd pic, there's a bunch of weird things going on. Terminals 4 & 5 are the commons. It looks like the white wire on #4, wraps around and is twisted with the black wire that goes to the volume control. That means that your red/white wires would be acting as your hot wires. The black wire on #5 appears to be going to either the pickup wire (green arrow), or the ground connection (yellow arrow). Neither connection makes sense. Your red/white wires are connected to #4 in positions 1,2,4,5, and then connected to #2 in positions 2 & 4. I can't tell where the white wire on #2 goes to. It appears to connect to either #7 or #8. Again, it makes no sense.

I would do this. Put the 5-way in position #1, then tap gently on each coil, (and I mean of ALL pickups), to see what's active. Write it down, and do the same for all 5 positions. Let us know what's active in each position.

[Mincer]

Re: Wiring help Ibanez RG 721 Premium

Hw does the 5 way work in this guitar? What are all of the positions?

[ArtieToo]

Re: Wiring help Ibanez RG 721 Premium

Using my pic, with the handle moving from far right to far left, you have the following terminals shorted together:

1-4, 5-6
1-2-4, 5-6-7
2-4, 5-7
2-3-4, 5-7-8
3-4, 5-8

4 and 5 are the commons.

[Mincer]

Re: Wiring help Ibanez RG 721 Premium

That makes more sense to me. Man, switches like that confuse me more.

[Rocksmitson]

Re: Wiring help Ibanez RG 721 Premium

Hw does the 5 way work in this guitar? What are all of the positions?

From the link you can see all the postions of the switch

http://archive.is/2017.11.13-193511/http://www.ibanez.com/products/eg_detail17.php?year=2017&cat_id=1&series_id=1&data_id=168&color=CL01&area_id=2

[Rocksmitson]

Re: Wiring help Ibanez RG 721 Premium

Does this wiring diagram help ? I know its wrong model but if the wiring idea is similar to my Iba.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwj1i7bFl-LkAhUHwMQBHVVwAq8QjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegearpage.net%2Fboard%2Findex.php%3Fthreads%2F5-way-switch-for-ibanez-hh-wiring.1985453%2F&psig=AOvVaw1O6YNZHJFq1nKREmmPB1FM&ust=1569164525037908

[ArtieToo]

Re: Wiring help Ibanez RG 721 Premium

That definitely helps. Let me study that and see if I can translate it to Duncan colors. I've actually been down this road before, but I'm getting old. And/or senile.

[Rocksmitson]

Re: Wiring help Ibanez RG 721 Premium

Thank you very much sir

[Rocksmitson]

Re: Wiring help Ibanez RG 721 Premium

Update: I did the wiring as in the picture and i think the bridge pickup is now working as intented. Good distortion, clear sound and it splits also in lever positon 4 (counted from neck to bridge). I couldnt get sound from neck pickup so i changed the wiring. I put the neck pu red wire to same place as the white in terminal 8. Now i get sounds from both pickups. In lever positon 2 i think neck pickup is not working as parallel or it is just a minor change in sound. Its not so important to me. In lever postion 1 and 2 the sound is sometimes vanishing but its loose connection with the lever itself. If i tap gently on it the sound is coming back. So overall this was my first pickup change and im happy with the result. I just need new lever