59 model + Pearly Gates in Ibanez Wiring help

[muziqman]

Hey Guys

Yes I'm new here... sort of... anyhow I have an Ibanez RG321MH with SD pups. A 59 for the Neck and Pearly Gates for the Bridge. This guitar also has the stock, strat looking, Ibanez 3-way switch. So originally I tried wiring them up myself and made a mess of things.. lol. and consequently had a local guitar tech fix things up for me. Long story short, for some reason it's wired so it's only hum-canceling with the switch in the middle... and I get lots of hum in either the neck or bridge position... and of course this is relative to the amount of gain/distortion I'm using.
Question: How do I fix the wiring so they are hum-canceling in all 3 positions.... like I thought they would be in the first place... seeing as they are both humbuckers. I can provide pictures or I can make up a schematic of what it looks like now if that would help things.

I can live with it the way it is but once I start playin Van Halen or Zeppelin or Hendrix my world if filled with buzz and hum. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: 59 model + Pearly Gates in Ibanez Wiring help

is this your switch?

five way?
this is what Hoshino Gakki says it comes with
https://cs.hoshinogakki.co.jp/i-public/faces/Login00.jsp
check here
select country and login
> Catalog search
>> model series
>>> model
>>>>> parts list
if so I had the Same switch in my RG2

it was set up for
neck full
neck in parallel
neck and bridge full
neck single and bridge single
bridge full

like this

did you say yours was a toggle? or blade switch
let me know and we'll sort out the trouble

oh and welcome to the Forum

EDIT
also check out the link in my signature line
it takes you to the Ibanez Wiring diagrams

 

[muziqman]

Re: 59 model + Pearly Gates in Ibanez Wiring help

Ok I must have the memory of an 80 year old. Once you asked about the switch I remembered the tech replaced the switch with this badboy:

It's a CRL 3-way switch that you would use in a Telecaster it seems.

Also remember the 59 pup is a single conductor pickup and can not be wired like a stock Ibanez pickup without some surgery to the pup itself.

 

[muziqman]

Re: 59 model + Pearly Gates in Ibanez Wiring help

lets try this again:

 

[muziqman]

Re: 59 model + Pearly Gates in Ibanez Wiring help

and again

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: 59 model + Pearly Gates in Ibanez Wiring help

so what you want is

neck full
both full
bridge full

everything humbucking

is this correct?

should be able to follow this diagram
the single conductor 59
the middle conductor is the black wire in diagram
and the bare shielding is the green/bare (goes to ground)
the rest is just as drawn

 

[muziqman]

Re: 59 model + Pearly Gates in Ibanez Wiring help

Thanx for the reply ehdwuld. Now I just need to modify whats already there to the schematic you posted. It looks similar but there are differences. Also I'm curious how the sound of guitar will change.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: 59 model + Pearly Gates in Ibanez Wiring help

I put the Jazz/JB in my RG2
and the duncans added some overtones and stuff the Ibanez pickups didnt have


EDIT
did yours come with the INF pickups or the V-series?

 

[muziqman]

Re: 59 model + Pearly Gates in Ibanez Wiring help

It came with the INF pickups. I really did not like the pickups, especially for the style of music I play, but I really loved the rest of the guitar. Great craftsmanship, wide neck, big fret, solid bridge, all for a reasonable price. Once I dropped the new pups in, the guitar was exactly what I wanted.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: 59 model + Pearly Gates in Ibanez Wiring help

The INF pickups that came in my RG4
I liked the bridge as it was overwound with an Alnico 5 mag
sounded ok
the neck was just too loud and muddy for my tastes

fine for shredding I guess

 

[muziqman]

Re: 59 model + Pearly Gates in Ibanez Wiring help

yeah I agree, the INF pups might be good for shredding or metal in general... but would not work the style I normally play, which is blues, blues-rock and classic rock.

 

[muziqman]

Re: 59 model + Pearly Gates in Ibanez Wiring help

Ok, so I made some changes to how the switch was wired to conform to the schematic and for some reason nothing worked at all... no sound out of either pickup. Is it possible that not all 3-way switches are wired the same ? needless to say after further inspection of the switch itself I rewired it back to what the tech had done and it works again.

 

[muziqman]

Re: 59 model + Pearly Gates in Ibanez Wiring help

Heres what things looked like

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: 59 model + Pearly Gates in Ibanez Wiring help

hmm
looking at the picture of the switch
and the diagrams above I would have to surmise that you have a mirror image of the switch

look at the photo of the switch

the terminal on the far right side
has the leg that extends way down and is always in contact with the wiper

this is your common leg where the hot from the volume cones in

in the schematic diagram above they get round this by putting a pickup on each common
and the hot to the positional terminals

in the original diagram above if it were a mirror image of it self the hot would come in and the pickup jumpers would work

so either do it like the schematic

or flip the original over

do ya see what I'm talkin bout?

 

[muziqman]

Re: 59 model + Pearly Gates in Ibanez Wiring help

I can now say that my wiring is identical to the schematic and it works. I think this morning, because the position and orientation of the components is different than what is shown on the schematic I was over-thinking it and consequently had things backwards = my bad :banghead::banghead:. If the wife hadn't taken the camera I could take a pic and show you. Now that things are indeed wired the way they should I believe this has turned into a shielding or inherent hum of the pups themselves issue.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: 59 model + Pearly Gates in Ibanez Wiring help

so you are getting hum with either pickup individually but not together?

got a multimeter?

insert guitar chord into jack
turn volume all the way down ( off )
set multimeter to ohms
one lead to the bridge metal (face of guitar)
one lead to the sleeve of the exposed end of jack ( thats the part just below the black ring , the tip is well the tip )
called a tip/sleeve or tip/ring jack
stereo jacks like on your headphones are called tip/ring/sleeve as they have two sleeve positions
I digress

the ohms should be 0.1 or some such
turn volume up
test tip to bridge

this will tell you if you have your hot ground reversed on the jack
which is probably what is happening

 

[muziqman]

Re: 59 model + Pearly Gates in Ibanez Wiring help

I don't have a mulitmeter.. but I know I can borrow one easily. Thanx for your continued help ehdwuld, I appreciate it.