H/H/H wiring

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Re: H/H/H wiring

I don't have WiFi or cable. I live in a house on the outskirts of a small Irish town, my neighbors are all pensioners and no military or technology infrastructure around. Also, why would a good continuity tested Faraday cage, one that they put in all custom-made top Dollar guitars today, would add hum instead of decreasing it. Also the hum was disappearing at Volume on Max without me playing or touching the guitar and that's on very pumped up distorted sound as you can hear from my sound check videos. Why would the EMF disappear when the volume is on Max?
 
Re: H/H/H wiring

I haven't played other guitar in my house but I played this guitar with the original Ibanez Quantum pickups and electronics in it. I didn't have any noise issues but the sound wasn't what I wanted so all Ibanez intestines were shipped to the US over eBay and some guy loved them :)

I bought the guitar recently brand new, threw away all Ibanez electronics and replaced them with DiMarzio. Now this is the sound I was looking for but the noise issue came as plague over my great sounding DigiTech RP360 XP - all effects I need in a single box. No cluttered cabels, pedal boards and racks. Nice and clean.
https://youtu.be/86gu62-2eqs
 
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Re: H/H/H wiring

Just a warning: When you're all done figuring out how to do this you'll probably only love three or four of those settings enough to use them.

I wired my Strat for 10 tones.

Guess which ones I use?

The stock ones!

I would like to repeat this sentiment. Everyone who gets into custom wiring goes for the guitar that can do anything and thinks they'll use all of them, but they never do.

If you ask me, the perfect number of sounds for a guitar is 3 if they are all distinct and usable. Any more than that and the situations where one position is useful starts to overlap. For example, most songs that I play with the neck pickup on a Strat also work well with the neck/middle position.

But this is the sort of information that even if God, Van Halen, and the ghost of Bill Lawrence came down and told it to you 1000 times, you still wouldn't really "know" it until you learned it for yourself.
 
Re: H/H/H wiring

I would like to repeat this sentiment. Everyone who gets into custom wiring goes for the guitar that can do anything and thinks they'll use all of them, but they never do.

If you ask me, the perfect number of sounds for a guitar is 3 if they are all distinct and usable. Any more than that and the situations where one position is useful starts to overlap. For example, most songs that I play with the neck pickup on a Strat also work well with the neck/middle position.

But this is the sort of information that even if God, Van Halen, and the ghost of Bill Lawrence came down and told it to you 1000 times, you still wouldn't really "know" it until you learned it for yourself.
Thanks.
We all have 3 favourite positions we use 99% of the time no matter how many we have, the question is which three. I already agreed with that statement.
All I need now is to find some use for the third hole I drilled in my Ibanez for the toggle switch and get rid of the Volume down hum.
 
Re: H/H/H wiring

I don't have WiFi or cable. I live in a house on the outskirts of a small Irish town, my neighbors are all pensioners and no military or technology infrastructure around. Also, why would a good continuity tested Faraday cage, one that they put in all custom-made top Dollar guitars today, would add hum instead of decreasing it. Also the hum was disappearing at Volume on Max without me playing or touching the guitar and that's on very pumped up distorted sound as you can hear from my sound check videos. Why would the EMF disappear when the volume is on Max?

This is the first time you disclosed that the guitar had a Faraday cage setup.

I can say from a wiring diagram perspective, that I don't see anything wrong with that wiring diagram that would cause that noise issue. That is why I started asking questions about other possible causes for the noise.

My "area of expertise" is wiring diagrams - and that doesn't mean that I claim to be an expert either, lol. You probably should start a separate thread to ask about the noise issue. There are other members in this forum who are more knowledgeable about that subject and can assist/advice on that.

I am glad to continue to assist you from a wiring diagram design perspective.
 
Re: H/H/H wiring

I believe you on 101%. Obviously my first attempted wiring diagram is correct and that's why I'm starting to suspect that it is ME, it is I who don't understand it properly so I wire it wrong and I will do it again.
It would be very kind of you if you draw an idiot proof diagram for me before I do exactly the same mistake that I did before.
:D
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0fbauynih6zn82v/old wiring.jpg?dl=0
 
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Re: H/H/H wiring

I believe you on 101%. Obviously my first attempted wiring diagram is correct and that's why I'm starting to suspect that it is ME, it is I who don't understand it properly so I wire it wrong and I will do it again.
It would be very kind of you if you draw an idiot proof diagram for me before I do exactly the same mistake that I did before.
:D
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0fbauynih6zn82v/old wiring.jpg?dl=0

The diagram seems fine as-is, so there is nothing for me to change if I tried to create a fool-proof one like you requested.

If you experience problems after wiring it up, reply back with a description of the problem and be ready to take photos of the wiring work and post them in replies if we ask for that.
 
Re: H/H/H wiring

I'm almost ready.
I know it's personal preference by trial and error but would you suggest which capacitor should I use and should I use just one or two? I'm seeing most of the Ibanez original schematics have two capacitors 330k + 223k or 330k + 0.022uF.
I got 473k, 330k and 223k at hand.
 
Re: H/H/H wiring

I'm almost ready.
I know it's personal preference by trial and error but would you suggest which capacitor should I use and should I use just one or two? I'm seeing most of the Ibanez original schematics have two capacitors 330k + 223k or 330k + 0.022uF.
I got 473k, 330k and 223k at hand.

I don't recognize Ibanez using 2 capacitors for the tone control. Could you post a pic of a diagram that has an example of that?
 
Re: H/H/H wiring

I'm almost ready.
I know it's personal preference by trial and error but would you suggest which capacitor should I use and should I use just one or two? I'm seeing most of the Ibanez original schematics have two capacitors 330k + 223k or 330k + 0.022uF.
I got 473k, 330k and 223k at hand.

Also, capacitor are measured in Microfarads (uF), not kilo-ohms (Kohms).

See method 2 in this article for how to read the cap values printed on them. Based on the values you wrote above, it seems your caps are 0.047uF, 0.033uF, and 0.022uF, which are all decent choices to use on a passive pickup guitar's tone pot. The higher the cap value, the more treble frequencies will be cut by the tone pot. Most Duncan diagrams for two passive humbucker guitars list a 0.047uF cap value for the tone pot.

https://www.wikihow.com/Read-a-Capacitor
 
Re: H/H/H wiring

The second diagram I tried and failed (the last bottom 4th link in my first post) has two capacitors 331uF + 223uF
 
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Re: H/H/H wiring

The second diagram I tried and failed (the last bottom 4th link in my first post) has two capacitors 331uF + 223uF

The cap marked "331" in that diagram (which is a value of 0.0033 microfarads) is not part of the Tone Control. It is attached to the Volume control and is functioning as a "Treble Bleed Network" - and all that means is that it helps prevent loss of treble frequencies as you turn the volume control down.
 
Re: H/H/H wiring

I made the wiring tidier this time. It looks much better but sounds the same and even worse.

It still have the same "Volume down = increasing hum" but also the Tone pot doesn't work at all, it doesn't change the sound and the middle pickup lost its brightness.

I knocked on the coils to check and they are split exactly like before so no difference from my old diagram: https://www.dropbox.com/s/z8h0387il4fuzyt/20200106_025705.jpg?dl=0

What I did different from before:
- Used two new pots.
- Used the pull push as Tone this time.
- Maybe the last time I used 022uF instead of 047uF capacitor.

Wiring Video
1. https://youtu.be/geMitzVwFTo
2. https://youtu.be/v7nvNiyppI4
3. https://youtu.be/LK9wFZj1gbM
4. https://youtu.be/JhxQ_ZIblyA

Wiring Pictures
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wt17jqg1kqhbdjn/AACe4zRibhrMfGJRWGPfWE1wa?dl=0

Obviously I'm doing something wrong here.
Is it possible for the mini switch to be faulty and to create the noise? Maybe we should try the same wiring with my DiMarzio switch?
And wtf did the Tone disappear? lol

Three unsuccessful attempts without having the slightest idea what's going on. Honestly I feel like giving up. ��
 
Re: H/H/H wiring

I made the wiring tidier this time. It looks much better but sounds the same and even worse.

It still have the same "Volume down = increasing hum" but also the Tone pot doesn't work at all, it doesn't change the sound and the middle pickup lost its brightness.

I knocked on the coils to check and they are split exactly like before so no difference from my old diagram: https://www.dropbox.com/s/z8h0387il4fuzyt/20200106_025705.jpg?dl=0

What I did different from before:
- Used two new pots.
- Used the pull push as Tone this time.
- Maybe the last time I used 022uF instead of 047uF capacitor.

Wiring Video
1. https://youtu.be/geMitzVwFTo
2. https://youtu.be/v7nvNiyppI4
3. https://youtu.be/LK9wFZj1gbM
4. https://youtu.be/JhxQ_ZIblyA

Wiring Pictures
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wt17jqg1kqhbdjn/AACe4zRibhrMfGJRWGPfWE1wa?dl=0

Obviously I'm doing something wrong here.
Is it possible for the mini switch to be faulty and to create the noise? Maybe we should try the same wiring with my DiMarzio switch?
And wtf did the Tone disappear? lol

Three unsuccessful attempts without having the slightest idea what's going on. Honestly I feel like giving up. ��

Sorry to hear that but I will try to troubleshoot. I will look at the pics this evening and get back to you. My timezone is EST, fyi.

Did you meter check the new components b4 you installed them?

Also, have you continuity checked all soldered components?
 
Re: H/H/H wiring

Yes. I measured the new pots before the installation.
This time I checked with the multimeter religiously after every single soldering. You can see the final check in the video too.
I don't believe you could actually see what's going on in that jungle of wires. We need remote viewer clairvoyant jedy here :D
 
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