Help eith Ibanez SA160 p/up problem please

axman1

New member
I just spent several hours fixing new SD p/ups to my SA160 with SDBR-1 (Duckbucker) Neck, STK-S1 Classic Stack Middle and JB Trembucker at the Bridge.

The Neck & Middle units were straightforward to wire and connect as per the previous units - even though the SDBR is 4 wire, the instructions reduced the wire count to 2 and made re-connection easy.

However, the Bridge is another story as the old humbucker used 3 wires -Red, White and Earth braid, with the first two connecting to different points on the 5-way selector switch. The link below is the wiring diagram of the original setup. As I'm something of a novice I don't know what the Red & White wires are in terms of start/end coil North/South etc.

http://www.ibanez.com/wiring/wire.asp?y=2004&w=SA160

This is where I came unstuck. I followed the instructions for Standard humbucking operation (series wiring) and joined the Red & White and taped them off, linked Green & Bare braid together to ground and linked the remaining Black to where the original Red wire connected to the 5-way. This meant I was one link "short" from the original and when I tried the guitar I got output from 4 of the 5 switch positions - Neck, Neck+Middle, Middle, Middle+Bridge - but the last position gave nothing.

I searched the SD pages and found reference to wiring a humbucker to a Strat 5-way and took the Green off the ground and linked it to the 5-way in the old White position. Now the guitar is getting output in all 5 positions but the Bridge humbucker appears to have slightly lower output and seems a little "thin".

Can anyone please tell me if I have this right or if I've made a ****-up somewhere ? The Neck & Middle units sound fantastic but the JB seems weak by comparison.

Hope you can help. Any guidance will be much appreciated.
 
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Re: Help with Ibanez SA160 p/up problem please

Re: Help with Ibanez SA160 p/up problem please

Following up another thread of investigation I found this web link with an explanation of the old humbucker wiring :-

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/product/WDUHSS5L1101

Working with these cables colours and the SD instructions I'm now looking at reconnecting the JB Trembucker as :-

Black to the old White switch pole (say position 1)
Red + White to the old Red switch pole (say position 6)
Green + Bare wires to Ground

These would appear to map the various North/South start/end coil positions with the original but if anyone can confirm it will be useful.

Cheers
 
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