HSH into HH wiring

[JunyNovember]

Hello,

first of all I'd like to thank everyone on this forum. I've created my account just yesterday and this is my first post, but this place has been one of the most useful websites I've ever visited! I found answers to many questions and even more here.

I am planning to upgrade my Ibanez RG570 with Pegasus/Sentient set since the stock pickups are craaaap. However, the guitar is in HSH configuration with a 5-way switch. What I want is leave the single coil pickup completely disconnected and use only the SD pickups (HH configuration) - BUT I want to be able to use the coil split sounds of the SDs too (so make all the 5 positions usable).

I am not guitar tech and don't know anything about wiring, so I hope that what I've written is understandable and of course actually doable.

Thanks for any responses/opinions!

 

[Mincer]

Re: HSH into HH wiring

Welcome to the forum!

What would you like the 5 positions of the switch to do? If you have a regular 5 way, this diagram may work. If you have a 5 way Super Switch, look at this one.

 

[JunyNovember]

Re: HSH into HH wiring

I have a regular 5 way. I thought 5 way super switch will be necessary for this to work, but I am glad to hear it isn't!

As I said already, I have no experience with wiring and so on, so unfortunately these diagrams tell me nothing, aren't there any schemes for dummies? (like https://imgur.com/a/ejza0u0 just for example)

 

[JunyNovember]

Re: HSH into HH wiring

So is the first diagram gonna work in my case? This is the only thing that's keeping me from buying the pickups so far and I don't know anyone else who could help me :dunno:

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: HSH into HH wiring

So is the first diagram gonna work in my case? This is the only thing that's keeping me from buying the pickups so far and I don't know anyone else who could help me :dunno:

That first diagram WILL work okay for you, assuming that you like the choices it gives you for the 5-way. Unfortunately, Seymour Duncan did kind of a lousy job of letting you exactly know what those positions are.

In this case...

1) Bridge Humbucker
2) Bridge Humbucker + Neck Humbucker
3) Neck Humbucker
4) Bridge Screw Coil + Neck Slug Coil (hum-canceling)
5) Bridge Screw Coil

 

[Mincer]

Re: HSH into HH wiring

Yes, I realized the diagram didn't actually have the positions on there. You can do more with a Super Switch, like have exactly what combos you want. I did mine like this.

 

[JunyNovember]

Re: HSH into HH wiring

Alright thanks!

Are there any other options I could find without the super or is this the only one? I am pretty fine with this one but if there are other possibilites I don't want to miss out on anything.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: HSH into HH wiring

The possibilities are only limited by what you want.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: HSH into HH wiring

So, what tones exactly are you looking for? We could go on forever giving you options for you to say yes, or no, or maybe to. But it would be more efficient for you to tell us what you want and then we can tell you if it's feasible and how to wire it.

 

[JunyNovember]

Re: HSH into HH wiring

Well, I thought I am limited by the fact I don't have the super switch

If I wanted to change anything, it'd probably be the 5th position from bridge screw to bridge slug + neck screw (so reversed 4th position).

Also, did @BriGuy1968 write the positions in order? I never saw neck pickup being on 3rd position on a 5 way blade. Seems pretty weird to me, is changing the order to the classic "bridge at 1st position, neck at 5th" possible?

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: HSH into HH wiring

Typically, the 5-way blade switch is wired with bridge at position 1 and neck at position 5, but you can wire it any way you want with any pup in any of the positions. It just depends on the pup combinations that you want in the positions that you want and it doesn't matter whether you have 3 pups or only 2. So which pup/coil combinations would you like in each switch position? Let us know what your ideal is and we'll tell you if it is possible with the standard switch or if you'll need a super switch. And we may recommend some modifications to that based upon our practical experience.

 

[JunyNovember]

Re: HSH into HH wiring

Alright!

Position 1 - Birdge
Position 2 - Bridge slug coil + neck screw coil
Position 3 - Bridge + Neck
Position 4 - Bridge screw coil + neck slug coil
Position 5 - Neck

So basically exactly like this:

I hope this is possible thanks for being awesome!

 

[JunyNovember]

Re: HSH into HH wiring

So my pups arrived today, tomorow I am gonna take them with my guitar to the guitar shop for swap. Is there a diagram I can give them to make the combinations above work?

 

[Mincer]

Re: HSH into HH wiring

If you want all positions to be be hum-cancelling (and the right coils to be selected), you will have to filp a magnet. I wrote a blog about how I did this here.