Middle/outer lugs are swapped on Ibanez

[alex1fly]

Hopeful for some technical advice here. Enjoying an Ibanez SCA220c lately, early 2000s MIJ model that goes for cheap. The volume knob rolls off high end so I cracked open the control cavity to see the guts and it looks like its wired basically like this: https://www.dimarzio.com/media/1447

Except the input from the switch is on the volume pot's middle lug, and the output to the jack and connection to the tone pot is on the outer lug. So the input/output on the volume pot is swapped. I don't mind because it sounds fine, but I'm wondering how this affects my ability to do 50s wiring and I guess how it affects the sound in general. The sound is very compressed and shreddy which is cool, but I have a Duncan Custom set aside to put in the bridge for grins.

I've searched around and haven't quite found the answer. Any input is appreciated!

 

[jeremy]

you can swap the input/output wires on the volume pot without issue. where the tone control connects to the volume pot is 50s vs modern wiring

 

[freefrog]

I'm wondering how this affects my ability to do 50s wiring and I guess how it affects the sound in general.

You'll find below a 5spice simulation showing the response of a generic humbucker with tone pot in 50 wiring (set @ 10/10) and volume pot from 10/10 to 1/10, in both cases.

I've not used my most refined pickup model / most accurate simulation but you'll "get the picture". ;-)



Footnote - Decades ago, I had wired my first home made guitar like your Ibanez. I prefer it normally wired. YMMV.

 

[jeremy]

interesting, thanks for sharing that!

 

[ehdwuld]

Where the wires land makes little difference

In a 2 volume configuration
I prefer to have the pickup to the center lug on both volumes
This makes the volume independent of the second one

If both are wired to the outer lug, either volume rolled down will cut the signal from the whole guitar

 

[freefrog]

Side notes to my first post:

-with 50s wiring and both pots lowered, like vol @ 2/3 and tone control @ 15% of its value, the difference might appear as less drastic than in my pics at first glance but the volume with swapped lugs would still darken the harmonics instead of progressively rising the resonant peak... and the signal would be a bit louder under fundamental notes. It's only with both volume and tone pots full up that the difference would disappear.

-my pics are those of the response in a conventional input for guitar (1M). With swapped lugs on the guitar volume, such an input is consistently in parallel with the value of the volume pot from hot to ground.
When the volume on the guitar is normally wired, it's the pickup which is consistently in parallel with its volume pot and no more the input in which it's plugged.
That's why the two solutions behave in different ways electrically and, therefore, sonically.

 

[uOpt]

Freefrog is right. The amplitude of the resonance peak is lowered with backwards connected volume pot, if you turn it down just a little.

This is deliberately done by Jazz basses which trade this for the independent control advantage, but make no mistake, they pretty much run without resonance peak at all when both pickups are on. For guitar this is generally not desirable.