PROBLEM WITH NEWLY INSTALLED PICKUPS

B

BYN

New member
Hello All

Just joined the forum today. But I'm having a bit of a problem. I've never tried to instal pickups out of fear I'd screw something up. Which I clearly have...lol. I'm hoping someone can help a brother out. I recently installed a JB and a Jazz into my Ibanez RG 5EX1 and chose to keep the stock INFS3. I tried to use the wiring diagram seymour provided but the 5 way switch Ibanez uses is different. After digging around online. I found a site where an ibanez user changed his pickups to seymour duncan pickups.

HERE--> https://sites.google.com/site/soundsokok/guitar/changing-the-pickup

I didn't think I was doing anything to complex. I twisted the red and white cables and soldered the tip. And did the same to green and bare wires. So before I disconnected anything, I followed the wires from the the stock pickups. Paid attention to where they were connected to. And just installed the new pickups in the same spots. Using the diagrams on this link how Ibanez's five way switch and wiring is laid out.

So when I finished. I tapped on the coils with a screwdriver to test and make sure the coils were switching and connecting. Bridge seemed fine but super noisy as well as the other pickups. So I figured I was getting some noise from the green and bare not being taped. So I taped it and the noise decreased. But however something sounds wrong.

One problem is I have no tone knob anymore....somehow both knobs on the RG control the volume now. Can that drastically affect how the pickups are supposed to sound? I didn't desolder anything on the tone pot at all. Never touched it so I'm not sure what has happened. But positions 2 and 4 sound really thin and chimey even while the amp is overdriven. But the bridge,middle and neck seem to sound fine.

Also Its kind of hard to hear and tell if the coils are combining properly sound the way the are supposed to. I recorded a video to demonstrate what I'm hearing using the identical guitars. A play through with the original pickups versus the new ones. I hoping someone may be able to hear what I've done wrong and offer some options possibly.

HERE---> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH7eM8Gx_Ao


And man I gotta tell you that JB pickup is really bright. I was hoping it would brighten up the guitar since its sounded kind of dark and dull to me. Trying to get used to it. Maybe it's the wiring that's making it extra bright. Would having one tone control now behaving like a volume pot have the effect of making a 500k pot now a 1000k pot perhaps? Thanks in advance.
 
Re: PROBLEM WITH NEWLY INSTALLED PICKUPS

If you could post a clear picture of the control cavity, it might be possible to spot the problem. You Youtube video's quality is pretty poor though, if the picture is blurry like that it might not be doable.
 
Re: PROBLEM WITH NEWLY INSTALLED PICKUPS

If you just follow the same colours as other pickups, you may well have put things in wrongly. The black should go to the switch, green/bare to the back of a pot, and the red/white should touch nothing else, so some tape to cover the join is essential.

It sounds like somewhre your grounds aren't solidly connected, the noise is one reason, and the two volume controls bit too.

As mentioned, pics are essential. they must be in focus (use a camera, not your phone). If you can pull any extra length of pickup wire back into the channels then we can see the solder joins and where the wires are attached to.
 
Re: PROBLEM WITH NEWLY INSTALLED PICKUPS

Thanks for the responses....I initially believed it to be bad grounding. Which I re-soldered twice and it got better. With the video I was trying to provide more of an audio example of the pickups. In order to demonstrate the tonal difference of the new pickups sounding "nasal" and "thin" in positions 2 and 4 versus the stock ones. I don't know why the video quality is so bad. I used an Ipod 4 touch and uploaded it from there.

"If you just follow the same colours as other pickups, you may well have put things in wrongly. The black should go to the switch, green/bare to the back of a pot, and the red/white should touch nothing else, so some tape to cover the join is essential."


This is exactly how I wired the pickups in
Black to 1 Red&White to 6 Green&Bare to Ground (for Neck pickups)
Black to 3 Red&White to 8 Green&Bare to Ground (for Bridge pickups)
and I left the stock Ibanez pickup connected to the terminal.

The stock were soldered in these two spots. All I did was try to wire them in the same way. I'll try to take a picture and upload....being that this the first time Ive ever done a pickup swap. The job is messy and horrible. I'll include a stock cavity pic and then mine job.
 
Re: PROBLEM WITH NEWLY INSTALLED PICKUPS

Here's some pictures starting with the stock wiring....then mine.

On my wiring pictures I taped the green and bare wire with green electrical tape. AAnd some wires have small pieces of green tape where I singed wire installing the pickups. So I just taped them up using small pieces of green tape.

STOCK001.jpg
 

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Re: PROBLEM WITH NEWLY INSTALLED PICKUPS

Hi BYN, another noob here. I also had problems while installing a JB/Jazz combo in my RG. I opened a thread too, and the fine folks in here helped me out: https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?269599-Damaged-Jazz

Long story short: I fried the POS Ibanez switch while soldering/desoldering wires. A new Switchcraft solved everything.

Good luck!
 
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Re: PROBLEM WITH NEWLY INSTALLED PICKUPS

mamm said:
Hi BYN, another noob here. I also had problems while installing a JB/Jazz combo in my RG. I opened a thread too, and the fine folks in here helped me out: https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?269599-Damaged-Jazz

Long story short: I fried the POS Ibanez switch while soldering/desoldering wires. A new Switchcraft solved everything.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response.....I'll check out the link. Thank you kind sir
 
Re: PROBLEM WITH NEWLY INSTALLED PICKUPS

So, here are some thoughts.

If 2&4 are so thin and chimey, it is possible (even likely) that the middle single coil is out of phase.

If the tone isn't working in any position and you didn't touch it then either you singed another wire or, as another poster said, you may have fried that switch.
 
Re: PROBLEM WITH NEWLY INSTALLED PICKUPS

For the tone knob, check to see if you've pressed down on the capacitor, causing the metal leads to contact metal they're not supposed to be in contact with. The pics make that look like a possibility, and it would cause a tone knob to act as a volume control.

Also I see red and white wires connecting to the switch, but it's still a little hard to make sense of because of the focus and lighting. If wired correctly, we should see black and green wires coming from the Duncans going into the selector switch. Keep in mind that the Duncans are backasswards with the colors, and the black wire is positive and the green is negative and the white and red should be connected and taped off. The wire color scheme on the old pickups have different meanings, so if you matched it color for color, you'd have problems. Did you keep the Duncan's red and white wires taped together, and run the black wire where the old pickup's white wire once was, and run the green wire to the location where the red wire had been on the other side of the switch?
 
Re: PROBLEM WITH NEWLY INSTALLED PICKUPS

Farkus said:
So, here are some thoughts.

If 2&4 are so thin and chimey, it is possible (even likely) that the middle single coil is out of phase.

If the tone isn't working in any position and you didn't touch it then either you singed another wire or, as another poster said, you may have fried that switch.
Click to expand...

I was thinking that was a possibility. It sounds fine when it used by itself though. I guess I would have to reverse the wires on the single coil to correct it?

I wired up both Seymour Duncan pickups the way I thought it was supposed to be to work with the original pickups with using this diagram.

Here---> http://www.seymourduncan.com/pdfs/support/schematics/color_codes.pdf

Was I not supposed to do it that way? The black wire is by itself, red and white soldered together and green and bare soldered together to ground?

I tried to check look for any damaged wires near that pot couldn't find any. Though I'll check again.
 
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Re: PROBLEM WITH NEWLY INSTALLED PICKUPS

You should pick up a cheap multi-meter, one that makes sound for continuity testing, so that you can check for bad/broken connections and shorts.
 
Re: PROBLEM WITH NEWLY INSTALLED PICKUPS

DreX said:
For the tone knob, check to see if you've pressed down on the capacitor, causing the metal leads to contact metal they're not supposed to be in contact with. The pics make that look like a possibility, and it would cause a tone knob to act as a volume control.

Also I see red and white wires connecting to the switch, but it's still a little hard to make sense of because of the focus and lighting. If wired correctly, we should see black and green wires coming from the Duncans going into the selector switch. Keep in mind that the Duncans are backasswards with the colors, and the black wire is positive and the green is negative and the white and red should be connected and taped off. The wire color scheme on the old pickups have different meanings, so if you matched it color for color, you'd have problems. Did you keep the Duncan's red and white wires taped together, and run the black wire where the old pickup's white wire once was, and run the green wire to the location where the red wire had been on the other side of the switch?
Click to expand...

I have black and the red and white wires going to the switch. I didn't match the colors of the original pickups. I'm a noob.....so clearly I did something wrong lol. I'm trying figure out this dual volume thing. Both knobs have to be turned up for sound. But I can turn the guitar down with either knob. It's crazy lol
 
Re: PROBLEM WITH NEWLY INSTALLED PICKUPS

You have to detach the red/white wires from the switch, keep them connected to each other and tape them off. You're getting a bad sound because you're shorting out half the humbucker, also known as "splitting" the humbucker. Only the green and black wire should be connected to anything else. The black needs to go where the old white wire used to be, and the green needs to go to where the old red wire used to be.

Have you checked the capacitor on the tone pot to make sure it's not been pressed down, that the metal leads are not rubbing up against other metal?
 
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Re: PROBLEM WITH NEWLY INSTALLED PICKUPS

DreX said:
You have to detach the red/white wires from the switch, keep them connected to each other and tape them off. You're getting a bad sound because you're shorting out half the humbucker, also known as "splitting" the humbucker. Only the green and black wire should be connected to anything else. The black needs to go where the old white wire used to be, and the green needs to go to where the old red wire used to be.

Have you checked the capacitor on the tone pot to make sure it's not been pressed down, that the metal leads are not rubbing up against other metal?
Click to expand...

Yeah I checked the capacitor.....its bent resting alongside of the cavity. one lead is soldered to the lug....and the other is soldered to the ground.

black needs to go where the old white wire used to be, and the green needs to go to where the old red wire used to be.

So green and black get connected to the switch......opposite of how I currently have them. And then the bare wire just goes to ground by itself?red and white taped off.

Do you think the way I have them wired up could cause the humbucker to sound really "shrill" and lack body? I had to raise both pickups really high in order to get a decent sound out of them. Which I found a bit odd in comparison to my other guitars and the height I have the pickups at. This guitar just sounds really different.

And when I'm in that 2 and 4 position the distortion just drops out almost completely. Goes from distortion to a light overdrive and sounds clean. Like a nasal bright funk bass sound. Like the seinfeld tv show interludes lol. I tried to convey that with my youtube video. But it may not be apparent. I'm going to try your suggestions and see what happens. Thanks for taking the time to help me out!
 
Re: PROBLEM WITH NEWLY INSTALLED PICKUPS

Right, bare wire to ground, black to the "hot" side of the switch, green to the ground side of the switch (just reverse the green and black if you can't tell which is which and get it wrong).

They way it's wired now, with the red/white pair attached to the switch, it will be "splitting", which sounds shrill to some people. This has nothing to do with pickup height.

I don't actually know why your switch has a ground side, it fully disconnect the neck and bridge pickups when they're not in used for reasons which I'm unaware of. A Strat uses the same selector, but uses the other half for tone controls purposes, not to disconnect the ground of the pickups.

The 2 / 4 nasal sound is because the middle pickup is reverse polarity of the Duncans. Just switch the middle pickup's red and white wires and then 2 and 4 will sound correct.
 
Re: PROBLEM WITH NEWLY INSTALLED PICKUPS

BYN I watched your clip and very likely the 2&4 is a phase issue.

If you are concerned that the current wiring is messing with the tone of the pickups you could always hot wire the JB to the output jack and try that...it will be a bit brighter than what it would running it through the circuit but it will give you a ballpark idea of what the pickup should sound like so you can compare.
 
Re: PROBLEM WITH NEWLY INSTALLED PICKUPS

Farkus said:
BYN I watched your clip and very likely the 2&4 is a phase issue.

If you are concerned that the current wiring is messing with the tone of the pickups you could always hot wire the JB to the output jack and try that...it will be a bit brighter than what it would running it through the circuit but it will give you a ballpark idea of what the pickup should sound like so you can compare.
Click to expand...

Preciate the advice!
 
Re: PROBLEM WITH NEWLY INSTALLED PICKUPS

Just an update. I finally got the pickups installed. After unhooking everything and attempting to rewire it twice lol. I replaced the 5 way switch after probably destroying it and removed the tone pot. So I like how they sound so far. Thanks to everyone that offered some help I appreciate it. So I recorded a video and tried to capture the tone of these pickups.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODrT9vsiQD4
 
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