Seymour Duncan SH13 install help

[humbucker82]

Full disclosure I am posting on behalf of a friend who is incarcerated but has access to musical equipment and gear. I am an amateur guitarist myself but have never installed pickups and he recently acquired a Seymour Duncan SH13 dimebucker. He is asking this (verbatim): 5 wires... red, white, green, black, ground...(on pickup) my switch is a ibanez 5way selector switch. 3 wires which are red, white, and ground. (on switch) need to install without solder as that is not available to him. Any assistance would be appreciated. Thank you in advance!

 

[Artie]

Welcome to the forum. You have several issues here to deal with:

1. Different Ibanez models come with different wiring options and color codes. We'd need to know which model, and even then, Ibby has made it harder to locate their diagrams these days.

2. The Ibby colors aren't likely to match the Duncan colors.

3. I don't see any way that any of this can be done without soldering.

On the Dimebucker, in its simplest form, you'd do green and bare to ground. Red and white twisted and soldered together. Then black to the switch. That assumes no splitting options, which the original Ibby may have.

Good luck with this. We'll help as much as we can.

 

[JamesPaul]

For #3, could we do something with Liberator pots? We would still need someone there to tighten the screws. Maybe the guitar could pass outside the secure area for that?

We would need to know what kind of wiring diagram we are facing in the guitar.

I have never used Liberator pots before, but they are advertised as solder-less. I will watch some of the videos and see how they work.

 

[JamesPaul]

The Liberator pots need to be soldered in once.

Maybe if we knew the specific guitar, we could pre-build a wiring harness and do a complete wiring harness swap?

Just thinking out loud here.

ArtieToo is one of the best resources I know when it comes to pickups and wiring.

Edit: and we will still need to know if someone can screw the pickup wires into the Liberator pots.

 

[DCikes88]

That's really cool and inspiring how you guys all want to help this guy overcome a multilayered problem, ultimately, it's all about that Duncan Fam. Respect Artie and JP!

Honestly, everybody deserves to take a Dimebucker for a spin, so I'm all for helping however I can, with info (have a Dimebucker installed in a guitar) although there are many more experienced than me on the matter.

If anyone ends up assembling a premade harness or something, I'd love to throw in a couple of bucks for some pots or shipping costs or whatever.

 

[Artie]

We really need more info here. Is this guitar prison property, from a "music room"? Can it be removed from the premises so that someone else could install the Liberator? (Even the Liberator has to be soldered once.)

I hope humbucker82 comes back.

 

[JamesPaul]

Last activity today, so back at least once. With today being a holiday it may have been difficult to get more details.

The Liberator will allow return to original pickup configuration.

List of information we need (ArtieToo, PM and I will keep editing in this post):

1. Specific guitar manufacturer, model, and current pickup configuration?
2. Whose property is the guitar?
3. Can the guitar be removed from the premises for Liberator installation?
4. Guitar's approximate location; state?

 

[humbucker82]

Thank you very much for the responses! I will get the info you said is needed and respond back, again I really appreciate it!

 

[humbucker82]

I want to thank everyone again for taking their time to respond. I don’t know how but my friend was able to find a solution and is very happy with the dimebucker. Just an aside…incarcerated peoples are allowed to purchase musical instruments from a pre approved vendor. So this was his own property not from the inventory in house. I am glad he is making valuable use of his time and equally glad to see the folks here show the best of the music community.

 

[DCikes88]

I want to thank everyone again for taking their time to respond. I don’t know how but my friend was able to find a solution and is very happy with the dimebucker. Just an aside…incarcerated peoples are allowed to purchase musical instruments from a pre approved vendor. So this was his own property not from the inventory in house. I am glad he is making valuable use of his time and equally glad to see the folks here show the best of the music community.

That's awesome that they're allowed to purchase instruments, and happy he managed to get it running.
I can imagine him rippin out New Level in the music room with the crowd going mad

It's a will-power and persistence thing, I think. People can and often do make the best of their time inside.
Education, music, working out, socializing with people, they all help build you up as a person and you keep a sense of progressing in life. Keeps you feeling human and optimistic, still a part of society.

All the best to your friend in life!

 

[Artie]

Cool. Glad to hear he got this worked out. Rock on!

 

[JamesPaul]

Great to see this!

 

[GuitarDoc]

I know that this problem has been solved, but I'm curious why the persistence with the liberator if the guitar already had all the electronics and everyone was planning that the guitar would be removed from the premises for the install anyway. Just use the existing pots.

 

[JamesPaul]

I know that this problem has been solved, but I'm curious why the persistence with the liberator if the guitar already had all the electronics and everyone was planning that the guitar would be removed from the premises for the install anyway. Just use the existing pots.

My first thought was the no-soldering on the Liberator, but it needs soldered initially. First time I ever looked at the Liberator, and before that I thought every wire might use a screw terminal.

After that, we still were not sure who owned the guitar. I was thinking the Liberator would allow for easier return to the original pickup, if the guitar and SH-13 owner were not the same.