Why does Ibanez wire their 5-switch like this?

kitaarpeer · 2012-09-27T12:12:42+00:00

I was reading an article on Seymour Duncan just now on how they wire their "super switch" and they listed the options they wanted (HSH) as: 1 - Bridge 2 - B...

Why does Ibanez wire their 5-switch like this?

Clint-Green

Personally I really dig the single coil on it's own option, I get some sweet clean tones and whenever I feel like switching to SRV mode, that middle selection on my RG is my go-to (until I can finally afford myself a strat, that is) ?

kitaarpeer

hahaha yeah...unfortunately I dont use it too much as there is a huge output drop compared to the humbuckers :/

Clint-Green

kitaarpeer wrote: hahaha yeah...unfortunately I dont use it too much as there is a huge output drop compared to the humbuckers :/

I hear ya there, I actually ended jacking the single coil in mine up quite significantly to compensate, managed to get it so that the volume drop is hardly noticeable now. Just the single coil hum, but there is no escaping that... ☹

kitaarpeer

yeah Ill have to try and do that as well...doesnt it bother you a bit if its so high? Does it influence your picking or not? Ive heard a lot of people complain about HSH setups because "the single coil is in the way"

Clint-Green

kitaarpeer wrote: yeah Ill have to try and do that as well...doesnt it bother you a bit if its so high? Does it influence your picking or not? Ive heard a lot of people complain about HSH setups because "the single coil is in the way"

I suppose it depends on your picking style; I generally pick close to the bridge and don't let the pick dig in very deep (Dunlop Jazz IIIs ftw!). I suppose it would get in a lot of players' way though.

AlanRatcliffe

Well, you could always lower your 'buckers too. ? I tend to look at it not so much that the single is too weak, but rather that the humbuckers are too powerful.

Anyway, part of the attraction is the difference in volumes - lets you get a different amount of drive at the flick of a switch. Look at the Steve Morse Musicman, huge range of tones and grit levels.

Clint-Green

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Well, you could always lower your 'buckers too. ? I tend to look at it not so much that the single is too weak, but rather that the humbuckers are too powerful.

Anyway, part of the attraction is the difference in volumes - lets you get a different amount of drive at the flick of a switch. Look at the Steve Morse Musicman, huge range of tones and grit levels.

Yep, I neglected to mention that I did lower the humbuckers on mine as well. I found that having them too close to the strings muddied things up a fair bit anyway.

Those Morse Musicmans must be fantastic guitars; I've never had the privilege of picking one up and playing it but seeing Steve on his Live in New York DVD, he accesses a crazy amount of wicked tones straight from his guitar. You hardly see him fiddling with pedals at all!

kitaarpeer

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Well, you could always lower your 'buckers too. ?

Ive considered that as well, but I have this nasty tendency to play them off of their mounting rings if they're too low to start off with...converting it to bolt onto the body itself would be awesome, but that'll be a lot of effort ?

Malkav

kitaarpeer wrote:
Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Well, you could always lower your 'buckers too. ?
Ive considered that as well, but I have this nasty tendency to play them off of their mounting rings if they're too low to start off with...converting it to bolt onto the body itself would be awesome, but that'll be a lot of effort ?

Direct mounting pickups really isn't a difficult task at all.

kitaarpeer

Ive also heard that it improves your tone? Unfortunately I dont have the tools to do anything myself...but you basically just have to fill the cavity with wood and then mount it to it (VERY loosely speaking of course!), right?

Malkav

kitaarpeer wrote: Ive also heard that it improves your tone? Unfortunately I dont have the tools to do anything myself...but you basically just have to fill the cavity with wood and then mount it to it (VERY loosely speaking of course!), right?

In my personal opinion it makes the tone WAY better - At this point I would never even consider a guitar with pickup rings...

You don't necessarily need to fill the cavity at all, perhaps route out or drill out extra spaces on the side for the height adjustment screws assuming they aren't already there (I know one of the Ibanii I have modded had the routes predrilled) and then just line up and drill to holes for the screw to fit through.

I have neoprene repair pads for my wetsuit that I've often used to help add height/create resistance under the pickup once screwed down as well ?

Clint-Green

My only regret with the RG570 I recently restored, was not routing the maple over the existing pickup cavities smaller so that I could direct mount the pickups (a-la J-Customs). Instead I cut it to the size of the original cavities - so now I have to use pickup rings or it will look like turd. Hindsight = 20/20 (looking back it's still a bit fuzzy) >☹