Good stuff.. great post

If you can.. a full fiddle shot would be awesome. My personal opinion is that the infinity pickups are actually rather underated.

I always had a soft spot for Ibanez. Played am RG for years... although always secretly wanted an S series.

Lots of good info here for folks looking to setup and mod. Thanks

Photos of guitars are not my strong point, but here are a few.

Full picture not good. Gives basic black featureless idea.

The much-maligned bridge system, works OK for me. That Volume knob, no, very cheap, soft plastic item.

A bit of wood. Smooth finish, reasonably light colour. The transverse scratches are from my last fretwork.

Black guitar dust magnet. My current pickup stagger. Neck pickup is adjusted down low too. Pole screws M3. Strips in the plastic bobbin when you sip coffee. The heads are not countersunk deep enough to lower the screws more than this, but careful work with a 5 mm drillbit (by hand) fixes that. Not done here yet.

Right, so this is where the real fun ends. Or starts. Bear with me.

One - I have a slight colour perception impairment, of the “red-green” variety. Reading resistor codes is fun, and if not a combination of white, blue, black, red and yellow, any wiring soon deteriorates into a “?”.

Two – I have studied many (internet) wiring diagrams. Besides being either in black/white, or with rather faded colours (refer point One), many do not make sense to me. Apart from “same” guitars showing different wiring. Some do not explain exactly what is achieved with the provided wiring.

Three – There is no industry standard for pickup polarities (magnet pole direction and coil wind). There is no industry standard for leadout colours. I read somewhere that normal single coil convention is polepiece magnets South to strings. I planned accordingly. No. Not always. Humbucker convention might be counterclockwise wound, and slugs “north” screws “south”. Or is it? (Some winders wind bridge and neck humbuckers different.) Single coils can be either, for Reverse Wound Reverse Polarity use. Or not. Just swop the leads. Re-magnitize the magnets. Flip the magnet. Turn the pickup around. I have studied pickup lead colour comparisons. My unwillingness to learn to discern between colours (lazy, yes), why does nobody think of including simple words like “green” or “red” or “grey” on these charts?

I would like to keep the original Ibanez HSH five-way switching:
1 – Bridge humbucker (coils in series)
2 – Middle single coil parallel to inner (slug) coil of bridge (in-phase, hum cancelling)
3 – Single coil
4 – Middle single coil with inner (slug) neck coil
5 – Neck humbucker (series coils)

Seymour Duncan’s helpline said, no, I do not need a RWRP single to achieve this. This was while I was still saving up for those Alnico Pro II pickups (still want them). Eventually I buy the DiMarzio’s, specifically with a normal polarity normal wind (neck or bridge) single coil, only to find it has North to strings. To DiMarzio’s credit, well hidden somewhere in a DiMarzio pickup description, is one sentence saying the the tech minded players might like to know that, for DiMarzio, reverse polarity is South up. A subtle hint could be that the DiMarzio RWRP true single coils (for middle position in paddle head guitars) have a “DP-num-S” designation. “S” for “south” maybe? More on this later.

Trying to understand polarity and wind direction and connecting leads left my head in a frustrated messy spin, trying to unravel various diagrams, trying to make sense of what I should do with my new set. It is all rather straightforward, once you get around the normal internet forums information (“just follow the diagrams/follow the colours/use the colour conversion charts/just switch the leads” (yeah, strip down guitar again…)/”flip the magnet”/”we did try to help you, are you an idiot?” (no, colour blind/I do not understand the meaning of the technical terms you fling around/I am from Groothakskeenpan and do not follow English well)/ “cannot do that without a super super megaschaller and ten push-pull pots/yes you can do that with the standard Fender five way/if you do not know what you are doing, rather take it to someone who does”etc.). Seems as if most of the people posting there do not have a clue either, but insist that you do it their way/their buddy’s way/that diagram’s way (even if is perfectly clear, to me, that the answer does not relate to the question).

I found pointers to “just match the coil polarities”. No idea. One site actually discussed coil polarity. Oh? Some sites still use the “start” and “end” leads and normal vs reverse wind terms to connect up, after they explained in detail how to check coil wind polarity. I guess, if you do know which leads are “start”, you could quickly draw out the current directions (clockwise/anticlockwise) in your pickups and decide which lead goes to ground and which one connects somewhere on the switch. If.

A rather helpful site showed checking magnetic polarity of the pickup, using a compass. I did try my old GPS, but it refused to work. Dug out the Brunton. Never discard obsolete technology. I would advise you invest in a cheap compass if you plan to do pickup swops.

{How To:

1. For those who do not yet know how to do this coil polarity thing, you use your multimeter on DC Volts, milliVolt scale or less if available. Locate the two leads for the coil you are investigating (Use the 5/10/20 KOhm function? Seeing as the coil is several thousand Ohm, do not expect your “beep” continuity tester to be of help here. This sommer checks continuity as well as DCR.). Connect multimeter positive (red) lead to one, negative (black) lead to the other pickup lead. Press screwdriver onto the relevant coil’s poles. Note if the multimeter (DC Volts) goes positive. Remove screwdriver, see if the reading goes negative. If so, assign the relevant leads to be “+” where the multimeter red wire is, and “-“ where the black wire connects. (If the multimeter goes negative, then positive, reverse the above assignments. If you are me, you will swop the leads and do it all again, just to be sure…) This way, you have notes of what colour wire is “+” and “-“ polarity. I agree that manufacturers should supply this polarity information with the pickup specs (and, just maybe, for the colour perception challenged, tags listing the lead colour?).

2. As for magnetic polarity, find a magnetic compass (if you are of very recent internet smartphone generation, googling “compass” to learn about that ancient technology might be required. OK, Joking.): The needle attracted to the poles is opposite the pole polarity, or, the needle extending away from the poles is the polarity. Not so simple with pickups in the guitar with strings all over.}

A good place to start your research on all this might be
stewmac.com : understanding guitar wiring
humbuckersoup.com : Lindy Fralin Pickup Phase – What’s the Deal? and Guitar Pickup Wiring
Then progress (?) to TDPRI and Jemsite and such.

OK, so series wiring coils (normal “humbucker”): Connect the one coil’s “-“ lead to the other coil’s “+” lead. The two leads left over, one goes to ground and the other (“hot”) to one of the many tags on the switch. Depends on the polarity you need.

Parallel wiring, like making the humbucker a (double) “single coil”, or combining two pickups as with the typical Strat position “2” and “4”, connect “+” to “+” and “-“ to “-“, they are in phase. Try to decide which set goes to switch, somewhere, the other set goes to ground. Check for opposite magnetic polarity if you want hum-cancelling.

Question time: What tone/volume difference should I expect if I split the humbuckers to the outer (screws) coils instead of the “standard” Ibanez way of using the inner (slugs) coils? Weaker at the bridge, yes, thicker at the neck? Seeing as I split to half the humbucker DCR value, which is way less that the singlecoil DCR value (in my case), the single coil will dominate the sound anyway? I do realise, for my humbuckers, I can turn them around (slugs outside, screws facing inside) to get the split coil “next to” the middle single coil. Still, the slugs vs. screws should have an effect?

There are opinions on the internet that indicates using the outer coils in the 2 – 4 switch position will enhance “quack”. Could not yet find someone who actually “dunnit”. I am about to find out.

All very interesting and exasperating. But, I hope I have it sorted now. I basically want the middle single coil to be parallel with the relevant opposed magnetic polarity humbucker coil, in phase. Sketching out a humbucker, connected in parallel, helped me to wrap my head around this. I hope. I really do hope I have it now. I do not enjoy assembling/disassembling/assembling if the leads needs to be reversed or such. Better to sort it out before I cut and paste. One way would be to make up a dummy plank guitar, and play around with the leads (crocodile clips?) untill I get what I need. Might be fun. A good Garage Day practical tutorial class. Better idea: I could buy a “Prestige”/Les Paul-alike, allowing me to access the wiring from behind, so no taking off the pickguard all the time to get to it. Slack off the strings, insert pickup with masking tape, tune up, lay guitar on face, hack at it, test sounds. Hmm, money well spent, I think? No expense spared in the quest for scientific knowledge. Not to mention how easy it becomes to test different pickups too! Being recently divorced, I do not even have to sell this plan to my wife. Being recently divorced though, R&D budget was re-allocated.

How does all this relate to what I have?

Ibanez Jem-JR pickups:

The pickups are installed with humbucker screw coils to the outside, slug coils to the inside. The humbucker slugs are “north” and the screws are “south”.
The single coil slugs are “south”.
I measure the coil polarities, on the guitar cable:
Single coil (switch position 3) “-“ for the tip
Bridge humbucker (coil split to slug, switch position 2) “-“ for the tip
Neck Humbucker (coil split to slug, switch position 4) “-“ for the tip.
This corresponds to what Ibanez claims the switch positions do, and yes, I did tap the pickups with the screwdriver to make sure which coil is on with each switch position: In position “2” and “4”, the slug coil is indeed the active humbucker coil. (I must confess that adjusting the screw poles and fitting/removing pole piece caps does result in “clack” “clock” “whump” from the amplifier, when I neglect to turn down the guitar’s volume knob. I have a formed good idea of what pickup is active, when.) If I have all my ducklings in a row now, the above position “2” and “4” switching will have the relevant coils in phase with reverse magnetic polarity – maximum output with humbucking.

DiMarzio PAF 36 humbuckers and Red Velvet single coil:

Humbuckers have slugs “north” and screws “south”.
Single coil has slugs “north”.

Humbucker coil polarity:
Slug coil – Red lead (“start”) "+" , Black lead (“end”) “-“

Screw coil - Green lead (“start”) “-“ , White lead (“end”) “+”

Single coil polarity - Black lead (“start”?) “+” , White lead (“end”?) “-“

I cannot get in-phase humbucking in switch positions “2” and “4” with the humbuckers split to the slug coils. In the case of DiMarzio’s, I do indeed require a RWRP single coil to achieve this. Hence my question about splitting to the “outside” coils.

It seems that my pictures still do not show on the site, Norio, can you fix it please?

modulator Pictures fixed Any time you need pictures fixed, please PM with the links to the posts.

NorioDS
Will do, thanks.

Re-wired pickguard pictures - much better, but still a bit of a tight fit. The four-conductor humbucker leads are thick and stiff. The single coil leads are hard. I do not want to cut them shorter than this, even if I doubt I shall sell them on, or need to splice up the humbucker leads for another project. Not too happy with the visual appearance of the soldering. Not too happy with the earth wiring, will have to think of a neater way for future projects. Too many wires in the earth circuit. A “star ground” between the pots will simplify matters. This guitar has an earth lead to the shielding paint in the body cavity, as well as one to the tremolo claw.

“Tap” testing the switch positions indicates a slight amount of, well, “crosstalk”? The humbucker coil not selected does indeed give a faint “clunk” when touched with my custom pliers, as do the single coil in posistions 2 and 4. I did chisel away a bit of wood in the switch cavity, just for peace of mind, and re-sealed with nitrate dope. I had to drill out the holes for the trem claw earth wire to accommodate the lug I am using now, as well as the leadout wire hole to fit the thicker “twin flex” leadout. Long series drills were required.

Almost done.

Done. I am using a block connector at the plug, so as to avoid de- and re-soldering the output lead in future, with the earth wire screwed down on the trem claw, not soldered.

Recognise the guitar and win a prize…

Seeing as the new pickup screws were all shiny, I polished up the pickguard and switch screw heads to match.
The neck pickup does not align too well. Really should find a F-space one.

I did push the slugs on the humbuckers to get some stagger: Experience indicated that the slug coil tends to have the G string dominate in volume. In this case, I am splitting to the screw coil, but I felt that balancing it all would be beneficial. The slugs push rather easily.

Homemade tone and volume knobs. I do have a co-ordination problem with number punching, but for this low-cost application, it is fine. Engraving would be the way to go.

I have done several hours of playing, with various amps, on this setup over the past month. Initial impressions:
The volume balance between the pickups is surprisingly good, and the string-to-string balance is not too bad, although the G string is still too loud across the board.

The tone and volume pots works well. (I note in my first post I typed the capacitor sizes as nF, should be microFarad.)

The Red Velvet single coil is loud, or, rather, the PAF 36th Anniversary humbuckers are quiet. The DiMarzio PAF 36th humbuckers are much quieter than the original Ibanez pickups, and they balance (maybe too well?) well with the Red Velvet. DiMarzio gives the output for the pickups as 180 for the Red Velvet (the True Velvet is only 130), with the bridge PAF 36th as 285 and the neck PAF 36th as 250.

Although the tone is much brighter than with the standard pickups, the high frequencies stay “smooth”, turning up the tone does not quite go to “ice-pick”. The low frequencies are what I guess they call “tight”. No boomy-ness.
The in-between positions are quieter than the pickups by themselves, to be expected. The single coil combined with split humbuckers has a very interesting tone. The neck screw coil with the single is rich. The bridge screw coil with the single coil has a jangly-sparkly acoustic guitar vibe.

Open and barre chords on the low frets sounds good. Dynamics are good. The guitar has a clear, open, transparent, sensitive, tone.

Playing with my fingers give a nice acoustic guitar sound, in fact, it sounds much like the BOSS AC-3 acoustic simulator I bought (which did not seem to simulate anything) – the pickups are very sensitive to any input.
I admit that I have no experience with “vintage” pickups at all, and thus cannot compare what I hear to any standard benchmark.

This is all new to me, the playing dynamics will require some getting used to. The variety of tones available is fun. If I have to fault the sound, well, the guitar lacks “character”. The sound might be a bit “plinky”. Sterile, hi-fi sounding? Since re-wiring the Shergold Modulator, and initially finding that guitar rather bright after a lifetime of dark sound, I have come to prefer the lighter, open, less-muddy/dark/heavy/lifeless sound. So much so, that any high-output humbucker now frustrates me with the lack of chime and sparkle. The unforgiving touch sensitivity should, in the longer run, make me a better player. Sure.

I did look at the lightweight trem block, and resisted temptation, for now. With a heavy block, it should be lekker. Having to strip down the whole bridge unit did not inspire me to make a new block.

All-in-all, this long-postponed re-wire might well have been worth it.

I experience hummy noise through the amplifiers, which gets better if I touch the bridge, and quieter still if I press on the jack (metal). I am sure this noise was not so bad before.
To check that it is not related to the building wiring or EMI noise, I plugged all the guitars, with two different leads, into the amplifier. The two guitars I have not rewired is quiet, but gets some noise when I touch the controls or put my hand close to them. I seem to be a bad link too.
It is not an electricity supply problem, then.
Two guitars are noisy - the Squier Strat I rewired (posted here as well), and this one.
The noise is present on all the switch positions.
I checked earth on the guitar strings, bridge, switch, pots, all are earthed to the output jack plug sleeve.
The noise goes away when I turn off the guitar's volume. The amp is quiet with just the guitar cable plugged in.
I am left with the possibility of a "ground loop" antenna.
I suspect this may be related to the shielding I stuck under the pickguard. Or, can the short run of twinflex from the volume pot to the output plug cause so much noise?
I am currently unable to open up the two offenders and look, I would prefer getting the guitars to a good tech, to sort it out, but that is not likely to happen.
Seems like I might have misjudged something with my earthing scheme. One internet site does mention one should not overdo it.
(I should mention that the two quiet guitars do not have pickguards, the pots mount to the body, the control cavity covers do have shielding on, and the cavities have some shielding paint.)