Incorrect Wiring?

Lethe

I was bored, so I figured I'd change my strings on my Ibanez RG to .010 to maybe (hopefully) improve the tone.
I figured I might as well look inside the guitar to see how its wired. Anyways, according to this diagram here
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=HSH_1v_1t_5w

The green and black wires coming from the neckpick-up are swapped around on my guitar. (i.e. the green from neck goes into the 5 way switch and the black goes into the volume pot)
As well as for both pickups, the white and red aren't soldered together and taped, but also go into the 5 way switch, both together but on different positions on the 5 way switch per pick up.
Does that make a difference?
Should I go change it according to the diagram?

MikeM

Yes.
No.

It obviously splits the pickups in certain positions ?

Lethe

Highly enlightening. You just answered all my questions. Thank you very much. Be careful of going into too much detail, it might just reveal what you know.

MikeM

First off read the large message on the diagram saying NOTE ?

Ok upon further inspection, I just noticed the diagram has 3 pickups. My bad.

Pos
1: Neck
2: Neck split + mid
3: Mid
4: Bridge split + mid
5: Bridge

The colours are most likely just different on your pickups ?

What'd I'd written before however is

How's this...

Humbuckers are 2 coils in series. I can not remember exactly but lets just say

negative coil 1 = black
positive coil 1 = green
negative coil 2 = white
positive coil 2 = red

Running through both coils gives you series. Humbucker basically. Running one coil gives you a split (Single coil type) bucker. Running both in parallel gives you a split type sound while keeping humbucking.

What could also be happening considering it's an Ibanez, is the top coil of the top HB might be run with the bottom of the bottom coil HB giving you one HUUUUUUGE bucker. Either that or single coil neck and single coil bridge.

So most likely it'll look like

Pos 1: Neck HB
Pos 2: Neck Split
Pos 3: Both HB
Pos 4: Bridge Split
Pos 5: Bridge HB

Changing the wiring would make you have less options wrt tonality and it works already - why fiddle?

Is there anything else you want to know?

Another thing that could differ from the diagram is the actual colour of your wires. This happens quite often. It could just be on your pup that the black is green and visa versa.

Gearhead

MikeM wrote it works already - why fiddle?

MmmBbwwwawhahwahaaaaaahha ? coming from the Mike that must be intended ironically ?
Q: have you ever had a guitar that you left unfiddled? :-\

MikeM

If I don't know what I'm doing yes :? Hehehehe... It's a problem. Should be studying some Islamic architecture but....

AlanRatcliffe

If it works, it's probably right. ? ...and if it ain't broke, don't fix it (which admittedly, is a concept that I don't always live by). ?

If you really want to know what is really going on in each switch position with any guitar, plug in with amp volume low, tap a polepiece in each row with a screwdriver tip, change switch positions and repeat. The ones that "thump" through the amp tell you which coils are active in each position. But chances are it's the usual Ibanez style wiring (with 'buckers splitting in positions 2 and 4 and all positions except 3 being hum-cancelling).

As Mike pointed out, wiring colours differ between brands (and you can't rely on even a "Duncan Designed" pickup as using the same colours as a Seymour Duncan), but from your signature I see you have a JB and a '59, so that doesn't apply here. What does apply is the fact that Fender Style singlecoils are wound in reverse polarity to Gibson-style pickups, so the green and black are reversed to "correct" this.

Lethe

the reason i'm checking this is because my guitar sounds like crap. compared to my artist with emg it sounds hollow and thin. Even with such 'good' pickups... can it just be the wood? I'm putting on thicker strings... so maybe that will help.

Lethe

and wat my initial post seems to be missing is that the green abd black are only swapped around one one pickup. it is this which is confusing me and hence my question if it is wired incorrectly.

AlanRatcliffe

If both your humbuckers are SD, then that is wrong. Try swap around the red/black wires on the bridge pickup too. Then pay careful attention to the position 2 & 4 sounds - If they are really low powered and have a weird, honky kind of a midrange tone, then the blacks and greens on both humbuckers need swapping back.

Also do the tap test I mentioned earlier, to make sure that the tapping is done properly on position 2 & 4.

Lethe

yes, 2 and 4 do have that soft honky tone. Thanks dude, Ill swap the wires then ? and pray my guitar sounds better!