Re: DiMarzio humbucker in an Ibanez guitar (5 way switch)
- From: Squier <squier@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2007 17:15:25 -0300
AmC <iis99999@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Nov 10, 10:14 pm, Squier <squ...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
ok - the Fred humbucker is around 10k (overwound PAF) that
has a mid EQ boosted tone. It is kinda mid heavy but good for leads
and heavier rock rhythms.
That being said -
DiMarzio's 4 conductor wiring actually is 5 wires.
Red (hot) green and bare (ground) and black and white (taped or soldered together)
In some guitars they offer star grounding where
you would take the green and solder it to ground on the pot
and then take the bare and solder it onto a separate ground lug.
in other words there are 2 ground connections.
Some guitars do not offer this additional grounding screw or lug
and in this case you wrap the green and bare together and solder
both to the top of the appropriate pot for the ground (make sure
the bare wire doesn't short out or touch anything metal that is 'hot'
Next - take the red wire and wire it the same as the hot wire on the
original setup.
Next - carefully unwrap the black and white wires taped together
and wire the white lead (you might want to keep the original length
of white wire and solder the old white wire to the shorter white
lead coming out of the DiMarzio) anyways wire the white lead (this is
your coil tap) to where the white lead was on the Ibanez.
Carefully tape up the exposed end of the black wire and just tape
it off against the bottom of the pickup or stash it inside the
pickup cavity - just make sure you use some black tape to tape off
the unused end of the wire so it doesn't short or connect against
any other metal. A small piece of black electrical tape works fine.
There ya go. The only prob you might have is that the
short little white wire is not long enough to get where
you want to go - either use existing wire (solder it onto
the white wire to make it longer or get another piece of wire
and solder it onto the white lead to make it longer - wrap a piece
of tape around where you solder wires together so that exposed
solder connection doesn't short against anything)
Remember though - the coil tap is different on pickups and
some pickups DiMarzio makes have good designs for getting both humbucker and
coil tapped tones
and some humbuckers (not only Dimarzio's) just do not get good
coil tapped sounds. The Fred is designed mostly for just use
as a humbucker but isn't known to be that great for coil tapping -
but YMMV and it could sound great - it also depends on the guitar
and how Ibanez is coil tapping with another pickup being on too.
Anyways - that 'white/black' is the coil tap wire set.
And yeah - after you unwrap them - the white gets wired in
and the black just hangs there by itself unused and retaped.
Don't blame me though if it doesn't work. But this is kinda
the standard way to do this with Dimarzio pups. I use Dimarzio's a lot
in my own guitars so I'm speaking from personal experience in how
to do the wiring.- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
Hi Squier and anyone else interested!
Well, just after I read your message I also got an email from DiMarzio
with a wiring diagram for my guitar titled "DiMarzio Humbucker in
Bridge Position on GRX40" which was quite handy! Now their diagram was
identical to your description, however they DO have the black wire
still connected with the white. So their wiring diagram shows:
Red: Post 1 of switch
Black and White: Post 6 of switch
Green and Bare: Volume pot (Grnd)
Could you tell me what the significance of connecting/not connecting
the black wire is? I think it's something to do with coil tapping but
this is my first guitar mod so I don't know the significance of a lot
of these things!
While I was changing to pickup, I also changed the 5 way switch to one
from Stew Mac (which is great quality) and the volume pot which was
scratchy. Now the volume pot is a new DiMarzio unit and altho it works
and has no scratching.. it doesn't turn all the way down to silence!
Do you think it's more likely that I've wired it wrong, I damaged it
with heat from the soldering iron, or was already damaged? Also one
other dumb question.. is there any difference between a tone and
volume pot? I know you can have differences in the 'curve' (linear,
etc) but could you in theory buy 2 idential pots and use one for tone
(using a capacitor, etc) and one for volume?
Thanks again!
AmC.
well just do what Dimarzio recommends (black/white together) and
see what happens - you really can't hurt anything.
If that doesn't do it - then just use the white and tape off the black.
Dimarzio can change its wiring sometimes on various pickups or
recommended ways of using them. So... ??? Anyways now you have
two ways to try out with the black/white coil tap wires.
What a coil tap does is allow the shutting off and turning on
of both single coils. A humbucker is two single coils wired
in reverse polarity which cancels the 'hum' noise associated with single coils.
If you are ever going to wire up a 'fat strat' (HSS) type of guitar
and you coil tap then it is good to ask Dimmarzio which way the
humbucker coils are oriented so if you tap the humbucker the single
coil that is left on has to be reverse of the middle pickup of a strat
so you get noise cancelling from the 2 single coils (middle single coil
and the tapped single coil of the humbucker).
Remember though that when you tap a humbucker - not all humbuckers
are balanced (each of the single coils may or may not be rated at the
exact same ohms/resistance). But the thing is for example let's say you
have a balanced humbucker that is rated at 10 ohms. Each of the 2 single
coils that make up that humbucker might be rated as 5 kohms each. (5+5 = 10).
So when you go to tap the humbucker and shut off one of the coils
then your output (which usually relates to how much volume) will drop
to only 5k and you will notice a decrease in volume output. Sometimes a lot
and sometimes a little. So if you are in the middle of a song playing
with the humbucker and then for some reason in a part of the song want
a more single coil sound and flip the switch or push/pull pot into
coil tap mode - be prepared for a drop in volume as you play - you can make
this volume up on the fly using your guitar volume knob or a volume pedal
or be near the amp to turn up the volume (if you want to keep the volume
at the same level the humbucker was putting out).
A tapped humbucker does not sound exactly like a single coil - but you
will get 'single coil' type sounds out of it and this is a cool thing
to get another kind of tone out of the same pickup by using a simple coil tap.
The only way you are going to damage a pot soldering wires on it is if
you hold the soldering iron on there steadily for a while. If the solder
connection doesn't hold the first time - just back off the soldering iron
for a minute and let things cool and then go at it again. I have soldered
wires on pots and never damaged anything but then again I do not keep
holding the soldering iron on there for long periods to overheat it.
I really wouldn't worry about it too much (unless it is one of those
cheapie plastic pot things. CTS pots are rugged and all metal housings)
I am not sure what to tell you about the volume pot not turning down
all the way - I haven't had this happen so maybe return it and get another (??)
Not sure what to tell you there. But it seems you have it working so
whatever you did worked - just the pot won't turn down and fully cut the volume.
.
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