Members Labtec30 Posted September 30, 2014 Members Share Posted September 30, 2014 I’m new to wiring/mods - this is my fourth mod job but my first with coil splitting. I have an Ibanez RX170. The existing setup was HSH with a five way switch. That offered the basic 1) neck (hum) 2) neck (hum)/middle 3) middle 4) bridge (hum)/middle 5) bridge (hum) set-up. I added two DPDT on/on/on switches and replaced each humbucker with a four-wire version and kept the single coil. I wired this up to get the same 5-way set-up but with the option to use north single/hum/south single on each humbucker. Here is my problem – every position works as intended except position 2. Position 2 gives me a very thin, nasally sound, that is “far away” compared to the other positions. This goes beyond the thin/steely sound of a single coil bridge pick-up. It does the same thing under high gain, in fact it’s worse. At first I thought it was a bad solder joint so I re-soldered all the contacts on the related DPDT switch and five-way switch - nothing. Then I thought maybe the five-way switch was fried so I re-wired using the second position on the opposite pole. Still nothing. Position one works fine - I get all three tones on the humbucker. I have the same exact wiring on the bridge humbucker in position 4 and it’s perfect. I get all three options on the bridge humbucker with the middle single coil. Independently all pick-ups work - it’s only when I combine neck/middle that it goes haywire. What am I missing? Any thoughts? I am about to buy a new five-way switch but I don’t think that’s the problem (worked before I took it apart). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mr.Grumpy Posted September 30, 2014 Members Share Posted September 30, 2014 The neck and middle pickups are out of phase. That's what causes the very thin, 'distant' sound as you described it. Swap the two signal wires on the neck humbucker and that should fix the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Labtec30 Posted October 1, 2014 Author Members Share Posted October 1, 2014 Ok - thanks. I thought maybe the phase was the problem but I don't really understand how that works so wasn't able to trouble shoot it. I just want to clarify what you mean by signal wires. I have green, black, red, and white wires. The red and the white were tied together when I bought the pickup so I assumed these were the finish wires for each coil, which ended up working out, so I'm assuming you want me to switch the green and black wires, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mr.Grumpy Posted October 1, 2014 Members Share Posted October 1, 2014 Yes, switch the green and black wires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Labtec30 Posted October 2, 2014 Author Members Share Posted October 2, 2014 Worked - thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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