What pickups for Ibanez SZ520?

[pw5470]

Play mostly hard rock and some heavy stuff. Looking to add some punch to the pickups. The stock ones are okay, but I am not getting the crunch I want. I want to be able to get a good classic hard rock sound, and some heavy sounds for some Metallica riffs while getting a good clean tone as well. Amp is Line 6 Spider II 30 watt.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks!

[chimairob]

EMG's and get rid of the spider and get a 5150, its worth the doh

[Polaris20]

Originally posted by chimairob EMG's and get rid of the spider and get a 5150, its worth the doh

 

Well yeah, because someone owning a $150 amp is certainly in the market for one over $800 + cab on Ebay

[_pete_]

Dimarzio Super Distortion. Wire it with a coil split switch and use good 500K pots. You'll get any sound you need out of it then.

[steve2500hd]

Originally posted by pw5470 Play mostly hard rock and some heavy stuff. Looking to add some punch to the pickups. The stock ones are okay, but I am not getting the crunch I want. I want to be able to get a good classic hard rock sound, and some heavy sounds for some Metallica riffs while getting a good clean tone as well. Amp is Line 6 Spider II 30 watt. Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

I don't know what kind of gain or tone for that matter, that the Line 6 has, but I will be using a Duncan Distortion in the bridge and a '59 in the neck in my 520.

[Guitar Guru]

I put EMG's in mine.....and simply love it. Great chunk, great cleans.......used it as my primary guitar for all sounds when we did our album.

 

My two cents....

[sultan417]

I had the same guitar, sold it in a fit of supreme stupidity. Ibanez SZ's rule.

 

Anywyas, i had a Duncan JB in mine. It really shined in that guitar. You might like Dimarzio PAF Pros, Dimarzio Super Distortions, Dimarzio Evolutions or Duncan Customs.

[pw5470]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I will do some research and see what I can come up with.

 

Probably a stuip question, but is it fairly easy to change pickups yourself? Haven't done it before, so I don't want to screw anything up.

 

Thanks again!

[mdog114]

ToneZone in the bridge, and a AirNorton in the neck.

[zen666]

I've just put a Dimarzio X2N on the bridge of my Ibanez SZ520QM. I was a bit with what pickup I wanted to put. I had an epiphone with a seymour duncan JB and sounded great put a little bit bright (and weak???) so I wanted more tone, mids, bass and gain. I think this pickup has plenty of them, I cant tell much because I've only played it once since I got it ... perhaps too much output (it gives me a lot of feedback, i will low the pickup a little bit).

At first I was going to put a EMG 81 at the bridge but the technician told me that I was better to have the 2 active pickups than one and one passive because the active circuit will completely disable the passive one to use the tone knob.

 

By the way, hi everybody (this is my first post!!)

 

ivan - spain.

[unistudent1980]

If you can solder and read schematics it shouldn't be too hard. Seymour Duncan has a very comprehensive set of wiring schematics, but I'm not sure about Dimarzio (check their site). Probably a good idea to have someone who knows what they're doing sit with you so you can get a walkthrough as well.

[Guest Anonymous]

 

Originally posted by pw5470 Thanks for all of the suggestions. I will do some research and see what I can come up with. Probably a stuip question, but is it fairly easy to change pickups yourself? Haven't done it before, so I don't want to screw anything up.

 

I just bought a new PAF Pro and Superdistortion to go in my SZ720. I took the control plate off last week and drew a diagram of the existing wiring. I have a thorough understanding of guitar wiring, but the Ibanez switch is unusual and threw me off due to the uncertainty of what the colored wires of the stock pickups do.

 

If you want the same switching capabilities the stock wiring offers, there are two wires from each pickup that are soldered as pairs on each side of the switch, two wires that are soldered to ground on the back of the pots, and a single output wire from each pickup wired to a terminal on each volume pot. Those are the only five wires that need to be changed.

 

The terminals on the switch are thin tubes. To solder a wire you just insert the end of the wire in the tube and solder it by heating the tube and filling it with solder. After removing the old wires it may be necessary to heat the terminals and insert a thin object like a straight pin into them in order to force the older solder out and clear the terminal for the new wire.

 

For Dimarzio pickups the black and white wires will be attached in pairs on the switch, the green and bare wires will be soldered to the back of the pots, and the red wire will be connected to the terminal on the volume pot.

 

I don't care for the single coil tones produced by the middle switch position, so I'm going to deviate from the original wiring design and wire the black and white wires together without attaching them to the switch. The result will be the same wiring configuration as a Les Paul where both humbuckers are active in the middle position.

 

One cool thing about the Ibanez switch is that by disconnecting the pickups from the switch the unused terminals can be used to add extra capacitors of differing sizes for each pickup if I choose to tweak the tone.

 

A 40-watt soldering iron purchased from Radio Shack, some inexpensive solder (don't get expensive Weller silver solder), wire cutters, and needlenose pliers (or hemostats) are all you'll need.