Pickup wiring idea

Here's a wiring diagram I just drew by hacking an existing one to re-arrange the components and wiring. I'm in the process of wiring this up and thought I'd post it in case anyone finds it interesting. I thought of it myself while I was in the mindset of rewiring and modifying/swapping stuff right now. The guitar is totally taken apart and day by day I'm doing a little work.

I have an Ibanez RG470 which came stock with HSH pickup config and a 5 way switch, one tone one volume.

Almost immediately when I got it (around 2001) I tore out the pickups and pots and put in an EMG 81 Bridge 85 Neck (middle single slot empty) and installed the 25k 2 pots as two volumes, no selector switch hooked up. I figured since I only had 2 pickups now I could just control each volume and that'll be my selector, and I never cared for tone controls on a guitar anyway so I wouldn't miss it.

Now that I'm re-doing it I found an old EMG single active pickup in the basement (came on a pick guard from Ebay when I bought the 81 to install). I've never used it so I wanted to try it out now. So since the guitar has only 2 pots I don't want the middle pickup on full blast and I need to be able to switch between them etc.

I didn't want to lose volume control functionality of each 81/85, so I felt screwed with what to do so I could maintain the features I had before and incorporate the new pickup.

So last night I researched the 5 way Ibanez switch (8 pins) and figured out how it works. It's two ganged three position switches each with a separate output. With the active pickups I only need one half of the switch to take the signal wires of Neck Mid Bridge into switch A inputs 1, 2, 3 and send the switch A out to the master volume pot. Switch B is left unused and I then get the standard 5 way action of choosing the combination of pickups to have on, and whatever is on gets its volume controlled.

The problem is what happens when I want both neck and bridge at the same time, and at separate volumes like I'm used to having? I can't get both with the 5 way switch method.

So I used the spare switch B of the 5 way switch and routed the Neck and Bridge to the second volume Blend pot in such a way that when the Neck is selected, the Bridge pickup is also routed to the Blend pot and I can bring it in if I want, or leave it at zero volume for normal 5 way action. Same is true when the Bridge is switched on and I can blend the Neck in with the Blend volume.

I hope it works, it should in theory. A few more days maybe and I'll post results.

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The passive pup may not output a whole lot using 25K pots.

All 3 are active. The middle is I THINK an EMG SA which I THINK Is active (well it has 3 wires coming out of it and the site looks like it's active becaue it has a battery kit)

I forget where I read it, maybe in the original active instructions but I've always been under the impression we can't mix active and passive pickups so I never even thought about doing it.

One of the other modifications I have to do before I even wire this up is I have to convert my EMG 81 from a hard wired to a solderless 3 terminal type while I have it all apart, so I can in the future swap them back without taking the rest of it apart, just unplug and swap from the top side. My 85 was bought new and came with the 3 pin socket but the 81 from Ebay had wires going straight into the pickup so I'm going to add a 3 pin header to the pickup and convert it over while I'm doing all this.

About the only adjustment I am not making on the guitar at this point is intonation, which I think I might need to fix. Have to start a list of things to get done. It is intonation, isn't it, that affects a chord sounding in tune at the neck and starting to get out of tune half way up? I have that problem, always have. Can't remember if I ever tried to fix it, I remember doing research on checking intonation with 12th fret vs 12th fret harmonic or something to see if they match. I wish this thing played in tune all the way up the neck.

Active and passive pups can be matched after their respective pots.

Keep in mind passive EMGs have a third wire for a coil tap and no plugs, just a wie from the pup. The active pups have plugs.

I'll give the single EMG a shot anyway with the 81/85 and see what happens, I'm counting on the facts that I think I identified it as SA which does have an active battery kit on the site plus it was originally installed with an 81 so I'm 99% sure it'll be all good.

You said the single EMG is active. Aren't the 81 & 85 active as well? So you got 3 active pups. I don't care for active myself but it looks like your scheme is on course to do what you want as is.

I don't know when the change occurred but the 81 I have is old enough to have been heavily used from Ebay around 2001 with the logo almost rubbed off and that's also around when I bought the brand new 85 which did have the connectors. I read somewhere on the EMG site about how they used to be hard wired. It was in maybe a wiring document where they pointed out there's no functional difference so if you have both types you can use them together.

Is that because it was installed backwards? I noticed the connectors aren't polarized AND there's no clear marking to show which way to put it so while I'm at it I'm going to put a "Red" label by the appropriate pin because I can see that becoming an issue for me. The wiring diagrams on the site clearly show it but it would be nice if it were on the pickup. Tonight I will be working on the wiring, don't know how far I'll get.

Got me curious. Can you post pics when you're done?

I'm about to plug in the soldering iron and make the first hardwire cut on the 81 to attach a connector. I'll start the photo log at the same time for the process starting with what it all looks like right now and how it evolves.

Thanks. I have as much fun watching other people's projects as I do working on my own.

I didn't get too far tonight because I screwed up something that I will take to work tomorrow and fix and continue. I basically unsoldered the 81 hard wired pickup and cut the cable to prep for adding the connectors.

Here's the installed hard wired 81 and solderless 85 I currently have

Here's the mess in the back end, the tools I'm using on my workbench (kitchen floor), the connectors I'm using for the 81 fix, and the 81 amputated ready for the connector at work tomorrow.

Now both pickups are solderless. Just have to wire the inside connections all up and re-string it, wipe all the fingerprints off the body, etc.

I haven't started the rewiring of the inside but I did notice I drew the wiring diagram wrong. I'll fix it when I can but the error is the pickup outputs should go to the pot wiper and the output to the jack should come from the pot end opposite the ground end of the pot. The way I have it drawn, if either pot is turned down the output will be grounded with a short from wiper to ground. With the correction the output will always have a 25k pot load to ground (12.5k when both pots are used in parallel in my situation) and it's the pickup signal that will be either grounded or sent partly/fully to the output. That's the way my current (old) two-volume-control setup is wired. I should have caught that.

I finished the wiring but still haven't restrung it (going to go slowly and try to set it up properly as I go - truss, intonation, bridge spring tension) so another few days before I know if it works at all. The bridge has been sitting a bit forward so I need to tighten the springs for that, and I've never been fully in tune across the neck so I'd like to get to the bottom of that.

Maybe I'll tighten one string enough to get a sound just for go/no go testing tomorrow.

I updated the schematic in the first post to correct the pot wiring and added a 9v connection for completion. Now the output path won't be dragged to ground by the pots, the pickup outputs will be grounded when not in use. This is how I've had mine all along but since I don't know what the preamp inside the EMG looks like I will email them to be sure it's a valid strategy to directly ground the pickup output without causing issues internally.

Good idea doing a setup now. Kinda like doing a compression test on your car while you have the spark plugs out. Hell, you're already there.

Still setting it up and adjusting it but I did a preliminary stringing just to check for output and I seem to have activity on all 5-way switch settings between the 3 pickups and the blend pot does allow me to turn up the opposite pickup as expected (I'm assuming it's the opposite pickup - right now with a badly de-tuned guitar and a Cube 30 they all sound the same). I'll check it more later. For now I'll focus on the maintenance setup.

Two things I noticed...the screws/bolts on the under side of the "nut" area were both loose, plus my damn floating bridge (lo-trs trem) was not sitting properly in one of the 2 bridge adjustment bolts...rather than being seated up near the head of the adjustment bolt on the bass side, it was kind of riding down the bold threads (and grinding away apparently). Maybe this has been part of my issues with getting the thing to sound in tune all this time. It probably slipped once when all strings were off and it was loose enough to move - I'd not have known any better.

I'm also moving back down to 9's from 10's so I adjusted the bridge springs. Even with the poor setup and tuning, what a difference new strings make. I keep forgetting. Suddenly all the crisp pick attack and gain is back. I don't notice it vanishing when they slowly age but when I replace them it's a new instrument again.

The middle SA pickup is shimmed in place with electrical tape for now around all edges to hold it because I somehow lost the screws for that pickup slot whenever I originally removed it years ago. But it works.

At least the 81 and 85 are now solderless so if I don't like it when I get it all finally set up I can just loosen the strings and exchange their positions to the original location. That's all this whole mess was ever really about. I wanted to see what the 81 was like in the neck. How do I get myself into this?