Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Ibanez RG With a PAF Humbucker - Wiring Diagram

Today, I will show you how to wire a Gibson-style, classic humbucker (P.A.F.) in Ibanez RG or JEM guitar, on neck position.

It can be a very useful mod. With this medium-output, warm sounding pickup, you will be able to get a good clean or crunchy tone. Something right for blues, classic rock or even jazz vibes.

Diagram:

Bridge humbucker wire colors are based on the DiMarzio's code.

How it works?

The wiring, except the neck humbucker is quite common for an Ibanez construction. It has got a 5-way pickup selector. Positions: 1, 2, 3 and 5 are just like in the original RG guitar. The 4th (neck + middle) position is different. There's no neck humbucker coil split, because it's based on a two conductor, old-school pickup model. The guitar, on this selector position, will also sounds good – very rich and transparent.

The red capacitor is for the tone control. The orange, round cap is for the treble bleed prevention circuit. Choose your favorite values or keep the stock version.

Remember, that the pickup selector has got a little bit different connections than in the standard wiring. It's because of two conductor neck humbucker. Normally there's three or four conductor p-up, with the coil-split function.

You can make this project with stock parts, except the neck humbucker.