Brutkey

Martin Aspeli
@optilude@techhub.social

@ikkeT@mementomori.social With luck you only need to move one or two wires on the switch. But it’s going to require understanding how the switch is wired, and what each wire does.

You can investigate by measuring resistance (in ohms) across the pickups. Put one probe on the ground/negative side and the other on the hot side. A single coil might measure 6-7kOhm. A humbucking pair of coils in series would measure double that. Two pickups in parallel measure half of their sum (so 3-4k mabye for single coils in parallel like the middle positions on a Strat, but then I suppose two humbuckers in parallel might read similar resistance to a single coil on its own.)

When a humbucker is wired as a full humbucker, the two coils run in series by connecting their “finish” wires. That’s why the resistance doubles.

This image might help:

Ilkka Tengvall
@ikkeT@mementomori.social

@optilude@techhub.social thanks. We even got original wiring diagram from ibanez. Even that has colors wrong. My bet was we have humbucker and split wires across from bridge. This resistance measure tip is golden, that will give clarity, thanks a lot!

Problem with the ibanez seems to be wiring varies. Like these mics don't have more than four wires, so likely just hot cold and split. And ground on the shield wire.

I assume it doesn't.matter if hot and cold goes the wrong way, mic will work the same?

Martin Aspeli
@optilude@techhub.social

@ikkeT@mementomori.social it breaks my brain how it works when there aren’t all four wires…

I’d try to disconnect all the wires from the bridge humbucker and measure it in isolation.

One more thing: it’s possible you are wrong when you say it’s split, if you just mean “low output”. It could be that it’s inadvertently wired in parallel with the single coil or that you have two active pickups but out of phase.

Martin Aspeli
@optilude@techhub.social

@ikkeT@mementomori.social

Testing tips:

- Put a multimeter on the output jack (black to ground, red to hot - or plug a short cable in and clip the meter to the sleeve and tip of the other end) and measure resistance. Turn the volume and tone all the way up (!) and measure resistance as you move the switch. That tells you what the amp “sees”.

- Connect the guitar to an amp and tap the pole pieces of each pickup with a screwdriver. You’ll hear which pickup is active as you move the switch. Even better, use an old fashioned metal tuning fork and hold it over the pickup. This way you can check what pickup is doing what without having to put the strings on. You can also test the tone and volume knobs this way.

Ilkka Tengvall
@ikkeT@mementomori.social

@optilude@techhub.social this got solved. It was the bridge wires were swapped. Now it works 🎉