Guitar Rewiring...

[plague_rider]

...I have an Ltd 350 (mahogany, floyd, HB-S-HB pickup slots) which i've been trying to rewire

this guitar came as a project (£150) so i've had to source a lot of the Floyd Parts and the electronics...

First off, I decided to swap out the 5-way sliding selector for a 3-way so i could remove the middle single coil...

as i'm not an overly experienced guitarist (bassist by trade, wanted a decent stock guitar for recording with) i figured i wouldn't be needing this pickup, anyone think i'm making a major mistake with this??

the main trouble i'm having at this point is wiring the 3-way selector switch to the EMG 81/85 setup, i've been through a lot of websites including the EMG FAQ section but the diagram shows the pins 4 on each side, whereas they actually have all 8 on one side.
At this point i don't have access to a multimeter...

can anyone help??

 

[kramer1309]

see, the switching diagrams with 4 on each side are usually numbered as 0-1-3-5 on each side (with the 0's being output - wire connecting to the common volume or output jack if there are multiple volume knobs). so each row has 0-1-3-5.
Your switch with 8 in a row has this config - 1-3-5-0-0-1-3-5
best of luck

 

[plague_rider]

Ah right, i see (kinda), i'll have a look tonight, thats pretty much telling me the way i had planned to wire it is wrong...

thanks though, hoping to get it working asap!!

 

[Metaltastic]

Had a similar problem recently (EMG's wiring diagrams fucking suck, is a 3-way blade toggle THAT unusual of a choice? :Smug: ), but lolzgreg was kind enough to provide the answer! (which I immediately copied into my own photobucket account for reference ) Behold...

 

[plague_rider]

thanks marcus, much appreciated, i'll post whether i get it sorted properly or not...

also, any verdicts on having an EMG in the bridge and a duncan in the neck, or vice-versa??

 

[kramer1309]

its not easy to wire them to the same switch on a standard 5 way without a ground loop, unless ofcourse you have separate tone & vol controls (but still gotta watch out for the loops)
my main guitar has a emg81 in the bridge and a no-name neck humbucker (really sweet cleans)..luckily i had the ibanez HH 5way switch so i was able to wire it:
1-off(i wanted one) 2-neckHB 3-neckcoil1 4-neckcoil2 5-bridge..
with a standard 5-way, just make sure there aren't any ground loops or you'll get bad hum..
so, its not impossible, just think it through properly..

 

[Metaltastic]

thanks marcus, much appreciated, i'll post whether i get it sorted properly or not...

also, any verdicts on having an EMG in the bridge and a duncan in the neck, or vice-versa??

Well if it's a Duncan Blackout (or any other active model, though some require 18-volt operation) it won't be a problem, but for any passive, I'm pretty certain you'd need to have it connected to its own volume pot with a much higher impedance than the pots normally used with EMG's (500 kOhm is the standard for pots with passive pickups, 25 kOhm for actives). That's the only issue I'm aware of, but there could very well be others (possible grounding issues as Kramer mentioned). 2x EMG 81's at 18 volts is my favorite combo in any guitar I've tried, however! (well, maybe the 85 in the bridge of thinner-sounding guitars, but still, not often)

 

[plague_rider]

I found another picture online that solved my specific confusion, after reading above diagram i understood what i had done wrong a bit better, but was still confused by the above photo showing the four pins on each side rather than the 8 in a row, i did however find this...

and last night, to parts of the new Dethklok album i was able to find on youtube, I wired my guitar up and got it working!! i'd post samples but i don't want my tone/playing to embarrass me further...