So.
I've decided to mod an old guitar.
I have an old Ibanez 7420 which was refinished in (super shiney) black by its previous owner, and a black pearl pickguard added to cover up alot of pick scratches........
The mod I'm part way through is to add a middle pickup to make it HSH. The existing pups are a Seymour Duncan 59 / JB, so I'm adding an SSL5 (my christmas present to my self) a push pull pot and a 5way superswitch I have handy to get some interesting switching options.
The routing went well - after a few practices on scrap wood. No loss of fingers and only a couple of paint chips
Granted it would have been neater with a template, but the scratchplate will hide it all. If I ever revert this to 'no scratch plate - i can neaten the edges with sanding. I did fill the wee drill marks and sand then smooth before added a layer of paint and copper tape. The SD pups have really long pole screws - and the guitar has really shallow pickup routs- if you're wondering aboot the roughly drilled line of extra holes.
I'm never going to apply copper tape neatly.
... and its in.
Next job - wiring this bad boy... with the Ibanez True duo wiring scheme. (after watching a Tom Quayle video)
My handy pickup wire colour chart will help translate the dimarzio wire colours to SD . If it doesn't work out..... Meh ! It gets a normal 5 way.
Comments
For instance, if the original five-way HH circuit offered Bridge Only, Inside Coils, B+N, Neck Only (coils in parallel), Neck Only (coils in series), the switch is unsuitable for a HSH circuit.
The switch in the 7420 I have is an HH only switch. Its 'oot'.
I'm swapping in an old superswitch (VLX-91). We'll see how it works out. I don't like wiring this switch - its too fiddly - but its an experiment.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
- but the switch broke. Granted i was pulling on the selector lever to get screws lined up and .....'snick' something broke inside it.
I've ordered a CRL 5 way and will live happily with HSH and a coil split. What was I thinking.