[TobyB]

This might be simple inexperience ...
I have an Ibanez S from the early 90's that had their standard (V2, S1 & V3?) pickups .. which were "fine", but nothing striking.
I got an opportunity to change these for the "classic" DiM's that Ibanez use on their expensive instruments ... Air Norton, True Velvet (middle) and Tone Zone.
The sound/volume levels I have from these is quite different. On full guitar volume, clean settings to listening levels for practice/jamming, the bridge and the neck options 1 & 5 are very weak/quiet, and the central positions are all loud and heavily distorted with little apparent variation between the three. If I back off the volume by a third (or maybe a half) and then crank up the amplification to match, I get decent clean tones from 1 & 5, a clean but loud middle, and loud 2 & 4 just beginning to break up.
I have checked the wiring, and trust the tech who did the exchange ... and all seems as it should.
I have no idea what the outputs of the Ibanez-own pickups are, but they were apparently much closer matched. Should I be expecting the much wider differentiation with the DiM's? Also, if the middle True Velvet has a quoted Output of 130, compared to the 270 AN and the 375 TZ, might not I expect the middle 3 position be quieter?
I can learn to use the new combo just fine ... quite different to the previous ... but wondered if there might be a phase issue or the like for their to be such a dramatic change in character?

[greenlion]

Sounds to me like it is wired up wrong. Have you checked to see which pickup is active in each switch position? Plug into an amp and flip to each switch position one at a time and tap on each pickup's polepieces with something metal to make sure that the pickup that is supposed to be on in that position is working, and that the ones that are not supposed to be are NOT active.
Yes, the true velvet should have a detectable drop in output compared to the 2 humbuckers.

[darkbluemurder]

Agree there is a wiring error. The humbuckers should be noticeably louder than the single coil.

When you say you checked the wiring, how are the humbuckers wired? Red should go to hot, green and bare to ground, and black and white should be connected. For splitting in #2 and #4, black and white should go to the switch which switches that to ground.

Do you have a picture of the wiring?

Cheers Stephan

[TobyB]

Thank you!

I checked the tap-test gently with a screwdriver. The right pickups are positive as they should be ... however, in positions 2,3,4 I get a loud "tonk" from the middle pickup, and the bridge and neck produce similar loud tonks in 4 and 2 respectively. But in 1 and 5 positions, the middle is appropriately silent, but the humbuckers only produce a faint click (both rows exactly the same).

The wiring seems correct from the charts I've seen ... Neck: Red-8, Green-3, Bare-V.Pot, B&W braided ... Middle: White-2, Black-V.Pot ... Bridge: Red-6, Green-1, Bare-V.Pot, B&W braided ... other switches (it's a YM-50) 4-V.Pot 3, 5-empty, 7-V.Pot (i.e. ground)

So ... although the "connections" seem OK ... the big drop in sensitivity on the tap test of both solo (but not when paired) humbuckers seems to be wrong?

I don't know how to interpret this?

[darkbluemurder]

From your description, the wiring does not match what I expected. Here is a link to a HSH set up with an Ibanez switch:

https://www.google.com/search?q=ibanez+5+way+switch+diagram&rlz=1C1GGRV_enDE769DE770&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=ZR2X9_Sx6-PsuM%252Ca953cibb2PDjhM%252C_%253BZ7wugZ7fouV0BM%252Ccr6hgoN7iSTYYM%252C_%253BqlS1EtXkUceaZM%252C0S3NRdBzsLt9oM%252C_%253BPEzaEQo-k3p-GM%252CFrSfowM6T5bEuM%252C_%253BXpsFG58xTvKLQM%252Ccr6hgoN7iSTYYM%252C_%253BZmkgeuT6ekfZrM%252CqrZMKoOHKBxMBM%252C_%253B2Hy1AQ02T3AuOM%252Ccv0tVwXB14eM7M%252C_%253BYGi7BcATEEcKOM%252CcgZ2CgqHR7tIMM%252C_%253Bmrjn_J7nrCtOiM%252CfRDNRLUoK-EvnM%252C_%253B1QVapvyALlBccM%252CsE8p4TSuwP5s_M%252C_%253BXL8n2RdIu17WcM%252CPiNPv_5zhdILPM%252C_%253B3NfwNy5BYeFiQM%252CD-flxbTV7n2xiM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kRIjo_giaGcwIsqzxIry0REbOsXQQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj0lvaqwLXzAhUehf0HHdsxDAoQ9QF6BAgNEAE#imgrc=XL8n2RdIu17WcM

Another diagram showed that the commons are terminals 4 and 8 with the Ibanez switch. Obviously I don't have your guitar in front of me - if I did, I would check with a multimeter to make sure that these terminals really are the commons. Assuming they are, I would wire it as follows:

1 - bridge pickup red
2 - middle pickup hot
3 - neck pickup red
4 - to volume pot input
5 - bridge pickup black+white
6 - neck pickup black+white
7 - empty
8 - to ground (back of a volume pot)

So level 1 of the switch (terminals 1-4) controls which pickups are active, and level 2 of the switch (terminals 5-8) controls whether the humbuckers are split or not.

Bridge and neck pickup's green + bare should go to ground, as should the middle pickup ground.

With this wiring, you should get the following combinations:

#1 - bridge pickup, coils in series (humbucking mode)
#2 - bridge pickup split plus middle pickup - a strat like tone
#3 - bridge pickup (humbucking mode) plus neck pickup (humbucking mode) - LP middle position tone
#4 - middle pickup plus neck pickup split - a strat like tone
#5 - neck pickup (humbucking mode)

Cheers Stephan

[TobyB]

Hi Stephan
Looking at the diagram, that's similar to others I have looked at, it seems to be wired like that on simple inspection ... one Humbucker to 1 & 6, the other to 3 & 8, and the middle to 2. However ... I think the hots might be to the 6 & 8 (red currently), rather than the 1 & 3 (green). But that primarily sets the phase doesn't it?
What does seem different is that for each of mine, the black and white from each are braided together, but hanging free. The SD wiring suggests connecting them to 6 & 8. And the greens currently go to the switch, but should be to earth? Might that give me the full humbuckers in 1 & 5 positions?
Your alternative uses them connected to the switching ... that gives the coil split?
Like you suggest ... find the multimeter?

[darkbluemurder]

If you have the black and white from the humbuckers together each but not connected to anything, they will operate in full humbucker mode in any switch position they are connected to. With DiMarzios red and black are one coil, and green and white are the other. Black and white connect the coils for series (= full humbucking) mode. If you shunt black+white to ground, then only the coil with red and black is operating (= coil split).

The switch has two levels. You can use each level as you want or is convenient for wiring. I.e. you can use 8 for the hot connection. In that case, bridge red should go to 5, middle hot to 6 and neck red to 7. 

If you intend to do work on guitar electronics, a multimeter is an invaluable tool and fortunately not a big investment. I know I could not do without one.

I would suggest to start step by step. For the moment I would leave black+white of the humbuckers as they are and try to make the pickup selections work first. This means I would first wire up only one side of the switch (the one with the common going to hot) and see whether you get the expected combinations (1 - bridge, 2 - bridge + middle, 3 - bridge + neck, 4 - middle + neck, 5 - neck), and then we take it from there.

Cheers Stephan