Switching stagg pickups with ibanez pickups.

[boeba]

Hi guys,

I allready asked this question in another topic, but i guess maybe this is the right place for my question..

So i got this cheap stagg guitar from a friend. I have 2 ibanez pickups which i want to install in this stagg, but somewhere along the line i don't

see how i could solder these to the stagg config.

See pics below for more explanation...

I guess my problem is that the stagg pu only has 2 wires, and my ibanez pu has 3, an extra black one(ground wire i think)

What do i do with the extra ground wire, can i just leave it unsoldered?

Best regards,

Boeba.

[Tim37]

Its probably a cover ground or shielding. Just run it to your ground

[boeba]

hi guys,

So i soldered my h-s-h ibanez pickups in the stagg guitar.

But for some reason there is alot of humming, Is it necessary to use all of the 3 pickups, because right now i didn't soldered the single coil in.

Here is the diagram i used, but like i said, i just left the single coil out.

Is this a problem?

[curtisa]

Extra wire on your Ibanez pickups is not a spare ground, but probably the coil tap conductor for coil splitting with the single coil for the typical out-of-phase-position-2-&-4-strat-type sound.

Braid of the Ibanez pickups should be soldered to ground.

Need to determine whether the Ibanez black or white wire is the correct one to use (not clear from the Ibanez diagram as they identify them as red and white). Easy test is to solder the white wire in place of your old pickup cabling and leave the black wire hanging unterminated. If it sounds good and doesn't hum leave it as-is. If it hums and/or has weak output swap the black for the white.

[boeba]

Thanks curtisa,

But i don't think i fully understand what you mean.

The setup that i soldered in the stagg, is exactly how it used to be soldered in an old ibanez of mine. The only thing i left out is the single coil pickup.(the middle one).

So i don't really understand why it's humming because in the ibanez it was the same soldering and it was just good sound.

[curtisa]

Maybe we're getting our proverbial and literal wires crossed.

I'm assuming you're performing a swap of the existing Stagg pickups with your two new humbucker Ibanez pickups. The way I'm reading your query is that your Stagg humbuckers have 1 core + braid cables from each, and your Ibanez humbuckers are fitted with 2 core + braid cables. I'm also assuming you're leaving the rest of the wiring, switch and pots in the guitar untouched. If this is the case you simply take the two old pickups out of the guitar, install your two new Ibz pickups and wire them as I've described - braid of each pickup lead to ground and black (or white) to each volume pot middle lug with the unused wire from each pickup unterminated. At the end of the swap the wiring should look identical to the original with the exception of one spare wire from each pickup lead hanging in mid air.

If you're wanting to wire up the guitar as per the Ibanez diagram minus the middle singlecoil the level of difficulty increases somewhat:

• your Stagg guitar has a 3-position 1-pole switch whereas the Ibz wiring requires a 5-position 2-pole switch. They are not directly interchangable.
• If you install the 5-position switch specified and wire it as per the Ibz diagram position 3 will give you no sound as the middle singlecoil is not installed.
• The Stagg appears to have 2x volume and 1x tone, whereas the Ibz wiring shows 1x master vol and 1x tone.

[boeba]

thanks again Curtisa, for wanting to help a noob like me.

Let's forget about the entire stagg wiring. i took it out and installed my complete ibanez wiring. the 5 way switch, 2 pots and the 2 ibanez pickups.

This is completely installed as it used to be on my ibanez.....EXCEPT.......i didn't install the middle pickup.

You could say i just transfered an entire wiring from one guitar to another.(without the middel pickup)

And this is my problem,................it's humming loud, and when i hold my finger on let's say a little screw that holds the pickup to the scratchplate, it stops.

I can assume my english is a bit weird, it's because i am from Belgium.

[curtisa]

Ahhhh, I understand now.

Transferring the wiring from one guitar to the other as per the Ibz diagram minus the middle pickup will work, with the caveat that position 3 on your switch will give no sound. Your pickup selections will then be (1) bridge humbucker, (2) bridge coil tap, (3) no sound, (4) neck coil tap, and (5) neck humbucker.

Excess hum that goes away when you touch something metallic is likely to be a missing ground to your bridge or the output jack wired back-to-front.

Don't feel bad about the language barrier. Your English is far superior to my Dutch/French.

[boeba]

Thanks Curtisa,

Before i do anything i took some pics to show what i have already.

Maybe you could see what's wrong with it? I know it isn't easy to tell by the pics.(at least not for me)

I hope the pics could explain what's wrong with the wiring.

In the pic below you can also see a grey wire coming out of the body, my brother told me this sould be a mass cable. We took it off to test some things, but what would be the best place to solder this to? my brother soldered the grey wire(coming from the body) to one of the pots, volume or tone...

[curtisa]

Your wiring looks OK, but you need that bridge ground wire (the grey wire with the blue tape on the end, 1st photo above) soldered to either of your pot cases. That should help with the hum.

[boeba]

thanks again Curtisa,

I already soldered the grey wire to a pot.

Weird thing is that it keeps humming, i am starting to think that the grey wire itself is not connected properly to the bridge pen.(i mean the screw where you put the tailpiece over.)

Problem is that the grey wire itself just runs through a small drilled hole to the screw, so i can't see how it is connected.

Could i just take another wire, and hang this to another part of my guitar, just to test?

[curtisa]

Yep, try the temporary wire as an experiment.

The grey wire is likely to be bare inside the tailpiece post hole, and simply making contact to the post by being squeezed against it as it is inserted into the body. Maybe the wire has been pulled out accidentally or broken? If the temporary wire fixes things I reckon you may need to look closer at the bridge ground wire.

Are you doing all your testing with the guitar dismantled? Don't forget that most guitars will buzz a little when plugged without you touching anything metallic. I also notice that you don't have any shielding under the scratchplate.

[boeba]

1.Temporary wiring

--------------------

Is there a simple place where i can hang a wire and solder the other end to one of my pots? Like maybe hang a wire to another metal part of my guitar, for example the tailpiece?

2. Dismantled

-----------------

Each time i test my guitar i just close everything up, and restring it.(bit pain in the a**, but i like to be sure.)

3. Shielding

---------------

Could you explain a bit more about the shielding, i assume you mean like tinfoil on the inside of the scratchplate?

Greetings,

Boeba

[curtisa]

Is there a simple place where i can hang a wire and solder the other end to one of my pots? Like maybe hang a wire to another metal part of my guitar, for example the tailpiece?

Solder one end to one of your pots and twist the other to your tailpiece or around the strings behind the nut. If the hum goes away while holding/playing the guitar normally your grey bridge ground wire is not making contact as it should be.

Each time i test my guitar i just close everything up, and restring it.(bit pain in the a**, but i like to be sure.)

Yep, good idea. Fixes for hums and buzzes are best evaluated with the instrument buttoned up as best as possible. Also a good idea to be positioned in such a way to avoid picking up external sources of interference such as computer monitors, laptop power supplies, light dimmers, TVs etc.

Could you explain a bit more about the shielding, i assume you mean like tinfoil on the inside of the scratchplate?

Essentially, yes. The foil acts as a barrier to reduce external noise from being picked up by the instrument, and needs to be in contact with a grounded part of the guitar to be effective. Your pot cases and jack socket are already grounded via your wiring, so it's just a matter of screwing these components through the foil and onto the scratchplate. For additional shielding you can line the control cavity with the foil as well, provided it has some way of being in contact with the foil on the scratchplate when the guitar is re-assembled. You may be able to pick up a roll of self-adhesive copper or aluminium foil tape from an electronics hobby shop that can be applied to the back of the scratch plate around the area occupied by the pots and switches.

[boeba]

Hi guys, so looks like i fixed the problem.

The ground wire got loose under the bridge tailpiece.

So i wanted to thank you for the help,...thanks for the good advice curtisa.

Boeba

[boeba]

And voila,

Took a pic off the "final" stagg. Since it's a cheap guitar i won't spend money on paint or anything else.

The only thing i replaced are new tuning pegs.

Also made a smoothed bevel where i rest my arm, and a belly cut.

[curtisa]

Nice work. Good to hear it's all up and running.