A return customer! (remove tonePt, sheilding, HSH)

[beckerologly]

Hi everyone, I dropped by for a while about 6 months ago because I needed help with my Ibanez HSH RG. The help I received was invaluable and it allowed me to replace the pickups in my guitar, adding one on/on/on (i think) switch for each 'H', so I can use series/parallel/single coil.

I am now wanting to
-completely remove my Tone pot (ugly and cheap, probably sucks tone),
-plus kill the middle SC and remove it (i know how to do this and as you can see by the schematic the bridge is in the middle of the 5-way, so I can still use most of the 5-way to my advantage).
-Most of all, the damn thing has a NOISE PROBLEM!. its not too bad, and I attempted the shielding mod in the original guitar nuts website, but its still dodgy.

Can some good soul help me out by modifying my schematic to remove the tone pot, and if possible set up the start-grounding whatever it is, I cant comprehend the strat tut well enough to apply it to my Ibanez.

Oh, and next year I will start my EE (space) degree at uni, so I may soon know enough to actually contribute! I'm very interested in guitar electronics. And sorry for the mammoth post.




(edited by sumgai to correct the broken image links)

[suicufnoc]

simply remove the tone pot, capacitor, and thw two wires connecting to it. That's all it takes. As for star grounding, i'll read up on it soon

[sumgai]

becky,

For the tone pot, do as suicufnoc says, his GuitarFu is pretty good.

To remove the middle pup, do the same thing - exorcise the pup itself, and the wires leading to it. Don't connect anything in place of the pickup! You may want to restore the "crossed" wiring to the selector switch, that's up to you.

But, after removing said Middle pickup, you'll find your switch as a few blank spots. (!) Crossed or straightened out, the lack of a pickup at one or two positions means that you'll want to re-wire the switch to give you something more useful, and probably more tonally pleasing, than dead air. Try looking at some of the threads in the Schematics sub-Forum, there are plenty of ideas for two humbucker guitars.

And you have to admit, it's pretty difficult to diagnose shielding problems without pictures. Got any to share with us?

HTH


sumgai

[suicufnoc]

Dead air could be cool thought;) Killswitchness. Nah...

[beckerologly]

thanks for the replies, I don't really see how I can use the rest of the 5-way given the situation, but I'l have another look.
As for shielding, what do you want pics of? At this point I can say (hopefully this is useful)
-With the volume off there is no noise
-unlike my les paul, touching the strings or bridge does not quieten the situation
-The way the Alfoil (pick guard) is electrically connected to the ground is that the volume pot is screwed onto the pick guard, meaning some contact (there arent any wires connecting it to the back of the pot like all the other wires are)
-It is noisier than the Les Paul, even thoh its an epiphone Zakk Wylde with crap EMGs, and ive replaced my Humbuckers with a Dimarzio and a Seymour Duncan JB

maybe this is normal, but I didnt think it would be...
just tell me what i need to take pics of !
thanks

[hugh]

Is it hum canceling like it should, and this noise is still making its way through? Is it noisy in all pickup selections?

[beckerologly]

Yes it is hum cancelling where it should be, and isnt where it shouldnt be (single coil stuff). Im thinking its just badly sheilded/grounded

[beckerologly]

Oh, and can anyone confirm that the guitar may sound a bit better/quieter without the tone pot? even if thats wrong I'm still removing it, along with the middle SC and my floyd rose (replacing it with a fixed bridge, just gotta work out if i want a sustain block :S)

[hugh]

It will be slightly brighter and possibly slightly louder without the tone pot. Tone controls drain tone to ground. Sucking tone to ground means the output will be a little less. Even with it set on 10, it still pulls a little out to ground.

[beckerologly]

cool- thats what I thought

[crazymanandy]

You can simulate having no tone pot by doing a no-load tone pot mod.

CMA

[beckerologly]

Excellent, so just finishing off so i can get out of everyone's hair.. Is it possible / easy enough for anyone to explain how I could star ground this thing?
Its pretty important to me as I like to play with a decent amount of gain, and the sound I have now is soooo smooth and chunky (in sound terms that is possible haha), only the buzz barely makes it worth it. In fact I don't even use my pedals now because complicating the signal chain just makes it unbearable. This isn't the amps' issue (i have 2 amps and 2 guitars for comparisons)

[beckerologly]

Ok, well i'm starting to get the concepts involved with Star grounding after alot of reading.
Once the Tone control is removed, all i have to do is:
-connect the bare wires of both the HB pickups to a common terminal connected to the shielding
-connect a wire from the volume pot (left lug/shell in diagram) to the common terminal
- remove the 'to bridge' ground from the volume pot and re-attach it to the common terminal?

no wait, thats wrong I'l bet. Do the negatives of the pickups need to be separated from the ground at the volume pot? (i.e. disconnect the left lug from the outer shell?) Where does the bled-off volume go, left lug or shell?

I give up!

[hugh]

Put all your grounds to that point, unless they need to be switched somewhere. If they just go to ground, then mount them in the star spot. Ground is ground. Grounding everything to one point helps cut down on noise.

[michaelcbell]

amen to hugh on this one. All grounds meeting at one point = good!

[michaelcbell]

just make sure there's nothing that's also connected to ground in another way. A note: if touching the strings doesn't quiet the noise even a little, that means there's no connection between the strings and ground, which will cause noise. Open 'er up and check for ground loops (two or more paths from a given component to ground) and check to make sure your bridge (and therefore strings) are connected to ground as well.

[beckerologly]

I just get confused what is ground and what is negative. For example, is there a 'ground' wire from the 5-way to the right volume lug? and is the volume's grounded out signal on the left lug or the shell (i realize they're connected).
Put it this way, if someone is willing to just tell me exactly what to do i'd be very happy, but its obviously not expected (you guys have helped me out alot already), it's just I can't be guided, i really need someone to spoon-feed me.
thanks heaps I hope i'm not getting annoying with my n00bness

[beckerologly]

So by 'bridge and therefore strings' being connected to ground, this is the ground i'm providing by touching the strings or is it grounded out through the output jack?
just clarifying