neck/bridge position for HSH Ibanez Universe : worth it?

[Deleted]

Hello,
listening to the guitar yesterday, it sounded to me much more bassy than my mahogany/EMG other Ibanez and also more than anything in the family. So, positions 2,4 do not sound very stratty. The pups (DMZ Blazes) are also very bassy with scooped mid range. So I thought that maybe I would utilize the bridge/neck combination for some jazzy tones?
Will it work? Will it sound good? And if I go about the mod ,which would be smth like add bridge in all positions, or smth along the lines, what would be the least intrusive method to do so? I could sacrifice the mid position in exchange for neck/brodge, but from the experience of my other strat I also find the all 3 pups in parallel combination interesting.
I'd go for a push pull, but I would like to have a hint on whether it is worth it or not. Talking about a super mid-rangy 7-string guitar basswood body with maple/walnut neck, rosewood fretboard , with bassy pups. Will bridge/neck have a point? Or even bridge/mid/neck ?
As is, I can get some nice tones out of the 2,4 positions but nothing too good. 1 and 5 clean sound good, but I am looking for that bassy jazzy sound. The guitar *is* bassy, but it is still a strat-like guitar, with the strat geometry, hence all the questions.

[wolf]

Greekdude with an HSH guitar you have a large amount of tone options. My advice is to wire:
Neck and Bridge pickups each with a switch for series/parallel switching or
Neck and Bridge pickups with a coil cut switch.  
Since you wouldn't want the modifications to be too intrusive, changing the volume and tone control potentiometers with DPDT switch push/pull pots would allow you to do either of these wiring options without changing the appearance of you guitar.
  

[Deleted]

I guess i will just connect bridge with neck just to try the sound of those and if I like it I will move on to the mod. This is a very low middy sounding guitar, however, don't know how will this turn out.

[newey]

A "Bridge On" switch on a P/P would maintain the stock appearance. IIRC, this guitar has "auto split" HB coils in positions 2 and 4, right?

If you just wire the HBs full on, N + B, without coil splits, that's not going to sound very "stratty", but more into LP territory, I would think. It may be possible to do a "Bridge On" that also splits the Br HB coils, but you'd need a 3-pole switch to split both HBs and turn the bridge on at the same time.

Also consider using the tone control as a "neck on" as per ChrisK's "free neck on" idea. This can be done without buying any parts and is easily reversible if you don't like it.

[Deleted]

May 20, 2015 4:34:07 GMT -5 newey said:

A "Bridge On" switch on a P/P would maintain the stock appearance. IIRC, this guitar has "auto split" HB coils in positions 2 and 4, right?

right newey!

May 20, 2015 4:34:07 GMT -5 newey said:

If you just wire the HBs full on, N + B, without coil splits, that's not going to sound very "stratty", but more into LP territory, I would think. It may be possible to do a "Bridge On" that also splits the Br HB coils, but you'd need a 3-pole switch to split both HBs and turn the bridge on at the same time.

Also consider using the tone control as a "neck on" as per ChrisK's "free neck on" idea. This can be done without buying any parts and is easily reversible if you don't like it.

That's a very cool idea. I'll look into it. Also I'd like to ask if there was any way to convert position 3 from middle -> N+B, leaving the mid pup taking part of the circuit only in positions 2 and 4. Is it do-able with the (I suppose) standard 5-way switch? (I dont think this Ibanez switch has anything fancy or exotic to it, it seems rather cheapo)

[newey]

With the coil splits, the Ibanez switch is a very different animal, cheap or not. In fact, there are a couple of different Ibby switch types they have used over the years to do the "auto-split" switching. If your guitar uses the OTAX switch, we have the switch logic for that one posted on the reference pages. If it's one of the other types, we'd need to work out the switch logic to see if N + B is possible or not.

With a standard Strat switch, you cannot have N + B at position 3 (assuming you still want the middle pup at 2 and 4). But again, I doubt your Ibby has a std Strat switch.

[Deleted]

This is it : shop.ibanez.com/p/3ps1cgae5-5-way-lever-switch . Ibanez partno : 3PS1CGAE5

[newey]

That doesn't tell us much. Need to see the wiring currently to see what it's doing with the coil splits.

[Deleted]

May 20, 2015 14:30:54 GMT -5 newey said:

That doesn't tell us much. Need to see the wiring currently to see what it's doing with the coil splits.

I know I am terribly guitar-lazy lately, and do much less than would be considered my homework. I am just exploring options at the moment.

[newey]

GD-

I meant no criticism, I have a half dozen unfinished projects awaiting my attentions. The switch looks like a regular import-style 5-way, but seeing how the coil splits were wired would tell me for sure. If it is, then N + B can't happen at position 3, so long as the M is active at positions 2 and 3.

I believe there is a Schaller Megaswitch that will do N + B at position 3, or a Superswitch would certainly suffice (or even the half-superswitch), but not with the regular 5-way.

[Deleted]

Thanx Newey,
this guitar sounds very strange. Although it seems and feels "stratty" it is nothing like I had heard before. I had narrowed down the basic tones according to my experience to :
- LP tones : nice bassy, bluesy, jazzy
- Strat tones : crisp, piano like, glassy
- all maple tones (body/neck through + wings) : ultra treble
and now this uv70p ibanez which sounds very dark (due to basswood or the DMZ Blaze pups??), but not tight at all like the LP, kind of shreddy/loose feeling, which I also have with a plywood guitar that I have.

[JohnH]

May 21, 2015 6:45:24 GMT -5 @pyrros said:

Thanx Newey,
this guitar sounds very strange. Although it seems and feels "stratty" it is nothing like I had heard before. I had narrowed down the basic tones according to my experience to :
- LP tones : nice bassy, bluesy, jazzy
- Strat tones : crisp, piano like, glassy
- all maple tones (body/neck through + wings) : ultra treble
and now this uv70p ibanez which sounds very dark (due to basswood or the DMZ Blaze pups??), but not tight at all like the LP, kind of shreddy/loose feeling, which I also have with a plywood guitar that I have.

If you are searching for ways to carve the tone on a dark guitar, how about a bass cut control?

Bass cut and G&L PTB wiring

Try it will a 2.2nF cap, but also a 0.56nF and just turn it down slightly.

[nikogo]

Greekdude,
I think the best filters for getting a jazzy sound are mid-scoop LC circuits. 
I have posted a few schemes in Trully Nutzoid Schemes with such filters. They reduce output but can significantly improve the sound spectrum. 
In my guitars I can get some bassy sound even from a bridge pickup. 
What you really need is to cut excess mid range 300 - 400 Hz leaving the treble for some character of sound.

[Deleted]

May 21, 2015 15:17:23 GMT -5 JohnH said:

May 21, 2015 6:45:24 GMT -5 @pyrros said:

Thanx Newey,
this guitar sounds very strange. Although it seems and feels "stratty" it is nothing like I had heard before. I had narrowed down the basic tones according to my experience to :
- LP tones : nice bassy, bluesy, jazzy
- Strat tones : crisp, piano like, glassy
- all maple tones (body/neck through + wings) : ultra treble
and now this uv70p ibanez which sounds very dark (due to basswood or the DMZ Blaze pups??), but not tight at all like the LP, kind of shreddy/loose feeling, which I also have with a plywood guitar that I have.

If you are searching for ways to carve the tone on a dark guitar, how about a bass cut control?

Bass cut and G&L PTB wiring

Try it will a 2.2nF cap, but also a 0.56nF and just turn it down slightly.

thanx John. Its more a pronounced low mids guitar with mid-scooped blazes. I might try that.

[Deleted]

May 21, 2015 18:44:45 GMT -5 nikogo said:

Greekdude,
I think the best filters for getting a jazzy sound are mid-scoop LC circuits. 
I have posted a few schemes in Trully Nutzoid Schemes with such filters. They reduce output but can significantly improve the sound spectrum. 
In my guitars I can get some bassy sound even from a bridge pickup. 
What you really need is to cut excess mid range 300 - 400 Hz leaving the treble for some character of sound.

Yeah, I get what you're saying. However this guitar is almost mid-scooped. Blazes do just that. I'd get that bassy sound from the bridge pup, if it wasn't behaving like a standard humbucker. In my experience, 500k tone control with passive humbuckers sucks. 250k with SCs it just works. With the EMGs it works so nice, I can even play them with the tone control all way down.