Ibanez RG7620 pickups - both 4 conductor??

[7string]

I have a Washburn WG587 and without the money to splash out on a new axe (or a brand new set of pickups) I bought a set of Ibanez pickups off eBay.

Apparently they come off an Ibanez RG7620, but only the bridge pickup is 4 conductor. I've had look at the reviews of these guitars and read that they were HH with a 5-way which coil taps in positions 2 and 4, so should both pickups be tappable 4-conductor??

I've tested the pickups and they seem to work, but the question of whether they did come out of a 7620 is bugging me. Mind you for £15 I'm not complaining too much!!

Any replies much appreciated.

 

[Mordacain]

I have a Washburn WG587 and without the money to splash out on a new axe (or a brand new set of pickups) I bought a set of Ibanez pickups off eBay.

Apparently they come off an Ibanez RG7620, but only the bridge pickup is 4 conductor. I've had look at the reviews of these guitars and read that they were HH with a 5-way which coil taps in positions 2 and 4, so should both pickups be tappable 4-conductor??

I've tested the pickups and they seem to work, but the question of whether they did come out of a 7620 is bugging me. Mind you for £15 I'm not complaining too much!!

Any replies much appreciated.

If they came out of a 7620, then they are Dimarzio New 7's and are 4 conducter. You'll see Dimarzio markings on the underside if they are New7s. If the neck pickup is not 4 conductor (plus ground braid) then its not a New7.

The Ibanez switches the neck humbucker to parallel in position two and split the inside coils of both humbuckers for a strat-esque notch sound in position 4. A standard 5-way switch will not do this switching in the same way.

Just a note btw, people will be confused when you mention coil-tapping. You are describing coil-splitting. Tapping is only available on select pickups and what it is is essentially a signal lead in the middle of a pickups winding. It was designed for the original high-output pickups to switch off half the coil windings (of a single pickup) for a lower output signal. coil splitting is turning off one of the coils of a humbucker to achieve a single coil esque tone.

 

[7string]

Quite right!! I should have said coil-split.

After a load of dead ends, I finally found the answer. The pickups are out of a 1527.

In the 1527, Ibanez use a 5 way switch and only the neck pickup is 4 conductor. In position 4, the neck pickup is what Ibanez term "Parallel Connected".

Here's the wiring diagram. You can see that only one pickup is 4 conductor!

 

[Kamikaze7]

Parallel connected means that it's the whole humbucker - both coils on but at half the output power.