Question about Petrucci wiring - is it worth the trouble?

[nowhere]

Hello people,
I just installed the petrucci pickup set on my S7420, and at the moment it works with the traditional ibanez 5way pickup selector.
I've been considering removing the tone control and installing there a 3way selector, on which i could do the petrucci wiring. (and tape the current pickup selector hole)

note that I am not the ultimate Petrucci fan, I just want to get a decent pickup configuration beyond the 2 humbuckers.

So my questions are :
-does the petrucci wiring worth the effort and cost of the installation
-could it be done with another switch other than the dimarzio EP111? can I do it with a blade switch? either the ibanez one, or any other upgrade?
-is that middle position better that the configurations of the standard ibanez selector ?

 

[shanejohnson02]

I have 2 guitars with this wiring scheme. In my opinion, as much as I like it, I'd rather have a separate push/pull knob for coil splitting, and keep the 3-way switch. My reasoning is this: With the P-wiring, you get 3 sounds: Neck humbucker, parallel singles, and bridge humbucker. With a push-pull knob, you get 3 humbucker settings and 3 single-coil settings. Much more useful IMO.

As far as the switch question, I don't know. I've only ever used the dimarzio switch. On my Ibanez, I moved the volume knob to the tone hole, and put the swtich in the volume hole.

 

[Malkav]

Dimarzio do a 4 pole mega switch, you can do it with that - It would still be a blade so you'd have even more options. Don't down grade to a 3 way switch if the guitar can already take a 5, it's cosmetically and functionally a waste.

 

[nowhere]

thank you guys.

hm, a 3 way blade with a push pull is tempting. can you point me to schematics and specific parts ?

 

[ElRay]

Stew Mac has a 5-way blade that does a "Petrucci Wiring": STEWMAC.COM : Megaswitch P-Model I don't know if that's "The" wiring you're looking for.

Also, if you know the "end result" you're looking for, there's the "DGB Studios" site that has more wiring schemes than you could test in a lifetime. Here's the H-H page: 2 Humbucker Guitar Wiring Modification

Ray

 

[nowhere]

yay! thans

 

[meambobbo]

What I did in my RGA8 was wired each pickup to a DPDT push/pull pot. Pulling puts the humbucker into parallel rather than serial operation, which sounds similar to a single-coil but has hum cancelling. So my volume controls the neck and the tone controls the bridge - I can work them independently to get different combinations like bridge serial + neck parallel. Then with a 3 way switch you have neck, neck + bridge, and bridge. That's 8 possible combinations of tones, all hum canceled.

I should also mention I have a JP6 with the 3 way toggle and no other switching. I'm not a huge fan of the middle position, which is the inner coils tapped in parallel (which is hum canceling). I mean it works great for cleans as a single-coil type sound, but that's the only sound like that you get, and it's so different than the bridge/neck in serial that you have to kind of custom suit your patches (especially volume level) to that pickup selection. With the independent toggling I mention above, this doesn't magically make serial have the same volume as parallel, BUT, it does give you more options and the serial + parallel options are closer in volume to the standard serial humbucker volume.

The only reason I didn't wire up my JPM the same way was because I have the piezo option and didn't want it to get too complicated in my cavity or somehow mess something up.

 

[groverj3]

Dimarzio do a 4 pole mega switch, you can do it with that - It would still be a blade so you'd have even more options. Don't down grade to a 3 way switch if the guitar can already take a 5, it's cosmetically and functionally a waste.

Well, I for one prefer a 3 way switch. It's easier to quickly select your desired config. The tradeoff is, of course, fewer options.

 

[nowhere]

hm, actually stock ibanez is like this as far as I have found out:

1. Neck pickup in series
2. Neck pickup in parallel
3 Both pickups on in series
4 The inner coils of both humbuckers
5. Bridge pickup in series

But I dont know if position 4 is actually in parallel.

meambobbo, your solution is interesting. do you have a schematic ?

 

[Rook]

If its parallel it'll be very bright and twangy, series more honky and middy.

I personally don't think it's worth having extra options for the sake of it, I use a 3 way with b, bn ||, n, never need anything else cos I never use it. If you find what sounds you like, then chose a switch that give you those at your fingertips.

 

[JoeyBTL]

I've done it on a couple of my guitars and although I prefer to just stick with the 5 way switch for the options, I really like the time you get from the two outer coils. I'll probably get a 5 way sometime that can do that sometime.

But the easiest way I've found to do this is to just get a Tele 3 way switch and wire it up using this Petrucci diagram.

 

[meambobbo]

here is the wiring for 1 vol, 1 tone with a push/pull DPDT on each pickup to do parallel/split:
Guitar Wiring Diagram 2 Humbuckers/3-Way Toggle Switch/1 Volume/1Tone/003

Here's a bunch more:
2 Pickup Guitar Diagrams

 

[fabriarockz]

hello nowhere,
in my own experience so far, the Petrucci wiring work REALLY well applied on the 6 string version of the set, not a big fan of the pararrel split in middle position regarding the 7 string version...
Soundwise, they are different, this is because the Liquifire 6 is Alnico powered while its 7 string counterpart is Ceramic.
So the end result will be a middle position which is not as nearly as good as on a 6 string set. The middle position split parallel thing on a 6 is magic, not only on cleans, but for those Gilmourish OD leads, the amount of feel you can unleash with your fingers with that setting is really faptastic.

So my advice to you would be this: absolutely go for the Petrucci wiring, but stick to the formula Ceramic bridge+Alnico V neck.
I myself am in the process of finding the right substitute for either one of the 2 pickups, but I think I'll start swapping out the Liquifire 7 in favor of a Alnico pickup (I read the BKP Painkiller share some of the qualities of a Liquifire).

It doesn't matter if you end up using a push-pull (a push-push would be even better) to coil-split every position, just make that middle position parallel split happen and be happy!

BTW, the P-wiring can happen with a 3-way tele blade switch too!