Ibanez pickup structure - 2 or 4 leads

[Aki Rintamäki]

 I tried out a CN-200 '78 that had no trisounds. We checked inside the control room, and found that the pickups (super 80 right?) have got only ground (on the cover) and hot -leads. The CN-250 anyway is said to have a trisound switch. Did Ibanez make 4-lead Super 80 pickups for tri-sound guitars at the same time than they made these 2-lead wire Super 80s? Also, Super 58 seems to be found both 2- and 4-lead connector cables. Why is that? Maybe Ibanez wanted to save a few pennies using less cable when possible..? ;o) Or just to make the connections stay simple in a guitar without a tri-sound.

Could a 2-lead pickup be equipped with a 4-lead wire, does the inside of the pickup give reasonable possibilities for this (without unwrapping coilwire etc)? I really would have liked already for the CN-200 to have a trisound.

Oh, and if someone can sell me a player's (NOT mint) CN-250 or a CN-200, please do!

...which by the way - the CN-200 atleast - is a tremendious guitar!  


-Aki.

[Fred B. (Fredb)]

 Aki,

The Super 80s in my Artists that have tri-sounds have 3 leads. There could be 4 lead variants out there, but pretty sure most (if not all) of the 3 point adjustment Super 80s have 3 leads.

Regards,
Fred

[Aki Rintamäki]

 Fred,

You can't make the tri-sound effects with only 3 leads. Those can make a split coil, but can not be wired to parallel. Or do You mean 3 leads PLUS ground?


-Aki.

[Fred B. (Fredb)]

 Hi Aki,

Was referring to the number of conductors on the pickup, where ground is implicit, like in the single conductor Super 80s (which I think is the difference in counts as it looks like you're counting ground in calling it 2 wire). The tri-sound Super 80s are different than most other pickups as there are 3 conductors (white, red, and blue) along with a ground.

Most other pickups that don't have the two humbucker coils wired permanently in series have 4 conductor wires, plus ground, for the two coils. Like how Duncans and DiMarzios have red, white, green, and black conductors.

Regards,
Fred

[Aki Rintamäki]

 Okay, this explains, we just count differently.

I bought a Super70 earlier that had 4 leads (white, red, blue, black) and a ground wire. This might be a newer model, since it was in a non-opened package, but usually they seem to have 1 or 3 leads.

I suppose even a single conductor pu can be quite easily made to tri-sound-able pickup (I know, nobody recommends to do these things, but I am experienced and have a pro pickup maker to help me). When I opened my Super58 to fix the loosened ground wire, I noticed the coils to join with a lead similiar to the output lead. Cutting the 'jumper' lead in the middle and taking both ends out among original leads with a long 3-lead (+ground) cable would do the trick.

I love the tri-sound at the neck pu enough to take these kind of risks. My AM255 has it's 'dual-sound' (series/parallel) at the Super70, which usually is at the bridge, but now the 70 being tested at the neck position, I find myself using the dual-sound a lot more! So my 58 is going to have the dual-sound at the neck and my 70 is going to be plain humbucking (just like my bass), whenever I find time for the job. That will make my AM a great, very many-sided overall guitar.

-Aki.

[Fred B. (Fredb)]

Aki,

Good luck with it, splitting coils can be a risky business J ... also glad there's someone else out there who finds the switching useful in their sound. I've found that "EQing the mids" in single-coil position can really close the gap in getting a convincing Strat sound, and combining the parallel setting on one pickup with any other gives a great "twang" when needed.

Regards,
Fred

[Aki Rintamäki]

 And... done!

Now my neck Super58 has the 'dual-sound' sw. It came out very easily and fine, and the sounds speak for theirselves! I can't stop thinking the Super70 in the neck-position, it was more presenceful than my 58. That somehow made the normal midposition (both pu's on) more usable, more bright. Saying that, maybe the 2x Super70 wouldn't be a bad idea afterall, I think. Well, live to see.

Is the major difference in Super 70 and Super 58 pickups the ceramic vs alnico magnet?


-Aki.