Pickup wiring

I'll try getting a set og VH-1s if I can then or some maxons. I hated the cobalts when I used them. I used to love ernie ball trings but after getting a set of daddario ballanced tensions I haven't looked back. I am yet to snap one either, I was always going through the high e on ernie ball strings

I have two ideas for two guitars. the rg I want to do two humbuckers two a 5 way and wire it so it goes neck, neck paralell, neck and bridge split, neck and bridge and then bridge. Anyidea how to wire this? Ibanez do it on alot of guitars but im having a hard time finding a good diagram and the other if just a hsh strat with autosplits

for the RG you wanna use all 4 coils individual in differing combos of series and parallel on the same switch.... you will need anew fangled, so-called "super-switch" 5 way knife switch or you will want to put it on a rotary control like PRS's super-humbucker wiring.... you can't do it with a traditional switch...

without seeing the guts of the RG I dunno what will work best in there. I am sure it already has a 5 way, but the superswitch is somewhat bigger under the hood. If the guitar has the strat type knob layout I would turn one into a rotary and do the PRS wiring and ditch the blade switch, they are too easy to bump while playing anyway.... I would also do something more interesting than what you are suggesting since wiring your very banal configuration on one switch will be just as big a painas doing something more interesting.

I'll have the RG in like 2 weeks just got to pay the last £100 now. Could have had it sooner but had more important stuff to buy inbetween. What wiring do you suggest? It seems Ibanez do it on a 5 way box type switch, the cheapo import ones. I'm open to ideas for wiring though

Have you just bought the RG now, or have you had it for a while?

Getting ut in 2 weeks. Got £100 left to pay on it first. It has EMG pickups in it and I've only had bad experiences with them. They are the passive HZ ones which I presume are soldered in because Ibanez put them in there. I am very tempted lately for a Epiphone SG pro which I can get a crazy good deal on. £120 and I'll use it as my drop C guitar and have a play around with different wiring combos etc because its cheap and plays nicely I see it as a win win. Get more experience nodding and can noodle around doing soad covers and writing my own stuff in drop C because its a fun tuning for me. What do you guys think? Then when I'm ready to get a Gibson SG put the oem electronics back in and I can make money offf what I paid for it. Or maybe keep it as a cheap and cheerful back up :P just seems like a half decent idea to me but I'm very easy to temp into buying things. I have had a look and everything works perfectly on it

No offense, but isn't it worth you getting a better amp, before you buy more guitars. You've already got a fair few, but unless you have one, and haven't put it up, in my opinion (Which, granted, hasn't been worth much on EB, since I said I was 13) a good amp is pretty necessary (As is a good guitar, but you've already got a few of those).

Getting a amp for my birthday in a few weeks times. I have a 212 cab ready and waiting. Just need the amp for the cab haha. Thinking of getting a Laney vc30 212 and maybe run it occasionally as a 412. Or a Laney ironheart 60 head. Either one of those. A head would be more logical but I love the vc30 clean channel and they're nice reliable amps. I do have more guitars than listed. I have 3 that I have built from guitar kits too. I play my Epiphone LP as my main guitar at the moment. The ibanez rg I'm going to set up for playing in drop C and put some dimarzio D activators or Duncan distortions in their to retain clarity for the low tuning. The Epiphone paf copies don't hugely like drop C. Its not hugely muddy, just could be better. They sound great for standard though but none of my pickups apart from my JB and Hotrail do drop tunings well. Once I get a new amp I'm trading in a lot of gear. Thinking my strat and 4 effects pedals

how many knobs does the RG have?

if its 3 I would dump the knife switch and maybe do the PRS wiring:

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/media/img/guitarelectronics/W650-H550-Bffffff/W/wd2hh5r11_06.jpg

I think this is pretty close to what you originally decribed:

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/media/img/guitarelectronics/W650-H550-Bffffff/W/wd2hh5l11_04.jpg

note the "super switch" in place of a traditional strat switch with less terminals.

Duke, I don't take you, Liam or Narcy too seriously when it comes to gear opinions, and you are all different shades of young from 13 to 20. I am equally skeptical of all of you sometimes as I would be of a podiatrist who only jams in his bedroom all alone. Its because your don't have a ton of giggin experience. no professional studio experience AND you all will give an opinion on piece of gear you have only experienced briefly in a store and through a Pete Thorn video, which really bugs me (although Pete really puts stuff through its paces in a studio setting, shows a full range of practical uses AND has a professionals perspective, but if I want the reviewers opinion I'll go on youtube myself). I dunno how many times I have been totally stoked bout an item in a store or even something I borrowed, but then once I owned it for 3 to 6 mos the luster fadesand I notice how many shortcomings it has. Its not that you are 13.... though if you were handing out advice on my love life I might be suspicious because I am 22 years your senior, but in the case of a lot of forum regs, you included, the gear yackin' is fun, but your opinions are more perceptions than experiential. How's the laney VC15 treatin' ya? Liam here is thinking of getting a 30. I remember the 30 being pretty solid when I played in a band with a guy who swore by his back during my Marshall phase. But you would have a better idea of what she can and can't do than I would now that you have hd her all winter!

It's a good solid amp, I dig the bright switch, and the clean is pretty great, though the dirt is very underwhelming (Ha Jim! I trump you here, because yes I have played it loud now, while at my church, and it cannot go that high gain).

My band played a short four song set at my school, as part of a small concert (And that whole event is a thread for another day), so we're getting there, and the local record shop has agreed to stock our stuff, though it'll sell for £3, so...

I think you and I have different definitions of high gain.... so apparently there's a Laney LC15 that is essentially your amp with a higher gain, truly Marshally lead channel (V=vintage gain C15, L=lead gain C15.... go figure, kinda obvious). I thought that vc15's 'gain channel sounded gainy to me, though without really getting the power tubes breaking up maybe its not gainy enough to cover up sloppy lead playng, lay dwon 90s buzzsaw power chords or to do chugga chugga palm muting (though a 1x10 of ay gain level is kinda wrong for serious chgging, closed back cabs are the key to a satisfying chug)....

I don't know where you trump me or if you have trumped me why its important. Anyway, I played in a band with a guy who had 1x12 VC30 combo (I think, its been awhile, I just know his combo was smaller than my Marshall 800 combo) and he played the sucker HELLA loud all the time because I had a solid 50 watts of old-school marshall power thru a pair of highly efficient G12m-65 speakers. I tried his amp quite a few times and never played it low. As I recall I would just use the 'gain channel' with the master wide open and the gain up to 5 or 6 until it sounded like me. It was a while ago though. Laney has been making the VC and LC amps for a while.

speaking of redundant amps, I shouldn't buy a used Blackstar Artisan 15 combo for 800 bucks, right? She is ebat to shit cosmetically and she is really redundant with my matchless.... and yet! she has the magic ez81 small bottle rectifier making her pentode ef86 channel a real vintage ac15 package and I am mainly ac30ish in my collection.... it ight be a pleasing flavor to add in.... she's got a 5 watt single-ended mode tooo.... oooh

Its got two knobs but I think there's easily enough space to drill a hole for the prs style switch. I wish I had routing equipment so I could make it hsh but I think that would be a waste of time to be honest, no point. How are the EMG boost circuits you can buy? Might chuck one of those in too. I just want it to be a jack of all trades, master of none type guitar for playing with different sounds but I also want D Activators in there for more omph than my other guitars and they sound great in drop C. Paf type pick ups do not cut it for me on either my Ibanez lp copy or my Epi. Just get a bit mushy even with 12s

Those amps are awesome, hand made in the UK I think. That's a great price too!

its cheap, but the logo is off and the grille & faceplate are BEAT! She probably desperately needs a retube. I would rather have a head, but whatever, the price is low as all fucking get out and maybe I would like having a little 1 speaker, grab and go combo with 2 channels that's louder than an ac4... or not since it goes down to 5 watts....

but she is beat up, still kinda pricey for me right now and the cosmetics are a bit ugly. I dunno what blackstar was thinking. She woulda looked better with pre-800 marshallish combo cosmetics, maybe salt n pepper grille and some cool red tolex?

I should not buy this amp, I don't NEED it.... it ends tomorrow, maybe I will call the store in upstate NY and lowball them. They definitely said she needs service in the description.... god, that will put me at what? 2 AC30s, 1 HC30, 1 AC15/18watt hybrid and 1 AC4? jeebus.... I am getting over the top if I buy this amp. I will let the auction end and lowball these guys since they will only attest that she powers up and passes signal.... I'll bet the tubes are shot, but I can't imagine what else coud be wrong with such a recent high end production amp

Made in the Uk, I think. Maybe leave out "Hand".

Like EHX; they're not "made in nyc", they're "assembled in nyc", and made in Asia.

I swear they're made in china and quality controlled in birmingham like the ironhearts are. could be wrong, probably am

no, the artisan is a handwired amp, all turretboard construction, but who knows where it was hand wired and who cares... the new voxes are handwired in Vietnam, but I have to say the wiring is way better executed on my HW than my JMI AC30b from original Vox Uk production.... I wouldn't want a far east hand wired hiwatt, nothing could ebat harry Joyce's truly mil spec work on the old hiwatts, but a Vietnamese handwired vox or marshall can't be any sloppier than the originals. The lead dress at Vox and Marshall in the 60s was pitifully sloppy.