Paulo Silva Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 I've just traded this beautifull Ibanez and the thing is: the wood are in great shape, the neck is straight and the truss-rod work fine in both ways. the tuners need to be replaced, no big deal... the main problem are the pickpus. the p-pickup work fine but doesn't have the output volume that I was expecting. the bridge pickup has a switch that's messing up the tone and output volume. should I remove the original pickups and replace them with modern soapbars our should I re-wire the original for keeping the value of the bass. the alternative that I like the most are the Delano's SBC4 HE/S. How can I solve this situation? my main concern is to get the pickups the reproduce faithfully the natural sound of the instrument. [IMG]http://i44.tinypic.com/54txco.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i41.tinypic.com/104g66t.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i44.tinypic.com/e7gnds.jpg[/IMG] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truckstop Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 I would just resolder everything and get those switches and knobs cleaned. It's nearly 30 years old, there's bound to be some gunk in there that needs clearing out! I wouldnt think there's any need to replace the pups or switches or pots unless you find that they are actually broken. Truckstop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ou7shined Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 Oh you must keep it as original as possible. I have seen though that the pups on these can give up the ghost fairly often. Get them checked out by a professional. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulo Silva Posted April 4, 2012 Author Share Posted April 4, 2012 the tone knob is working fine without noise. the blend knob has a volume issue when the pickups are in the center position. the 3 way switch is totally fried. in Portugal there's no qualified technicians that can resolve this issues Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 how much electronics do you know? If the pickup is fried I couldn't fix it but everything else you should be able to fix I would have thought. I would be able to and I'm no expert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 is the switch supposed to be a coil tap (2 pos) or a series parallel single coil (3 pos) ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 and is the blend pot a double decker one? (6 points of contact) or a single decker one (3 points) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlatEric Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 [quote name='Paulo Silva' timestamp='1333534586' post='1602937'] I've just traded this beautifull Ibanez and the thing is: the wood are in great shape, the neck is straight and the truss-rod work fine in both ways. the tuners need to be replaced, no big deal... the main problem are the pickpus. the p-pickup work fine but doesn't have the output volume that I was expecting. the bridge pickup has a switch that's messing up the tone and output volume. should I remove the original pickups and replace them with modern soapbars our should I re-wire the original for keeping the value of the bass. the alternative that I like the most are the Delano's SBC4 HE/S. How can I solve this situation? my main concern is to get the pickups the reproduce faithfully the natural sound of the instrument. [/quote] Hi. I have the single pick-up version, the RB920 - yours is the RB924. The pick-ups should have a fairly high output - I wouldn't change them, unless it is something serious. The switch is Ibanez Tri-Sound. Humbucker - Single Coil (the one nearer the neck, from memory) and Parallel Coils. This, I think, is a std DPDT switch - that may be the cause of some of your trouble. Cleaner in the pots would help to see if it would improve the sound - especially the blend pot. Stick with it and try and keep it standard , if you can. Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulo Silva Posted April 4, 2012 Author Share Posted April 4, 2012 [quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1333537710' post='1603032'] how much electronics do you know? If the pickup is fried I couldn't fix it but everything else you should be able to fix I would have thought. I would be able to and I'm no expert [/quote] I know the basics, following wiring diagrams and simple stuff like that. [quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1333538126' post='1603057'] is the switch supposed to be a coil tap (2 pos) or a series parallel single coil (3 pos) ? [/quote] the switch has a 3 positions [quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1333538204' post='1603061'] and is the blend pot a double decker one? (6 points of contact) or a single decker one (3 points) [/quote] the blend is a double decker indeed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulo Silva Posted April 4, 2012 Author Share Posted April 4, 2012 [quote name='FlatEric' timestamp='1333545202' post='1603275'] Hi. I have the single pick-up version, the RB920 - yours is the RB924. The pick-ups should have a fairly high output - I wouldn't change them, unless it is something serious. The switch is Ibanez Tri-Sound. Humbucker - Single Coil (the one nearer the neck, from memory) and Parallel Coils. This, I think, is a std DPDT switch - that may be the cause of some of your trouble. Cleaner in the pots would help to see if it would improve the sound - especially the blend pot. Stick with it and try and keep it standard , if you can. Cheers. [/quote] the bass doesnt have any punch at all the output signal is week and thin with a lot of high frequencies. I would like to keep it as original as possible but this issues are making it dificult Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 first thing I would do is check the pups are actually working. Unsolder them, check resistance- and just solder them straight to a jack socket and try it. If you can hear the bass wired up straight then the pups are working. Then once you have worked out if the problem is there you can go over the circuit and check each part. If you did stick new pickups in it then you would totally dismantle it anyway so you might as well do that now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 In that photo! The thick black wire going from the switch to the blend control. The core is soldered to the lug of the pot, where is the braid with the ground wired too? i think it should go to the body of the pot but it doesn't look like it does Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulo Silva Posted April 4, 2012 Author Share Posted April 4, 2012 I'm going to follow your advice and the first thing I'm going to do is wire the pickups to the jack socket one at a time. one thing I noticed is that the 3 way switch only works in between positions. I'm guessing that the main problem is the switch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlatEric Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 [quote name='Paulo Silva' timestamp='1333575604' post='1603904'] I'm going to follow your advice and the first thing I'm going to do is wire the pickups to the jack socket one at a time. one thing I noticed is that the 3 way switch only works in between positions. I'm guessing that the main problem is the switch. [/quote] If you are going to direct wire and there is no issue with either pick-up, I think you will be surprised at how powerful it is, if mine is anything to go by. Good luck. Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 [quote name='FlatEric' timestamp='1333610534' post='1604069'] If you are going to direct wire and there is no issue with either pick-up, I think you will be surprised at how powerful it is, if mine is anything to go by. Good luck. Cheers. [/quote] +1 . I've got a RB920 too.... In humbucking mode the pickup is quite beefy, but even in single coil & parallel modes it's still punchy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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