Fitting a pickup selector.

[PVN]

Hi all,

I have a 1986 Ibanez Lonestar LE520DV solid topped semi-acoustic guitar with a piezo bridge pickup and a humbucker neck pickup. Each pickup has its own volume control and there is one tone control for both. I am thinking about fitting a three way pickup selector switch but I am wondering if the fact that there are two different types of pickup makes this difficult or impossible. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Photos of guitar here:-





Thanks in advance for your words of wisdom.

PVN

[singlecoil]

Does it have a built in preamplifier? Are the outputs separate? Without an answer to those I can't advise.

If there is an accesible electrics/electronics compartment, a photo will help.

[davepoth]

singlecoil said:

Does it have a built in preamplifier? Are the outputs separate? Without an answer to those I can't advise.

If there is an accesible electrics/electronics compartment, a photo will help.

The tone control is common to both pickups, so it must be possible. If there's no cover to access the electronics from the back it'll be a big job to do it though.

[singlecoil]

davepoth said:

singlecoil said:

Does it have a built in preamplifier? Are the outputs separate? Without an answer to those I can't advise.

If there is an accesible electrics/electronics compartment, a photo will help.

The tone control is common to both pickups, so it must be possible. If there's no cover to access the electronics from the back it'll be a big job to do it though.

It could be a ganged potentiometer (two separate pots on one shaft).

[PVN]

Hi guys,

The pickups are passive - no built in preamp. There is an access panel on the back just behind the three knobs. Quite small but big enough I would say. If I can fit a switch it would have to be quite close to the rotary knobs.

Grateful for your interest.

PVN

[davepoth]

PVN said:

Hi guys,

The pickups are passive - no built in preamp. There is an access panel on the back just behind the three knobs. Quite small but big enough I would say. If I can fit a switch it would have to be quite close to the rotary knobs.

Grateful for your interest.

PVN

If you can take a picture of the inside of the access panel it'll show what would need to be done.

-edit-

Don't bother, it won't help.

Edited by davepoth on Thursday 8th March 18:44

http://www.ibanezcollectors.com/forum/index.php/to...

Quite a rare guitar apparently. The two pickups are wired to the same jack so the outputs can be blended - I don't know whether I'd want to start cutting wood on a guitar like this, perhaps a pair of push-pull pots would be a good solution?

Edited by davepoth on Thursday 8th March 18:48

[singlecoil]

A lot will depend on how you want to use the guitar. Piezo pickups are naturally very high impedance and won't normally work very well especially in parallel with a 50Kish wound pickup.

One solution that wouldn't involve any non-reversible mdifications would be to separate the outputs inside the guitar, replace the jack socket with a stereo version, then run one output to the tip and the other to the ring. At the other end of the (stereo) lead, the outputs could be split, one into a suitable equalizer/preamp for the piezo pickup, and the other to a suitable conventional guitar effects/amp set up.