HELP.....Are all 5 way blade selectors the same?

cj73

5way on my RG550 went phut.   Stopped working in position 1.   Went into local small town shop this morning and asked for a replacement.  Nice chappie gave me one and after a bit of 90s shred chat I went on my merry way.

I'm now home and in the process of replacing but it didn't work.  All I did was swap the connections one by one but nothing....except all pickups on in position 1.   The one I was given today is semi-circular and has the lugs arranged 4 a side...the old one was rectangular and all the lugs in row.

Ta

ADP

No, they're not all the same. You've bought a regular five-way switch, which you've discovered is wired differently and will limit your choice of pickup combinations. You really need an identical Ibanez switch to simplify the process for you or a Fender "super switch" to get the original combinations. If you go the route of using a non-Ibanez super switch, you'll find the wiring options here.

Strat_a_tat_tat

No... they're not all the same.

The one on my Strat has a permanently wired talent-filter. Makes everything I play sound like crap.

cj73

ADP said:

No, they're not all the same. You've bought a regular five-way switch, which you've discovered is wired differently and will limit your choice of pickup combinations. You really need an identical Ibanez switch to simplify the process for you or a Fender "super switch" to get the original combinations. If you go the route of using a non-Ibanez super switch, you'll find the wiring options here.

Yes, Further research has shown this to be the case.   Bit miffed that that the bloke in the shop didn't know either...he blethered for ages about the guitar.

Oh well, lesson learned and i've now got a spare for my two strats

FelineGuitars

On an RG550 the standard strat switch works perfectly well and will do the auto coil splits you need and everything.

One side of the switch does the pickup selection - so the common tag is the output (you'll have to look to see which is the common one - it's the longest one that is always in contact with the strip
The other side is where you will make the coils splits short out a coil
Ignore the long common tag on this side and connect an earthed wire to the centre of the remaining tags.
Then each of the coil split wires from the two humbuckers will go on the remaining two tags
You'll have to look to see which tag is which so that when the switch is in position 2 or 4 the relevant coil tap point is also connected to the earthed wire on the middle tag.

I presume that the only reason the strat switch didn't work was that you just tried to transfer the soldering to what you thought were the matching tags in a line without checking the actual functionality of the switch. It will work - we used to put them in Jems and RG550s all the time

ICBM

No, they are not all the same. There are ones made by CRL, and there are shit ones.

Get a proper CRL - the standard 5-way - it can be wired like the Ibanez switch and it will probably never break. You don't need a Superswitch or anything else special.

It sounds from the description that you might actually have one, in which case it just needs wiring correctly. Bizarrely, I can't seem to find a diagram online… the best I seem to be able to find is this comparison diagram:

http://alloutput.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/5_way_switch.jpg

Essentially, on one side of the switch, 0 goes to the volume pot and 1, 2 and 3 to the pickups. On the other side of the switch, 2 goes to ground and 1 and 3 to the coil-split wires.


(To be fair, Oak Grigsby aren't too bad although I've had a couple of slightly faulty ones from new, but they could be fixed easily.)

cj73

Yes, I know, Holy Thread Resurrection Batman but it's easier to comment on this one than the one I started the other week about the same topic.

I did indeed get a CRL and had a good go at wiring it up yesterday ( only took a year) and all is good apart from Pos 1 ( bridge bucker) it sounds weak, I'm guessing it's out of phase.  Is there a quick swap  that will remedy this?

I tried my bested to follow @icbm 's instructions above btw

Funkfingers

Are you using the stock Ibanez pickups or aftermarket replacements? Either way, photographs of your actual wiring will save an awful lot of descriptive typing.

OilCityPickups

ICBM said:

No, they are not all the same. There are ones made by CRL, and there are shit ones.

Get a proper CRL - the standard 5-way - it can be wired like the Ibanez switch and it will probably never break. You don't need a Superswitch or anything else special.

It sounds from the description that you might actually have one, in which case it just needs wiring correctly. Bizarrely, I can't seem to find a diagram online… the best I seem to be able to find is this comparison diagram:

http://alloutput.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/5_way_switch.jpg

Essentially, on one side of the switch, 0 goes to the volume pot and 1, 2 and 3 to the pickups. On the other side of the switch, 2 goes to ground and 1 and 3 to the coil-split wires.


(To be fair, Oak Grigsby aren't too bad although I've had a couple of slightly faulty ones from new, but they could be fixed easily.)

I totally abandoned selling Oak Grigsby for 5 ways after two in a brand new batch literally fell apart. I agree that only CRL are worth fitting ... and that's all I supply apart from Oak 4 way Tele switches (then I test them fully before letting them out). Far Eastern switches ... at least every one I've tried ... are flimsy and break at the drop of a hat. True CRL are expensive, but you get what you pay for.
For phase testing look here https://youtu.be/OcuvBRZPpow