How to Wire a GFS Power Rail Pickup Into an Ibanez RG550 Guitar
A GFS Power Rail pickup can be used as a replacement for one of the humbucker pickups in an Ibanez RG550 guitar. Directly replacing the humbucker allows the GFS pickup to be controlled and selected in the same manner as the original pickup. This replacement requires minimal soldering. Ibanez pickups and GFS pickups usually do not use the same wire color codes.
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Things You'll Need
- Soldering iron
- Electrical solder
- Screwdriver
- Wire color codes for GFS Power Rail and pickup being replaced
Instructions
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1
Unscrew the pickguard from the guitar.
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2
Unscrew the original pickup from the pickguard.
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3
Unsolder the original pickup's ground wire from the back of a potentiometer. Be careful not to unsolder any other wires grounded to the same potentiometer.
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4
Solder the Power Rail ground wire to the back of the potentiometer. Make sure all the ground wires are still properly connected.
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5
Unsolder the original pickup's humbucker output wire from the pickup selector switch. This wire should be red for a stock Ibanez RG550 pickup.
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6
Solder the Power Rail pickup's humbucker output to the same position on the selector switch. On the GFS Pickup this should be the black wire.
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7
Unsolder the original pickup's coil tap output wire from the selector switch. This wire should be white.
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8
Solder the Power Rail pickup's coil tap output wire to the same position. This wire should be green.
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9
Solder the remaining two wires on the Power Rail to each other. These should be red and white.
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10
Screw the Power Rail to the pickguard.
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11
Screw the pickguard back in place on the Ibanez RG550 guitar body.
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1
Tips & Warnings
The wire connected to the back of one of the potentiometers is the ground wire. The wire connected to the switch near the middle pickup wire should be the humbucker output. The other wire should be the coil tap output. This is a good rule of thumb to follow if you cannot find the wire color codes for the original pickup.
Wire color codes for guitar pickups are inconsistent from manufacturer to manufacturer. A single manufacturer also might use different color codes for different models. GFS pickups come with a wiring diagram that show the color code. If you do not have the color code for either the Power Rail or the pickup being replaced, ask the manufacturer for the wiring color code. Do not blindly use the same wire colors.
