IB-5 issues

[Gloucestre]

I got myself a multimeter yesty and it looks like there is a short in the neck pickup pot, but I am not certain.
Might pull it all apart again on the weekend for learning experience as I got a better soldering iron and smaller diameter solder.
What I am waiting on is this Belcat active circuit:


It has a circuit diagram, what I want to check is that the pup hot connection goes to the centre pin on the respective pot (ie Neck=Bass and Bridge to Treble) using the kit humbuckers:



Does that make sense?

[Gloucestre]

I think this thing has (temporarily) beaten me.
Today I pulled it all apart again and carefully resoldered.
No change.
I removed the tone pots from the circuit, still nothing abut loud hum and nothing from the pickups.
I removed the neck pickup and went straight from bridge pickup through the pot to the output, no change.
The only thing I haven't tried at this point it pickups directly to jack.
I used a better (hotter and finer) soldering iron and finer solder this time and I cleaned up all the joins and re-did clean.
I also used new wire for a couple of them.

Luckily I should be getting the complete harness next week

[Mr.Drifter]

Hi Mr Drifter. I think the IB-5 has a stereo barrel jack socket. Are you describing the "normal" style jack socket?

Ah rip. Went looking, and couldn't find anything on whether it was passive or active, so just assumed passive.
But yeah, referring to normal jack style.

In that case, would be this, if you didn't already have this


But, from your diagram, it looks like it's a weird form of jack. But that's at least the parts that need which bits.
how odd

[Gloucestre]

Hi mate, the Jack connector is one of those closed tube ones that expects you to guess the right input pins.

Can anyone confirm that the pickup outputs always go to the centre pot pin?

[Mr.Drifter]

Yeah, I'd have to assume middle is middle, but I've never used one, so can't confirm

[Dikkybee007]

To find out what pins on the jack are is simple, all you need is a multi-meter and a guitar cable.

Set the meter to a setting that checks for continuity, either the continuity setting or the Ohms as some do not have a continuity setting.

Plug the cable into the jack, connect one cable to the tip and check which pin gives you continuity.

Then use the same process to check which is the earth. I have used the same type of jacks and I check all the pins to make sure there are no mistakes in the jack's manufacturing. Once I find the correct ones, I remove the ones I don't need so as to remove any confusion later on.

[Trevor Davies]

Hi mate, the Jack connector is one of those closed tube ones that expects you to guess the right input pins.

Can anyone confirm that the pickup outputs always go to the centre pot pin?

The IB-5 wiring diagram has the pickup hot wires connected to the middle lug of the volume pot. (But they do not have to - the LP style wiring diagram for 2 humbuckers etc has the pickup hot wires on the 3rd lug and the output is the middle lug!! I assume this is a personal preference)

[Gloucestre]

The IB-5 wiring diagram has the pickup hot wires connected to the middle lug of the volume pot. (But they do not have to - the LP style wiring diagram for 2 humbuckers etc has the pickup hot wires on the 3rd lug and the output is the middle lug!! I assume this is a personal preference)

I was suspecting that I was soldering to the wrong lug after a bit of reading last nite (complete noob here)
I also had a look at the belcat one a bit more and see that the pup hot wires should go to the centre lug on the balance pot, one on each layer, I Think I will just join all the earths to the jack as I am unsure if the pots are earthed (tho a multi-meter will tell me I guess)

[Gloucestre]

Some success and some complaints.

Ok, I finally got something working.
I am not an engineer but my clinical medicine lecturer back in the day was (as well as being a doctor) and I like to think that his methodical way of problem solving has rubbed off a bit- either that or I am just obsessive.
I went over the jack again with the multimeter, it turns out that it was incorrectly labelled in the diagram Pitbull provided (1), the only pins connected are the short ones, the long pin does nothing.
I wired up the bridge pickup and it's pot and got a result.
I went and wired up the neck pick up similarly and got nothing, after a bit I worked out that there is some internal fault as there is no connection between the middle and right lugs, I didn't check the left one as it was soldered as the ground (2). Fortunately the tone pots provided were identical so I substituted one of these and finally got a result.
I now have two volumes straight to the jack and a playable axe.
I ended up not using the tone pots for a couple of reasons, one broke with the shaft coming out when I was testing the knobs (3) and I couldn't repair it. In the end I used the remaining one to replace the neck volume pot.
As above I have a Belcat harness coming and will use that, I also have some rather cool red knobs to replace the stock ones (they will suit the way it is painted), I will most likely have to make a cavity or incorporate the battery cover into the cavity cover.
There was no cutout routed for the cover to sit in as in the store photos unfortunately so it isn't flush with the body (4).
I think I got one that was last on the shelf and there may have been some QC issues but in the end it has taught me a lot more than having a perfect one would have.
Here is how it looks currently, I got it as much as an art project for my kids and I rather like the artwork.
These are the stock strings, they will likely be replaced with Chromes, Deep Talkin Flats or Tapes of some sort.
The knobs will be red.

[Trevor Davies]

I'm glad it worked out in the end. And it looks good. Good luck with the Belcat.