… but I had such a good deal with this guitar that I couldn’t miss the opportunity.

I started being interested in this kind of design since Squier reissued the Toronado in its Paranormal series, based on an old Fender model discontinued in '06.
And I found out that Ibanez gave such a design a chance in 2012 with the Roadcore Series and in particular with this mid-tier model: the RC320.

While searching some information about it, I found a listing of a guy selling one not far from where I live. It was a really, really good bargain so I ended up buying it.

The guitar is a distillate of features from all the most iconic guitars manufactured in the last century: it has a mahogany body and humbuckers like a Les Paul or a PRS, an offset shape like a Jazzmaster/Jaguar, a 648mm scale and a bolt on maple neck with rosewood board like a Stratocaster, but with a flat radius and the crazy low action only Ibanez can make.
And as an upgrade, the previous owner installed a couple of Blues Engines pickups, that have a very apt name given the warm tones they produce.

I have in mind over the next months to upgrade the electronics and since the humbuckers are splittable, add a push/push potentiometer to experiment with an alternative configuration. I’ll try to post some pictures of the job.

  • @[email protected]OPEnglish
    1•4 months ago

    I think I’m going to use this one from Allparts and I’ll follow this scheme here:

    This way both the coils are splitted with one push: it’s a little less versatile but it’s less of a pain in the ass doing the wiring

    • @PuttaneskaEnglish
      2•4 months ago

      Yes, that shouldn’t be too bad.

      I went nuts and did humbucker coil splits, out of phase and serial (on an HH with 2 vols & 2 tones). The coil split doesn’t really sound all that much like single coil to me. Just a bit quieter. The series switching sounds good (fuller, brighter?) If you use crocodile clips, or temporary connectors (e.g. Wago clips) you might be able to try different re-wire options before committing to soldering.

      I used Bourne https://www.bourns.com/docs/product-datasheets/PDB183-GTR.pdf which look similar to yours. The terminal pins were pretty small and hard to work with. The CTS ones are supposed to be easier, but I don’t think that they do push-push.

      Have fun

      • @[email protected]OPEnglish
        1•4 months ago

        The coil split doesn’t really sound all that much like single coil to me. Just a bit quieter.

        I think that’s something that depends heavily on how the pickup is made.
        Pretty much agreeing with the rest.