[Tech] RG7321 Piezo Install

AVH · 03-05-2006, 09:18 PM

For those that were wondering about the install of the Ghost piezo saddle pickups in a non-pickguard, hardtail Ibanez RG7321, here's some installation pics. There were a couple of stages where I didn't bother taking a shot, but you get the basic jist of whats involved.

First, set your intonation perfectly on the old saddles. Then remove the strings and bridge pickup. (If you find even this task daunting, get it done by a tech) Now using a fine marker, mark a dot on the bridgeplate 1/8" directly in front and center of each saddle. These will be the piezo wire exit holes through the bridge and into the guitar. If you feel that you might need more intonation travel in the future, go 3/16", you'l just see more wire protruding from the piezo saddle. I like it to be as hidden as possible.
Next, measure and write down the distance between the back end of each saddle and the inside edge of the bridgeplate. This will give you a quick reference for a rough, but close intonation setting with the new saddles. You can fine tune it later.
Now remove the original saddles. Now you're at this stage:

Center punch each marker dot. You now have two choices at this point. Remove the bridgeplate, drill the holes, put the bridge back, and mark the hole placement on the guitar body through the plate holes. Or you can take the faster, lazier approach, and just mask off the body around the plate, and drill directly, but not too far, through the plate and directly into the body. Wanting to avoid possble drift of the drill bit, and to have perfect body/plate hole alignment - I chose the second method.

Always drill at slow speeds, and unless you're using a drillpress with a proper depth adjustment, mark the hole depth on the bit using some tape wrapped around thickly at the desired level. In this case I chose 3/8" - 1/8 for the plate thickness plus 1/4" into the body is sufficient. Make sure you drill straight and square to the body, keep steady, and don't dare let the bit grab and take off downward into the body. Oh, the hole size necessary to get the tiny piezo connectors through comfortably is a 3/16" bit. I pre-drilled 9/64" pilot holes first (shown below). I used a 4", 3/16 stainless bit, as well as for the next angled holes down into the bridge pickup cavity.

After drilling the bridge, it should look like this:

Remove the bridgeplate.
Each saddle wire is colour coded, and must be re-attached to the 7in/2out contact block after drilling the holes through the body. They MUST go back in order. Write this order down before you disconnect them from the contact block.
Next install the new saddles, using the same measurements as the old ones.
Use a black marker on the wires right by the holes to help make them less noticeable. Now you should have this:

Now for another tricky part with careful drilling. With the same long 3/16" bit, carefully determine your tunnel angles downward into the bottom of the open pickup cavity. You don't want to come out too far up, as the wires will interfere with the side of the bridge pickup. You want the wires coming out under the pickup.
After drilling the holes, clean all the dust and debris. String each wire through it's respective hole, and screw the bridgeplate back onto the body. Then reconnect the 7in/2out contact block, as stated earlier. Any pale colored, exposed wood from chipping can now be touched-up with paint, or a good permanent black marker works wonders in certain cases.
It should look something like this: (note the contact block on the right, and the small master output connector on the left)

Now string the output wire through the pickup wire hole into the control cavity, and coil the rest - along with the contact block - up into a small bundle and as flat as possible. Then tape it to the floor of the pickup cavity, preferably using black electrical tape. Reinstall the bridge pickup. It'll look like this:

Flip the guitar over and you'll see how much room you have to work with. Important - Determine everything in advance!

The output jack hole from the control cavity is too small to fit the connector and four wires through, and must be drilled out to 1/4". It can be done with a long bit, at a sharp angle, through the output jack hole. This is also the time to drill a 1/4" in the face of the guitar, and install the 3-way mini switch.

Now wire everything up! Yes, read the directions.

Compact the wiring neatly as possible, ready for the preamp PCB and battery.

Hook up connectors to their place on the preamp, and wrap the battery with a piece of sponge, or other such padding, to prevent it rattling around. Make sure you can compress the wiring enough to close the cavity cover, and don't place any pressure on the pcb board itself.

String er up, and set it up as normal. Follow the tweaking instructions....then jangle away...

David · 03-05-2006, 09:25 PM

damn! nice job! looks righteously clean man!

Elysian · 03-05-2006, 09:33 PM

nice write up, this deserves a sticky.

maskofduality · 03-05-2006, 09:51 PM

+1

Leon · 03-05-2006, 09:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elysian

nice write up, this deserves a sticky.

er, should go in the "how-to" forum

that guy · 03-05-2006, 10:10 PM

kinda off subject but where did you get those knobs??

this gives me an idea about emgs..if you just put the battery in the control cavity hmm....

darren · 03-05-2006, 10:53 PM

Great job! I'm impressed that it all actually FIT!

Shawn · 03-05-2006, 11:08 PM

Very nice, man, that guitar is slick as hell, I want it...lol.

Nice job, man.

giannifive · 03-05-2006, 11:13 PM

Wow, thanks for writing this up! After seeing your original post about your new mods I got the bug and I'm thinking about how to wire up my ol' fixed-bridge for piezos.

theunforgiven246 · 03-06-2006, 12:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by giannifive

Wow, thanks for writing this up! After seeing your original post about your new mods I got the bug and I'm thinking about how to wire up my ol' fixed-bridge for piezos.

ditto!

AVH · 03-06-2006, 05:08 AM

Thanks guys,
After reading so much about both piezos and how many people here were wanting to have them on their axes, I just decided to do it. It was my intent to show people that anyone with a few simple tools and wiring knowledge can install these, but many find it a very daunting task. I've worked on many guitars, but this was my first piezo job, and it came out pretty well, I'm happy enough. If you can install pickups yourself, you can do this.

Sorry that in the last few stages I started getting a bit vague, I was getting tired of writing by that point. If there's anyway I can help, just ask.
If anyone in the Toronto area still finds this a pain, I would be more than happy to do the job for a reasonable price.

7 Dying Trees · 03-06-2006, 07:06 AM

That is very very very very cool. Definately deserves a sticky, or, dar i say it, a page all of it's own like some of the jemsite tech areas, as this is really usefull.

So is there a volume control for the piezo's or is it just on/off?

Nice one

metalfiend666 · 03-06-2006, 07:31 AM

Very nice. I've been considering doing this for a while, thanks for the how to!

AVH · 03-06-2006, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 7 Dying Trees

That is very very very very cool. Definately deserves a sticky, or, dar i say it, a page all of it's own like some of the jemsite tech areas, as this is really usefull.

So is there a volume control for the piezo's or is it just on/off?

Nice one

I opted to go without one, for now anyways. I just wanted a straight 3-way mag/mix/piezo setup, with matching the output of the piezos to the mags onboard via the tiny trim pot. The wires that go to a 5 Mohm pot were taped off. I just didn't feel like putting another knob to fiddle with.
I'm glad you liked it, and hope you'll find it helpful.

Drew · 03-06-2006, 05:13 PM

Awesome work, mate.

Allen Garrow · 03-06-2006, 05:45 PM

Wow,, indeed,,,nice neat job bro! You have more patience than I do. By the way the white pickups look great. I actually ordered Blaze and blaze custom for my 7321 last week white with black polls. Simple and classy!

~A

Ibanez_fanboy · 03-08-2006, 01:53 AM

link for the actul system?

AVH · 03-08-2006, 04:58 AM

http://www.graphtech.com
Lotsa cool goodies. Top notch quality, excellent service. Go nuts (pun intended)

dpm · 03-08-2006, 05:03 AM

Just a note, the boards short circuit terminally fairly easily. You've got to be real careful not to accidentally bridge anything - I found out the hard way on a tight installation. Always, always, remove the battery before positioning the pcb, or plugging and unplugging the components, and be very careful not to slip when adjusting the trim pot with a metal screwdriver.

AVH · 03-08-2006, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dpm

Just a note, the boards short circuit terminally fairly easily. You've got to be real careful not to accidentally bridge anything - I found out the hard way on a tight installation. Always, always, remove the battery before positioning the pcb, or plugging and unplugging the components, and be very careful not to slip when adjusting the trim pot with a metal screwdriver.

Absolutely! Thanks Dpm, right you are, I should have said something along those lines, hard to remember everything when trying to explain something.

sidenote- I can't wait to see your work man, strychnine tells me he's collaborating on a cool sounding 8 with you. What picku...arg..so many questions when luthiers/techs get gabbing.

DBDbadreligion · 03-09-2006, 01:49 PM

thsi really does diserve ato be stickied it's a great thing for people like me who cant do anything without a piture! lol.

dpm · 03-09-2006, 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dendroaspis

so many questions when luthiers/techs get gabbing.

Best to email or pm me! I'm extremely busy atm so it might be a few days before I can reply

TonyFlyingSquirrel · 05-08-2006, 12:00 PM

I WASN'T AWARE THAT IT WAS AVAILABLE IN A 7 STRING VERSION. IS THERE A MODEL NUMBER THAT I CAN LOOK IT UP UNDER?

CAN IT BE DONE WITH TUNOMATIC SADDLES, ALA MY H207?

darren · 05-08-2006, 12:28 PM

If you call or email GraphTech, they are VERY helpful with getting you the parts you need. They can even pre-load a TonePros Tune-o-Matic with their saddles for you, since the underside of the bridge needs to be drilled out.

TonyFlyingSquirrel · 05-08-2006, 01:08 PM

COOL, THANKS.

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03-05-2006, 09:18 PM	#1
AVH avhguitarrepair.com Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Oslo Posts: 1,588 Thanked: 35 Feedback Score: 5 reviews	[Tech] RG7321 Piezo Install For those that were wondering about the install of the Ghost piezo saddle pickups in a non-pickguard, hardtail Ibanez RG7321, here's some installation pics. There were a couple of stages where I didn't bother taking a shot, but you get the basic jist of whats involved. First, set your intonation perfectly on the old saddles. Then remove the strings and bridge pickup. (If you find even this task daunting, get it done by a tech) Now using a fine marker, mark a dot on the bridgeplate 1/8" directly in front and center of each saddle. These will be the piezo wire exit holes through the bridge and into the guitar. If you feel that you might need more intonation travel in the future, go 3/16", you'l just see more wire protruding from the piezo saddle. I like it to be as hidden as possible. Next, measure and write down the distance between the back end of each saddle and the inside edge of the bridgeplate. This will give you a quick reference for a rough, but close intonation setting with the new saddles. You can fine tune it later. Now remove the original saddles. Now you're at this stage: Center punch each marker dot. You now have two choices at this point. Remove the bridgeplate, drill the holes, put the bridge back, and mark the hole placement on the guitar body through the plate holes. Or you can take the faster, lazier approach, and just mask off the body around the plate, and drill directly, but not too far, through the plate and directly into the body. Wanting to avoid possble drift of the drill bit, and to have perfect body/plate hole alignment - I chose the second method. Always drill at slow speeds, and unless you're using a drillpress with a proper depth adjustment, mark the hole depth on the bit using some tape wrapped around thickly at the desired level. In this case I chose 3/8" - 1/8 for the plate thickness plus 1/4" into the body is sufficient. Make sure you drill straight and square to the body, keep steady, and don't dare let the bit grab and take off downward into the body. Oh, the hole size necessary to get the tiny piezo connectors through comfortably is a 3/16" bit. I pre-drilled 9/64" pilot holes first (shown below). I used a 4", 3/16 stainless bit, as well as for the next angled holes down into the bridge pickup cavity. After drilling the bridge, it should look like this: Remove the bridgeplate. Each saddle wire is colour coded, and must be re-attached to the 7in/2out contact block after drilling the holes through the body. They MUST go back in order. Write this order down before you disconnect them from the contact block. Next install the new saddles, using the same measurements as the old ones. Use a black marker on the wires right by the holes to help make them less noticeable. Now you should have this: Now for another tricky part with careful drilling. With the same long 3/16" bit, carefully determine your tunnel angles downward into the bottom of the open pickup cavity. You don't want to come out too far up, as the wires will interfere with the side of the bridge pickup. You want the wires coming out under the pickup. After drilling the holes, clean all the dust and debris. String each wire through it's respective hole, and screw the bridgeplate back onto the body. Then reconnect the 7in/2out contact block, as stated earlier. Any pale colored, exposed wood from chipping can now be touched-up with paint, or a good permanent black marker works wonders in certain cases. It should look something like this: (note the contact block on the right, and the small master output connector on the left) Now string the output wire through the pickup wire hole into the control cavity, and coil the rest - along with the contact block - up into a small bundle and as flat as possible. Then tape it to the floor of the pickup cavity, preferably using black electrical tape. Reinstall the bridge pickup. It'll look like this: Flip the guitar over and you'll see how much room you have to work with. Important - Determine everything in advance! The output jack hole from the control cavity is too small to fit the connector and four wires through, and must be drilled out to 1/4". It can be done with a long bit, at a sharp angle, through the output jack hole. This is also the time to drill a 1/4" in the face of the guitar, and install the 3-way mini switch. Now wire everything up! Yes, read the directions. Compact the wiring neatly as possible, ready for the preamp PCB and battery. Hook up connectors to their place on the preamp, and wrap the battery with a piece of sponge, or other such padding, to prevent it rattling around. Make sure you can compress the wiring enough to close the cavity cover, and don't place any pressure on the pcb board itself. String er up, and set it up as normal. Follow the tweaking instructions....then jangle away...

03-05-2006, 10:10 PM	#6
that guy ss.org Regular Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: San Antonio .TX Posts: 589 Thanked: 0 Feedback Score: 0 reviews	kinda off subject but where did you get those knobs?? this gives me an idea about emgs..if you just put the battery in the control cavity hmm.... smokey the bear is way more intense in person

03-05-2006, 11:08 PM	#8
Shawn Ibanez 7s Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Southern Maine Posts: 24,509 Thanked: 146 Feedback Score: 15 reviews	Very nice, man, that guitar is slick as hell, I want it...lol. Nice job, man. My Guitar Videos

03-06-2006, 07:06 AM	#12
7 Dying Trees Sarcy English Twat Join Date: May 2004 Location: 7th Ethereal Plane of interstellar hell, Innit Bruv, Safe, London, UK Posts: 8,869 Thanked: 139 Feedback Score: 41 reviews	That is very very very very cool. Definately deserves a sticky, or, dar i say it, a page all of it's own like some of the jemsite tech areas, as this is really usefull. So is there a volume control for the piezo's or is it just on/off? Nice one The Chaos has come: www.chaosanct.com

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03-05-2006, 09:25 PM	#2
David je t'aime Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Issaquah, WA Posts: 4,197 Thanked: 2 / 1 Feedback Score: 0 reviews	damn! nice job! looks righteously clean man!

03-05-2006, 09:33 PM	#3
Elysian Banned Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Plano, TX Posts: 6,622 Thanked: 43 Feedback Score: 22 reviews	nice write up, this deserves a sticky.

03-05-2006, 09:51 PM	#4
maskofduality Brandeis Sophomore Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Brandeis University Posts: 462 Thanked: 0 Feedback Score: 0 reviews	+1

03-05-2006, 10:53 PM	#7
darren Decibel Guitars Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Greater Toronto Area, Canada Posts: 11,471 Thanked: 75 Feedback Score: 9 reviews	Great job! I'm impressed that it all actually FIT!

03-05-2006, 11:13 PM	#9
giannifive Occasional Poster Join Date: May 2005 Location: Washington, DC Posts: 1,070 Thanked: 10 $giannifive is rather kvlt and tr00. \m/$ $giannifive is rather kvlt and tr00. \m/$ $giannifive is rather kvlt and tr00. \m/$ $giannifive is rather kvlt and tr00. \m/$ $giannifive is rather kvlt and tr00. \m/$ $giannifive is rather kvlt and tr00. \m/$ $giannifive is rather kvlt and tr00. \m/$ Feedback Score: 5 reviews	Wow, thanks for writing this up! After seeing your original post about your new mods I got the bug and I'm thinking about how to wire up my ol' fixed-bridge for piezos.

03-06-2006, 05:08 AM	#11
AVH avhguitarrepair.com Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Oslo Posts: 1,588 Thanked: 35 Feedback Score: 5 reviews	Thanks guys, After reading so much about both piezos and how many people here were wanting to have them on their axes, I just decided to do it. It was my intent to show people that anyone with a few simple tools and wiring knowledge can install these, but many find it a very daunting task. I've worked on many guitars, but this was my first piezo job, and it came out pretty well, I'm happy enough. If you can install pickups yourself, you can do this. Sorry that in the last few stages I started getting a bit vague, I was getting tired of writing by that point. If there's anyway I can help, just ask. If anyone in the Toronto area still finds this a pain, I would be more than happy to do the job for a reasonable price.

03-06-2006, 07:31 AM	#13
metalfiend666 - Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Basildon, England Posts: 9,688 Thanked: 47 Feedback Score: 16 reviews	Very nice. I've been considering doing this for a while, thanks for the how to! www.metalguitarist.org

03-06-2006, 05:13 PM	#15
Drew Fear the Polo! Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Somerville, MA Posts: 21,655 Thanked: 154 Feedback Score: 8 reviews	Awesome work, mate. "...and everything under the sun is in tune, but the sun is eclipsed by the moon." http://www.metalguitarist.org

03-06-2006, 05:45 PM	#16
Allen Garrow Famous Beaver Hunter Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Nashville TN Posts: 1,304 Thanked: 6 Feedback Score: 1 reviews	Wow,, indeed,,,nice neat job bro! You have more patience than I do. By the way the white pickups look great. I actually ordered Blaze and blaze custom for my 7321 last week white with black polls. Simple and classy! ~A

03-08-2006, 01:53 AM	#17
Ibanez_fanboy I want a 1527!! Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Brisbane Australia Posts: 1,304 Thanked: 0 Feedback Score: 0 reviews	link for the actul system?

03-08-2006, 04:58 AM	#18
AVH avhguitarrepair.com Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Oslo Posts: 1,588 Thanked: 35 Feedback Score: 5 reviews	http://www.graphtech.com Lotsa cool goodies. Top notch quality, excellent service. Go nuts (pun intended)

03-08-2006, 05:03 AM	#19
dpm Oni Guitars Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Posts: 3,377 Thanked: 21 Feedback Score: 2 reviews	Just a note, the boards short circuit terminally fairly easily. You've got to be real careful not to accidentally bridge anything - I found out the hard way on a tight installation. Always, always, remove the battery before positioning the pcb, or plugging and unplugging the components, and be very careful not to slip when adjusting the trim pot with a metal screwdriver. I'm currently catching up with emails, please be patient

03-09-2006, 01:49 PM	#21
DBDbadreligion ss.org Regular Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Atlanta, GA Posts: 387 Thanked: 0 Feedback Score: 0 reviews	thsi really does diserve ato be stickied it's a great thing for people like me who cant do anything without a piture! lol.

05-08-2006, 12:00 PM	#23
TonyFlyingSquirrel Cherokee Warrior Join Date: May 2006 Location: Federal Way, Washington Posts: 1,864 Thanked: 61 Feedback Score: 3 reviews	I WASN'T AWARE THAT IT WAS AVAILABLE IN A 7 STRING VERSION. IS THERE A MODEL NUMBER THAT I CAN LOOK IT UP UNDER? CAN IT BE DONE WITH TUNOMATIC SADDLES, ALA MY H207?

05-08-2006, 12:28 PM	#24
darren Decibel Guitars Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Greater Toronto Area, Canada Posts: 11,471 Thanked: 75 Feedback Score: 9 reviews	If you call or email GraphTech, they are VERY helpful with getting you the parts you need. They can even pre-load a TonePros Tune-o-Matic with their saddles for you, since the underside of the bridge needs to be drilled out.

05-08-2006, 01:08 PM	#25
TonyFlyingSquirrel Cherokee Warrior Join Date: May 2006 Location: Federal Way, Washington Posts: 1,864 Thanked: 61 Feedback Score: 3 reviews	COOL, THANKS.

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