Ibanez K5

This K5 was bought used and played for a long while as how it was. The guts was snatched out when the next owner bought it. I really don't understand such behaviour by some people. The reason we players want to own your used instrument is because we couldn't afford it when brand new. We already accepted the fact such said instrument could be presented as beat up or without strings but kindly don't rip out the key electronics parts unless you would sell it at very cheap. So dear sellers, please have pity on the next owner.

 On the bright side, at least this K5 still have its stock active pickups. It came to the bench with mixes of passive and active pots left over from somewhere that are deemed useless to me. The frets need leveling. The neck required some tightening.

My initial plan was to rewire it to standard active. Meaning each of the Vol,Blend and Tone pot would be around 20k to 25k. That would leave one pot hole redundant at the same time looking ugly from the front. I thought of implementing Fender’s passive TBX here but I don't quiet understand it nor whether it would do much difference. So the idea was discarded. I decided to do a tone with two tone cap, 47n and 100n soldered to a mini toggle switch.

 I tried buying a 25k blend pot from Lazada but their fucking seller kept refunding my money. Not once but thrice! I decided to put in a three way rotary switch. Better a switch than a 250k or 500k blend pot which is totally wrong for this. The owner was unhappy with it at first but later was joy about it. What can I do, I plan, they plan but Allah is the best of planners. What else... the output jack was replaced with Switchcraft.

This K5 plays very well after all the above work but I'm still curious about its missing preamp. Is it really that good for it to get robbed? For that I hope to encounter another K5 for confirmation. Until then, its goodbye for now.

Thank you

yustech