Wiring a Jaguar jazzmaster-style

[Robiwan]

Hi all,

I’m replacing my stock cp jaguar pickups with pure vintage 65’s and was thinking about wiring the volume and tone controls like a jazzmaster (and ditching the resistor on the tone pot). I’d still like to have the strangle switch work. I’m handy with a soldering iron, but not 100% sure where to make the connections so as to keep the cut switch.

My goal is to get better use out of my vol and tone controls. The tone at the moment cuts volume in the first bit of rotation (assuming that resistor is the culprit), and the volume knob has a funky sweep to it (I read somewhere on here that that could be due to the way the volume pot is wired in Jaguars). I’ve compared the schematics, and see the differences but again I don’t want to screw it up.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[timtam]

I don't think we've ever come to a definitive conclusion on what that 56k resistor across the jag's tone pot actually does ...
search.php?keywords=56k&terms=all&autho ... mit=Search

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=109553&hilit=56k

Also discussed recently over at TDPRI ...
http://www.tdpri.com/threads/johnny-mar ... it.910573/

Some experiments with the 56k in vs out would be interesting.

There are also several variations in Fender's Jazzmaster wiring that I'm not sure we've discussed here at all .. but that's in the rhythm circuit ...
http://www.tdpri.com/threads/jazzmaster ... on.516890/

[Robiwan]

What a mystery that resistor is! Has any one removed it and replaced it with a wire? Results?

Despite that resistor, is there any advantage to wiring the volume pot in a more traditional way, like a jazzmater or strat/tele? I gather the standard jag wiring acts as a voltage divider. Again, my main goal is to have the pots behave more usably.

[Robiwan]

Update to this topic- I replaced the stock pickups with pure vintage 65 pickups, and it has made all the difference. No other mods. Loud, clear, aggressive! AND the pots respond more predictably/smoothly. Bridge pickup is set fairlIy high, but no ill effect. Works so well with fuzz. Still may drop the pot value down to 500 or 250k as it sounds most usable (I.e. conventional) with the volume rolled a little bit off, but I’ve not made the decision yet; I still kinda dig the massive top and bottom end option with a wide open 1 meg vol. The pickup change has really opened up the guitar.