Alternate Wiring for Jazzmaster - Dual Vol/Tone or something else

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jondom22
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Alternate Wiring for Jazzmaster - Dual Vol/Tone or something else

Post by jondom22 » Thu Oct 14, 2021 7:16 am

Been contemplating wiring up my JM with separate volume and tone pots (1 for each pickup). I've been using a Novak JM-V (neck) and JM-Fat (Bridge) and love the sound, but find myself needing to cut a lot more highs in the middle bridge positions. I've also wanted the flexibility to use the pickup switch to go between lower volume setting on my neck for rhythm, and fully up for bridge for cranked chords/leads.

For those who have done this, which way do you find it easiest to use?

Option 1: Roller Pots are vol and tone for neck, while the man pots by the 1/4" jack vol/tone pots are for bridge

Option 2: Roller Pots are tone pots for both pickups, and main pots by the 1/4" jack are the 2 vol pots

Option 3: Option 2, but vol pots on the rhythm circuit, and tone pots by the 1/4" jack

Option 4: Stacked dual pots by 1/4" jack (gives me another option for using the rhythm circuit for something else

Only downside of the dual pot setup is going to the middle position may sometimes require adjusting 2 pots instead of 1.

Additionally, I've been thinking of adding a high-pass filter for the neck pickup as it can be a bit boomy (esp in comparison to the bridge). Thinking I could use the rhythm circuit switch to put the HPF in/out of the circuit, though I guess if I went dual vol/tone pots by the 1/4" jacks, I could also use one of the roller pots to adjust the cutoff frequency and/or slope of the HPF.

Looking forward to hearing your experiences as well as other ideas.
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Re: Alternate Wiring for Jazzmaster - Dual Vol/Tone or something else

Post by DeathJag » Thu Oct 14, 2021 10:36 am

Awesome! I attempted to do this with a jaguar bass, using your option 2. I ended up having to travel and haven’t gotten around to finishing it. But you need resistors on both volume hot lugs so the two pickups don’t interact too badly. 47k or something?

I’d post my wiring diagram but I’m too embarrassed because it doesn’t work heh heh.

I love the HPF idea. I want that also, around 80Hz. I’ve always hated how huge and boomy that low E is compared to all the other ones. I’d only want one HPF for the output. It’d be cool to add a pot and make it adjustable. Maybe the rhythm switch can be used to engage the HPF?

Anyhow, best of luck and please know I am watching this thread!

Dan

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Re: Alternate Wiring for Jazzmaster - Dual Vol/Tone or something else

Post by Singlebladepickup » Thu Oct 14, 2021 9:00 pm

I also like the HPF idea. I'd go for volume on the knobs, then the rollers for HPF and master tone.

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Re: Alternate Wiring for Jazzmaster - Dual Vol/Tone or something else

Post by CorporateDisguise » Fri Oct 15, 2021 3:25 am

I have option 1 on my main Jazzmaster. Works well for me. I feel like splitting the volume and tone pots for each pickup would result in a alot more wire being used, and the more wire you use, the higher chances you have of introducing noise into the system. I may just be paranoid though…..

Your going to want to change the tone pot in the rhythm circuit to a 1 meg though, as the 50k will result in a darker overall tone.

I have stacked pots in another guitar, and they are kinda a pain in the ass. Getting the knobs to sit right, so when you turn one, the other isn’t effected is really difficult. Plus, they all seem to have different size shafts, and accept different knobs. I ordered genuine fender pots and knobs, and they still didn’t fit.

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Re: Alternate Wiring for Jazzmaster - Dual Vol/Tone or something else

Post by jondom22 » Fri Oct 15, 2021 6:29 am

CorporateDisguise wrote:
Fri Oct 15, 2021 3:25 am
I have option 1 on my main Jazzmaster. Works well for me. I feel like splitting the volume and tone pots for each pickup would result in a alot more wire being used, and the more wire you use, the higher chances you have of introducing noise into the system. I may just be paranoid though…..

Your going to want to change the tone pot in the rhythm circuit to a 1 meg though, as the 50k will result in a darker overall tone.

I have stacked pots in another guitar, and they are kinda a pain in the ass. Getting the knobs to sit right, so when you turn one, the other isn’t effected is really difficult. Plus, they all seem to have different size shafts, and accept different knobs. I ordered genuine fender pots and knobs, and they still didn’t fit.
Ya this seems the most logical approach. Tho adjusting vol knobs at two different locations for the middle pickup seems somewhat inefficient for my playing where I'm constantly changing pickup position and vol/tone as I react. I guess I could make the rhythm circuit switch simply route the neck pup to either the main vol/tone controls or the roller pots (with more regular values), as opposed to engaging the neck pickup outright. Then I'd have the option of gibson style wiring with separate vol/tone pots for each pup, or standard wiring with a shared vol/tone pot.
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Re: Alternate Wiring for Jazzmaster - Dual Vol/Tone or something else

Post by jondom22 » Sat Oct 16, 2021 3:20 pm

Any other ideas/experiences? The main issue I have with my JM electronics is that the middle and bridge position get ice picky on top, so I have to roll off a lot more on the tone knob with them vs the neck pickup (and the neck pickup can be a little boomy). Obv it gets most bright when the vol knob is all the way up, and while I'm constantly adjusting my vol/tone pots, I like playing with the vol full up to push fuzz pedals and my amp.

Using Novak JM-V in neck and JM-Fat in bridge (wondering if his JM-90 or gold foil in the bridge might be a good solution)?
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Re: Alternate Wiring for Jazzmaster - Dual Vol/Tone or something else

Post by HNB » Sat Oct 16, 2021 5:26 pm

My gold jazz master has the lower two pots as volumes and the upper rollers as tones, but like a Les Paul, if both pickups are selected, tone pots effect both pickups.
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Re: Alternate Wiring for Jazzmaster - Dual Vol/Tone or something else

Post by MC5tooge » Sat Oct 23, 2021 6:34 am

The other option is drilling pickguard for three control knobs. This is my preferred option - with independent volume controls and a shared tone, wired like a jazz bass. I have a stacked pot on one of my guitars and it's a hassle to use TBH. Not sure if it's doable with a toggle switch though - am using Jaguar switching on mine.
Also stacked pots in 1 meg can be hard to find.
Alternatively, many JMs should have enough space routed for you to put another rhythm circuit plate with 2 roller tone knobs between the toggle and what would be the volume knobs.

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Re: Alternate Wiring for Jazzmaster - Dual Vol/Tone or something else

Post by Sauerkraut » Thu Oct 28, 2021 2:32 am

Here's another option that I like (from Rothstein):

Image

Nice and simple.

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Re: Alternate Wiring for Jazzmaster - Dual Vol/Tone or something else

Post by chrisrnps » Fri Oct 29, 2021 11:15 pm

I’d vote for Option 2. It seems like the most ergonomic and intuitive to use option, and might minimize the “old saw Family Circus comic dotted line showing where Billy went on the way home” traditional Jazz/Jag wire paths a bit (wires from both pickups go to the upper horn roller area, then down to the lower knob area, pickup switch, then output jack.)

Option 2 could also lend itself to trying different pot values for the two pickups (such as 1000 for the neck but 500 for the bridge) to play with the brightness / loading of the pickups relative to each other.

The “rhythm circuit” area slide switch could be used to switch in an inline capacitor for the neck pickup only (low-roll-off “strangle switch” like a Jaguar, but you can select a less drastic frequency via cap value choice.)

If you’re not against adding non-stock holes to the pickguard, an additional switch could add a cap shunted to ground (acting as a binary/preset on or off tone pot rolloff) for the bridge pickup only.

Push-pull or push-push pots for the two pots could also be used as secret squirrel controls to switch in different low-cut or high-cut caps.

Or the bridge pickup could be replaced with an overwound version of the same, or similarly an underwound version for the neck pickup, if it’s always too bright or too dark and you always find you want the bridge pickup louder than the neck. Also see if you can get closer to what you want with pickup height adjustment first - raising the bridge pickup and lowering the neck pickup could get closer to what you seem to be pursuing without doing any mods.
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