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Cross post - already put this in the new guitar thread but hopefully someone here might know the answer.

New MIJ Traditional Jag. Tone pot is doing something odd. Not bad, just odd. Can anyone help me with what’s going on?

There’s definitely not linear and something is happening when I turn it up full. If I have it rolled up full, the sound is extremely bass-heavy. Roll it off a bit, and the bass goes away completely and then the tone pot functions like I’d expect a tone pot to - gradually rolling off the treble. There’s definitely a ‘step’ as the post goes from full to ~90% with a sudden change in the bass.

See what I mean?

https://youtu.be/_GzD6roEub4?si=7aG47XGwoX-pJQZK



It’s the MIJ Traditional Jag but it’s a Kinko FSR model so they may have funky wiring.

It *sounds* like it's a no-load pot (i.e. the capacitor is taken out of the circuit when it's at '10') and that it's wired like a strangle switch on 1-9 (i.e. it's cutting the lows significantly). If you unscrew the control plate and take a picture of the underside, that would be helpful. Secondly, if you can identify which capacitor is being used (any identifying numbers on it), that would be helpful too.

Thanks.

The same phenomenon also happens with the volume pot. Between 9 and 10 there's a huge volume bump and a load more bass. Same as the tone pot - and so full tone + full volume is way louder / bassier than 9 on both.

Interestingly, the shop emailed me a link to a video showcasing the guitar. I guess this is their way of proving it was all working before shipping. On this, they roll the tone/volume up/down and I never hear the same huge jump. Link HERE for anyone interested.

I posted this in the original thread, but I'll put it here for completeness:

Had the control plates off - all looks fine to my untrained eye.




Next thing to try is another amp. So far this is all with my Helix. Maybe it’s a weird impedance thing?

Cap is marked 103K, pots are both 1 Meg CTS. The serial number printed on them comes up as a standard Fender CTS pot. No mention of 'no load' characteristics.

@Sciuri also came up with some helpful knowledge about his (supposedly identical) guitar. Caps appear to be the same.

Not sure if I can help much! On mine, the tone knob on 10 sounds fuller or more present, and the sweep from 10 to 9 is noticeable, but I can’t reproduce the big volume jump that seems to be happening on yours. I took a look under the control plates and the wiring looks like typical Jaguar wiring from what I can tell.

AO 60s Jaguar Wiring

But it sounds like replacing the tone pot or capacitor might be needed.

Edit: I’m also assuming the cap value is .01 uF (the cap is yellow and the only marking is “103k” but I can’t find the exact one on google). If it’s actually a higher value cap value, then lowering it might help the sweep behave more gradually.

I’m going to stop here and hope timtam or someone more knowledgeable than me will chime in!

Update: it’s a weird Helix quirk.

Volume / tone pots work as expected with other amps, and in fact other models within the Helix. I have no idea why this is happening but I can work around it pretty easily now I know the cause. Doesn’t happen with any of my other guitars though

Guitars can be so fkn annoying omg.

Well that was an unexpected culprit I googled it to see if others mentioned the same issue on the Helix and saw someone on Reddit say:

“Input impedance is too high. Lower it by editing the Input block.”

I don’t know if this is even related but I figured I’d pass that along.

Curious - which model?

I had to turn on the 'input pad' on all of them, even with single coil Jazzmasters/Jaguars. A lot of sub-optimal 'default' settings on Helix I've found.

It’s most prominent on a patch that uses a Twin / AC30 combo in stereo, but is happening to a lesser extent with a few different amp models (Plexi, Matchless) whereas I can’t replicate it with the Grammatico.

Input pad doesn’t seem to make a difference but I’m sure it’s something to do that that.