Looking for Jazzmaster Wiring Tips

[Ice Tre]

When taking off the Jazzmaster pickguard to replace pickups or whatever, I find it to be a pain, since the parts and wiring are all attached to the pickguard. It's difficult to get the wires to fit in the body cavities. The wires that go to the jazz circuit are especially a pain, since they have to go thorugh the neck pickup area. I'm hoping there is a document here or elsewhere that could give me some tips for the easiest way to do it.

Also, I'm curious if it's ok to leave the ground wires of the pickups at full length (in case I change my mind and want to use them on something else or sell them) and fold them over and tuck them in the body cavity, or if I need to commit and cut them as short as possible.

[timtam]

There are a number of harness builders who set a standard for clean, efficient wiring that you can copy. Fender certainly doesn't make that list (tape and cable ties cost money !).
eg
https://www.guitar-mod.com/rg_pw_5jazzmaster.html

On guitars with difficult cavity routing I have taken a tracing of the cavities on a sheet of paper (with pickguard holes as references), then cut out the cavities, and finally traced the cavity hole outlines from the paper onto the underside of the pickguard. Then you can use tape to hold the wires within those boundaries, or various little cable-tie/adhesive-base widgets.

Routing under pickups or through body tunnels is obviously more of a pain.

Guitar techs seem to disagree on the "cut pickup wires to length or not" question. It's not helped if you want to on-sell to buyers who often want "as new" or think having to splice on some extra wire length has some negative sonic consequence. If there's space to stash the excess length that's fine, but so is cutting short if you have to. Do what seems best to you.

[Ice Tre]

timtam: Thank you, that's very helpful. Looks like the key is to tape the cables to the pickguard, to get them to go where you want them to go.

Next question: the Jazzmaster pickups are not attached to either the body or the pickguard. So I'm not sure how to deal with them, and the two cables attached to them. Any suggestions? Tape the pickups onto the pickguard, like the cables?

Finally I just want to say that the Jaguar is a much more user-friendly design than the Jazzmaster.

[timtam]

Jazzmaster pickup screws are screwed in the cavity floor wood. The pickup is then propped up by foam. All in all not really one of Leo Fender's better ideas. In respect to assembly/cabling, they can just be screwed in late in the process of re-assembly. There are also alternatives to screwing into the wood and foam that you can consider, like humbucker-style screws with springs and rivet nuts.
viewtopic.php?t=122222#p1719677

[B.T.]

Getting the wiring tight and wax floss tied or taped up runs like this photo and you’ll be set

[Ice Tre]

Thanks to everybody for the tips. One of the cables in my TVL Jazzmaster going to the jazz circuit isn't long enough to route around the neck pickup where I can tape it down to the pickguard. So I'm going to have to buy some cable somewhere and replace it. I haven't bought electronic parts in a long time and don't remember where to get that stuff now.

[Skeet-1969]

I haven't bought electronic parts in a long time and don't remember where to get that stuff now.

Amazon, eBay, StewMac, Philadelphia Luthiers, etc... easy-peasy.
Mike B