To jazzblaster or not to jazzblaster

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
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Nedavine
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To jazzblaster or not to jazzblaster

Post by Nedavine » Fri Apr 05, 2024 4:21 pm

I’ve been thinking of selling my JM66 now that I have an American Pro II. Was gonna use the money toward a tele AV II deluxe but I’ve been recently thinking I could save myself 2k if I keep the JM66 and swap out the bridge for a mastery (I’ve got antiquity II’s in the JM66) and then on the pro II add some cunife wide range humbuckers (I basically want a traditional jazzmaster sound and a wide range sound guitar).


If I do go the route of swapping the pups on the AM Pro II would I also need to swap out the push pull pot ?

Are there interesting uses I could make for it ? Maybe like my tele with a series parallel set up?

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Chippertheripper
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Re: To jazzblaster or not to jazzblaster

Post by Chippertheripper » Fri Apr 05, 2024 7:43 pm

The easiest way in my mind is to yank your current loaded pg and build a new one from the ground up. That way you could wire and switch it as you see fit without trying to make it work off a stock guard.
If you get along with the guitar otherwise, this seems like a no brainer.

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MayTheFuzzBeWithYou
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Re: To jazzblaster or not to jazzblaster

Post by MayTheFuzzBeWithYou » Fri Apr 05, 2024 11:44 pm

There are CuNiFe WRHBs in Jazzmaster form (zero routing needed) - even directly from Fender - but also from boutique builders.
But I totally get if you say, you want to add a little chrome on the way. ;)

I‘d also throw Novak‘s Thunderbird for JM Pickups in the ring - for even more punch and clarity.

For the push/pull pots I don‘t see why you should have to replace them. Series/parallel or some other wiring (tap coil?) might be possible without much hassle.

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Nedavine
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Re: To jazzblaster or not to jazzblaster

Post by Nedavine » Sun Apr 21, 2024 9:01 pm

Thanks for the input.

I ordered the jazzmaster wide ranges. Went for the fender Cunife ones in the end as I’m in Japan so sourcing anything else is a bit of a pain.

If I just do a one for one swap ignoring the push push switch up position will I be good just keeping the wiring stock? Or should I redo the whole harness?

I’m assuming push up would then just be no sound so essentially like a kill switch?

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Re: To jazzblaster or not to jazzblaster

Post by alexpigment » Mon Apr 22, 2024 4:03 am

If you look at the wiring diagram, the bridge pickup first goes to the lower section of the push/push pot for the coil tap logic, then goes up to the rhythm circuit selection (yellow wire). If you want, you can make the bridge pickup go directly to the rhythm circuit, which will make it so that the push push pot doesn't change anything when up/down:

https://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/Orig ... master.pdf

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Nedavine
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Re: To jazzblaster or not to jazzblaster

Post by Nedavine » Sat Apr 27, 2024 9:25 pm

Thanks for the help. Probably a dumb question but the output on the top of the vmods is the ground right? The WRHB have a shielded cable with ground and live inside but comes from same source if that makes sense so not sure on how the wiring translates. Also never dealt with a cable like this with a shield around it.

The wiring diagram of the AM pro ii shows the ground going up to the rhythm circuit while the hot goes to the push push. So I guess I would need to strip the cable way back to send it up top and bottom?

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Re: To jazzblaster or not to jazzblaster

Post by Nedavine » Sat Apr 27, 2024 10:19 pm

Realised might be easier to draw it than say it after re-reading my reply lol

wiring image

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