Why 1 meg pots?

[mr_sooty]

Sorry I'm a Jazzmaster newbie, and I'd seriously wondering why they use 1 meg pots? Traditional wisdom is 250K for single coils and 500K for humbuckers. 1 Meg seems really high for single coils!

[Telliot]

I'm not too sure why, either. FWIW I switched to 250k (in the lower circuit) to soften the harsh tones I was getting and have never looked back.

[HNB]

Jazzmaster got me really in to 1meg pots. Most of my guitars have them now. To me, it opens up the sound. If I feel it is too bright, I can always turn the tone knob down a bit, but I haven't every felt the need. The only pickups I have tried that I didn't like 1megs in was my MIJ/CIJ Jazzmasters, but I changed the pickups instead of the pots. Those ones are more like strat pickups. I even like humbuckers better with 1megs. I think it is a personal taste thing. I like bright and jangly more than deep and warm.

[DrOctagon]

TREBLE!

Just use the tone knob if it's too much. Better too much than not enough, right?

[fisonic]

More so, why a 50k tone pot in the rythm circuit?

[Hoops]

More so, why a 50k tone pot in the rythm circuit?

To keep things Jazzy

[mr_sooty]

50K? So that's where the mud comes from? So if you want to change the sound of that circuit you have to find different value roller pots? Ye Gads, all my modding plans just went down the toilet!

[Telliot]

50K? So that's where the mud comes from? So if you want to change the sound of that circuit you have to find different value roller pots? Ye Gads, all my modding plans just went down the toilet!

I've left the rhythm circuit alone on mine and really like the ability to switch between dark and bright for different parts of a song.

[JamesSGBrown]

I've bypassed the rhythm circuit and am just running a 1 Meg vol. pot atm. Will probably change out the pickups and go to a 500k pot though.

[astricii]

I've bypassed the rhythm circuit and am just running a 1 Meg vol. pot atm. Will probably change out the pickups and go to a 500k pot though.

My suggestion to you is try the pots first. then if you still don't like it do the Pickups. Sometimes all you need is the pot replacement.

[ohm-men]

I often wondered about this too...So I went back and forth between 1meg, 500k and 250k.
But I always go back to 1meg (exept on stock MIJ/CIJ Jm pu's, as these sound just too thin). Like HNB said, it opens up the sound, makes it very controlable, turn back the treble when it gets too bitey, lower the volume to get a cleaner Fuzz sound etc.

At the moment I play arround with 3 Jazzmasters, two of them have the 1meg pots, one has 500k pots, I lake the latter the least of all, I always try to get more out of it, it sounds too tight, limeted...where the 1 meg has just the right amounth.
I wasn't impressed with the GFS hot Jm set I had (used 500k pots) so I replaced the pots with 1megs and wow...just what I wanted...

Finally, after 10 years of playing with Jm's, I devoleped a like for the rythem circuit. I asume I wired one of them wrong on my last build, since it sound very clear, with an almost strat bell tone, nothing you normally expect from a Jm rythem circuit.

Every time a play a non Jm, I find myself looking for switches and knobs that aren't there

[antisymmetric]

^^^ Really useful post. I plan on a JM-ish build one of these days (have a set of Lollar JM pickups waiting) and I've been reading about pot values for JMs, and thought that no way would I ever use 1Ms. Now I think I'll start with them before trying anything else.

[tubeswell]

With a set of stainless flats (which is what JMs and Jags were designed for), 1M pots provide the perfect output impedance for those p'ups.

[kalipigeon]

I wire mine backwards now to get the best of both worlds. I use 2 1meg pots in the rhythm circuit and a either 500k or 250k in the lead circuit pots. This way I get a bright switch instead of a mud switch. It almost always stays on the bright side though FWIW.

[fisonic]

Yeah, I'm probably going to swap out the 50k tone for a 1 meg & fit a .022 PIO on it so I can get the best of both worlds, as I also like the stock mud(yes Jazzy), but would like more range. Possibly a .047 on the lead circuit, for more bridge options.