Mods To The Capacitor On Jaguar Rhythm Circuit?

castpolymer · Post by **castpolymer** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 7:58 pm

New to this forum. Just picked up a Fender Classic Player Jag and loving it. I have decided to mod the .01 cap on the upper rhythm circuit to something less dark. Just tried a .022 Tele cap I had and it was a bit brighter. I think I am going to try a .1 cap next. Anyone got any stories advice on what has worked for them? Thanks in advance for the help.

Ankhanu · Post by **Ankhanu** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:02 pm

Why would you want to brighten it? The entire point is that it's a darker sound than the lead circuit... if you want bright, why not just use the lead? Won't brightening it up pretty much eliminate the real difference between the two circuits?

Personally, I find the darkness a nice contrast to the brightness of the lead; it's, ironically, fantastic for soloing.

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:41 pm

wait, jaguars use a .01uf cap? wow, that's much better than the jazzmaster .022uf cap. I always thought that would be about the perfect value. anyway if you want a brighter range you could try putting something like a 50k resistor in series with the cap. that will have the effect of fixing the pot value between 50 and 100k. I tried it on a jazzmaster with a 25k resistor and a .022 cap it worked really great.

.022uf is darker than .01 though, and .1uf is extremely dark.

here's another thread with some info about this: http://shortscale.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39136

Ankhanu wrote:Why would you want to brighten it? The entire point is that it's a darker sound than the lead circuit... if you want bright, why not just use the lead? Won't brightening it up pretty much eliminate the real difference between the two circuits?

nah, just gives you more options. the advantage of a second tone circuit to me is not to give you some one-trick pony dark setting it's that it gives you a tone/vol preset quickly avail at the flip of a switch.

aen · Post by **aen** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:43 pm

You can add a Zhago fuzz. Those are pretty bright.

endsjustifymeans · Post by **endsjustifymeans** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:47 pm

Don't listen to the neck beard above. Put an oscillation circuit in there.

castpolymer · Post by **castpolymer** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:53 pm

endsjustifymeans wrote:Don't listen to the neck beard above. Put an oscillation circuit in there.

Could you please explain the " oscillation circuit ." I am not familiar with it.

gypsyseven · Post by **gypsyseven** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 9:35 pm

nah, just gives you more options. the advantage of a second tone circuit to me is not to give you some one-trick pony dark setting it's that it gives you a tone/vol preset quickly avail at the flip of a switch.

+1

But at the moment i found the "darker" rhythm circuit really cool and usefull...

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 9:45 pm

I've always thought it's a good idea to put in another 1 meg VT circuit up in there. Why not? If you want the dark sound, just roll the tone knob to the left.

endsjustifymeans · Post by **endsjustifymeans** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 6:34 pm

castpolymer wrote:
endsjustifymeans wrote:Don't listen to the neck beard above. Put an oscillation circuit in there.
Could you please explain the " oscillation circuit ." I am not familiar with it.

Lol, I was actually kidding/teasing Aen. It's not at all what you are looking for. But for an explanation, see creature:

[youtube][/youtube]

Phil O'Keefe · Post by **Phil O'Keefe** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 6:26 am

honeyiscool wrote:I've always thought it's a good idea to put in another 1 meg VT circuit up in there. Why not? If you want the dark sound, just roll the tone knob to the left.

I think the idea of doing it with the series resistor is that it's less work and only one cheap resistor that you have to buy - not all new pots, etc. Still, one or the other of those mods would definitely be a part of my ultimate Jaguar wiring setup. I don't know about going with a 1 Meg tone pot - that might be a bit much for me... but 500k - that I could see doing - I'd want it to start off just slightly darker than the main tone control circuit. But otherwise, IMHO, you're absolutely right - if you want "darker," just roll off the tone control.

Sure, I want to be able to hit the switch and go straight to the neck pickup with separate volume / tone controls for it, but I'd like the option of dialing it up with either a darker OR brighter tonality. It's more flexible IMO.

The Jazzmaster rhythm circuit (the predecessor of the Jaguar's) was designed to give Jazz guitarists a "jazzy" (darker sounding) tone at the flip of a switch - Fender was trying to make it easy for the relatively technophobe Jazzers of the late 1950s to get a sound that was familiar and appealing to them, and Fender wasn't really trying to make a flexible second control circuit... but that doesn't mean we can't mod them to make them that way if it appeals to us.

castpolymer · Post by **castpolymer** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 7:32 pm

Soldered in a .1 cap into the rhythm circuit the other night. Much improvement over the .022 cap. I will try a 1.0 cap next. At that point, whichever gives me the most flexible options for a tone ( the .1 or the 1.0 ), I will stick with. The Jag, though schematically more complicated than a Tele or Strat, is proving pretty easy to mess with as far as mods.

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 7:44 pm

improvement how? can you give a little description of the diference?

castpolymer · Post by **castpolymer** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 1:31 pm

Mages wrote:improvement how? can you give a little description of the diference?

I would compare the rhythm circuit tone ( wide open on volume and tone ) as closer to a Strat neck pickup. So, with this mod, I now have four very usable setting on the Jag.
1) Rhythm neck ( Strat like )
2) Lower neck ( nice for brighter rhythm parts )
3) Neck / Bridge split ( I use this for some parts to " mimic " an acoustic
4) Bridge ( pure jangle )

Makes for some very nice tonal options. I have had great luck with it thru my PRRI. Sound great and has a really nice chime.

I also changed out the stock strings to nickel wound 11's. Since I am used to playing 10's on a 25 1/2" scale, this is making the transition from guitar to guitar a bit easier.

Benmurray85 · Post by **Benmurray85** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 3:06 pm

it seems its too late now but if anyone else is considering doing this do yourself a favour and buy yourself a big muff first.

i got my first jag last week and the rhythm circuit plus the BM was a revelation.

phat as phuck

really enjoyable

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 4:00 pm

aen wrote:You can add a Zhago fuzz. Those are pretty bright.

Aen, do you have to put a battery in the guitar to run to something like that? That would be cool in my Jazzmaster project.

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 6:12 pm

Phil O'Keefe wrote:I think the idea of doing it with the series resistor is that it's less work and only one cheap resistor that you have to buy - not all new pots, etc. Still, one or the other of those mods would definitely be a part of my ultimate Jaguar wiring setup. I don't know about going with a 1 Meg tone pot - that might be a bit much for me... but 500k - that I could see doing - I'd want it to start off just slightly darker than the main tone control circuit. But otherwise, IMHO, you're absolutely right - if you want "darker," just roll off the tone control.

Are there 500 ohm pots that fit that route? That's why I was suggesting 1 meg.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 7:47 pm

What's it gonna be for, emergencies?

Phil O'Keefe · Post by **Phil O'Keefe** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 7:32 am

honeyiscool wrote:
Phil O'Keefe wrote:I think the idea of doing it with the series resistor is that it's less work and only one cheap resistor that you have to buy - not all new pots, etc. Still, one or the other of those mods would definitely be a part of my ultimate Jaguar wiring setup. I don't know about going with a 1 Meg tone pot - that might be a bit much for me... but 500k - that I could see doing - I'd want it to start off just slightly darker than the main tone control circuit. But otherwise, IMHO, you're absolutely right - if you want "darker," just roll off the tone control.
Are there 500 ohm pots that fit that route? That's why I was suggesting 1 meg.

They're just side / bracket mounted mini-pots:

I'm pretty sure Allparts sells 500k pots that will fit... you'd need to snap the tab off, but that's no big deal. I have not tried it, but it looks like they'd fit:

http://www.allparts.com/500K-Short-Mini ... 86-000.htm

For comparison, here's the stock 50k tone pot and 1 meg volume:

http://www.allparts.com/50K-Linear-Roll ... 92-000.htm

http://www.allparts.com/1-Meg-Solid-Sha ... 90-000.htm

Post by **Mike** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 12:06 pm

I never liked rolling the tone back on my CP Jaguar neck pickup even on the Lead circuit, so I soldered in a series resistor to make it sound the same as the lead circuit volume and tone on full - it was delicious.

Tasty neck pickup tones at the flick of a switch - I was never keen on anything else.

Phil O'Keefe · Post by **Phil O'Keefe** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 11:09 pm

Cheers Mike - you wired in a 1Meg resistor in series with the cap, right?

I like the rhythm circuit to be a bit darker than the lead, but it's way too much stock IMO - I'd probably put a 470k or 750k resistor in there instead. If someone's looking to get a brighter rhythm circuit, that's the cheapest / easiest way to do it and probably what I'd recommend trying first. If you like it, you can try to track down the pot and go that route later.