Jaguar capacitor chop...

othomas2 · Post by **othomas2** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 3:53 pm

Is it true if you cut this capacitor out it'll brighten up the rhythm circuit ?

cobascis · Post by **cobascis** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 4:31 pm

I'm not sure. A large factor in the tone is the different pot value the rhythm circuit has.

aen · Post by **aen** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 4:36 pm

Yar, isn't it extremely low value, like 50k?
It's been a while since I had to open one up *shudder*

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 5:42 pm

The pot values are the main issue but you can hack the value with different caps. That green cap looks like those in jag-stangs, up grading it could improve things at least.

othomas2 · Post by **othomas2** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 6:49 pm

Ok so trimming the cap off wont really do much ? and the cap is needed ?

If I swapped out the tone pot for 1 k, it would sound identical to the lower circuit right ? with thick or thin switch engaged ?

cheers
Owen

GreenKnee · Post by **GreenKnee** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 6:53 pm

othomas2 wrote:Ok so trimming the cap off wont really do much ? and the cap is needed ?

If I swapped out the tone pot for 1 k, it would sound identical to the lower circuit right ? with thick or thin switch engaged ?

cheers
Owen

With both my Jags I did exactly this.

To me, it sounds the same, as I don't use the tone control, but it is only the neck pickup as I am sure you know. I use it to clean up the neck pickup for some rhythm parts, and then engage the lead circuit on full volume for gain madness!

Jack

othomas2 · Post by **othomas2** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 7:04 pm

What did you do, just swap the pot ?

Well I tried out the lower circuit with only neck enabled and it didn't do much for the cheap jap neck pup, which i really like !!

However upstairs with all the darkness it's has something. SO I'm not gonna touch it. With a more superior pickup it may be different.

I used the lower circuit for rhythm and upper (neck pup) for lead on the whole. Unless I'm doing some mellower rhythm playing.

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 6:36 am

um, without the capacitor the tone knob will be made completely in-operational. the rhythm circuit will sound the same as the neck pickup is normally but with no tone control.

othomas2 wrote:If I swapped out the tone pot for 1 k, it would sound identical to the lower circuit right ? with thick or thin switch engaged ?

no, 1k would be even darker. 1m would be identical to the lower circuit. you want to do something like a 100k pot, that'll be right in the sweet spot of the tone control IMO. alternatively you could trade it for like a .01u cap. or put like 25 or 50k resistor between the pot and cap to "fix" the wide open position at a certain spot.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 9:37 am

Mike did a mod to the rhythm circuit on the CP Jag that I just got from Lorez. Description and schematics over thar:

http://www.shortscale.org/forum/viewtop ... &start=100

It's pretty close to the neck on the lead circuit but I actually think it has more 'room' and resonance. For twiddly clean picking it sounds ace.

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:08 am

ah, so he put a 1meg resistor in there. I saw you mention it in the other thread and was wondering what his mod was. that is basically the same as clipping the tone cap out like othomas is saying. I guess if you normally have the tone rolled down on the lower circuit, a tone-bypass rhythm setting could be cool. there's a lot of different ways you could do it I suppose. basically I think the strength of the rhythm circuit is to have an at the ready tone "preset" so to speak. IMO the usefulness of it is diminished in the stock configuration however because they essentially force the tone control all the way down, giving you no tonal flexibility.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:18 am

I'm still getting used to the switching options, this being my first Jag, so not in any rush to change stuff around until I've scoped out what I can do with it as-is. I've seen a few alternative switch/wiring set ups over at Offset which might be worth checking out.

Post by **Mike** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:22 am

It definitely made it more useable to me personally, since I didn't really like the sound of the Rhythm circuit on the CP Jaguar. But I loved the sound of the Lead circuit with the neck pickup on it's own, tone full up, so I effectively made that sound switchable with one switch flick.

I used to generally play with the lead circuit with the bridge, or bridge & neck, or neck and strangle switches, and then have the regular neck pickup sound switchable on the upper horn. I liked it.

Since I'm completely leery to do anything with my '66 I've learnt to deal with the crap switching and haven't run into the issues I used to have with strumming the switches off on the CP, etc. But maybe that's because my playing style has changed, who knows? The CP Jag definitely begs you to smack it because of the stability of the TOM, whereas the '66 prefers being treated more sweetly I guess.

othomas2 · Post by **othomas2** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 11:11 pm

Thanks for the info guys... really helpful.

I think I'm gonna keep the guitar as is, it's been sounding fantastic recently.... with the rest of my setup.

As the going says, if it aint broke don't fix it !!!

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 11:27 pm

I really don't care for the rhythm circuit, so I just turn down the volume on it and reserve it for my best Tom Morello impressions. Aww yeah, kill switch, yaaaah!

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 8:59 am

honeyiscool wrote:I really don't care for the rhythm circuit, so I just turn down the volume on it and reserve it for my best Tom Morello impressions. Aww yeah, kill switch, yaaaah!

I may be guilty of having done this for a good half hour the other day.....