Jazzmaster pots swap?

foll · Post by **foll** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 1:27 pm

First of all, I am really not knowledgeable in electronics, so forgive me for some noobish questions.

Iâ€™ve been working on my CIJ jazzmaster for a while, now it has novak pick-ups and mastery bridge on it.
The thing is it is still too bright to my taste and I always roll the volume knob to 8, or volume on 10 and tone on 5.

I did some search on the net and found out modding the pots would help. I am going to do it myself coz I barely know anything in electronics, so I am going to ask a friend of mine to do it (who is unfamiliar with JMs).

Soâ€¦what should I tell him to do? Swap all the pots to 500k? Would this help?

On the other hand, Iâ€™ve seen some pics of J Mascis and Stephen Malkmus (Two of my biggest influences), and they always roll their volume half way. J put his tone knob half way and Malkmus seem to bypass his tone completely. So Iâ€™m wondering whether it means they have treble bleed mod in their JMs. I canâ€™t find the J Macis signature one locally, so can anyone confirm this?

If Iâ€™m going to do the treble bleed mod, which kind would be better?

Thanks!

Thom · Post by **Thom** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 2:41 pm

Is it ok when you roll the tone to 5? Or still too bright then?

Post by **Mike** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 2:44 pm

I take it you're just using the Lead Circuit? The pots are both 1 meg in that, reducing to 500K will drop some treble, and 250K some more.

The rhythm circuit has a 1 meg volume and a 50K tone which makes stuff way dark.

I'm not aware that any treble bleed (or grease-bucket as I believe fender calls it) circuitry is on the J Mascis Jazzy.

Justin J · Post by **Justin J** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 3:10 pm

if it sounds fine with the tone knob turned down, why not stick with that? i mean, that's kinda what it's there for.

foll · Post by **foll** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 3:20 pm

I should mention that I use fuzz a lot and with my other guitar (vaccaro) the volume roll off trick works smoothly.

However, I like the feel of JM much better, and when set right, it sounds great (V:8 T:10 or V:10 T:4 etc...). But when rolling of JM's volume, it gets too muddy, and it loses the variety of the tones I can get with fuzzes.

That's the reason I checked out J's and Malkmus' JM settings...to see how these guys use theirs.

I've also read that J signature JM has 500k pots in it...so that's why I asked about it.

I think it eventually goes to how I want to set the guitar up...I am just wondering whether it looks doable for you guys.
People rarely play JMs in my area, so I need to find some suggestions here.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 3:20 pm

Mascis told me his Jazzys were stock (check me out) other than the bridge but he does use Fuzz which always thickens up single coils.
But yeah, 1meg pots is a bit ridiculous on singles. 250k was the common value for single coil guitars and a modification i would carry out if i ever own another CIJ, i'd swap that garbage cap out as well perhaps for an Orange Drop.

robroe · Post by **robroe** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 4:10 pm

fran makes me lul

Aeon · Post by **Aeon** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 4:16 pm

foll wrote: Malkmus seem to bypass his tone completely.
Thanks!

Malkmus and Sonic Youth don't have tone knobs in them because they don't use them. I doubt that this results in rolling off any highs, in fact it probably lets more through the circuit because the tone isn't going thru a pot.

One of the first things you have to do is EQ your amp accordingly. You simply can't have the treble on your amp set the same as you would with a standard single coil guitar or a guitar with humbuckers, unless you want to get wayyy too bright. Jags/JMs are inherently pretty bright guitars, but you can tame most of this effect at the end of the chain.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 4:18 pm

robroe wrote:fran makes me lul

astro · Post by **astro** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 11:59 pm

There's no need to have your friend do the mod, you can do it yourself because it's quite easy!

I swapped the pots in my Mustang, with guidance from some forum members here. It was a quick and painless mod, and I had never done anything of the sort before.

The great thing about pots and caps is that they are quite cheap (that is, if you don't buy from a guitar/musical instrument shop and get them from an electronics parts supplier instead), so you might as well buy both 250k and 500k pots, as well as a variety of cap values, and experiment until you get the sound that you like best.

And once you've done that, you'll have some more skills that might come in handy in the future if you ever need to make electronics repairs on your guitars.

timhulio · Post by **timhulio** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 8:08 am

Which Vaccaro have you got?

I always fancied the X-Ray, kinda like a sexed-up Squier Venus (which also look great). Excuse the glitter.

foll · Post by **foll** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 9:08 am

Mine is a sky blue X-Ray. Actually it's my first electric guitar. Nobody wants it at the time and it was dirt cheap

[quote="timhulio"]Which Vaccaro have you got?

I always fancied the X-Ray, kinda like a sexed-up Squier Venus (which also look great). Excuse the glitter.

quote]

Will · Post by **Will** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 9:32 am

Just make sure you get audio taper when you buy pots.

It's not strange - all my SC guitars have a 250k or less for at least the tone.

Mityushikha · Post by **Mityushikha** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 9:55 am

I've also just finished working on my CIJ Jazzmaster, I've got a Novak vintage in the neck and P90 in the bridge and mustang bridge

I've swapped the lead pots to 500k audio taper which I think gives me a more useful range of sounds and I always have both of them on 8 to get a good sound out of both pickups. They're also both lowered quite far from the strings as I've been advised here to help reduce the midrange. In the rhythm circuit I've disconnected the tone pot so just have the 1000k vol., more like a Sonic Youth JM, it sounds really trashy (which I like!). I also tried the treble bleed mod but I didn't like it and didn't think it was at all useful.

On my amp I use a fairly flat EQ because the pickups are so different that what sounds good for one sounds terrible for the other but it's sounding great now, any adjustments while playing just have to be made on the guitar.

What amps are you using right now btw?

vincel · Post by **vincel** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 7:41 pm

I left my volume pot at 1M linear but dropped the tone pot to 500K audio, which took the edge off quite nicely without darkening the tone too much. I also had the rhythm circuit bypassed completely, but that's just my personal taste.

foll · Post by **foll** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 5:56 am

Thanks guys! These inputs are great!

I just lowered the PUs and it does help to even out the response of each string.

The tone bypass on rhythm circuit sounds really appealing. I will see what I can do about itâ€¦

Iâ€™m using a vox ac15cc1 with bright cap mod now. I just got it for several months, and to tell the truth itâ€™s not the most user friendly amp out thereâ€¦

It may sound weird but Iâ€™ve found out that the amp only take pedals â€œreally wellâ€� when treble is cranked and only adjust the sound with bass. All my pedals sound right in this setting. It leads me to realize my JM is too bright when volume and tone cranked. I didnâ€™t notice it before when I always compensated the over treble sounds with the ampsâ€™ eqs (mainly fenders).

Jazzmaster pots swap?

Jazzmaster pots swap?

Re: Jazzmaster pots swap?