Rhythm circuit - series wiring, new tone pot?

echelon

Ok, so like most jag owners I already hate the rhythm circuit. Yeh it sounds nice for a bluesy solo sound, but then its not that different to the lead circuit neck pickup with tone rolled off.

Also the rhythm circuit wiring on my jag is shot (it cuts out), and rather than get it fixed i'd rather put in something more useful.

Anyway, i was thinking that selecting the rhythm circuit would activate BOTH pickups in series with each other - so it would be like a lead boost setting, with higher output and humcancelling (once my Fender AV Jag pickups are installed). now i'm just wondering:

a) Is this wiring schematic even possible with the current jag switches?

😎 What do 2 jag pickups sound like in series? (i know some people on here have installed series/parallel switches)

c) Is there any aftermarket mini tone-pot that will fit the jaguar upper control panel? I'd want a 500k tone, rather than the 50k tone pot currently there.

Cheers for reading 😁

echelon

of course a simple solution to c) would be to buy another 1MEG mini-pot designed for the Jag rhythm circuit volume control, and install it as a tone pot.

Could then just keep the tone roller rolled down..so obvious, dunno why i didnt think of that before..

Pedro

echelon said: a) Is this wiring schematic even possible with the current jag switches?

Having had a good look at a wiring diagram I really can't see how you'd do it, without adding another switch or something. The problem is you don't really have any spare lugs on the rhythm switch cos everything runs through it even when you're using the lead circuit. It might be feasible to do something using the strangle switch, cos that's got more redundant lugs but I'm not sure.

The only other thing I'd say is that I thought the rhythm circuit on the HH was pointless to start with, but have developed a bit of a taste for it now. Nice smokey jazz sounds thru the right amp 😛

Doog

Or you could just rip out the circuit and put in a 3-way LP toggle killswitch like I did on my Jazzmaster 😁

Bob_the_godly_dude

I don't know about the wiring of the Jag, but surely if he's getting rid of that circuit altogether then all the lugs will be free?

echelon

Bob_the_godly_dude said: I don't know about the wiring of the Jag, but surely if he's getting rid of that circuit altogether then all the lugs will be free?

I wouldnt want to get rid of the whole circuit, i wanna keep the tone/volume controls but also add the bridge pickup wired straight into the neck pickup, so both pickupo act like a giant humbuckler.

unfortunately i think pedro's right - there's no space for extra wiring.

ok, well plan 2 then - wire the pickup on/off switches so that they're on/on - but when they're both DOWN, they're in series with each other. Both up would be in parallel.

I'm sure that would work...i think!

Pedro

I think that's do-able. I was faffing around with mine last night and have turned the strangle switch into a series / parallel switch for the bridge humbucker, which gives some interesting sounds. It doesn't work entirely how I intended but still fun!

echelon

Pedro said: I think that's do-able. I was faffing around with mine last night and have turned the strangle switch into a series / parallel switch for the bridge humbucker, which gives some interesting sounds. It doesn't work entirely how I intended but still fun!

oh - do the Fender dragster pickups have 4 wires?? ooh, you need to post sound clips of that!

I couldnt lose the strangle switch - i didnt find it useful on the Jag HH, but on the regular jag its v v useful when both pickups are on (you get a thick but not muddy rhythm/lead sound).

I still wanna stick a 1meg tone pot in the rhythm circuit - will make it infinitely more useful.

Pedro

echelon said: oh - do the Fender dragster pickups have 4 wires?? ooh, you need to post sound clips of that!

I took the dragster out and replaced it with a seymour duncan stag mag. Would post sound clips but I don't have the means - I don't have a computer at home! (fortunately I don't have a very busy job). It sounds good though, less harsh than the dragster which is what I was after.

The other thing I'm not sure of, isn't it the fact that the volume pot is linear on the rhythm circuit that gives it that muffled sound? I confess I don't really know what that means 😡 but on the wiring diagrams the lead circuit pots are "audio" and the rhythm "linear"

echelon

Pedro said:
The other thing I'm not sure of, isn't it the fact that the volume pot is linear on the rhythm circuit that gives it that muffled sound? I confess I don't really know what that means 😡 but on the wiring diagrams the lead circuit pots are "audio" and the rhythm "linear"

ooh, i was interested in the stag mag too! Have you tried spliting the coils totally yet? I'm wondering if it'll sound like a regular jag!

here's an explanation

http://guitarelectronics.zoovy.com/cate ... ngfaqs/#q2

Basically audio taper (logarithmic) pots give you more control as you turn the pot down - tone pots should *always* be audio taper! However, both types of pots are identical when they're on 10.

The muffled sound comes from the 50k tone pot. The lower the valve, the darker a guitar will sound - les pauls use 500k tone pots, Fender strats 250k. 250k is generally the lowest pot value you can get.

50k is just STUPID - it's almost like having a strat tone control turned down to 1 ALL THE TIME!

Pedro

Right right right, I see thanks. I have read that in other threads but never really taken it in!

I did try splitting the coils first but it sounded a bit too weedy when switching from humbucker to single. Not a bad tone but quite thin, and the main problem is the output is a lot lower in single coil mode (which you obviously notice with the flick of a switch). So I re-wired it parallel and that has upped the output but still kept the single coil sound and it's pretty sweet! Gives a good variety of sounds. Gigging with it on thursday so hopefully my soldering will hold up ok 😆

The idea of using the rhythm switch to flick into both p'ups in series is cool tho, you should definitely look into how it could be possible. Probably need a lot of work but a nice idea.

echelon

Pedro said:
So I re-wired it parallel and that has upped the output but still kept the single coil sound and it's pretty sweet! Gives a good variety of sounds. Gigging with it on thursday so hopefully my soldering will hold up ok 😆

so it *does* sound like an original jaguar when coil split then 😆

Cool, i wanna hear a tone clip of it switching between series and parallel - get a webcam and stick it on youtube, like i do!

Hey who are your band, and are you on Myspace?? (we're both in London - and my band are playing a headline show @ The Betsy Trotwood tomorrow!)

Pedro

Cool, the betsy trotwood is a cosy little place, how do you get a whole band in there?! I saw a mate of mine do a solo acoustic gig there and he just about had enough room! The band i'm in is http://www.myspace.com/theinstants - I am just the guitarist and have nothing to do with the lousy lyrics! And there's no pics of the jag up there yet but I'll try and get that sorted. Will try and get soundclips done this wkend too. what are your band called then?

echelon

we're called Want Take Have

http://www.myspace.com/wanttakehaveband

Betsy Trotwood is small, but luckily we have no drummer! Your band look cool, I'll have a listen when i get home (and have speakers)

Pedro

Cool we aint but thanks very much! Your band looks great, your influences are right up my street - Bis for chrissakes!! 😲 Wow, I just listened to one of your tunes and it's really good. Proper decent pop tune. Can't make it to Trotwood tonight but I'll see if I can make it to your gig in january and will heckle your guitar skills from the back 😁

Are you gigging the new jag tonight then? Confident that it won't let you down??

echelon

Pedro said:
Are you gigging the new jag tonight then? Confident that it won't let you down??

wow, another bis fan!! yeh the're our biggest influence (the 2 guitarists/drum machine/keyboard line-up should have given it away!)

You going to the bis reunion show in April 2007? They're playing a one off at Islington Academy, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of New Transistor Heroes - I'M SO EXCITED!!

nah, Jag wouldn't sound right in this band (even though its red - matches our band colour scheme), cos i'm the lead player, and the Jag is currently way too wimpy for lead.

I'm playing my usual Yamaha RGX321-FP - it's a really cool metal guitar from Yamaha, and it has this removable transparent faceplate thingy

So you can basically change how the entire guitar looks by tracing round it on card, then putting your own design underneath!

Pedro

echelon said: You going to the bis reunion show in April 2007?

I don't know if I'm really ready to re-live being 13 yet 😁 Maybe

So it was you that was on about transparent scratchplates. I'd quite like to get one made for my jag for a laugh, was thinking about it the other day.

Bob_the_godly_dude

I was thinking about getting one done for my strat copy about a year and a half ago for that same reason but never did because of cost restraints. Got a black pearl guard instead (on a black strat).