Hello all! I’ve had my Jag-Stang since sometime around 1998, and I’ve been reading this website since before the guitar was delivered. From the very beginning I began modding it one way or another. In hindsight, sure, I guess I kinda wish I had kept it stock (maybe)... however, that ship has long sailed. Please don’t yell at me for modding this beautiful guitar. In my defense, when I first picked mine up, they were looked at as kind of goofy looking, cheaply and poorly built, as far Fender guitars go. (Not that I felt that way, but it was the general consensus in the wider guitar-playing community.) Plus I couldn’t even drive a car yet, what the hell did did my dumbass teenage self know?
Anyhow, 20+ years and 400 half-baked punk bands later, here’s what I’m trying to do: (please let me know if you think I’m missing anything important or if you have advice on how to make this work.) In the bridge I have a Dimarzio PAF Pro, and in the neck is the original Jag-Stang single coil. My 3-way slider switches stopped working a long time ago, and I would like to replace them with a pair of Jaguar/Jazzmaster-style 2-position slider switches. I’d like each switch to function as an independent on/off switch for the respective pickups. Move the switch forward and the pickup is on, back towards the bridge and the pickup is off. This way I could use either pickup or both together as simply as possible, while still maintaining the Jag-Stang’s original look and pickguard layout. I plan to use 500k pots with a 500k resistor running from the single coil’s “hot” to ground. This is so my humbucker “sees” a 500k volume pot and the single coil “sees” a 250k. Best of both worlds. On the tone pot I plan to use a Sprague .022 cap, unless I find a compelling reason to try something else. The last detail is that I’ll be lining the back of my pickguard and the inside of the cavity with copper foil tape. I started doing that several years ago, and it’s made an incredible difference eliminating interference and background noise.
So, what does everyone think? Especially regarding the on/off sliding pickup switches replacing the unnecessary and convoluted on-off-on sliding switches (which never fail to #### me up while playing live.) Does anyone know of a reason why the on-off sliding switches WONT work? And I know this is asking a lot, but would anybody be willing to draw me a simple wiring diagram? I’m unsure of what to do with all the damn wires coming out of the humbucker, lol. Black, white, red, green, and bare. The single is much easier to handle, with its two leads - one hot, one ground. I would truly appreciate any help that any of you are willing to give me. Thank you very much. Wait! Oh yeah! I wanted to say one last thing just to help keep things clear - I have no interest in coil-tapping or anything else like that. The way I’ve described things above is as complicated as I want things to be, as far as my guitar itself goes. I just want two good sounding pickups played either separately or together, and then 1 tone knob and 1 volume knob. If I keep my guitar simple, I always know what to expect from it! When I want to play with more tonal possibilities I’ll find far more satisfying results with the never-ending parade of brilliant boutique pedals constantly being released, tube amps of all sizes and varieties, various eqs, and maybe a reverb unit. I’m rambling, I’ll stop. Thank you again!
I’ll make you a deal - I have a brand new P90 laying around that I bought for a project and then decided against using. The first person to draw a fully functional wiring diagram can have the P90, I’ll even pay postage, within the US. Does that sound fair? Thanks again!!!
-Sean
