Jaguar bass pickup blend and other things...

[vinorange]

I just got myself another CIJ Jaguar as I do love the look and feel of them. However after I got it I remembered why they get on my nerves....

I wondered if anyone has ever added a blend pot to enable even just a subtle roll off of one or other pickup? Or maybe changed the control plate to VVT? The current controls are bridge pup on / off, neck on / off or both on / off. The control plate is Volume, Tone. My real question is whether this is feasible with the current set up....

And also I was thinking of swapping out the preamp for something that offers boost or cut rather than the on board cut only offering.

Just wondering.......

[itu]

Two pickups, just like any other instrument with two. It is up to you to mod the Jag with the setup you are after.

If you want to keep the pickup switching, you may end up in a situation where your bass is silent, while vol is open and blend is in the other end. I would certainly think about simplifying the setup. Many switches and knobs, many possible problems.

[Cuzzie]

I have just acquired a jag body I have just stripped and am going to refinish and am going through various possibilities of either popping in original type electronics, or doing something different.

one thing I have thought of is popping a tonestyler tele plate in the normal control bit.

https://store.stellartone.com/group.asp?grp=107

Various iterations here, then on the lower horn I was thinking of wiring a blend knob for if both are selected.

Then the upper horn control panel I may fit a Kill switch. It will of course need a different pick guard.

 

i dunno just an idea....

[Andyjr1515]

The easiest way would be to swop the Master volume with a stacked pot and have a volume control for each pickup in the same knob position.  Same number of holes in the scratchplate and only a few wiring changes.

If you keep the pot you take out, you can always revert to standard if you ever come to sell it.

The original Squier (passive) Jaguar actually uses stacked pots in both positions giving independant volume and tone for each pickup.

[vinorange]

1 hour ago, Andyjr1515 said:

The easiest way would be to swop the Master volume with a stacked pot and have a volume control for each pickup in the same knob position.  Same number of holes in the scratchplate and only a few wiring changes.

If you keep the pot you take out, you can always revert to standard if you ever come to sell it.

The original Squier (passive) Jaguar actually uses stacked pots in both positions giving independant volume and tone for each pickup.

 

Stacked pot for independent volume and maybe independent tone sounds interesting. I think that would be a huge beneficial change.

I’ll get under the hood and see if I can figure out what to do. If not, I’ll be back.

[Andyjr1515]

43 minutes ago, vinorange said:

 

Stacked pot for independent volume and maybe independent tone sounds interesting. I think that would be a huge beneficial change.

I’ll get under the hood and see if I can figure out what to do. If not, I’ll be back.

If you want both, then go for vol and tone for each pair of knobs...then you are not having to remember which knob does what.

The stacked knobs are basically two standard pots on top of each other so, wiring wise, just use the normal v v t t four pot wiring conventions.

The nice thing about this arrangement over using a blend knob is that your present switches work completely normally.

[vinorange]

17 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

If you want both, then go for vol and tone for each pair of knobs...then you are not having to remember which knob does what.

The stacked knobs are basically two standard pots on top of each other so, wiring wise, just use the normal v v t t four pot wiring conventions.

The nice thing about this arrangement over using a blend knob is that your present switches work completely normally.

That makes me wonder why they don’t do this as standard. It’s such an easy mod and would add huge benefits. I mean what’s the point of 2 pups without being able to blend them? I know the Jag has many tonal options, the parallel / series switching is great, but being able to roll off one pup a touch is so obvious. To me anyway.

I’m off to the parts cupboard to see what’s there!

[Andyjr1515]

59 minutes ago, vinorange said:

That makes me wonder why they don’t do this as standard. It’s such an easy mod and would add huge benefits. I mean what’s the point of 2 pups without being able to blend them? I know the Jag has many tonal options, the parallel / series switching is great, but being able to roll off one pup a touch is so obvious. To me anyway.

I’m off to the parts cupboard to see what’s there!

Axesrus have a decent one for not a lot, here

https://www.axesrus.co.uk/Alpha-Concentric-Solid-Shaft-Alpha-Pot-Full-Sized-p/concentricsolidshaftfull.htm

 

[vinorange]

I’ve been looking at the jaguar wiring diagram and can’t figure out how to incorporate 2 sets of stacked pots for VVTT set up. In fact I’d go as far as to say my head hurts trying to figure it out......

I’ve attached the jag wiring diagram in the hope that someone knows how to add stacked pots for independent vol / tone for each pup as I’m baffled.

[Andyjr1515]

It will be a case of delinking the two feeds from the three switch cluster (top right on your diag.) and sending the output to each volume pot.  Then the output from each pot will go back to the switch on the top left.  As the diagram is shown , just confirm what each of those three switches do?  I am assuming they are pickup on / off switches?

[Jimothey]

I've just been discussing on my 5 string Tele/P build about having 2 stacked pots with independent Vol and tone for each pickup so I'd be really interested in seeing a wiring diagram of how to make it work but mine won't involve any switches.

I am worse than useless when it comes to wiring it took me about a month to try and work out how to replace a blend pot on an active harness to make it active/passive on a push/pull pot instead then I gave up and I rung my Dad for advice still couldn't understand it so I posted it to him to do for me instead ........ 😀 

Edited May 1, 2019 by Jimothey

[Andyjr1515]

7 hours ago, Jimothey said:

I've just been discussing on my 5 string Tele/P build about having 2 stacked pots with independent Vol and tone for each pickup so I'd be really interested in seeing a wiring diagram of how to make it work but mine won't involve any switches.

I am worse than useless when it comes to wiring it took me about a month to try and work out how to replace a blend pot on an active harness to make it active/passive on a push/pull pot instead then I gave up and I rung my Dad for advice still couldn't understand it so I posted it to him to do for me instead ........ 😀 

Sorry - I had misunderstood.

Are you planning just pickups and two stacked pots and no switches at all?  If so, that is very straightforward - I'll find a wiring diagram or sketch one out. 

You threw me with the wiring diag you posted - that particular arrangement is one of the most complex anyone is likely to encounter on a bass.

The two are on opposite ends of the scale, so hopefully it's the former rather than the latter you're planning

[Andyjr1515]

5 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Sorry - I had misunderstood.

Are you planning just pickups and two stacked pots and no switches at all?  If so, that is very straightforward - I'll find a wiring diagram or sketch one out. 

You threw me with the wiring diag you posted - that particular arrangement is one of the most complex anyone is likely to encounter on a bass.

The two are on opposite ends of the scale, so hopefully it's the former rather than the latter you're planning

Scrub this - two different people with two different requirements 

I shouldn't try to read this stuff on a small tablet!

[Jimothey]

Sorry @vinorangeI'm not trying to hijack your thread I searched for stack pots with independent V & T for each pickup and your thread came up so I thought I'd tag along for the ride......... 😀

Yeah sorry @Andyjr1515 for the confusion I basically want to do similar to what the OP has asked but mine won't involve any switches 

[vinorange]

12 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

It will be a case of delinking the two feeds from the three switch cluster (top right on your diag.) and sending the output to each volume pot.  Then the output from each pot will go back to the switch on the top left.  As the diagram is shown , just confirm what each of those three switches do?  I am assuming they are pickup on / off switches?

hello again......

I’m afraid mine is the complex requirement. I wish it was easy but I’m baffled by it.

In top down order the switches are; neck pup on / off, bridge pup on / off, series / parallel. The other top left dpdt is active / passive bypass.

its the yellow from the existing volume to the the active / passive bypass dpdt that confuses me. If there are 2 volumes I’m not sure what happens to that feed. Although thinking about it, the feed would go to the first volume pot and then the 2 volumes would be wired as normal vvtt?

Thanks again.....hopefully the fog of confusion will lift soon.....

[vinorange]

2 minutes ago, Jimothey said:

Sorry @vinorangeI'm not trying to hijack your thread I searched for stack pots with independent V & T for each pickup and your thread came up so I thought I'd tag along for the ride......... 😀

Yeah sorry @Andyjr1515 for the confusion I basically want to do similar to what the OP has asked but mine won't involve any switches 

No worries. Come along for the ride although it may be confusing!!

[vinorange]

I should add here that the reason for my query is that this bass has just about every combination of tones you could wish from a jazz based bass except the ability to blend the pickups. In active mode with with the pups in series it sounds superb (I know that would mean that I can’t blend the pups anyway in that mode but......)

[Andyjr1515]

23 minutes ago, vinorange said:

hello again......

I’m afraid mine is the complex requirement. I wish it was easy but I’m baffled by it.

In top down order the switches are; neck pup on / off, bridge pup on / off, series / parallel. The other top left dpdt is active / passive bypass.

its the yellow from the existing volume to the the active / passive bypass dpdt that confuses me. If there are 2 volumes I’m not sure what happens to that feed. Although thinking about it, the feed would go to the first volume pot and then the 2 volumes would be wired as normal vvtt?

Thanks again.....hopefully the fog of confusion will lift soon.....

Ah - OK.  That makes sense

I'll sit in a darkened room for a bit and try to work it out, but yes, essentially, the two outputs from the new volumes will join back to where the yellow eventually goes...

[Andyjr1515]

30 minutes ago, Jimothey said:

Sorry @vinorangeI'm not trying to hijack your thread I searched for stack pots with independent V & T for each pickup and your thread came up so I thought I'd tag along for the ride......... 😀

Yeah sorry @Andyjr1515 for the confusion I basically want to do similar to what the OP has asked but mine won't involve any switches 

No problem. Do you want me to find you a circuit diag?

[Jimothey]

16 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

No problem. Do you want me to find you a circuit diag?

If you've got one that would be great thanks

[vinorange]

27 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Ah - OK.  That makes sense

I'll sit in a darkened room for a bit and try to work it out, but yes, essentially, the two outputs from the new volumes will join back to where the yellow eventually goes...

Mucho appreciado (which probably isn’t Spanish but won’t be far off).

I sort of got my head around it a bit last night but not confidently enough to rip the innards out of the bass.

[Andyjr1515]

OK - I think it's pretty straightforward.  Let me check my logic a bit first, but at the moment I think:

• The pickup hot feeds go to the three switch cluster
• The output of that cluster goes, via the blue wire, to the volume pot
• The adjusted signal comes out of the volume pot and goes, via the yellow wire, to the other switch trickery and ends up eventually coming out via the green wire to the jack

So I think all you have to do is have each individual volume pot  placed between the pickup and the three way cluster?  So basically, the volume pots go in BEFORE the pickup feeds reach the 3 way cluster rather than AFTER the 3 way cluster as it is at present.

Then, because the volume is already taken care of, you effectively join the blue wire and the yellow wire left dangling when you desolder the master volume (in reality, of course, you would simply route the blue wire coming out of the 3way switch cluster, directly to where the yellow wire attaches to the top left single switch and remove that particular yellow wire altogether)?

I'll see if I can use the magic of Inkscape or maybe even just Powerpoint to amend the wiring diagram. 

[Andyjr1515]

 

Isn't it just this (for clarity, this is just the volume pot bit of the stacked pots)?

This:

Becomes this:

 

So just to clarify, the two hot wires from the pickups, instead of going direct to the 3 switch cluster, go there, instead, via their respective volume pots.  Then the blue feed out of the 3 switch cluster can go straight to the single switch on the top left instead of going via the master volume pot.

Does that make sense?

Edited May 1, 2019 by Andyjr1515

[Andyjr1515]

25 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

 

Isn't it just this (for clarity, this is just the volume pot bit of the stacked pots)?

This:

Becomes this:

 

So just to clarify, the two hot wires from the pickups, instead of going direct to the 3 switch cluster, go there, instead, via their respective volume pots.  Then the blue feed out of the 3 switch cluster can go straight to the single switch on the top left instead of going via the master volume pot.

Does that make sense?

I might have the two wires to the volume pots the wrong way round.  It might be feed into the middle lug and out to the switch from the end jug rather than how I've drawn it of feed into the end lug and out to the switch from the middle lug...

[Andyjr1515]

This is the corrected one.  I've also added a missing earth on the second volume pot.  Anyone else agree or disagree this should work?