I've been playing my Jazzmaster since 1994 and I never use the top circuit. Always found it to be a totally useless tone. I've considered installing something weird up there, but in the end, when I finally end up doing a refin on it, I'm probably just going to have a custom pickguard made with no top circuit, and no tone knob at all. Just switch, and a volume pot.

Kniferide wrote: Fri Jul 30, 2021 2:41 pm I've been playing my Jazzmaster since 1994 and I never use the top circuit. Always found it to be a totally useless tone.

Have you ever tried it playing a heavily overdriven/boosted/fuzzed lead? That's where that side of the guitar shines to me. It's dark but somehow cuts through really well.

benadrian wrote: Fri Jul 30, 2021 10:00 am
I 'm coming here to second all of this. I always put 250k pots in Jazzmasters and MUCH prefer it.
The original rhythm circuit is weird. It has a 1M volume control, but a 50k tone control, so even at max position it's as if the tone is rolled down to maybe 3-5 on the traditional tone knob.

I stand corrected! Thanks for this. That actually means the 250k or 500k pot swap does something more than make a copy of the rhythm circuit, which makes me really want to try it.

Do you think the fierceness of the treble on those 1meg pots is more the volume pot, the tone pot or both together?

Over-ear headphones while wearing glasses.

I use headphones for music stuff for for much of the time since my recording setup is in my house, and my family doesn't always appreciate my unquestionable creative genius.

Is there a workable solution that anybody has achieved in terms of comfort while sporting glasses and headphones? Obviously in-ear would be one solution, but I'm not a huge fan of those.

losthighway wrote: Thu Jul 29, 2021 11:48 am ^ Yeah, I think that's half of the magic in the rhythm circuit on the traditional ones. Those roller knobs are just 250k pots as an alternative to the 1meg ones. I wonder if 500k would create a noticeable difference. After installing nicer pickups in mine I feel like it's way better, but I'm still tempted to roll back the tone knob a bit when I'm on the bridge pickup which is something I never do when I'm playing a humbucker guitar.

I never roll the tone off on a humbucker (series wiring) guitar either. But I don't think that's necessarily a good thing. I actually like that I roll off a little on the tone knob on most of my single coil guitars (usually around 7 depending on guitar) Jazzmasters included, because I still have somewhere to go if I want a little more bite. Having said that, I hardly use the rhythm circuit in the JM, aside from rolling the volume all the way off so I can use the slider switch as a kill switch to both immediately mute, and to do staccato effects.

losthighway wrote: Fri Jul 30, 2021 3:14 pm

benadrian wrote: Fri Jul 30, 2021 10:00 am
I 'm coming here to second all of this. I always put 250k pots in Jazzmasters and MUCH prefer it.
The original rhythm circuit is weird. It has a 1M volume control, but a 50k tone control, so even at max position it's as if the tone is rolled down to maybe 3-5 on the traditional tone knob.

I stand corrected! Thanks for this. That actually means the 250k or 500k pot swap does something more than make a copy of the rhythm circuit, which makes me really want to try it.

Do you think the fierceness of the treble on those 1meg pots is more the volume pot, the tone pot or both together?

I would say the tone knob is the main culprit. The tone is set up as a variable resistor. The pots are usually logarithmic. A quick shorthand is that the halfway point on a log pot is 1/10th the max value. So a 1meg log pot at half is 100k. So a 250k tone put at full up might be the same at a 1M tone pot at 6-7.

The tone pot section of the circuit should only bleed the high frequencies as well. However, lower value volume pots will cause high end loss though impedance loading. I've also found that 1M pots seem to have a lot more treble loss when the volume is turned down. I'm not certain, but I think the treble loss of moving to a 250k pot make the treble loss when turning the volume seem less because some of the top end is already gone to start.

Anyway, I've seen frequency calculators for stuff like the, but guitar bits are not that hard to work on. I tend to just set up my single coil guitars wit h250k pots and then change them higher if they seem too dark. My EGC C500 has 250k pots (from 500k stock) and my Jazzmaster had 250k pots when I had single coils in the guitar.

Cheers!

Adam_I_III wrote: Mon Aug 02, 2021 1:05 am Over-ear headphones while wearing glasses.

I use headphones for music stuff for for much of the time since my recording setup is in my house, and my family doesn't always appreciate my unquestionable creative genius.

Is there a workable solution that anybody has achieved in terms of comfort while sporting glasses and headphones? Obviously in-ear would be one solution, but I'm not a huge fan of those.

I know this might sound like a dick response, but could you wear contacts? Seems like the obvious solution.

I honestly can't think of any headphones (other than in-ear) that wouldn't cause some sort of discomfort with glasses. The other option could be, if you get some headphones where it's possible to buy spares i.e. foam ear pads - you could experiment with cutting a slot for the arms of the glasses to slot into. Could get expensive if you keep messing up though.

benadrian wrote: Mon Aug 02, 2021 10:39 am I've also found that 1M pots seem to have a lot more treble loss when the volume is turned down. I'm not certain, but I think the treble loss of moving to a 250k pot make the treble loss when turning the volume seem less because some of the top end is already gone to start.

Yes, this is another peculiar feature on my JM. If you take the volume knob from 10 down to 9, it's about the same as rolling the tone knob down halfway. It doesn't really effect the volume, it's just like turning a presence knob down 1/3 of the way on an amp. Crazy circuit.

Curry Pervert wrote: Mon Aug 02, 2021 4:13 pm

Adam_I_III wrote: Mon Aug 02, 2021 1:05 am Over-ear headphones while wearing glasses.

I use headphones for music stuff for for much of the time since my recording setup is in my house, and my family doesn't always appreciate my unquestionable creative genius.

Is there a workable solution that anybody has achieved in terms of comfort while sporting glasses and headphones? Obviously in-ear would be one solution, but I'm not a huge fan of those.

I know this might sound like a dick response, but could you wear contacts? Seems like the obvious solution.

I honestly can't think of any headphones (other than in-ear) that wouldn't cause some sort of discomfort with glasses. The other option could be, if you get some headphones where it's possible to buy spares i.e. foam ear pads - you could experiment with cutting a slot for the arms of the glasses to slot into. Could get expensive if you keep messing up though.

Related...

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numberthirty wrote: Mon Aug 02, 2021 5:49 pm

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