Shoutbox

sysmalakian: Birthday month starts now!
362 days ago

diceophonic: Vampiro Classics 2024 reissue
343 days ago

SabedLeepski: Sunburn Surf Fest for some scorching hot surf music: https://sunb...
300 days ago

skeeter: I know a Polish sound guy.
228 days ago

skeeter: I know a Czech one too!
228 days ago

PatGall: Surfybear metal settings
148 days ago

Pyronauts: Happy Tanks-Kicking!
126 days ago

midwestsurfguy: Merry Christmas!
95 days ago

sysmalakian: HAPPY NEW YEAR!
88 days ago

SabedLeepski: Surfin‘ Europe, for surf (related) gigs and events in Europe Big Razz https://sunb...
49 days ago

Please login or register to shout.

Current Polls

No polls at this time. Check out our past polls.

Current Contests

No contests at this time. Check out our past contests.

Donations

Help us meet our monthly goal:

100%

100%

Donate Now

Cake March Birthdays Cake
SG101 Banner

SurfGuitar101 Forums » Gear »

Permalink Replacement tone and volume pots for an American Professional Jag

New Topic
Page 1 of 1

Hey all - I'm looking to replace the tone and volume pots in my American Professional Jag. I'd like to move up to the 1meg pots but don't know which parts to use. Any help/suggestions?

The Men in Gray Suits (Montreal, Canada)
Facebook: The Men in Gray Suits
Instagram: The Men in Gray Suits

Emerson 1 meg pots are excellent. Their values are usually spot on or very close.

Emerson pots are really good

Don't use a 1 meg for tone. With 1 meg, most of the effect is down around 0. If you want the brightest tone with pot at 10, use a no load pot.

If I'd stop buying old guitars to fix, I might actually learn to play.
Bringing instruments back to life since 2013.

ldk wrote:

Don't use a 1 meg for tone. With 1 meg, most of the effect is down around 0. If you want the brightest tone with pot at 10, use a no load pot.

I don't know too much about electronics, so could you possibly elaborate?

The Men in Gray Suits (Montreal, Canada)
Facebook: The Men in Gray Suits
Instagram: The Men in Gray Suits

Without getting technical, the treble circuit sends some of the pickup-generated voltage to ground. The resistance to ground comes from the resistance determined by the pot resistance and the position of the tone knob plus the frequency-dependent resistance coming from the tone capacitor.

The higher the resistance of the pot, the greater the resistance for a given tone knob position. The ear (at least my ear) needs the overall resistance to be low enough to distinguish an effect on tone. So, the higher the pot resistance, the lower you need to turn the knob to achieve a given aural tone effect.

What are you trying to achieve by going to 1 Meg?

If I'd stop buying old guitars to fix, I might actually learn to play.
Bringing instruments back to life since 2013.

ldk wrote:

Without getting technical, the treble circuit sends some of the pickup-generated voltage to ground. The resistance to ground comes from the resistance determined by the pot resistance and the position of the tone knob plus the frequency-dependent resistance coming from the tone capacitor.

The higher the resistance of the pot, the greater the resistance for a given tone knob position. The ear (at least my ear) needs the overall resistance to be low enough to distinguish an effect on tone. So, the higher the pot resistance, the lower you need to turn the knob to achieve a given aural tone effect.

What are you trying to achieve by going to 1 Meg?

I'm not sure, but I think that the pot I have in there is already a 1meg pot. I need to replace it because it does absolutely nothing... it's like the tone is rolled all the way off and no amount of turning has any effect. I'm just looking to replace it, really. The guitar is a fairly new purchase for me and when I opened it up to see if there was something obvious making this happen, I notice that it looked like the tone pot had been changed at some point (bad solder job, messy).

The Men in Gray Suits (Montreal, Canada)
Facebook: The Men in Gray Suits
Instagram: The Men in Gray Suits

Pots don't really break; they usually just get scratchy. So, you probably don't have to replace the pots, but given your description of bad soldering, you probably need to figure out the wiring and do some soldering yourself.

If I'd stop buying old guitars to fix, I might actually learn to play.
Bringing instruments back to life since 2013.

ldk wrote:

Pots don't really break; they usually just get scratchy. So, you probably don't have to replace the pots, but given your description of bad soldering, you probably need to figure out the wiring and do some soldering yourself.

At the price of a replacement pot, I might replace them just the same. It's a simple job that I think I can handle Smile

The Men in Gray Suits (Montreal, Canada)
Facebook: The Men in Gray Suits
Instagram: The Men in Gray Suits

1 meg pots will give you the original Jazzmaster sound. Some like it, some don't. I personally love it.

I don't mean to sound condescending but is there a chance that the guitar is set in the rhythm circuit possibly due to a faulty selector switch or it just happens to be set in that position by mistake?

I have also seen the pots swivel around and short out on other wiring under the pick guard due to a loose mounting nut.

That swivel/shorting issue happens to jazzmasters when the selector switch gets loose and shorts out one pickup's circuit on the shielding under the pick guard.

Good hunting,

ed

Traditional........speak softly and play through a big blonde amp. Did I mention that I still like big blonde amps?

eddiekatcher wrote:

I don't mean to sound condescending but is there a chance that the guitar is set in the rhythm circuit possibly due to a faulty selector switch or it just happens to be set in that position by mistake?

I have also seen the pots swivel around and short out on other wiring under the pick guard due to a loose mounting nut.

I don't think it's the switch as there's a definte tonal difference when flipped. The tone knob regardless of the switch and/or pickup setting sounds like it's completely rolled off... turning it either way does nothing. I opened it up and noticed that the cap on the tone knob is missing (getting replacements in the mail today), so I'll add one to see if that fixes the issue.
That swivel/shorting issue happens to jazzmasters when the selector switch gets loose and shorts out one pickup's circuit on the shielding under the pick guard.

Good hunting,

ed

The Men in Gray Suits (Montreal, Canada)
Facebook: The Men in Gray Suits
Instagram: The Men in Gray Suits

...so I swapped out the tone pot with a new one and the tone control still doesn't work. I change the cap on it as well and that made no difference either. Any suggestions?

The Men in Gray Suits (Montreal, Canada)
Facebook: The Men in Gray Suits
Instagram: The Men in Gray Suits

Page 1 of 1
Top