Jaguar tone pot resistor

LewA · Post by **LewA** » Sat May 13, 2017 7:52 am

Can anyone tell me what the 56k resistor on the Jaguar tone pot does? Is it some form of treble bleed?

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Thu May 18, 2017 6:35 pm

Believe it's an old-school treble bleed thing to make the 1meg tone pot more effective in dampening the high-end, but I'm not really sure. Fender's wiring was really weird and incorporated a lot of treble bleed/rhythm circuit stuff until the late '60s, Teles didn't even have a switch position to use both pickups at once until '67 and the five-way Strat switch was a late addition too. The Jag's wiring was never revised upon consensus like the more popular Fender guitars were since they weren't really gradually eased into the modern era like Strats and Teles were (people ignored them for most of the '70s and '80s and just started using the old '60s ones in the '90s, then Fender came out with grungey revisions overnight in response).

If you always have the guitar's knobs on 10 you wouldn't notice it missing at all, and even then it's probably a very subtle difference depending on a very specific amplifier dynamic.

LewA · Post by **LewA** » Fri May 19, 2017 7:40 am

Thanks Paul,

I suspect its some sort of treble bleed as it looks similar to the rather crude circuit that is sometimes used (I think its usually used by Ibanez - where it is reputed to make the sound more treble as the pot is rolled off!). I have used a treble bleed 0.001mf cap with a 1 meg resistor in series on a 1meg volume pot which cured the problem of the tone becoming muddy with any movement of the volume pot. However, I want to use the Jag for more general purpose playing (need the short scale 'cos of arthritis in the hands and have a MIJ Jag set up for Surf already) so want to tame some of the extremes in tone. Unfortunately I can't find any explanation of how the jag lead circuit actually works. I guess I'll have to go carefully through the wiring diagram and try and understand the signal path. Other option is to swap bits and values in and out - caps resistors and pots are pretty cheap - but a tedious option.

If anyone has a link to an explanation of the lead circuit - in electronic terms that is - not how to use it (which I know) I would be very grateful.
Lew

LewA · Post by **LewA** » Wed Jul 12, 2017 9:18 am

I have confirmation from Fender technical support that the resistor is a treble bleed. This is a pretty crude version and I believe has also used by Ibanez. On the new American Pro Jag the Volume/Tone circuit is more like a Strat. There is a more sophisticated treble bleed circuit on the Volume pot that seems to be a version of the Kinman circuit.

A circuit diagram for the Am Pro jag is here.

http://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/Original/10001/Fender Am Pro Jaguar 011401XXXX SM REV A 10-17-2016.pdf