DEMO Jazzmastery Baritone Rebuild

[MichaelW]

If shitting your pants is cool consider me Miles Davis! It is like going to drop c on a normal guitar? I am going to give it a whirl tonight, a little Destiny Behemoth maybe a weird pedal and a low tuned baritone to start vacation.

Thanks Alan! This video was a labor of love and had to somewhat be fashioned into shape, there was over an hour of footage shot across three weeks and that kind of project takes a lot out of this old timers brain....

Going to try to add a thicker shim and then reset the neck and adjust it. Having to adjust a neck with the truss rod bolt on the body side sucks. Why do they do that?

Going hybrid! Thank you for the insight, I am off of work this week and will be painting a ton and trying to resolve this string issue.

Now I am going back an re-watching your videos. Your videos look so great and sound dynamite!

Sunday Handwound is super kind and I love hearing other stories like that! Great customer service and the price is really affordable for hand wound pickups.

Sorry about the late response, once Thursday hits my work week shoots into overdrive and I don't get to look up until Sunday morning.

Have a great Sunday everyone!

How do you like the Sunday pickups? I'm hunting around for another set of pickups for my Jazzmaster. I have a set of Fender Pure Vintage in there now, it sounds good but very vintagey. I'm looking for something with a bit more push and less ice-pick.

 

[jjjimi84]

How do you like the Sunday pickups? I'm hunting around for another set of pickups for my Jazzmaster. I have a set of Fender Pure Vintage in there now, it sounds good but very vintagey. I'm looking for something with a bit more push and less ice-pick.

I am not the guy to ask, I really like them but I don’t play jazzmasters. Hopefully some aficionados can chime in with better input.

 

[daeg]

How do you like the Sunday pickups? I'm hunting around for another set of pickups for my Jazzmaster. I have a set of Fender Pure Vintage in there now, it sounds good but very vintagey. I'm looking for something with a bit more push and less ice-pick.

Definitely DM Sunday Handwound on Reverb.

I told him I love almost every JM Neck pickup but get frustrated because the Bridge Pickups are always either Ice-Picky or way too hot.

He completely understood what I was talking about and made me a perfect set that I'm happy with.

 

[jimilee]

Definitely DM Sunday Handwound on Reverb.

I told him I love almost every JM Neck pickup but get frustrated because the Bridge Pickups are always either Ice-Picky or way too hot.

He completely understood what I was talking about and made me a perfect set that I'm happy with.

Oh yeah, Timbo is good people. I have several sets and even an Esquire pickup all from him.

 

[MichaelW]

Definitely DM Sunday Handwound on Reverb.

I told him I love almost every JM Neck pickup but get frustrated because the Bridge Pickups are always either Ice-Picky or way too hot.

He completely understood what I was talking about and made me a perfect set that I'm happy with.

Oh yeah, Timbo is good people. I have several sets and even an Esquire pickup all from him.

Ok, I chatted with Tim on Reverb. Great guy and tons of great info! I ordered a set of his "iola's" from him.

*******************************************
Named in honor of my dear Great Grandma iola!
This set features an often recommended combination of my “58/59” neck pickup paired with a slightly hotter version of my “Woodies” bridge pickup, the “Woody+”

”58/59” Neck - Alnico 5, .187”x.471” magnets, wound to 7k with Heavy FormVar 42awg magnet wire

“Woody+” Bridge Alnico 2, .195”x.471” magnets, wound to ~9k1 with 42awg plain enamel magnet wire.

This set has all the full range massive neck tone of a classic Jazzmaster, while dialing back the boominess that can come with the stronger coil spec of other A5 Jazzmaster pickups, in combination with the woody midrange and spooky kerrang of my Alnico 2 “Woody+” bridge.
The RWRP middle position on this set is my favorite out of all the JM pickups I wind regularly.

This set has been so popular that I have decided to make them available off-the-shelf with no lead time wait, just like my Woodies sets. The number you see in stock is the number I have on hand.
********************************************

 

[daeg]

As it gets played and brought into the rotation more, I feel like it would be a bit more interesting to have the G&L Tone controls in the upper controls instead of stock wiring.... Next time....

After half a decade of trying out different wirings, I settled on:

Upper Bout: 1M pots
Lower Bout: 250k pots

Yeah, it's not an exciting wiring scheme, but everything else left me unsatisfied. With the 250k pots it's like plugging in a Tele and plays nicely with normal amp settings and distortion pedals. Volume pot taper is smooth and Treble Bleeds work well. Then the bright / vintage 1M sound is always in there if you want it.

 

[NickC]

i love offset guitars, beautiful!

 

[MichaelW]

After half a decade of trying out different wirings, I settled on:

Upper Bout: 1M pots
Lower Bout: 250k pots

Yeah, it's not an exciting wiring scheme, but everything else left me unsatisfied. With the 250k pots it's like plugging in a Tele and plays nicely with normal amp settings and distortion pedals. Volume pot taper is smooth and Treble Bleeds work well. Then the bright / vintage 1M sound is always in there if you want it.

I did the same on my Jazzmaster, 250k vol pot but I left the tone at 1M. Tim from Sunday Pickups recommended giving the 1M pots another try when I install his pickup set.

Here's what he had to say:

*******************************
RE pots, sticking with a 1 meg for the volume is really a good idea because JM’s don’t have much magnet to them and the coil makes up the lions share of the output. 1 Meg gives more to work with, if you have them set up with 1 mega all around and you find your best tones with the tone rolled off, then going to a lower value tone pot makes sense. Really though, if you have a good balanced set of pickups 1 megs with a .033uf tone cap should work well.
Talk soon,
Tim

 

[daeg]

I did the same on my Jazzmaster, 250k vol pot but I left the tone at 1M. Tim from Sunday Pickups recommended giving the 1M pots another try when I install his pickup set.

Here's what he had to say:

*******************************
RE pots, sticking with a 1 meg for the volume is really a good idea because JM’s don’t have much magnet to them and the coil makes up the lions share of the output. 1 Meg gives more to work with, if you have them set up with 1 mega all around and you find your best tones with the tone rolled off, then going to a lower value tone pot makes sense. Really though, if you have a good balanced set of pickups 1 megs with a .033uf tone cap should work well.
Talk soon,
Tim

I got the same advice from him. I just can't stand the taper of 1M Volume pots.

The high resistance amplifies cable capacitance losses. If you have a B1M Volume pot at 50%, you're forming an RC filter at 500k + Cable Capacitance. It's no wonder that your signal turns to mud at the slightest turn of the knob.

 

[jjjimi84]

Oh yeah, Timbo is good people. I have several sets and even an Esquire pickup all from him.

He is a helluva nice guy! When the JM was first being dreamed up, he gave me an immense amount of information about JM pickups and answered all of my questions. So much information that I decided whatever he was going to sell me was going to be good.

After half a decade of trying out different wirings, I settled on:

Upper Bout: 1M pots
Lower Bout: 250k pots

Yeah, it's not an exciting wiring scheme, but everything else left me unsatisfied. With the 250k pots it's like plugging in a Tele and plays nicely with normal amp settings and distortion pedals. Volume pot taper is smooth and Treble Bleeds work well. Then the bright / vintage 1M sound is always in there if you want it.

Oooooh I am swapping out the 1M to give that a shot. Really great idea!

i love offset guitars, beautiful!

Thank you! One day I will get it playing almost as nice as it looks

I got the same advice from him. I just can't stand the taper of 1M Volume pots.

The high resistance amplifies cable capacitance losses. If you have a B1M Volume pot at 50%, you're forming an RC filter at 500k + Cable Capacitance. It's no wonder that your signal turns to mud at the slightest turn of the knob.

Why have I never thought of this before? Dude! Blowing my mind this morning. There are two or three more pickup swaps in the works and this may have rejiggered my thinking.

@MichaelW what is your favorite pickup? You have tasted so many flavors of the rainbow, can you nail it down?

 

[MichaelW]

He is a helluva nice guy! When the JM was first being dreamed up, he gave me an immense amount of information about JM pickups and answered all of my questions. So much information that I decided whatever he was going to sell me was going to be good.

Oooooh I am swapping out the 1M to give that a shot. Really great idea!

Thank you! One day I will get it playing almost as nice as it looks

Why have I never thought of this before? Dude! Blowing my mind this morning. There are two or three more pickup swaps in the works and this may have rejiggered my thinking.

@MichaelW what is your favorite pickup? You have tasted so many flavors of the rainbow, can you nail it down?

Man, there are so many pickups to love. I can't even narrow it down if you gave me a "category" like "What's your favorite Strat pickup?". The reason I wound up with FOUR vintage style Strats is because they all sound different. heh.''

Having said that, if I had to choose one guitar and only guitar to play forever and ever it would have to be something with a P90 in it.

I heard someone say in a video recently, might have been Uncle Larry, that a P90 is more like a 'microphone" than a pickup. It amplifies the sound of the guitar and you hear the characteristics of that particular guitar in a way that other pickups don't do.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Love watching your videos dude and this one was no exception. That's a fine looking guitar and nice to see both the reverse headstock and someone leaving mistakes and the issues in the video. Much better to show the warts and all than make it to polished and perfect.

BTW as a baritone it sounds really cool. I've still not played a baritone yet.

 

[jjjimi84]

Man, there are so many pickups to love. I can't even narrow it down if you gave me a "category" like "What's your favorite Strat pickup?". The reason I wound up with FOUR vintage style Strats is because they all sound different. heh.''

Having said that, if I had to choose one guitar and only guitar to play forever and ever it would have to be something with a P90 in it.

I heard someone say in a video recently, might have been Uncle Larry, that a P90 is more like a 'microphone" than a pickup. It amplifies the sound of the guitar and you hear the characteristics of that particular guitar in a way that other pickups don't do.

That was uncle larry on one of the trips to Gruhns, iirc. I love a p90 and that we all have you as a resource for pickup swaps!

Love watching your videos dude and this one was no exception. That's a fine looking guitar and nice to see both the reverse headstock and someone leaving mistakes and the issues in the video. Much better to show the warts and all than make it to polished and perfect.

BTW as a baritone it sounds really cool. I've still not played a baritone yet.

I think I should showcase more of the errors because goodness there is a number of them. Thank you for watching and the kind words, you guys really are the bees knees.

 

[MichaelW]

That was uncle larry on one of the trips to Gruhns, iirc. I love a p90 and that we all have you as a resource for pickup swaps!

I think I should showcase more of the errors because goodness there is a number of them. Thank you for watching and the kind words, you guys really are the bees knees.

Did you see the video of his new '52 Goldtop? Man, that thing was a mess but what a sound coming out of it!

 

[jjjimi84]

Did you see the video of his new '52 Goldtop? Man, that thing was a mess but what a sound coming out of it!

I don't recall, I tend to listen to him while at work and saving the ones I want to steal licks out of... I could watch him all day, that dude is a monster player and played in Trigger Hippy, enuff said.

 

[MichaelW]

After half a decade of trying out different wirings, I settled on:

Upper Bout: 1M pots
Lower Bout: 250k pots

Yeah, it's not an exciting wiring scheme, but everything else left me unsatisfied. With the 250k pots it's like plugging in a Tele and plays nicely with normal amp settings and distortion pedals. Volume pot taper is smooth and Treble Bleeds work well. Then the bright / vintage 1M sound is always in there if you want it.

Hey @daeg,

I installed the Sunday HW pups. Fabulous, completely transformed the guitar from "meh" to "can't keep my hands off it..."

I left the 500k 250k pot I originally had in there and it works fine and sounds great to me. However, I'm starting to hate the 1meg tone pot.
It's a linear pot and that's part of the problem. I'm fixing to swap it out for a 500k log pot.

So here's a question for you, do you ever use the tone control on the neck pickup?
I just about never do on any Fender style guitar. I've been slowly converting all my Tele's so that only the bridge pickup is in the tone stack.

That way I can pre-set the tone pot for the bridge pickup. Especially with these new Sunday's. I'll save the superlatives for a dedicated pickup review demo.

Do you see any down side to taking the neck pickup out of the tone stack on the lower bout controls?
I mean if I wanted to roll back the tone on the neck pickup I could always switch up to the Rhythm controls right?

 

[MichaelW]

Ok just to close the loop on this thread hijack. (sorry @jjjimi84 )

I removed the 1 meg tone pot, ugh what a difference, I hated that thing,
I now have 2x 250k audio taper pots on the lower switching.
I used a .015 PIO cap, which I like a lot better than the .03 or .033 recommended by Sunday and Fender,
I also disconnected the neck pickup from the lower tone circuit.

So the tone control only works on the bridge pickup, and it works in the middle position but it's only affecting the bridge pickup,

The Rhythm circuit is still stock and I kinda dig it for some certain sounds.

 

[jjjimi84]

Ok just to close the loop on this thread hijack. (sorry @jjjimi84 )

I removed the 1 meg tone pot, ugh what a difference, I hated that thing,
I now have 2x 250k audio taper pots on the lower switching.
I used a .015 PIO cap, which I like a lot better than the .03 or .033 recommended by Sunday and Fender,
I also disconnected the neck pickup from the lower tone circuit.

So the tone control only works on the bridge pickup, and it works in the middle position but it's only affecting the bridge pickup,

The Rhythm circuit is still stock and I kinda dig it for some certain sounds.

Hell man, I have hijacked a thread or two in my day.

By all means, jack this thread right off!

 

[Diynot]

Nice build and a gorgeous guitar. Baritone for the win! So as a bass player, I have made cheap string mutes out of foam insulation strips. Just cut 2 pieces to fit the string spread and then stick the adhesive sides together. Another trick from playing mandolin, get some thin rubber grommets and wedge them between the strings behind the bridge