Jazzmaster: move lead circuit to rhythm circuit

[guitarsammy]

On my American Original Jazzmaster, I recently swapped the 1 meg volume and tone pots in the main lead circuits for 250k pots. With both dials set to 10, it's now much more usable to me.

This kind of renders the rhythm circuit obsolete as it now sounds very close to the neck pickup on the lead circuit.

What I'd like to do is to make the rhythm circuit behave more like the old lead circuit, for the rare occasion I want to get really, really trebly.

I think this would be achieved by:
a) Replacing the tone pot in the rhythm circuit with a 1 meg pot
b) Replacing the capacitor in the rhythm circuit with .03mfd
c) Rewiring the guitar so that both pickups can be selected with the bottom toggle switch when the rhythm switch is engaged

Can anyone see any flaws in this plan, and does anyone have a wiring diagram that would achieve this?

 

[SixStringSlinger]

I'm surprised you feel the lead and rhythm circuits are so close to each other now that you're using 250k pots on the lead, assuming typical rhythm circuit pot and cap values. I have 250k's in mine (after starting at 1meg, then moving down to 500k), and even then I modded my rhythm circuit to make its range just a touch closer to the lead circuit's.

Regardless, assuming you can find pots of the correct value that will fit in your rhythm circuit, your plan is sound; the no part of the guitar has any idea what any other part is doing, so if you want to (effectively, kinda) swap your rhythm and lead circuits, that's perfectly doable.

Assuming I understand the other part of what you're asking (you want to be able to toggle between pickups regardless of the top horn's switch position/what circuit you have engaged at a given time), this wiring diagram will do that. I made the same mod to my JM and someone here either found it or drew it up for me>

Just pay attention to what is wired where, and ignore the pot/cap values. Compared to typical JM wiring, you are essentially just desoldering 3 different points, and re-soldering #1 to where #2 was, 2 where 3 was, and 3 where 1 was.

 

[SixStringSlinger]

Here's my thread asking about that mod, in case it's helpful to you:

Jazzmaster rhythm circuit on both pickups?

I'm curious about something. In your typical JM configuration, engaging the rhythm circuit automatically puts you on the neck pickup regardless of your selector switch, in addition to the dedicated volume and tone controls that make for that warmer tone. Would it be possible to re-wire things...

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