Next we’re moving on to shielding the main control cavity. In traditional Jazzmaster wiring, when the two pickups are combined via the toggle switch, they are in parallel. The Jaguar/Jazzmaster stock bridge is notorious as one of the most poorly designed guitar parts of all time. A high-pass filter allows frequencies higher than the cutoff frequency to pass, and lower frequencies are rolled off. However, the Jazzmaster’s break angle is slightly too shallow, and the grooves on the saddles are not deep enough to prevent strings from jumping out. A great upgrade that helps with tuning stability. 100% Upvoted. The posts are inserted into cups or ‘thimbles’ that are pressed into the body and a long Allen key can be directed through the centre of the post to set the bridge height at each end. Congrats! © 2021 Guitar.com is a member of the media division of BandLab Technologies. You can experiment with the capacitor value in the range of .001 MFD to .003 MFD. His secret lies in the artistry of his hand-winding technique, coupled with his vast knowledge of pickup designs, which he has developed over more than 25 years in the business. Which bridge to buy? The second circuit volume and tone pots are mounted on an ‘L’ plate so they’re at 90 degrees to the pickguard. Twist the ends of the three wires together and solder them to the casing of the volume pot, as displayed in the photograph. The height adjustment screws in the saddles can often vibrate loose, rattling about and messing things up. The Squier comes with a pair of Seymour Duncan–designed single-coil pickups and budget electronic components. Continuing our look at the chord shapes and sequences used by The Beatles, we get inside the head of Paul McCartney and find a songwriting genius with an enthusiasm for minor chords and chords from outside the key. To shield the pickguard, use either a Fender aluminum shield or Rothstein Guitars copper shield. Wherever I had used multiple strip or added patches, I applied blobs of solder to the joins between the various pieces. Oops, looks like you forgot something. The bridge is available in both 7.25- and 9.5-inch radii to match the curvature of your guitar’s fretboard, and there’s even a wider bridge … If possible, a lot of players swap in a Mustang bridge instead. My tech has decades of experience with Jazzmasters and advised that I put in a Mustang bridge. You’ll need an extra pole on the slide switch. Build your own home studio, set up the gear and start recording your own music today! Happy with the results after a lot of considerations. I got the body refinished in light relic-d Sherwood Green, Got an American bridge, and trem, and threw a maple Mexican strat neck on it, and it's been my #1 for months now. The first Jazzmaster pickguard was aluminium, which also provided shielding, so when Fender changed to a celluloid nitrate guard, he placed a thinner aluminium shield under the pickguard. In addition to building guitars for many other brands, Cort continues to provide its rivals with fierce competition thanks to a well-appointed range of in-house designs. 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To this day, Jazzmasters remain a popular model, available not just with best-of-class electronics, but in all manner of budget configurations as well. Before dropping the bridge in, I very slightly slacken the screws connecting the posts to the bridge base because the Mastery allows you some leeway to compensate for thimble spacing discrepancies. The idea behind this was that the multi-grooved design would allow players to set their own string spacing – and with a nice steep break angle over the saddle they work well enough. I use strips of masking tape to hold all the wires neatly in place as I work my way through the installation. Happily, the Mastery bridge is everything it’s cracked up to be. Sonically, these physical differences make Jazzmaster pickups smoother and less mid-rangey than a P-90, while also being fatter, louder, and warmer than a typical Stratocaster pickup. To reflect our commitment, we updated our terms and conditions. Fender has improved the bridge design a bit lately, but at the very least I'd recommend swapping it out with a Mustang-style bridge or, even better, the Mastery Bridge made by John Woodland. The February 2021 issue of Guitar Magazine is out now! Jazzmasters have a loud 60-cycle hum. Though often confused with Gibson-style P-90s or "soapbar" pickups, Jazzmaster pickups are completely unique in function and tone. When Leo Fender introduced the Jazzmaster in 1958, his aspirations for the new guitar were right there in its name. Gibson and Gretsch introduced humbucking pickups in 1957, so Fender must have been considering how to reduce noise without deviating from single-coil pickups. Also note that the main volume and tone pots have to be twisted away from the edges to fit because there’s not much wriggle room in the control cavities. Since its conception in 2008, the Offset Mastery Bridge remains the industry leader and most trusted Offset bridge in the hands of touring musicians around the globe. Jazzmaster Lead Circuit with dual volume controls. Best of all it resolves the sometimes incorrect string spacing for the stock bridge. Some modern-day players dislike this setting, but by rolling down the volume thumbwheel, the Rhythm/Lead Switch becomes a quick kill switch, if you prefer to craft all your tones within the (still-versatile) Lead Circuit. (You can also find Mastery-equipped used and vintage Jazzmasters on Reverb.). Jazzmaster pickups are constructed similarly to a Strat pickup in many ways, but are much wider and flatter, in what's called a "pancake" wind. Tools needed to install the copper shield include an awl, Exacto blade, and spray adhesive. There are a number of fixes for this, though. There’s no reason to change out the tuners, as they’re sturdy and reliable as-is. I would recommend sticking with the stock value of 1 meg pots. Your choice of pickups will have an enormous effect on your tone. Thus, he took great pains to give the Jazzmaster a body shape that was naturally conforming to the body of a seated guitarist. Those are an upgraded, production version of the blue heatshrink you can see on Nels' mustang bridge above (you can see the shim under the E saddle too), but the bridge still "floats" in the thimble on the set screw. Shelby Pollard cut his teeth at Chicago Music Exchange, but now he’s struck out on his own to create a new venture that combines his love of boutique guitar gear and small-batch coffee. For years I have struggled with finding hardware upgrades for my Fender Jazzmasters as … Our multi-patented hardware is used by builders worldwide for its reliability and precise detail. Vintera Jazzmaster modified (modified)- Mastery bridge upgrade. 1. Your order will ship in 1 week. In the third sample, both pots have been rotated almost fully counterclockwise. Log in or sign up to leave a comment Log In Sign Up. None of the cheap imports is an upgrade over Fender Japan's tremolos, which aren't that bad as it is; the only real upgrade is an American one. Check out our products to find the best fit. Flick the top switch up, however, and you have accessed the Rhythm Circuit, in which only the neck pickup is activated. The photo includes a closeup of the bass and treble tone controls. Many Jazzmaster players regard the stock bridge as a cause of tuning instability because it doesn’t always return to position correctly. Whether each of the instruments Leo Fender introduced was an improvement on previous models is a matter of debate, however there’s no denying each one represented an evolutionary stage in Fender’s approach to guitar design. The pickguard is then flipped and the pickups dropped into their covers then soldered into the circuit. Lots of players have a hankering for a Jazzmaster—and a limited budget shouldn't stand in the way. Before screwing the pickguard back down and stringing up, I verified the controls were working properly and was relieved to find I’d done it right first time. Hooking up begins with grounding the volume pot tag and splaying the solder tags on the pickup selector. Some of the shapes were tricky and I found it easiest to work with shorter strips of foil rather than attempt to complete each area with a single strip. These resolve two issues that are as old as the Fender Jazzmaster and Jaguar guitars. Some continue the Les Paul wiring approach by assigning an independent tone control to each of the two independent volume knobs. When browsing used Jazzmaster listings on Reverb, you'll often find models with the Mustang bridge already installed. One mod reconfigures the Lead Circuit to make the guitar more like a Les Paul by employing two independent volume controls, one for each pickup. This is a purposeful change -- one that balances the output of the two PUPS by compensating for the change in output (less string motion) that exists nearer the bridge. The diagram below shows how to incorporate the PTB tone stack into the initial diagram. Photo 4. Best understood as a heavily upgraded Mustang-style bridge, this bridge features six individually adjustable barrel saddles with a deep, centred groove to keep strings in place. BRIDGE UPGRADES. In regard to the Mastery Bridge, it can add better sustain and tone. I didn’t use pedals or audio plugins. Am Polpiece des Jazzmaster-Bridge-Pickups meiner Classic Player gedreht, war er danach tot. Metric threads on Korean and American on the AV. Also note the threads on the bushing if replacing that (which I did with the staytrem arm/bushing. In contrast, the parallel will sound brighter, with scooped mids and exhibiting more “quack” and twang. Load hardware with pots facing down to ensure it all fits in the cavities. It comes with the made in Korea 007-6232-000 Tremolo with screw in arm. Designed by luthier John Woodland, this high-end unit is made in Minneapolis and has garnered a stellar reputation with such Jazzmaster heavyweights as Nels Cline, Thurston Moore and Elvis Costello. Transfer the cavity shape onto the foil by pressing the edges with your finger then cut them out with scissors. A completed Lead Circuit is depicted below. This lets the bridge pivot with tremolo movement for a more accurate return to pitch. They’re solid shaft 16mm pots rather than the full-sized 22mm split shaft pots and Allparts UK provided the roller wheels, as well as the pots. The tags are used for the ground wires connected to the bridge and the output jack. Find custom pickups, necks, tuning keys, bridges and more for Guitar, Banjo and Bass part needs. The Mustang bridge is a bit more solid. You can find a detailed diagram depicting the extra third pole on the slide switch here. Don’t worry if you have no interest in Jazzmasters and their potentially troublesome hardware, either – you’ll find this advice applicable to Jaguars and Bigsby-equipped Teles, too. (You can also find deals on Fender's higher-end but discontinued Vintage Reissue Jazzmasters, both US- and Japan-made, which are already historically spec'd.). There are a lot of good options available, particularly Curtis Novak's. The smaller the capacitor value, the more pronounced the bass cut. The specs say it comes with 9 gauge strings although they feel like 10s. Protect the paintwork from stray blobs of solder with kitchen paper. A useful mod for the slide switch is series/parallel switching. Your purchases also help protect forests, including trees traditionally used to make instruments. Please check the fields highlighted in red. Check out the following three sound samples. Over a quarter of a century old and probably the biggest guitar band in the world, Foo Fighters’ riff-heavy catalogue contains plenty of gems. Most Jazzmaster lovers will concede that the classic stock bridge is something of a bête noire when used with modern strings. I bought this Upgrade Unit for my Fender Jazzmaster, but never got around to installing it. Fortunately, you can buy a Fender-branded repro of the aluminium shield, but full cavity shields are impossible to come by. Your purchases help youth music programs get the gear they need to make music. Learn everything you need to know to choose the right Jazzmaster for you. Series will sound more humbucker-like, with louder, darker, and more-pronounced mids. One of the easiest upgrades that owners of Japanese (CIJ/MIJ) Fender Jazzmasters can make is the tremolo unit, aka the tailpiece. The first stage of the wiring is complete – don’t forget to insulate the legs of the tone capacitors. I try to leave a slight overlap at the top and bottom so the foil will contact the aluminium shield and make up for any inaccuracies in the base cut outs. If it’s your first time working on a Jazzmaster, you’ll notice that it’s much more complicated than most other Fender solidbodies. As you can read in Tony Bacon's "Fender Goes High-End: The Origins of the Jazzmaster," Leo wasn't about to start making arched-top jazz boxes, but he did think the Jazzmaster's pristine electronics and tonal possibilities would create some converts. You can find a traditional Jazzmaster wiring diagram on Rothstein's site here. Whether you’re getting into effects for the first time, or are a seasoned collector, you’ll no doubt have noticed the abundance of echo and delay effects on the market. I’m a huge fan of upgrading and personalising my guitars. Another well-documented issue involves the action height adjustment screws. EUR The bridge features the original pivoting design: the support posts fit into recessed body bushings, and rest on height-adjustable Allen screws. 1/2. While referring to a schematic and photos of Jazzmaster wiring, I connect up the main control pots and the three-way switch. You also have to mount the pots onto the bracket and loosely fit the rollers before screwing the bracket onto the pickguard. Note that with the treble cut control, the capacitor is directed to ground, whereas with the bass cut control the capacitor is in line with the signal. In addition, John Woodland’s bridge improves playability and tone. In general, the Duncan pickups are hotter and brighter than vintage Jazzmaster pickups, and the bridge pickup likely will sound too harsh for those with vintage tastes. Glad to hear you took some time to set yours up correctly, rather than just throwing money and 'upgrades' at it. Join us as we chart their history. Hey! Foil is applied to the sides then lipped over the top and bottom edges. The process of lining the cavities begins with laying the foil over the cavities – with the backing still on the foil – and pressing around the edges of the routs to transfer the shapes onto the foil. Mastery Bridge installed on Fender Jazzmaster The Mastery Bridge replacement is a nice improvement over the Fender stock bridge that could always be put back on the guitar if desired. The Staytrem bridge will fit all Jaguars, Jazzmasters and Mustangs that have a vintage style bridge, ... Our latest design update ensures that the saddles can never move sideways. Doing some upgrades to my MIM Classic Player Jazzmaster. Leo's goal with this design was that, by flipping that top switch up and down, the player can access both a preset rhythm tone and a preset lead tone, instead of futzing with pots and a three-way toggle while you're playing. The tremolo in Japanese Jazzmasters is kind of a weak point in these mostly excellent guitars (another is the pickups), but luckily, it's really easy to … Shop Parts at Allparts®. Many players will swap the stock bridge for a Fender Mustang bridge, which is similar in design but has deeper grooves and is less prone to rattling (though not immune). This option also has the benefit of retaining all of the Jazzmaster's sonic idiosyncrasies, which are often muted by some of the more popular modern day modifications. After coming through a challenging time in his personal life, album six finds the Brooklyn band’s founder and sole remaining member asking the big questions. Once the sides are done I lay in the bases and patch up a couple of areas where I can see green paint. First things first: Change the bridge! Rift Amps head honcho Chris Fantana gives a neglected classic some much-needed love. See if you can figure out what's wrong here before scrolling down. Based on your location, we've changed your settings: Shipping Region: The shield is aligned with the scratchplate and held in position with the switch and jack socket. With the wiring finally completed, the wires are held in place using nylon cable ties. As a consequence, the action becomes lower and strings will begin choking out and even stop ringing altogether. What does it sound like? Messages 1,879 . Check the thimbles on the instrument you are upgrading to see what fits best. report. The following photograph shows the completed Rhythm Circuit. I perform a test fit with the shield and the pickguard to establish that everything lines up really well. The shield isn’t glued to the guard and instead, the potentiometers and switches clamp it in position. Important informaton. Below is a diagram showing how to wire the Lead Circuit with dual volume controls. 1 Mastery That way, players can blend a percentage of neck pickup with the bridge pickup—or vice versa. The posts went straight into the thimbles, so I re-tightened the base screws and then retracted the post grub screws to lower the bridge height. Plug it in and enjoy the dramatic improvement in tone. Fender literally wrote the book on electric basses, laying the foundation for musical innovation and evolution. If this is the case with your guitar, you may decide to change the thimbles as well as the bridge. For a while now I've heard that putting a Mustang bridge on a Jazzmaster or a Jaguar makes the guitar "so much better," so I bought one. It's already an excellent bargain at $300. Each set of solder lugs is referred to as a pole. The patented offset Mastery Bridge was designed by a professional luthier from Minneapolis. I've also seen that some people have issues with these screws buzzing which also happened to me, but I just gave the offending screw a little push and turn with a screwdriver and it stopped buzzing. I will put 11s on it which are recommended for Jazzmasters. Once it’s fixed, you can fine-tune the position of the rollers on the pot shafts and tighten the grub screws to fix the wheels in position. Applying masking tape to the top of the covers, I position them inside the pickup openings with the tape holding them in place. Bill Frisell uses a Mastery bridge with a Bigsby on a JW Black T-style. Curiously, J Mascis prefers a tune-o-matic. I told him I wanted to try the Staytrem first. Allparts UK sells a complete Jazzmaster wiring kit, which comes with helpful diagrams. The solder tags connect the bridge ground wire to the shield and the shield to the negative terminal of the output jack. 437. It can prevent the loss of highs experienced with a lower volume pot. Just select the bridge pickup, neck pickup, or both pickups and adjust your volume and tone to taste. Many players' problems with this design start with the bridge, which has a tendency to buzz, rattle, and allow strings to pop out of its shallow saddle grooves during hard playing. I also applied solder to the joins between the foil on the sides and bottoms of the cavities. My SG never played and sounded better. Contributors to this article include Jamie Wolfert and Rothstein Guitar's Andy Rothstein. The Mastery unit looks more like a piece of contemporary sculpture than a regular bridge, and it purports to solve every Jazzmaster problem. The bass-cut control is another animal entirely. The mastery, in combination with the mastery thimbles (even with stock fender ones, but the masterys are a tighter fit before tensioning) locks the stainless post against … Unlike Stratocasters, where the pickups are suspended from a pickguard assembly, which can be lifted out in its entirety, Jazzmaster pickups are screwed directly onto the body.