Members Wayne2 Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 The three way switch is starting to fail on my Blacktop Jaguar HH, so I'm probably going to replace it soon. While I'm in there, is there anything else I might want to upgrade? I already have an orange drop cap on the shelf ready to go, but anything else? What do you guys do when you have an excuse to look behind the pickguard? BTW, anyone who knows what style toggle switch I need to be getting please advise. The choices seem to be long straight, short straight, and right angle. I'm also a little unsure what to do with the pots. There seems to be very little change in the tone from like 2 to 10, unless playing with lots of gain then it seems to work fine. I heard somewhere it's a linear taper and some people like changing them to audio taper. Unsure what to do. The volume pot works a little more naturally but again does most of its action in the low numbers. some more random thought - I'm thinking about putting strat-style knobs on there. I just like them. They seem to give a little more leverage, and I can read the numbers on the sides better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 All you probibly need to do is use some lubricating contact cleaner for the switch. You can usually clean switches and pots a few times before they need replacement. Be sure you use lubricating contact cleaner and not zero residue. Zero residue will make the switches and pots crackle badly if not downright fail to function. The lubricating cleaner has mineral oil in it which lubricates to reduce wear and it also prevents oxidation which is usually the cause of crackle and noise. The voltage is so low in a guitar, the actual electricity doesnt carbonize or pitt switches. If anything, they may wear, and get loose, but the small slider switches should be good for decades. Againg the lubrication does extend their life so long as the part isnt exposed to allot of dust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Wayne2 Posted July 5, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 I didn't think of that. Just spray it in there and work the switch around? Oddly it seems to work a little better if the nut is loose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Alan Roberts Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 Originally Posted by Wayne2 Oddly it seems to work a little better if the nut is loose. That might indicate loose wiring under the pickguard. Try spraying the switch with cleaner but if that doesn't fix it I'd suspect a loose wire. If the switch has been loose in the past then there a possibilty that it damaged the wiring or a solder joint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Belva Posted July 5, 2012 Members Share Posted July 5, 2012 You'll see an opening in the back of the pot. Get some Deoxit. Put the tube in the tip and spray it in. Best stuff there is for pots IMO. As far as replacements, take a look at what's in there. If it's cheap no name junque, just replace it with Alpha, CTS, etc. May not be necessary, but it's good peace of mind IMO. Chances are good you have audio taper pots already. If not, that's what most people prefer and may be part of your problem. As far as the cap, screw Orange drops. Ain't no better in a guitar than the elcheapo green chicklets caps available @ Rat Shack. Anybody who says different is full of bovine fecal material. Also look at your shielding. If it's nonexistant, now's the time. Yes I know, humbuckers don't need it, but once again, that peace of mind thang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Wayne2 Posted July 16, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 16, 2012 ok I'm getting a little closer to doing this. I've been looking at the Blacktop Strat specs and the pickups look the same, so now I'm pretty sure it would be possible and I want to do coil splitting. Of course it's complicated. The blacktop strat has options for inside coils and for just the outside coil on the neck. "5-Position Blade: Position 1. Full Bridge Pickup, Position 2. Two Inside Single Coils, Position 3. Both Full Humbucking Pickups, Position 4. Outer Neck Single Coil, Position 5. Full Neck Pickup" I don't think that's possible just with a push-pull switch on the volume knob like I was originally thinking. I don't want to end up with a rats nest of wires and switches (I'll get a real jag if I want that), and I like how easy the 3-way toggle switch is as opposed to the sliders on the Pawn Shop Mustang HH or the 5 way switch on the Blacktop Strat, but more functionality would be pretty cool. Questions I guess is this road even worth going down and if so what's the most elegant way to get it done? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Wayne2 Posted July 17, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 17, 2012 Originally Posted by Alan Roberts That might indicate loose wiring under the pickguard. Try spraying the switch with cleaner but if that doesn't fix it I'd suspect a loose wire. If the switch has been loose in the past then there a possibilty that it damaged the wiring or a solder joint. Bingo. I opened her up this morning and the wire had broken free from the contact. There was a giant gob of solder where it had come from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Wayne2 Posted July 21, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 21, 2012 Ok here's what happened. In addition to the pickup wire detaching from the toggle switch and the switch not being grounded, I noticed the pots were not connected to the jack through the ground (sleeve) lug. Having only ever seen the inside of a Strat before today, this looked seriously wrong to me. I emailed Fender.Well I waited a few days, no reply, so while I was in there today changing the switch I soldered some wires from the back of the Volume and Tone pots to each other then to the jack, and I changed the cap for a 0.047 mfd Orange Drop I had on hand (I know, i know, snake oil..., but the things only cost a buck).I was all pleased with myself. Pickups seemed to sound much more alive, hum was almost zero, volume control seemed to be working a lot better. Tone was not changed all that much but I convinced myself it was better.I come upstairs and find out Fender has finally replied to me, and that there was no need for the extra grounding on the pots and jack because normally they are all connected to the ground through the metal control plate. So I found something interesting I don't really have an explanation for. Before the operation, the DC resistance of the pickups was Neck: 12.38, Bridge 12.72. After it was Neck: 12.53, Bridge 12.94. I am measuring by a 12" cable plugged into the output jack, volume and tone turned up, multimeter tips held onto the cable end tip and sleeve.The only things I can think of are that maybe the switchcraft jack or switch are more resistant than the stock parts? Or sloppy soldering? Is it possible the jack and switch could wear in and reduce their resistance?TL;DR - If your Blacktop Jaguar hums, try grounding the 3-way toggle switch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Belva Posted July 22, 2012 Members Share Posted July 22, 2012 I'm guessing here. It sounds like the sloppy soldering means you weren't reading all the dc resistance from the pups. Remember the hotter the pup, the more dc resistance. Usually Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Wayne2 Posted November 29, 2012 Author Members Share Posted November 29, 2012 Update: I went back into the control cavity today and replaced both pots with audio taper 500K CTS pots from Stewmac. Holy cow, it's so much better. I always liked this guitar for distortion, but for clean tones I found it had this angry-sounding mid peak that I couldn't get rid of. It sounded better with the volume around 1-2 but was really touchy in that area and a little muffled sounding. Now that the audio taper pots are in there, I can back off the volume when I want to clean things up and the whole thing gets chimey and sweeter. Even with distortion, I can lower the output and get something vaguely sounding like Strat distortion but fuller. I'm glad I did this before ordering new pickups. The Fender Hot Alnicos are really nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members makatech Posted September 3, 2015 Members Share Posted September 3, 2015 This is a very interesting thread and mod since I just bought a used black Fender Jaguar Blacktop. It's in great shape, sounds good but I found the tone a little bit muddy/muffled and using the tone knob on the guitar didn't help much. I would really like to keep the original Fender Hot Alnicos pickups right now so this easy? mod makes me very interested. Wayne: I just posted a private message to you.. Is it somebody else who have tried this too? Replacing the volume and tone pots with 500K CTS pots? The problem is that I have almost no experience in soldering and I don't want to mess up my guitar. ;-) I assume it is two of these (site in Sweden)?http://no1guitar.se/52073-friendly-url-autogeneration-failed.htmlorhttp://no1guitar.se/52074-friendly-url-autogeneration-failed.html? We haven't played with it much yet but hopefully we don't have any grounding issues... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members onelife Posted October 9, 2015 Members Share Posted October 9, 2015 You could get a professional or a friend with soldering skills to do the work for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 If you're not used to soldering, the best advice I can offer is to either hire someone else to do it for you, or learn how to do it well yourself. That means "practice" before you attempt to work on something valuable, like your guitar. Get some scrap wire and a spare jack or pot and start practicing your soldering techniques. If you need lessons / directions on how to solder, just ask - there's a ton of us solder-jockeys floating around on HC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Wayne2 Posted October 21, 2015 Author Members Share Posted October 21, 2015 PM'd. Sure go ahead and do it. The parts are cheap and the Blacktop Jaguar is not a collector's item. I'm glad someone found my post useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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