Jazzmaster mid-position problem

[dobrojoe]

I just got anew Jazzmaster American Original and have already changed the bridge to a StayTrem. It is set up nicely and plays well. The only problem I've got is with the mid position tone. Bridge and neck pickups alone are great but the 'both' position sounds dull and lifeless. I have never experienced this phenomena with any other two pickup guitar.

I realise that this is probably phase cancellation of some mid tones due to the reverse winding on one of the pickups to make it more hum resistant.

Is there any solution to this problem that doesn't require major rewiring. I'm quite capable of doing the rewiring, I just don't want to do it on an expensive new guitar.

[oid]

Play with the height of your pickups.

JM mid positions, and most other mid positions sound dull and lifeless to me, mainly on single note work, alright for chord work but no where as good as plain old bridge or neck. Generally I aim for more bridge sound in the mid position to help it out and just adjust playing technique to deal with the difference in volume between neck and bridge settings.

[hwestman]

What do you mean by "dull and lifeless"?

If you mean:
- compressed, slightly hollowed out and less able to cut through the mix - that is the sound to be excepted
- nasal, honky, strangled and low output - your pickups are out of phase
- neither of the above - your switch may be faulty

[dobrojoe]

- compressed, slightly hollowed out and less able to cut through the mix - that is the sound to be excepted

The problem is due to the reverse winding causing frequency cancellation in the upper mid range. I have established that undoing the reverse winding adds the frequencies instead of cancelling them at the loss of hum cancellation. Hum is not a problem for me so I plan to flip the neck pickup.

[Embenny]

- compressed, slightly hollowed out and less able to cut through the mix - that is the sound to be excepted

The problem is due to the reverse winding causing frequency cancellation in the upper mid range. I have established that undoing the reverse winding adds the frequencies instead of cancelling them at the loss of hum cancellation. Hum is not a problem for me so I plan to flip the neck pickup.

Flip, as in like a pancake? Because the only way to "reverse" a RW/RP pickup is to both exchange the coil start and end leads (easily done), and to reverse the magnet polarity (in the case of this pickup, that means flipping the pole pieces 180 degrees).

Since tapping out and flipping the individual polepieces breaks the windings, the only option (unless you have access to some industrial-strength magnets) is to flip the whole pickup like a pancake. I just don't know if the AO pickup is symmetrical like that. The bottom of the pickup might have polepieces flush with the bobbin instead of sticking out a bit - which means that the polepiece height vs coil height will be different, resulting in a very different tone overall (which may or may not be to your liking).

If you only reverse the leads without physically reversing the polarity of the magnets, what you get is an out-of-phase middle position, which is definitely not going to be to your liking based on your OP.

[dobrojoe]

Yes, the other option is to buy another bridge pickup - I am loathe to do that without knowing what difference it would make. Flipping the polepieces is not something I would want to tackle. Guess I'm stuck with neck and bridge positions, I can live with that.