Log of troubleshooting/rewire on my 63 Jazzmaster

Bringing your older offset back to life.
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T70
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Log of troubleshooting/rewire on my 63 Jazzmaster

Post by T70 » Sat Jun 11, 2022 7:28 pm

I wouldn't quite call this a "restoration", but this 63 needs some TLC, as it is playing very oddly. Earlier, I changed the pickguard from the original tortoise (still have it screwed to plywood) to a brass guard, but didn't really check it over too well at that time.

Here's a view of the guitar:

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These next pics are with the volume and tone dimed. Neck pickup (it says 388.5 kOhms):

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Bridge (it says 56.2 kOhms):

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Both clearly too high, and too far apart.

With the guard off, most of you can already see there are some shenanigans with the wiring. The pickups look original though! I had changed the brick hard foam when I changed the pickguard, so it's still fresh.

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What's going on with that selector switch wiring?

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I've seen this "B" before. Does the community know who it correlates to?

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Measuring the neck pickup directly, things look a little better (it says 7.83 kOhms):

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Not looking good on the bridge pickup. Looks like a short :( (it says 27.2 ohms):

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I don't have photos of the process, but I decided the reflow the solder joints, just in case. Luckily, it worked!

The neck got even healthier:

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Bridge:

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I used this diagram to fish out what wasn't original wiring. Some of the original cloth wire had been moved, strangely. Not sure what the previous owner was trying to accomplish here?

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Here is the pickguard with the erroneously connected wires removed. What's left matches the diagram, and appears to be original wire:

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My multimeter also has a capacitance measurement feature. I measured the caps and all the pots:

Volume pot: from 71 ohms (at 10) to 1.45 Mohms (at 1). A little high, but it's a 1959 pot so I think I'll keep it.
Tone pot: from 0.99 Mohms (at 10) to 60 ohms (at 1) (is this backwards??)

Mini volume pot: from 132 ohms (at 10) to 1.1 Mohms (at 1)
Mini tone pot: from 17 ohms (at 10) to 58 kOhms (at 1).

Lead tone cap: 24 nF
Rhythm tone cap: no reading

The lead circuit cap was probably close enough, but I purchased some new caps for good measure. They all measure within 1%, not bad for $4 caps:

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Tomorrow, I have new cloth wiring coming in, as well as some solder wick. I only have white, black, and yellow wire on order, I'll probably rewire with these instead of also getting red, blue, and green wire as well. I can actually reuse the original green jumper, so I'm good there.

Hope this thread is enjoyable! I'll update when I get a chance to start rewiring.

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Re: Log of troubleshooting/rewire on my 63 Jazzmaster

Post by Nudger » Sat Jun 11, 2022 10:47 pm

How did jazz circuit sound? Upper switch looks like phase switch wiring?!?

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Re: Log of troubleshooting/rewire on my 63 Jazzmaster

Post by T70 » Sun Jun 12, 2022 6:52 am

Nudger wrote:
Sat Jun 11, 2022 10:47 pm
How did jazz circuit sound? Upper switch looks like phase switch wiring?!?
Yeah, maybe the slide switch was hijacked to make a phase circuit selector. Parts of the rhythm circuit are still connected to the switch though. The guitar sounded a bit weak to me.

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Re: Log of troubleshooting/rewire on my 63 Jazzmaster

Post by Nudger » Sun Jun 12, 2022 7:22 am

T70 wrote:
Sun Jun 12, 2022 6:52 am
Nudger wrote:
Sat Jun 11, 2022 10:47 pm
How did jazz circuit sound? Upper switch looks like phase switch wiring?!?
Yeah, maybe the slide switch was hijacked to make a phase circuit selector. Parts of the rhythm circuit are still connected to the switch though. The guitar sounded a bit weak to me.
My guess with the stock rewire and reflows itl be sorted.
Dam good looking geeetar ;)

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Re: Log of troubleshooting/rewire on my 63 Jazzmaster

Post by adamrobertt » Mon Jun 13, 2022 2:13 pm

You seem to have the leads on the 1/4 plug reversed - might be giving you the weird reading.

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Re: Log of troubleshooting/rewire on my 63 Jazzmaster

Post by T70 » Thu Jun 16, 2022 5:29 am

Thanks for the troubleshooting insights guys. I did get the cloth wire in so am hoping to do a few things this weekend, perhaps.

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Re: Log of troubleshooting/rewire on my 63 Jazzmaster

Post by T70 » Sun Jun 19, 2022 12:21 pm

I ended up ordering colored wire as well, ha. Might as well do it right the first time.

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