American Professional II Jazzmaster Wiring Help

[mauri]

Out of interest, if I wanted to simplify the tone controller and switch pickups, would something like Emerson standard prewired JM kit work in AM Pro II? Ofcourse it would a lot cheaper to just replace the single controller..

[mauri]

In the Fender diagram, on the tone pot push-push switch they've mixed up the blue and yellow wires from the bridge pickup. The blue wire should be on the pin closest to the pot body.

Fender diagram also states that middle wire on the push-push knob goes to the "Yellow wire to toggle Switch"; However based on the diagram the wire goes to series circuit, and propably from there to toggle switch. If I understand correctly middle (yellow) wire between the blue and yellow bridge pickup wire is the selected bridge output -selection. if simplifying the tone switch to normal one, the wire from the pickup would go directly to series circuitry?

[tammyw]

Ha ha, good catch. That's right, without the coil tap, the bridge pickup lead would just go to the series switch.

[mauri]

I ended up installing new pickups and now the push-push works as a kill switch, thanks for the idea. I'd like to ask that apart from the pickups being wired to series, how does the rhytm circuit differ from the traditional rhytm circuit? I'm thinking that I'd like to get a more traditional sound from the rhytm circuit. Now it seems to hotten the pickups as well add some grit to the noise, but I'm looking for more softer tone from it.

[gibs]

I ended up installing new pickups and now the push-push works as a kill switch, thanks for the idea. I'd like to ask that apart from the pickups being wired to series, how does the rhytm circuit differ from the traditional rhytm circuit? I'm thinking that I'd like to get a more traditional sound from the rhytm circuit. Now it seems to hotten the pickups as well add some grit to the noise, but I'm looking for more softer tone from it.

My understanding is that the series parallel switch replaces the traditional rhythm circuit, the roller tone and volume are now the active controls when the switch is in the up position for series, so both pickups in series with dedicated volume and tone for series mode. Down position is traditional jazzmaster circuit, plus the coil tap (that you repurposed as a kill switch).

Traditional rhythm circuit uses the neck pickup alone and a 50k tone pot, whereas the am pro II has a 1 Meg tone pot if I remember the schematic correctly.

[mauri]

Thanks, checking the original schematics explained a lot as well. AmPro II has also 500k pots in the lead circuit instead of 1Meg pots, as well as treble bleed. Additioally with the parallel wiring. so basically the darker sound comes from 50k tone pots? Are they originally linear or tapered pots?

I'm thinking of rewiring mine to match the traditional setup. I just need to figure out the right pots or buy a ready made kit. I might give my Novak JM-HC stealth -pickups a second try with coil tap before I do that. Something was borked with my amp and they sounded wonky. I wasn't patient enough and slapped pair of Antiquity II in there, but they and my Jaguar sounded horrible as well. Culprit was the amp. I like the Antiquity II's, but still need to try out the Novak's again to get a better idea how they sound.

Edit: I'm starting to get tempted to jazzblasterize my AmPro II and get a hold of another one for some classic tunes.

[mrjosey]

Could repurpose as a mute/kill switch. Up position mutes your signal, and the down position activates the electronics.

I was thinking the same, but it would only affect on the bridge -pickup. I'm thinking of replacing the tone knob with the traditional knob if the wiring isn't too complicated to rework. Ofcourse I could just leave it as it is and the other position just doesn't work. I don't find that much use for the push-push anyways, atleast for so far.

If you take the line from the center lug of the 4pdt switch running to the jack tip, and run it first to the push/push switch, then one side of the switch to ground and the other side to the output jack, it would then mute both pickups.

Any chance someone could draw a rough diagram to help me better understand how to make the push/push a kill switch if i change out the pickups to Lollars? I'm a novice (at best) on wiring, and am having a hard time following the instructions above.

Thanks in advance!

[gibs]

A drawing would take longer than just visualizing what’s being described. If you trace the wire that goes from the switch to the output jack, you would cut that wire near the switch. Take the wire running from the switch and solder it to the center tab of the push switch on the bottom of the volume knob. The next part depends on your preference, but I would solder the remaining wire going to the jack to the bottom lug of the switch (directly below where you solder the other end, there’s 2 column of 3 lugs, the columns are isolated from each other, so one column will be unused), then the top lug should solder to ground, though you could probably get away without the ground.

I would say that if your not confident in what’s going on with the wiring, that maybe you should have a tech do this. Understanding guitar wiring is kinda necessary before you plug in the soldering iron in my opinion. Lots can go wrong if you don’t understand how the circuit works.

[mrjosey]

Thanks for the additional details. It's a really complex wiring set-up, and definitely more complex than I'm used to. I may just end up gutting the thing, and putting a more simplistic harness in with new pickups.

[RaistMagus]

With this complex wiring, is the fundamental pickup circuit loaded with anything, when the 4PDT switch is at the down position?

I'm asking because I replaced the pickups with PV65 and the pots with 1Meg pots but the guitar doesn't sound as bright and aggressive as I expected (based on an AVRI62 I had). Testing the pots and swithes it seems that I wired everything correctly.

[timtam]

With this complex wiring, is the fundamental pickup circuit loaded with anything, when the 4PDT switch is at the down position?

I'm asking because I replaced the pickups with PV65 and the pots with 1Meg pots but the guitar doesn't sound as bright and aggressive as I expected (based on an AVRI62 I had). Testing the pots and swithes it seems that I wired everything correctly.

When the 4PDT series switch is in the OFF position, only the "regular" JM circuit, as modified in the Am Pro II, is engaged - the top circuit below, ie toggle switch, 500k volume and tone plus cap, treble bleed.

[RaistMagus]

When the 4PDT series switch is in the OFF position, only the "regular" JM circuit, as modified in the Am Pro II, is engaged - the top circuit below, ie toggle switch, 500k volume and tone plus cap, treble bleed.

Thank you!

It seems then that the AVRI62 pickups are thinner and more aggressive than the PV65. Or that if the pickups are similar, the fundamental tone (woods, bridge, etc) of the two guitars that I tried the pickups on was drastically different.

[VANRNR]

In the Fender diagram, on the tone pot push-push switch they've mixed up the blue and yellow wires from the bridge pickup. The blue wire should be on the pin closest to the pot body.

I am replacing the push- push switch with a push-pull switch. If I understand the wiring scheme correctly, the switch in the “up“ position provides the vintage sound by tapping the coil. I think I would like to reverse the way the switch scheme works so that “down“ would provide the coil tapping vintage sound. So, if I reverse the blue and yellow wires from the bridge pick up - as was incorrectly diagrammed by fender -would I accomplish the change? Thanks in advance for any comments.

[gibs]

DPDT switches have 2 roles of 3 lugs. When the switch is up, the center and top lugs are connected, when the switch is down, the center and bottom lugs are connected. So flipping the top and bottom connections should be all you need to do.