Neck PU tone bypass

[redisred]

I've been wanting to change the wiring on my JM for a long time, and I'm very comfortable with soldering, but not sure where to start with the actual wiring. I'm curious if anyone's ever done this wiring, or knows of a resource with diagrams for something like this:

Generally, my neck pickup is too dark and I want to have it bypass the tone knob so that only the middle and bridge go through the tone. My tele is like this and I love it, I'm able to balance them all together more. I'm tempted to just bypass the rhythm circuit entirely to simplify things, but I've also wanted to try passive eq or humbucking the pickups with that, which obviously complicates things a lot.

Any pointers anyone has would be super helpful, thanks!

[Shadoweclipse13]

Are you referring to your neck pickup in the rhythm circuit or in the lead circuit? One mod I've always liked is changing the rhythm circuit to work with all pickups, which in this case would only offer darker tones to the bridge and middle positions.

You could add a mod like a strangle switch (like a Jaguar or a Bass VI) as well.

If you want to bypass the lead circuit tone pot for the neck pickup, you could basically add another separate circuit (like the rhythm circuit) for the neck pickup only (neck pickup > volume pot > jack).

You could also install a volume/tone bypass switch (sometimes called a blower switch). You could make it to work for the entire guitar or in theory for just the neck pickup, though I've never done that.

I guess you could also just add the tone pot to the bridge pickup only (sort of like a Les Paul or SG with 2 volumes and 2 tones, where you wouldn't have a tone pot for the neck pickup side), basically wired between the bridge pickup and the selector switch. Not sure how that would affect the middle position though.

You've definitely got some options. Would you prefer a simple mod, or something with more options? Would you mind having to drill an extra hole in your pickguard? If not, you could use a push-pull pot to replace either your volume or tone pot...

[F15hface]

You could wire it so that the bridge pickup goes to the tone pot before going to the switch, and then the switch output goes to the volume and then the output Jack?

[solfege]

You could wire it so that the bridge pickup goes to the tone pot before going to the switch, and then the switch output goes to the volume and then the output Jack?

This wouldn't run the middle through the tone pot, though, I don't think.

[F15hface]

You could wire it so that the bridge pickup goes to the tone pot before going to the switch, and then the switch output goes to the volume and then the output Jack?

This wouldn't run the middle through the tone pot, though, I don't think.

I didn't read the OP properly. Whoops.

[solfege]

You could wire it so that the bridge pickup goes to the tone pot before going to the switch, and then the switch output goes to the volume and then the output Jack?

This wouldn't run the middle through the tone pot, though, I don't think.

I didn't read the OP properly. Whoops.

I'm not good enough at this to say this for sure, but I feel like this may be one of those weird moments where there are things you can do on a blade switch that are harder to do on a toggle style switch. But honestly I find blade switches so confusing that I might just be hallucinating that.

[solfege]

A dead easy way to do this would be to add a switch that bypasses the tone pot for the neck PU and runs it straight to volume on one setting, and runs it through the normal circuit on the other. But of course that requires surgery to add the switch, and if you just want it to work like this all the time a more elegant solution would definitely be to figure out the proper wiring. I'm reasonably sure someone here can do it.

[F15hface]

This wouldn't run the middle through the tone pot, though, I don't think.

I didn't read the OP properly. Whoops.

I'm not good enough at this to say this for sure, but I feel like this may be one of those weird moments where there are things you can do on a blade switch that are harder to do on a toggle style switch. But honestly I find blade switches so confusing that I might just be hallucinating that.

Yeah I was thinking that there is probably some blade switch wizardry that will do this.

Surely if the tele already does it,OP can just copy that.

[alexpigment]

Definitely easier to visualize on a blade switch if you're using to wiring strats; the terminals on the opposite side of the switch are used for tone pots for each pickup (or for a set of pickups when bridged). On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that the only real difference is that you have two physical terminals on a blade switch even though they're essentially connected to each other. You should in theory be able to wire your tone pot to the same spot on the pickup selector switch that the bridge pickup goes into, and so it would be wired parallel there, rather than wired in parallel at the volume pot.