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If you happen to own a standard-wired Jazzmaster, and most vintage-spec models certainly do have that classic main (treble) / rhythm circuit slide switch, you probably have at least once wondered why you can't switch between pickups while using the rhythm circuit.
As far as I'm concerned, I've got no clue. Maybe the original idea was to provide the player with an option to quickly switch between soft jazzy neck pickup chords (with rolled-off tone) and screaming bridge pickup leads (with open tone), and an alternative voicing for the bridge pickup was deemed unnecessary? Which one of the circuits was even supposed to be the main one? So many questions.
Regardless of that, I'd have more tones unlocked anyway, hence this mod. It does not affect the treble circuit functionality or tone so you lose nothing.
Having had done the rewiring myself some years before, and having given advice to a friend who did it recently, I once again realized that this mod, while simple and somewhat obvious to go for, is not very richly documented on the web, apart from a couple forum threads, so here's this guide that hopefully helps you rather than adds extra confusion.*
*not guaranteed
You'll need your usual soldering kit, heatshrink/tape, and some length of new wire.
Don't forget to take photos of the pre-mod state in case something goes wrong. Also, I recommend removing not only the pickguard but the pickups as well, and temporarily taping them to the pickguard with masking tape so you could easily disconnect the whole electronics assembly by just desoldering the bridge (or tremolo plate) grounding wire.
Here's how the standard and modded wiring should look. In these diagrams, I grayed out the intact wires and marked those of interest with different colors for a clearer picture.
(clickable full-res direct image links below)
NOTE 1: Looking under the hood you'll likely find not a bouquet of individual wires but rather some two-conductor coaxial cables running between the pots, switches, and the output jack (at least it's true for '90s Fender Japan and current Squier CV models). You might want to tape off and bypass some conductors with new wires, or use the existing infrastructure by splicing some old wires and adding minimum new ones: doesn't really matter as long as it works. As far as I recall, I ended up splicing a couple conductors at one spot and adding one extra wire at another. Your mileage may vary, just trace the connections carefully.
NOTE 2: Pickup ground wires can be soldered to any ground point (provided you have continuous ground conductance, of course): in my case that was originally the toggle switch ground for the bridge pickup, and the slide switch ground for the neck pickup. I did not bother and left it unchanged but you can solder those to the volume pot back if you feel that's a proper way of doing things.
So here's what we're changing:
*Oh yeah, now I remembered: if you have those coaxial cables in your guitar (see note 1), the new volume pot V+ to slide switch terminal 1 connection can be made by splicing the freed hot conductors of the two cables from (2) and (3) initial states, one running from the volume pot to the toggle switch, and the other from the toggle switch to the slide switch. The stripped ends of these hot wires meet around the toggle switch so just solder them together and tape off (I prefer heatshrink though).
And that's it.
Now you have two extra tones from the same instrument basically for free. I particularly like how the both pickups position sounds with the rhythm circuit, as it's got some acoustic-like feel to it, retaining nice highs but without the excessive jangly hi-mid bump.
If you noticed a fatal mistake in the diagrams (or maybe want to say hi) please contact me.
Also please keep in mind that I take no responsibility for any possible damage to your instrument. Proceed with the mod at your own risk and consult your luthier or guitar tech for troubleshooting.
Cheers,
G
Latest page revision: 04.06.2026 (minor text changes)
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