Sonics first build JMA-1: ShoeGazer MK1

[I’ll give it a go]

You did well throwing that together that quick. Some nice tunes in there as well. I enjoyed it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Sonic Mountain]

Thanks guys, yeah never easy putting yourself on the spot. I don't mind the clumsy playing, but I wish the sound was better. Every time I do a demo I threaten to get a better setup ...one day..

[king casey]

Thanks guys, yeah never easy putting yourself on the spot. I don't mind the clumsy playing, but I wish the sound was better. Every time I do a demo I threaten to get a better setup ...one day..

Not a bad effort. I could identify some tunes also.
You are not going to get reasonable sound quality out of a poxy phone.
I usually plug my guitar straight into a Focusrite, but seeing as you have the exact same amp, I had a go at
recording it with a mike.
A Sennheizer MD 420. Result was quite surprising, but I won't hijack your thread with my muelings.

cheers, Mark.

[Sonic Mountain]

Yeah I line into the computer mostly and have a bigger amp I normally play through. This was the quickest solution as the place is in chaos at the moment. Those little Vox amps do sound pretty good when you crank them.

[Shambrick]

I like the look and the tone.

I wonder how it would look if you 'flipped things - cut a black plastic control plate to compliment the aluminium scratch plate?

[colin2121]

Hi sonic
A couple of questions if that is okay as you have done a JM1 build.
I have been very happy with my build. The body is perfect (although a bit weighty). I left the electronics as standard but the humbucker is not very good so thought I might upgrade that area.
I have a set of alnico V - 2 single coils and a humbucker and thought I might put those into the standard pickguard.
When I opened the control panel I noted that the pots were:
Volume - 500K
Neck Tone - 500K
Middle and bridge tone - 250K
The caps were "interesting"!
Neck Tone - .068uF
Middle and bridge tone - .047uF
I don't know a great deal about the electronics side of guitars so I thought you might be able to guide me.
What would be the best pot values to put in given I plan on two single coils and a bridge humbucker?
And what would be the best caps to put in given I would like to retain the same tone control i.e. one for neck and one for middle and bridge? I don't like the sound to be too muddy - my hearing is already muddy enough!

I would appreciate if anyone else also has any advice on the pots and caps.

All the best

[jugglindan]

In a very fast search, I couldn't find a standard wiring diagram for that exact scheme. But this HSH 1 tone 1 vol diagram from Seymour Duncan shows a 250K tone pot with a .047uF cap. Exactly what you have. It's not conclusive, but it suggests those values are OK.

https://www.seymourduncan.com/resour...iring-diagrams
Sorry, it's a single page app that doesn't give a direct link. You have to recreate my search options.

[Simon Barden]

Unless you get into complicated switching to add in extra resistors, then that mix of values is a reasonable compromise to try and balance the various normal pickup requirements. The 500k common volume pot is fine for a humbucker but will make the single coils sound overly bright.

It would be a bit better if the neck and middle pickup (the two single coils) shared a tone control and the humbucker had its own tone control. It could be rewired to do this. then I'd stick a .022uF cap on the bridge tone and maybe leave the neck/bridge tone at 0.068uF to combat the extra brightness. With a 250k volume pot as well as the tone pot, you'd typically put a 0.047uF cap in.

But a 250k pot still doesn't let the signal see much of the capacitor, so a lower tone pot value (given a shared neck/bridge tone control) might be more effective. And 0.022uFs for both tone controls, or maybe even 0.01uFs will work just as well, it just won't go right down to an unusable muddy sound.

Here's the SD suggested wiring diagram for a basic HSS layout. They suggest a common 0.047uF cap, but that really is personal choice. I'm going for smaller values these days as I'd never use a really muddy sound, and its easier to get a less bright but still non-muddy sound with smaller values, and you don't have to be as careful on the knob position as with a larger value cap.



SD don't give pot values here. You could go for 500k vol and 250k tones, or all 250k pots if you don't mind a less bright humbucker (or the HB is a bright one to start with), or maybe all 300k pots as a compromise between the two.

In the SD diagram, the signal output from the 5-way switch is taken to the common of the other side of the switch, and used a Strat style arrangement of no tone control for the bridge, just for the neck and middle pickup.

If you never use the tone controls, then you could leave it like that and certainly use 250k tone pots and a 0.047uF tone cap. But you can swap that to a tone pot for the bridge and a common one for the neck+ middle just by changing the connections on the tone side of the 5-way.

[McCreed]

Using the diagram that Simon posted above, a simple and effective way to add the bridge tone to a 5-way switch can be achieved by this minor augmentation:

(jump wire shown in red)


I was also going to suggest 500k Vol and 2 x 250 Tone pots as mentioned above.

[Simon Barden]

Or to give the bridge its own tone control (and its own cap value), with a common neck + middle (and their own cap value), you can do this: