Harley Benton JA-60CC: thmn.to/thocf/l0nhhg8t6n Potentiometers/Tone Cap/Knobs: www.alegree.co.uk/collections/potentiometers/products/pickguard-shaft-cts-potentiometers www.alegree.co.uk/collections/capacitors/products/0-022uf-sprague-orange-drop-capacitor www.alegree.co.uk/collections/metal-knobs/products/flat-top-knurled-metal-knobs-for-solid-shaft-pots-imperial-size Goldo Vibrato: www.guitar.co.uk/goldo-lt1-les-trem-tremolo-chrome Fretboard Food: www.ebay.co.uk/usr/rossrockshop 60 Cycle Hum modification video: ua-cam.com/video/CFfanbLGEME/v-deo.html This video contains product provided by Alegree and Harley Benton More details on how CSGuitars implements product promotion - www.csguitars.co.uk/disclosure #jazzmaster #harleybenton #guitarmodification More from CSGuitars: Gain access to exclusive content at: www.patreon.com/csguitars Join CSGuitars Discord - discord.gg/csguitars Buy CSGuitars Merchandise - www.csguitars.co.uk/store Website - www.csguitars.co.uk Contact - colin@csguitars.co.uk ____________________________________________________________________ *Description contains affiliate links. Purchasing using one of these links will generate a small commission for CSGuitars at no additional cost to you.*
Hey man literally in the process of ordering parts to do this upgrade, one thing I'm melting my own head over is in the original video by 60cyclehum he reused the capacitor that was on the 250k pot whereas you used an 0.022 orange drop which made sense to me, which I assume keeps more high end as you turn the pots down as they are normally used for humbuckers and p90s? Just wanted to check if it's better to do what you did, or does it have minimal difference using the original cap? Unsure what to do, bit for the sake of an extra few quid its probably worth getting the orange cap lol
Got me the Lake Placid Blue JA60 as well, and just did the change over to 1Meg CTSes and (for the feel) a Switchcraft toggle. Wow, this opens up the pickup presence soooo nicely. Subscribed now 👍
At the beginning I wanted to give you hell for stealing someone elses video idea... but you credited the source... twice! And spread some extremely useful information to a different audience. I had become a fully qualified Electronic Engineer some decades ago AND been playing electric guitar for 39 years without finding out the dramatic effect of changing potentiometer value in a guitar, and found this information both revolutionary and humbling the first time I saw it on 60 Cycle Hum last month. So where is my criticism now? Can't really manage it. This is just data worth spreading, and spreading it actually comes into "due diligence" practice. * salute *
Colin. As a beginner guitarist who just turned 40, this is the kind of channel that I really appreciate. Nerding out on the tech side of equipment really helps me to understand what and why I am playing what I am. Thanks much! Glad to have found your channel.. happy holidays from Texas.
Love the middle sound, before and after. All sounds are clearer and more defined to my ears after the mods. So nice to see Duse selling parts via Goldo, they've become my favorite upgrades in combo with Gotoh.
listening to this on shitty laptop speakers, and even through youtube's compression I can still tell that the upgrade to the pots made a HUGE difference in the sound quality and clarity.
UA-cam data compression cuts everything above 16 KHz. Most adults can't hear anything that high. Electric guitars with magnetic pick-ups generate nothing above 5 KHz so that is never relevant. Shitty laptop speakers are another matter.
@@Leo_ofRedKeep that's not really true, depending on buffering and cables, some guitars even have a resonant peak above 5kHz and those in the 4-4.5kHz range will still have plenty of content past five kilo. You're not wrong in principle, but the value is off by maybe 2kHz, just to be sure :)
This is exactly what I wanted to know. What a difference! Awesome upgrade, just what this guitar needs to get the best out of it, and no unnecessary no BS.
Great video just ordered one of the guitars and all mods barring the trem . Will have save for that . Great video never done any guitar soldiering so may just take it to my local shop to do the work
I just found your channel through your video on the science behind pickups. Subscribed, started scrolling thru your videos, and since I've got a ja60cc I've been looking to modify I HAD to check this one out
*sigh* dammit. Now I want to get that Goldo for the Partscaster builds I'm planning for this year. Thanks Colin. Seriously, thank you for this channel. It is both inspiring, informative, and fun. I found this channel a little over a year ago with your first Axe from the Grave video, and I look forward to every one. Happy Holidays mate! Get some rest!
I want to give a big(and I mean big) thank you to Colin. I've been a fan of buying cheap guitars and "customizing" them For around 15 years but after watching his videos I've taken it a bit further. I'm taking a smoke break from leveling the frets on a Kerry King BC Rich Bronze warlock(think the one Colin "metalized" but with tribal paint) my GFs sister gave me. I never would have had the smarts(or stupidity, I still have to finish my smoke and string it back up)to try something like this. Kepp it loud Colin and as long as you make videos, I'll be watching
I've just been putting my first parts-caster thing together and I bought some higher value pots, but put in a standard switch and electronics to get a something I could set-up. Since I've now discovered an issue in one of the pots, I'll be changing them out quicker than I intended. But this video shows just what a difference it can make. Thanks, and a Merry Christmas to you too Colin! 🎄
In general, when we increase the pot values, we expect the resonant peak at the cutoff to get higher, sharper, bigger. The cutoff frequency doesn’t change much, but there is more bigger, sharper boost at that point.
If you're talking about the tone cap, then kinda no. That cap doesn't really impact the sound until the T pot is already most of the way down. The big factors in determining the actual cutoff frequency with both pots at 10 are pickup inductance and cable capacitance.
I have 1 Megs in three of my humbucker guitars. I did this after learning that Kurt Cobain’s ‘65 Jaguar had 1 Meg pots. My Jazzmaster is practically a replica of his Jaguar with 1 Megs and a DIMarzio Super Distortion and it sounds great. I have 1 Megs in my Telecaster with Seymour Duncan Hot Rails, and it brightens up a surprisingly dark single-coil-sized humbucker. And I have 1 Megs in my Strat with a single-coil-sized DiMarzio Tone Zone, and this may have been a mistake, but I’m willing to live with it and see if it grows on me.
@2:04 For the record I still found my self laughing at the reverb on "One Million Ohms" again 8 days after last watching this. Worth the effort then I reckon.
I didn't notice any unintentional noises. Perhaps there's enough difference in the angle the strings break over the bridge between the two units that it's causing bridge creak in yours and not mine?
Ryan I watched your video and I put the GFS unit on my JA-60 ...BUT ... I used the weaker spring plus I don't a lot of dive bombing on it so I didn't notice any noise and the tuning seems OK. So maybe the higher-tension spring is at fault? Maybe suggest swapping out the spring?
Harley Benton JA-60CC... sounds more like a motorcycle name. Like I had a Yamaha Exciter 250. That was a motorcycle. But it sounds more like a name for a guitar. Thanks for posting the video.
Got one in leftie white.. Love it... Well I did but then got a dc junior dirty mustard.... Heart has bin stolen.... Lost..... 😮.... Great guitars... Never mind the money..... Great guitars.. Y'all take care now from North Nottinghamshire UK
Merchant City Music! Many happy memories of that place from (fuck me, I've just realised) thirty years ago. Doing stupid shit with big amps that was probably audible in Edinburgh. For tea and biscuits.
I was really considering doing this after buing the new 25th anniversity Harley Benton JA-25 which is basically the same guitar with some upgrades. After all didn't do it. The guitar already has some serius brightness and as demonstrated in this demo the shrill with 1M is just too much. What really made the original setup brighter was moving the pickups higher. This was easier said than done as the screws and pickup holes are not precise.
In the same vein as upgrading the pots, I would make sure that it had a "leaf connector" selector switch. And ASAP, I would look into locking tuners, and eventually a brass nut.
Colin, I've been playing a long time and this is the very first time I've ever heard of anyone putting 1Mohm control pots in a guitar. I think I heard an interesting difference especially in upper mid range. Have a Squier Bullet Mustang HH and I like the pickups fine as-is, they're more than adequately versatile, but I may fiddle with higher-resistance pots next time I'm in there just for fun to see what happens. Thanks for the fresh idea!
@@felderup Thanks, will do. About this video, I'm sure just like everyone you've heard the norm is 250k for single-coils, 500k for dual-coil humbuckers. I'm going to do some more study on what control pot resistance value is actually doing to modulate the signal output, so therefore why a 1Mohm pot might be desirable with some pickups. And would that be more for the vol pot, the tone pot, or both? Some folks have the wrong idea that you're telling the pickups what to do with the controls. No, they just do what they do and you're modulating or "gating" their output. My first thought today was, since pots are relatively cheap and higher resistance is somehow "better," why doesn't everybody just put in 500k or higher pots in the first place? Are manufacturers really that damned cheap?
@@markpell8979 tradition, the design of the electronics in modern guitars was come up with by people that had no more than the equivalent of a shop class understanding of how to do it and a bin of old radio parts. even just replacing the pot with a 1m is rather traditional. if you're willing to rip open the guitar and completely upgrade it, why not try something fun, like e-pots, 4066's and rotary encoders? there are active pots you can get and redoing the guitar as balanced allows adding phantom power, so it'll still be light.
Depends where you come from. Probably it wasn't a thing in the US so with the American brands. I have an old East-German Musima 25k (Basically a distant cousin of a Gibson Melody maker, 2 single coils, LP shape, etc., but with a rotary switch for 4 different sound patterns - most Eastern block guitars had this), with 1meg pots put into it as stock. With the most trebly setting it is like a cat scratching glass, officially called banjo mode:D..never use it.......... But on other settings, taming the sound by caps around the rotary switch, it is really nice, almost like a strat.
JUST CHANGE THE POTS. bro, thank you. i have a few guitars that could benefit from this, and one that needed new pots anyway (a firefly that came in crackly.). it's a nice trick up the sleeve to do this first and then assess your sound before reaching for new pickups.
Well, I had quite a debakel with my JA-60SB. The bridge was fucked from the start, the setup was meh, the all the fret ends had sharp corners. Thomann came partly thru, I´m still not done with them. Only the finish is really good and the sound- I like it as is. Master question: How do I file the fret slots down without slot files? The nut is just a general off the shelf, I think I could gain a little there together with some new Pyramid strings.
Just send it back and you'll get a new one. Usually their customer service is very good. Unfortunately being a budget there are some duds although I have 7 and only had two guitars that had minor flaws (but I'm very picky). Since I live in Germany it was no problem sending it back and getting a new one.
@LaLaLand. Not a guitar player/tweaker myself, but could you use a short length of used wound guitar string to adjust your fret slots? Maybe the next gauge/step up for each slot? Would this work for you? Seasons Greetings. Stay safe and well.
i remember removing all my wires, putting in a seymour duncan and a new split pot, and not having access to my expensive new neck pickup for 8 months because I had too many new variables to brute force
Hey ho ! Thats a wonderful upgrade. I ve got an JA Firemiste 25th by Harley Benton and I love it but i am missing the vibrato... so how is it one year later ? Do the strings break faster without a rollerbridge? That would be a really interesting information :) Hope you had a good christmas back then ;) greetings from saarland, germandy
Colin, could you do a video on the gig bags & cases from Thomann? I like their prices but it's hard to judge them from pictures. It would be the perfect sponsored video.
Do you (or anybody reading) know what the different model numbers on the JA-60 refer to? When you referred to them as Jazzmaster pickups in the video I got a bit confused because was sure when I bought mine a few years back they were advertised as P90's. Having checked the Thomann website I now see that the description of the pickups on the CC and OW models are "JM Alnico 5" whereas the SB pickups are "Alnico 5 vintage style p90 single coils". Are these different descriptions correct or are the pickups essentially the same?
hi, i’m interested in carrying out these upgrades for my harley benton JA kit, just wondering when i go into your bio what options do i press i just don’t want to buy the wrong things cheers
My h b sg left handed one of the tone pots went crappy after 2 plus years I put guitar fetish pick ups and tone system in it easy Peezy still took an hour and a half because the cavity wasn’t big enough for full-size pots didn’t have to cut it just had to wiggle everything around
sounding great! I'm afraid of messing up with the soldering so better to ask a luthier to do that. In your opinion what is the ideal pickup height on that guitar?
@@ScienceofLoud To be honest I struggle to hear much difference. Guitar sounds a bit dull either way. The strings being half round was probably not the best choice for this guitar 😅.
Jazzmaster w/Bigsby into Deluxe Reverb. Anyway, thank you, the differences pre and post potentiometer was drastic. Inspired me to swap them out first, before changing pickups on my HB 458. Again, thank you Colin.
Great modification tips, definitely going to try them! How possible do you think it would be to swap out the JM-style pickups for a set of humbuckers? Would like to use mine for more rock / grunge / metal stuff. Thanks!
If you get a custom pickguard cut for hum buckers it shouldn’t be too difficult. There are plenty of companies that will make one from a tracing or sending the original guard.
Hey Collin. I've a question. Is it possible to use a blowtorch to burn an Ibanez Gibraltar 3 bridge to give it that sweet burnt chrome look? There doesn't seem to be any drop-in replacements for them because the post spacing is wider by roughly 8 millimeters, and I want to customize a ART100 I scored at a pawnshop with that cool burnt chrome look. I assume I would have to disassemble the entire bridge and tailpiece and put the flame to each part individually. Would it work? I know it was a cheaper production guitar, so i assume that it is probably chrome plated copper, and copper has a low melting point. Any info would be greatly appreciated sir.
I've done this before on chrome parts - this should work, but some parts like it better than others. Too much localised heat can cause the plating to bubble, and some cheaper cast zinc parts will melt before the chrome plating can even change colour - turning to liquid inside the chrome shell (I ruined a few tuning buttons this way) I can't speak for that particular bridge directly, but my advice would be first find out if it is zinc alloy, if not then take it apart to component pieces and clean them all well with a degreaser (finger prints and dirt will cause problems to the colouring process) I used a small butane torch (the kind a chef might use on a crème brûlée) and the key is to keep moving to avoid localised heat bubbling the plating. Once hot enough it will change through straw into blues and purples. That can happen quickly, so pull back sooner rather than later. Copper underplating won't be an issue, copper's melting point is far above the temperatures you'll be using. (1000C as compared to the 300-400C needed for bluing chrome) Maybe worth while grabbing some cheap sacrificial parts, like chrome pickup cover to practice on if you haven't done this before.
@@ScienceofLoud Thank you so much! I've never done it before, I'm rather handy at these types of things though. One more question, how do I determine if it is zinc alloy or chrome?
@@randomcompdude To be clear: The plating is chrome, the underlying metal is what might be Zinc Alloy, or it could be brass, or steel, or whatever other metal. I would begin by seeing if there is any information regarding the materials online, if you can't find anything then proceed with caution and be prepared to purchase a new bridge.
@@ScienceofLoud Thank you!! I'll look online, maybe see if I can scuff up the bridge on the bottom of it or something. I really appreciate your advice.
Have you decided to keep the 1M pots or do you think you may try the 500k ones? I want to do something with my JA-60 sunburst but I don't solder or have the tools (or the skill or patience) so I will have to pay somebody to do the mods. My guitar tech "guy" recommends 500k pots but I'm torn between them and the 1M?
The audible difference between 250k and 500k volume pots is greater than that between 500k and 1M. But you can always use equalization down the line from the guitar to knock down the treble as needed. So if you are only doing the mod once, use 1M and have an EQ pedal handy. When using EQ, 10 cuts is better than one boost.
@@JohnShalamskas Thanks. That has been my thought basically. I would think you could always lower the treble if it is too much. My "guy"" still urges the 500k and says also putting in a matching volume pot isn't worth the price of the part and his installation charge.
@@JohnShalamskas You're right. My mistake. However most of those reviewers talk about changing only the tone pot I think ... although I'm told it would be optimal to change both. My "guy" for example said he would suggest I change just the tone pot.
The volume pot will make a difference to your tone since it presents a load to the pickup coil. The higher the value of the volume pot, the lower the load that the pickup sees.
Any chance you might do a video on their GuitarBass VS? I plan to grab one at some point but I'd like to know your opinion and an affiliate link would definitely be used.
Is it weird that I am really close to ordering the 25th model, even though I haven’t picked up any of my 15 guitars in months? GAS persists even in a long hiatus.😂
Only if you ever turn down the V pot ;) Some people expect and rely upon the treble loss when they turn down (if maybe only subconsciously), but the bigger pot WILL cause more of that, too.
If you notice a change in tone (losing highs) when rolling the volume down, that can be somewhat mitigated with a treble bleed. The higher the pot values, the less needed it is. This is only relevant to passive pick-ups, active circuits do not have that flaw.
agreed, higher pot values are a bigger deal than treble bleeds. (albeit treble bleeds are better publicized) by the time you've upped the pot values , the impact of treble bleeds becomes small to the point of negligible.
If I were to describe the difference, it's like the stock pots sounded like you were playing with a towel over the cab and the CTS pots sound like you took the towel away.
I've been using 1M pots for years, and while I have no grudge against them, I think their impact is widely misunderstood. Do higher-resistance volume pots load down pickups less and retain more upper frequencies? You betcha they do. *HOWEVER* they generally only do so if you leave your volume up *full* , such that your amp or first pedal "sees" a fork in the road at the guitar output jack of 1M going to ground vs whatever the impedance of the pickups is. When pitted against 1M, the amp "sees" more of the pickup. But what happens if you turn your volume *down* a bit? Let's turn down our 1M volume pot to around 7 or so. We will have added somewhere just shy of 80k resistance *in series with* the pickup/s. Your pickup/s are now loaded down. Not as much as if one was using a 250k pot, but you'll still lose top end. This is partly why Fender instituted compensation caps, that would allow treble to bypass whatever series resistance the volume pot might add. So, in view of this my recommendation to those wishing to hot rod their guitar is to consider how you use your volume pot. If you always leave it up full, and only turn down to hear if the phone is ringing, stop unwanted feedback, or provide instructions to your bandmates, then vay con dios with a 500k or 1M pot. *IF* you are a volume pot twiddler, though, constantly fiddling with it, whether for swells or some other purpose, like our late friend Jeff Beck (RIP) did, then you will want to include a compensation cap on the volume pot, or maybe even deliberately use a lower-resistance pot. Jeff Beck deliberately exploited the manner in which the pickups were loaded down by the volume pot, so that;s something to consider. In short, higher-resistance volume pots do not always constitute an improvement; context matters.
Two mods I will heartily endorse. First, I use a 1M (linear) Tone pot as a *bidirectional* control. The Tone pot wiper goes to the input of the Volume pot as per usual. One outside pot lug goes to a standard-value cap, connected to ground, for the traditional muting/muffling. However, the other outside lug goes to a cap about 1/5-1/4 the value of the first one, and is also connected to ground. So, if the standard cap is .022uf (22nf), the "other" cap is something in the neighbourhood of 4700pf-5600pf. The "full treble" position now becomes the midpoint of the pot's rotation, and the pot behaves like two tone pots in parallel. Moving it in one direction gets you traditional muffling, while moving it in the other direction from midpoint rounds off the edges without muffling. Some might even say it gets you a more P90 or even humbucker top end. You now have two different rolloffs at your disposal. One of the perks is that it only takes half the rotation to go from full treble-cut to full bright. If your Tone control is in a location where you can use your picking hand pinky finger, it makes it easier to do "pinky wah". The 2nd mod requires either a push-pull pot or a toggle switch, and is known as the half-out-of-phase mod. I learned about this from a review of the Jerry Donahue Telecaster many years back. One of the 5 positions on the switch puts the neck and bridge out of phase, but also puts a cap in series with the neck pickup to shave off some of its bass. On a Tele, it sounds remarkably like the neck+middle position on a Strat, despite NOT having a middle pickup. I've installed it in two of my guitars and I love it. There is NO nasal honk, and NO volume drop. Moreover, I've installed it on a dual-humbucker guitar of mine and it works there as well. Obviously, it won't make a dual HB guitar quack like a Strat, but it DOES provide a very usable dual-pickup setting that is different than both pickups in phase, and absent the nasal honk and volume drop. Personally, I use a .01uf (10nf) cap for the neck-out-of-phase, and find that satisfactory, but feel free to try other values. If it works on a dual HB guitar, I imagine it will also add something to a Jazzmaster. Recommended!! 👍
Harley Benton JA-60CC: thmn.to/thocf/l0nhhg8t6n
Potentiometers/Tone Cap/Knobs: www.alegree.co.uk/collections/potentiometers/products/pickguard-shaft-cts-potentiometers
www.alegree.co.uk/collections/capacitors/products/0-022uf-sprague-orange-drop-capacitor
www.alegree.co.uk/collections/metal-knobs/products/flat-top-knurled-metal-knobs-for-solid-shaft-pots-imperial-size
Goldo Vibrato: www.guitar.co.uk/goldo-lt1-les-trem-tremolo-chrome
Fretboard Food: www.ebay.co.uk/usr/rossrockshop
60 Cycle Hum modification video: ua-cam.com/video/CFfanbLGEME/v-deo.html
This video contains product provided by Alegree and Harley Benton
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Hey man literally in the process of ordering parts to do this upgrade, one thing I'm melting my own head over is in the original video by 60cyclehum he reused the capacitor that was on the 250k pot
whereas you used an 0.022 orange drop which made sense to me, which I assume keeps more high end as you turn the pots down as they are normally used for humbuckers and p90s?
Just wanted to check if it's better to do what you did, or does it have minimal difference using the original cap?
Unsure what to do, bit for the sake of an extra few quid its probably worth getting the orange cap lol
THIS IF THEFT! and I love it.
FEFT!
yeah, I pretty much ended up saying the same thing 4 hours after you.
United over the pond 😁
Got me the Lake Placid Blue JA60 as well, and just did the change over to 1Meg CTSes and (for the feel) a Switchcraft toggle. Wow, this opens up the pickup presence soooo nicely. Subscribed now 👍
You guys have sold me on this guitar and mods.
"because I'm that fucking good" had me rolling
At the beginning I wanted to give you hell for stealing someone elses video idea...
but you credited the source...
twice!
And spread some extremely useful information to a different audience.
I had become a fully qualified Electronic Engineer some decades ago AND been playing electric guitar for 39 years without finding out the dramatic effect of changing potentiometer value in a guitar, and found this information both revolutionary and humbling the first time I saw it on 60 Cycle Hum last month.
So where is my criticism now? Can't really manage it. This is just data worth spreading, and spreading it actually comes into "due diligence" practice. * salute *
Colin. As a beginner guitarist who just turned 40, this is the kind of channel that I really appreciate. Nerding out on the tech side of equipment really helps me to understand what and why I am playing what I am.
Thanks much! Glad to have found your channel.. happy holidays from Texas.
How are you liking guitar so far?
Love the middle sound, before and after. All sounds are clearer and more defined to my ears after the mods.
So nice to see Duse selling parts via Goldo, they've become my favorite upgrades in combo with Gotoh.
listening to this on shitty laptop speakers, and even through youtube's compression I can still tell that the upgrade to the pots made a HUGE difference in the sound quality and clarity.
UA-cam data compression cuts everything above 16 KHz. Most adults can't hear anything that high. Electric guitars with magnetic pick-ups generate nothing above 5 KHz so that is never relevant. Shitty laptop speakers are another matter.
@@Leo_ofRedKeep that's not really true, depending on buffering and cables, some guitars even have a resonant peak above 5kHz and those in the 4-4.5kHz range will still have plenty of content past five kilo. You're not wrong in principle, but the value is off by maybe 2kHz, just to be sure :)
LOL YT 'compression'!
@@Leo_ofRedKeep Hehe people & their 'compression'!
@@Leo_ofRedKeep Leo, a good reason to have a pet dog who likes to listen to music. Ha!
Good point about the pots. I changed the pots on my Squier Bullet Mustang to 500k and added an orange drop, kept the pickups as they sound alright.
Thanks so much for this. I was planning on seeing if I should upgrade my potentiometers to A1M values to see how it would sound.
This is exactly what I wanted to know. What a difference! Awesome upgrade, just what this guitar needs to get the best out of it, and no unnecessary no BS.
Great video just ordered one of the guitars and all mods barring the trem . Will have save for that . Great video never done any guitar soldiering so may just take it to my local shop to do the work
Thank you! Strongly considering getting one. Might actually get it in blue now. Previously had the sunburst in my cart.
Dude is fucking smooth with his soldering abilities, I've been soldering for a while but damn he's good
It helps if you have a good quality 40-60 watt soldering iron, quality solder, and quality wire.
I just found your channel through your video on the science behind pickups. Subscribed, started scrolling thru your videos, and since I've got a ja60cc I've been looking to modify I HAD to check this one out
MY FIRST PLANNED MODS FOR MY JA-60CC WERE GONNA BE 1M POTS! thanks so much for giving me a tutorial to do it!
*sigh* dammit. Now I want to get that Goldo for the Partscaster builds I'm planning for this year. Thanks Colin.
Seriously, thank you for this channel. It is both inspiring, informative, and fun. I found this channel a little over a year ago with your first Axe from the Grave video, and I look forward to every one. Happy Holidays mate! Get some rest!
really impressed by the stock sound but the improvements are much better
I got one of these recently in sea green as I’d seen so many good comments.
Yes it is a nice guitar and I’ll change the pots, so thanks for that.
I want to give a big(and I mean big) thank you to Colin. I've been a fan of buying cheap guitars and "customizing" them For around 15 years but after watching his videos I've taken it a bit further. I'm taking a smoke break from leveling the frets on a Kerry King BC Rich Bronze warlock(think the one Colin "metalized" but with tribal paint) my GFs sister gave me. I never would have had the smarts(or stupidity, I still have to finish my smoke and string it back up)to try something like this. Kepp it loud Colin and as long as you make videos, I'll be watching
It made quite a difference to the sound by changing the pots. Merry Christmas Colin
I've just been putting my first parts-caster thing together and I bought some higher value pots, but put in a standard switch and electronics to get a something I could set-up. Since I've now discovered an issue in one of the pots, I'll be changing them out quicker than I intended. But this video shows just what a difference it can make.
Thanks, and a Merry Christmas to you too Colin! 🎄
In general, when we increase the pot values, we expect the resonant peak at the cutoff to get higher, sharper, bigger. The cutoff frequency doesn’t change much, but there is more bigger, sharper boost at that point.
The peak frequency depends on capacitive load! So longer or more capacitive-per-meter cables will lower the peak, while buffers will raise it
is it right that you can change the cutoff frequency by using a different value cap ?
If you're talking about the tone cap, then kinda no. That cap doesn't really impact the sound until the T pot is already most of the way down. The big factors in determining the actual cutoff frequency with both pots at 10 are pickup inductance and cable capacitance.
@@martinkrauser4029 "buffers to shorten cable runs" can raise it, but that works by reducing cable capacitance, no?
I have 1 Megs in three of my humbucker guitars. I did this after learning that Kurt Cobain’s ‘65 Jaguar had 1 Meg pots. My Jazzmaster is practically a replica of his Jaguar with 1 Megs and a DIMarzio Super Distortion and it sounds great. I have 1 Megs in my Telecaster with Seymour Duncan Hot Rails, and it brightens up a surprisingly dark single-coil-sized humbucker. And I have 1 Megs in my Strat with a single-coil-sized DiMarzio Tone Zone, and this may have been a mistake, but I’m willing to live with it and see if it grows on me.
Alcest's Neige uses a Jazzmaster, and that clean demo you did with the reverb or chorus effect really gave off those Alcest vibes.
@2:04 For the record I still found my self laughing at the reverb on "One Million Ohms" again 8 days after last watching this. Worth the effort then I reckon.
1:47 gotta love that Scot sense of humour 😂😂😂
Yeah it makes a big difference. I am going to have to remember that. Love Harley Bentons. Can't beat that value.
Aye, she sure jangles noow! Happy Hogmanay Col!
Merry Christmas and a very happy Hogmanay!
Does your bridge creak with vibrao use? my GFS trem has been causing a lot of creaking and i think its the bridge not the trem.
I didn't notice any unintentional noises. Perhaps there's enough difference in the angle the strings break over the bridge between the two units that it's causing bridge creak in yours and not mine?
@@ScienceofLoud maybe it's because you built it better? *shots fired*
Ryan I watched your video and I put the GFS unit on my JA-60 ...BUT ... I used the weaker spring plus I don't a lot of dive bombing on it so I didn't notice any noise and the tuning seems OK. So maybe the higher-tension spring is at fault? Maybe suggest swapping out the spring?
@@louisfryzel4618 not a bad idea
@@60CycleHumcast I'd be interested in your findings as that creak would drive me to drink. Or eat.
honestly I'd love 1MEG pots on all of my guitars, even the ones with single coils.
That's the closest you can get to a raw direct to jack sound
Great looking bridge! Thanks for your wee channel mate.
Looks better with that trem and sounds better with the electronic upgrades. Good job!
Harley Benton JA-60CC... sounds more like a motorcycle name. Like I had a Yamaha Exciter 250. That was a motorcycle. But it sounds more like a name for a guitar. Thanks for posting the video.
That’s a nice looking trem you got yourself. Tempting.
Merry Christmas! Sounds awesome. I love my dusenberg Trem. A must add to any stop bar guitar.
This video and the devil-may-care attitude were just what I needed. Excellent. 👍
Got one in leftie white.. Love it... Well I did but then got a dc junior dirty mustard.... Heart has bin stolen.... Lost..... 😮.... Great guitars... Never mind the money..... Great guitars.. Y'all take care now from North Nottinghamshire UK
Hello, could you possibly take a look at the fuzz factory, and explain how it works and what causes the oscillation effect it has.
Merchant City Music! Many happy memories of that place from (fuck me, I've just realised) thirty years ago. Doing stupid shit with big amps that was probably audible in Edinburgh. For tea and biscuits.
I was really considering doing this after buing the new 25th anniversity Harley Benton JA-25 which is basically the same guitar with some upgrades. After all didn't do it. The guitar already has some serius brightness and as demonstrated in this demo the shrill with 1M is just too much. What really made the original setup brighter was moving the pickups higher. This was easier said than done as the screws and pickup holes are not precise.
In the same vein as upgrading the pots, I would make sure that it had a "leaf connector" selector switch. And ASAP, I would look into locking tuners, and eventually a brass nut.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year 🤘
The upgrades are like a sweet kick in the McGregor!
Colin, I've been playing a long time and this is the very first time I've ever heard of anyone putting 1Mohm control pots in a guitar. I think I heard an interesting difference especially in upper mid range. Have a Squier Bullet Mustang HH and I like the pickups fine as-is, they're more than adequately versatile, but I may fiddle with higher-resistance pots next time I'm in there just for fun to see what happens. Thanks for the fresh idea!
try a search for naiant balanced guitar wiring, shitsngiggles yaknow.
@@felderup Thanks, will do. About this video, I'm sure just like everyone you've heard the norm is 250k for single-coils, 500k for dual-coil humbuckers. I'm going to do some more study on what control pot resistance value is actually doing to modulate the signal output, so therefore why a 1Mohm pot might be desirable with some pickups. And would that be more for the vol pot, the tone pot, or both? Some folks have the wrong idea that you're telling the pickups what to do with the controls. No, they just do what they do and you're modulating or "gating" their output. My first thought today was, since pots are relatively cheap and higher resistance is somehow "better," why doesn't everybody just put in 500k or higher pots in the first place? Are manufacturers really that damned cheap?
@@markpell8979 tradition, the design of the electronics in modern guitars was come up with by people that had no more than the equivalent of a shop class understanding of how to do it and a bin of old radio parts. even just replacing the pot with a 1m is rather traditional. if you're willing to rip open the guitar and completely upgrade it, why not try something fun, like e-pots, 4066's and rotary encoders? there are active pots you can get and redoing the guitar as balanced allows adding phantom power, so it'll still be light.
Depends where you come from. Probably it wasn't a thing in the US so with the American brands. I have an old East-German Musima 25k (Basically a distant cousin of a Gibson Melody maker, 2 single coils, LP shape, etc., but with a rotary switch for 4 different sound patterns - most Eastern block guitars had this), with 1meg pots put into it as stock.
With the most trebly setting it is like a cat scratching glass, officially called banjo mode:D..never use it..........
But on other settings, taming the sound by caps around the rotary switch, it is really nice, almost like a strat.
The lad knows his stuff!
Clean
bridge 4:49 old 5:17 new
both 4:59 old 5:29 new
neck 5:08 old 5:39 new
RAT
bridge 6:31 old 6:52 new
both 6:37 old 7:04 new
neck 6:44 old 7:16 new
JUST CHANGE THE POTS. bro, thank you. i have a few guitars that could benefit from this, and one that needed new pots anyway (a firefly that came in crackly.). it's a nice trick up the sleeve to do this first and then assess your sound before reaching for new pickups.
Did anyone catch what value Orange Drop was used? 0.0047?
I'm very new to this, to get more powerful pickups, what do I look for. Must b economical. Thanks. Jay T.
Liam Lynch would like to have a word with you about "The science of whatever" hahaha, happy holidays!!
Wiggle Stick! It's been a few decades since I've heard that term! Works for me, though. 😂
I have GOT to do this upgrade to mine..!!!
with that color blue, can we get a St Andrews Cross mod?
Well, I had quite a debakel with my JA-60SB. The bridge was fucked from the start, the setup was meh, the all the fret ends had sharp corners. Thomann came partly thru, I´m still not done with them. Only the finish is really good and the sound- I like it as is.
Master question: How do I file the fret slots down without slot files? The nut is just a general off the shelf, I think I could gain a little there together with some new Pyramid strings.
Just send it back and you'll get a new one. Usually their customer service is very good.
Unfortunately being a budget there are some duds although I have 7 and only had two guitars that had minor flaws (but I'm very picky). Since I live in Germany it was no problem sending it back and getting a new one.
@LaLaLand. Not a guitar player/tweaker myself, but could you use a short length of used wound guitar string to adjust your fret slots? Maybe the next gauge/step up for each slot? Would this work for you? Seasons Greetings. Stay safe and well.
i remember removing all my wires, putting in a seymour duncan and a new split pot, and not having access to my expensive new neck pickup for 8 months because I had too many new variables to brute force
OK I hear hire trouble response from the new pots a little bit clearer
Nice clean sounding guitar
Hey ho ! Thats a wonderful upgrade. I ve got an JA Firemiste 25th by Harley Benton and I love it but i am missing the vibrato... so how is it one year later ? Do the strings break faster without a rollerbridge? That would be a really interesting information :)
Hope you had a good christmas back then ;)
greetings from saarland, germandy
Colin, could you do a video on the gig bags & cases from Thomann? I like their prices but it's hard to judge them from pictures.
It would be the perfect sponsored video.
Do you (or anybody reading) know what the different model numbers on the JA-60 refer to? When you referred to them as Jazzmaster pickups in the video I got a bit confused because was sure when I bought mine a few years back they were advertised as P90's. Having checked the Thomann website I now see that the description of the pickups on the CC and OW models are "JM Alnico 5" whereas the SB pickups are "Alnico 5 vintage style p90 single coils". Are these different descriptions correct or are the pickups essentially the same?
Interesting. I learned a few things from this. Thanks.
Happy Christmas Colin ya maddy.
Love the vids. Does that Trem come in lefty model ?
Pots and Caps are a good, fast, easy, and inexpensive way to change the sound of your Pickups.
I bought a handful of roller bridges for those kind of bridge probably work better with that. I’m thinking of getting that left-handed.
gotta love an MCM name drop!
hi, i’m interested in carrying out these upgrades for my harley benton JA kit, just wondering when i go into your bio what options do i press i just don’t want to buy the wrong things cheers
My h b sg left handed one of the tone pots went crappy after 2 plus years I put guitar fetish pick ups and tone system in it easy Peezy still took an hour and a half because the cavity wasn’t big enough for full-size pots didn’t have to cut it just had to wiggle everything around
Yes, I habe that Duesy trem on two guitars, and they are a blast. Luckily, Duesenberg's mastermind Atze owns Göldo too ;-)
sounding great! I'm afraid of messing up with the soldering so better to ask a luthier to do that. In your opinion what is the ideal pickup height on that guitar?
The ideal pickup height for any guitar is always what sounds best - use your ears, not a ruler.
@@ScienceofLoud To be honest I struggle to hear much difference. Guitar sounds a bit dull either way. The strings being half round was probably not the best choice for this guitar 😅.
The link to the pots is wrong. They are only 500k
I want to change out the pickups; are these considered p90s or regular jazzmaster pickups? What are some options that could fit in this pickguard?
Now to play some Ventures tunes!
Jazzmaster w/Bigsby into Deluxe Reverb. Anyway, thank you, the differences pre and post potentiometer was drastic. Inspired me to swap them out first, before changing pickups on my HB 458. Again, thank you Colin.
What size value capacitor with 1 meg potentiometers
Thanks for the video! I have bought that tremolo...did you use the washers ?
Bless Colin at 1:47 "because I'm that farken good"
Merchant City Music is a great shop!
Great modification tips, definitely going to try them! How possible do you think it would be to swap out the JM-style pickups for a set of humbuckers? Would like to use mine for more rock / grunge / metal stuff. Thanks!
If you get a custom pickguard cut for hum buckers it shouldn’t be too difficult. There are plenty of companies that will make one from a tracing or sending the original guard.
So, how many did I buy?
Hey Collin. I've a question. Is it possible to use a blowtorch to burn an Ibanez Gibraltar 3 bridge to give it that sweet burnt chrome look? There doesn't seem to be any drop-in replacements for them because the post spacing is wider by roughly 8 millimeters, and I want to customize a ART100 I scored at a pawnshop with that cool burnt chrome look. I assume I would have to disassemble the entire bridge and tailpiece and put the flame to each part individually. Would it work? I know it was a cheaper production guitar, so i assume that it is probably chrome plated copper, and copper has a low melting point. Any info would be greatly appreciated sir.
I've done this before on chrome parts - this should work, but some parts like it better than others.
Too much localised heat can cause the plating to bubble, and some cheaper cast zinc parts will melt before the chrome plating can even change colour - turning to liquid inside the chrome shell (I ruined a few tuning buttons this way)
I can't speak for that particular bridge directly, but my advice would be first find out if it is zinc alloy, if not then take it apart to component pieces and clean them all well with a degreaser (finger prints and dirt will cause problems to the colouring process)
I used a small butane torch (the kind a chef might use on a crème brûlée) and the key is to keep moving to avoid localised heat bubbling the plating. Once hot enough it will change through straw into blues and purples. That can happen quickly, so pull back sooner rather than later.
Copper underplating won't be an issue, copper's melting point is far above the temperatures you'll be using. (1000C as compared to the 300-400C needed for bluing chrome)
Maybe worth while grabbing some cheap sacrificial parts, like chrome pickup cover to practice on if you haven't done this before.
@@ScienceofLoud Thank you so much! I've never done it before, I'm rather handy at these types of things though. One more question, how do I determine if it is zinc alloy or chrome?
@@randomcompdude To be clear:
The plating is chrome, the underlying metal is what might be Zinc Alloy, or it could be brass, or steel, or whatever other metal.
I would begin by seeing if there is any information regarding the materials online, if you can't find anything then proceed with caution and be prepared to purchase a new bridge.
@@ScienceofLoud Thank you!! I'll look online, maybe see if I can scuff up the bridge on the bottom of it or something. I really appreciate your advice.
Have you decided to keep the 1M pots or do you think you may try the 500k ones? I want to do something with my JA-60 sunburst but I don't solder or have the tools (or the skill or patience) so I will have to pay somebody to do the mods. My guitar tech "guy" recommends 500k pots but I'm torn between them and the 1M?
The audible difference between 250k and 500k volume pots is greater than that between 500k and 1M. But you can always use equalization down the line from the guitar to knock down the treble as needed. So if you are only doing the mod once, use 1M and have an EQ pedal handy. When using EQ, 10 cuts is better than one boost.
@@JohnShalamskas Thanks. That has been my thought basically. I would think you could always lower the treble if it is too much. My "guy"" still urges the 500k and says also putting in a matching volume pot isn't worth the price of the part and his installation charge.
@@louisfryzel4618 I wasn't takling about a tone pot.
@@JohnShalamskas You're right. My mistake. However most of those reviewers talk about changing only the tone pot I think ... although I'm told it would be optimal to change both. My "guy" for example said he would suggest I change just the tone pot.
The volume pot will make a difference to your tone since it presents a load to the pickup coil. The higher the value of the volume pot, the lower the load that the pickup sees.
i looked it up, i.e. the goldo, it's 99 pounds... on a cheap guitar?
Any chance you might do a video on their GuitarBass VS? I plan to grab one at some point but I'd like to know your opinion and an affiliate link would definitely be used.
My POS soldering iron never works like this... I can crank it all the way up and I feel like I have to hold it onto something for 9 years.
What value capacitor did you use?
Is it weird that I am really close to ordering the 25th model, even though I haven’t picked up any of my 15 guitars in months? GAS persists even in a long hiatus.😂
Ok that’s me buying a HB Jazzmaster then! Been thinking of dipping my toe into the world of Harley Benton for a while now anyway.
what is the difference between JA-60 OW and JA-60 CC?
The colour.
OW stands for Olympic White while CC stands for Contemporary Colours.
Merry xmas!
They were 250k? I kind of like the idea of making them sound more like a single coil. Maybe you need to get two.
Not related to this vid but when would a treble bleed be beneficial?
Only if you ever turn down the V pot ;) Some people expect and rely upon the treble loss when they turn down (if maybe only subconsciously), but the bigger pot WILL cause more of that, too.
If you notice a change in tone (losing highs) when rolling the volume down, that can be somewhat mitigated with a treble bleed. The higher the pot values, the less needed it is. This is only relevant to passive pick-ups, active circuits do not have that flaw.
agreed, higher pot values are a bigger deal than treble bleeds. (albeit treble bleeds are better publicized)
by the time you've upped the pot values , the impact of treble bleeds becomes small to the point of negligible.
I wish this Goldo Vibrato would have for left-handed guitar
If I were to describe the difference, it's like the stock pots sounded like you were playing with a towel over the cab and the CTS pots sound like you took the towel away.
I've been using 1M pots for years, and while I have no grudge against them, I think their impact is widely misunderstood. Do higher-resistance volume pots load down pickups less and retain more upper frequencies? You betcha they do. *HOWEVER* they generally only do so if you leave your volume up *full* , such that your amp or first pedal "sees" a fork in the road at the guitar output jack of 1M going to ground vs whatever the impedance of the pickups is. When pitted against 1M, the amp "sees" more of the pickup.
But what happens if you turn your volume *down* a bit? Let's turn down our 1M volume pot to around 7 or so. We will have added somewhere just shy of 80k resistance *in series with* the pickup/s. Your pickup/s are now loaded down. Not as much as if one was using a 250k pot, but you'll still lose top end. This is partly why Fender instituted compensation caps, that would allow treble to bypass whatever series resistance the volume pot might add.
So, in view of this my recommendation to those wishing to hot rod their guitar is to consider how you use your volume pot. If you always leave it up full, and only turn down to hear if the phone is ringing, stop unwanted feedback, or provide instructions to your bandmates, then vay con dios with a 500k or 1M pot. *IF* you are a volume pot twiddler, though, constantly fiddling with it, whether for swells or some other purpose, like our late friend Jeff Beck (RIP) did, then you will want to include a compensation cap on the volume pot, or maybe even deliberately use a lower-resistance pot. Jeff Beck deliberately exploited the manner in which the pickups were loaded down by the volume pot, so that;s something to consider. In short, higher-resistance volume pots do not always constitute an improvement; context matters.
Two mods I will heartily endorse. First, I use a 1M (linear) Tone pot as a *bidirectional* control. The Tone pot wiper goes to the input of the Volume pot as per usual. One outside pot lug goes to a standard-value cap, connected to ground, for the traditional muting/muffling. However, the other outside lug goes to a cap about 1/5-1/4 the value of the first one, and is also connected to ground. So, if the standard cap is .022uf (22nf), the "other" cap is something in the neighbourhood of 4700pf-5600pf.
The "full treble" position now becomes the midpoint of the pot's rotation, and the pot behaves like two tone pots in parallel. Moving it in one direction gets you traditional muffling, while moving it in the other direction from midpoint rounds off the edges without muffling. Some might even say it gets you a more P90 or even humbucker top end. You now have two different rolloffs at your disposal. One of the perks is that it only takes half the rotation to go from full treble-cut to full bright. If your Tone control is in a location where you can use your picking hand pinky finger, it makes it easier to do "pinky wah".
The 2nd mod requires either a push-pull pot or a toggle switch, and is known as the half-out-of-phase mod. I learned about this from a review of the Jerry Donahue Telecaster many years back. One of the 5 positions on the switch puts the neck and bridge out of phase, but also puts a cap in series with the neck pickup to shave off some of its bass. On a Tele, it sounds remarkably like the neck+middle position on a Strat, despite NOT having a middle pickup. I've installed it in two of my guitars and I love it. There is NO nasal honk, and NO volume drop. Moreover, I've installed it on a dual-humbucker guitar of mine and it works there as well. Obviously, it won't make a dual HB guitar quack like a Strat, but it DOES provide a very usable dual-pickup setting that is different than both pickups in phase, and absent the nasal honk and volume drop. Personally, I use a .01uf (10nf) cap for the neck-out-of-phase, and find that satisfactory, but feel free to try other values. If it works on a dual HB guitar, I imagine it will also add something to a Jazzmaster. Recommended!! 👍
Small TaTa: how does a strobe tuner differ from others and why it is so highly regarded?
Colin- havent you seen christmas tree drill bits?
This guitar is rockin'! But it ain't surfin'....
Kudos to your wee brain on these mods! Great improvement.
Personally, I’d be fine with the tuning stability of the stop tail. I might consider putting better pickups in the guitar.
Six String Supplies are better than Alegree for hardware and CUSTOMER CARE but I do like certain Alegree single coil pickups.