Lollar Pickups Blog

Welcome to the Lollar Pickups Blog, where we share in-depth information and stories about the pickups we build.

The Mystery of the ‘59 Jazzmaster Tone

The mystery of the ‘59 Jazzmaster tone.

I still see discussions on internet forums about whether the wood in an electric guitar has any effect on its tone, or if it’s all in the pickup. There are some people who insist the instrument itself makes no difference in its tone.

There was a good series of articles a few years ago in the Guild of American Luthiers quarterly magazine about how just the body shape of a solid body electric guitar affects nodal patterns of vibration at different frequencies—just the shape of the body!

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Size DOES Matter

When replacing potentiometers (pots), there are differences in shaft size you’ll need to be aware of. The shaft we are referring to is the part of the pot with threading that sticks through the guitar top or pickguard where it is held down by a threaded nut. First, there are differences between metric vs imperial shaft diameters, with metric being about 1/4” in diameter and imperial being 3/8” in diameter. In my opinion, if you have the smaller diameter shafts, it’s worth reaming out the hole to accept a 3/8” shaft. The larger diameter pots are typically higher quality in all aspects. Fortunately, you will usually only find small diameter pots on the cheapest guitars. Always use a reamer to enlarge the holes because a twist tip drill can crack the wood of the guitar top.

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