I am in the process of building a Hotcake and I found with the LM741 that I am getting a lot of fizzy sounds at low gain. I was reading over at Madbean Forums that the Bluesberry mod was supposed to help this by smoothing out the decay notes. A member over at Madbean Forums (Timbo) gave some instructions on implementing this mod.

The “Bluesberry” mod, which puts a 1N914 from pin 2 (cathode) to pin 3 of the IC, and from pin 2(cathode) to ground (pin 4).

I am using a layout by BeeJive and will free float these diodes to test with and see if it solves my issues. If not, I will start to look at other ICs or other component values.

Edit: Still have the issues. Need to look more into it.

Many people don’t realize it, but a pickup won’t sound right unless it’s at the right height. Those screws on the side are there for a reason! If a pickup is too close to the strings, it will be louder, and sound dark and muddy. This may sound like a good thing for some, but it’s really not. Pickup height is measured similar to the way action is:

• Put a steel ruler on top of of the low E string’s pole piece on the neck pickup, and measure the distance between the pole and the bottom of the string. For single coils, this should be 6/64″ (2.3813 mm).
• Do the same for the high E’s pole piece. This should be around 5/64″ (1.9844 mm).
• Repeat for the bridge pickup.
• On humbucker equipped guitars, the pickups are not as close to the strings, since they have higher output. It should be 4/64″ (1.5875 mm) on the bass side, and 3/64″ (1.1906 mm) on the treble.
• Unless you have a guitar with an angled neck, such as most Gibsons, pickup height will be relatively the same. This does not apply to Jaguars unless you have shimmed your neck (I’ll discuss that later). Just remember that the pickup height should always be the same amount from the strings.

This information was taken from Ranger’s Guitars, which seems to be a dying website. This is the reason I re-blogged it to save the information. I liked his breakdown and simplicity of the instructions. 

Every guitarist should know how to intonate a guitar. What is intonation, you ask? Well, there are many ways to answer that, but basically, it’s how well your guitar is in tune with it’s natural harmonics at the 12th fret. Most modern electric guitars feature six adjustable saddles, so that you can fix intonation when needed for each string. It’s actually really easy to do. So, here’s how it works.

• Tune your guitar to standard tuning, using an electronic tuner.
• Play the low E string, open, and make sure it’s still in tune. Then fret the same string at the 12th fret and play into the tuner. It should give you the same reading for both notes when intonated correctly.
• If the fretted note is higher than the open one, move the saddle back by tightening the screw on the back of the bridge, behind the saddles. If the fretted note is lower, do the opposite, and loosen the screw.
• After the adjustment, re-tune the open string, and check again to see if the fretted 12th string matches. Repeat this process until the two notes match, then repeat for each string.

This information was taken from Ranger’s Guitars, which seems to be a dying website. This is the reason I re-blogged it to save the information. I liked his breakdown and simplicity of the instructions. 

These are notes I found on the Fender Jaguar but it should work for the Jazzmaster also.

Action is a key factor in how a guitar plays. Simply put, action is the distance between the strings and the frets. A lot of people will tell you that the best setup is to have the lowest action possible without buzzing, but this is not necessarily true. It is true that a guitar with lower action is easier to play, but it often does not sound as good. Different styles of music use different actions. It is best to experiment with it until you feel you’ve reached the right height for your playing style. To measure action, you’ll need a ruler that will measure 1/64 of an inch (or millimeters if you’re outside of the US), and an allen key that will fit into the saddle/bridge posts. Here’s how to set up action:

• With all the strings up to pitch in standard tuning, place the ruler on the 17th fret, and measure the distance between the bottom of the low E string and the top of the fret.
• Normally, action should be anywhere from 4/64″ (1.5875 mm) to 8/64″ (3.175 mm), depending on what you think feels right. I myself compromise by using an action of around 6/64″.
• On a Jaguar/Jazzmaster, if you feel the action is too low or too high, you can roughly adjust it by turning the allen screws in the bridge posts. Tightening will raise the bridge; loosening will lower it.
• Once you get it to about the right height, on many Fender guitars (including the Jag/JM), you can fine tune the height of each individual saddle. Once again, tighten the allen screws on the saddle to raise it, loosen them to lower it.
• After obtaining the right height, repeat the process for each string.

This information was taken from Ranger’s Guitars, which seems to be a dying website. This is the reason I re-blogged it to save the information. I liked his breakdown and simplicity of the instructions.