Can't figure out why this Jazz Bass has been wired this way

[Meso]

hey everyone ..

i am doing some work on a 50 year old Ibanez Jazz Bass which has been tinkered with by a variety of techs over it's life.

While i am doing that i noticed that the capacitor is soldered in a strange way compared to a traditional Jazz Bass wiring and i have no idea why it has been done this way.

The tone pot works as it is and i'm wondering if it has a different effect wired like this with the Volume pots directly wired to the output jack and the capacitor wirde between the output jack and middle pole of the tone pot .... compared to how it usually is with the volume pots wired to the tone pot and the capacitor to ground and L3 of the tone pot.

Here is a traditional Jazz Bass wiring:



and here is how it's currently wired on the Ibanez J-Bass:




Can anyone clear this up for me ?

Many thanks in advance for any clues/help with this

[Greg Robinson]

In the second diagram the righthand (counterclockwise) terminal of the tone pot should be grounded.

While these two might look different from a layout perspective, they're actually electrically identical. The series order of the tone control variable resistance and capacitor has been swapped, but this is electrically equivalent - the order of parts in series does not matter. Capacitor resistor/resistor capacitor, the electrons don't care.
The choice of one layout or the other is entirely down to choice/convenience. Perhaps the person who wired it found it quicker/simpler to wire the cap between jack and tone control rather than to the back of the tone control? Doesn't matter, because they're electrically and functionally exactly the same.

[Meso]

Hey thanks Greg for your quick reply and clearing this up ... as you might have guessed electronics are not my strong point i would never have guessed that these wirings are electrically identical .. so if wiring are electrically identical there should be no difference in tone at all, right ?

and yes the right hand terminal is grounded to the back, just forgot to put it in the second diagram.

[Greg Robinson]

You're welcome, and correct, no tonal difference at all. If you look at different wiring diagrams for different guitars you'll find both of these wiring versions (cap "before" pot, pot before cap) used in different traditional layouts, like Tele vs Strat respectively. Ignoring any differences in component values, they are both still electrically equivalent, and the tone control still functions the same, it's just more convenient for one to be wired the in one manner, and one to be wired in the other due to the different control arrangement.