1991 Jackson SL1 w/Jackson Active pups - replacement pots?

[Jbad199]

Hello there,

First post. I called fender to order parts and they told me to come here! You folks are keeping Jackson alive because apparently no records of anything seems to exist from their purchase in 02'

I digress. My soloist has been stuck in its case for about 15 years . There is something going on with the active electronics that causes a random and sudden burst of radio signal interference. It's like the whole guitar turns into an antenna, and plays am radio literately louder than the signal from the pups. I could get it to go away if I played with the middle tone pot by just turning in from 0 to 10 until something in that pot would cause it to go away...start jamming and 5 minutes later it happens again. Unusable. I'm open to a diagnosis, but since there are no other wear items other than pots, and I seem to have trouble with pots going bad on me and causing the ground connection to fail at random, I'm thinking this will solve my problem...

My Jackson soloist has the Jackson branded active picks in ssh config. The pots in it are JB B-50K ohm aw (2 of these) and a 15a 250k ohm aw (1 of these). Where can I source replacement pots to solder in?

[JCB RR1]

I'm no expert, but as far as I know Jackson USA guitars are fitted with CTS pots, maybe yours being older may have others installed.
You can find them her https://www.allparts.com/cts

Other source of replacement parts is http://www.fretsonthenet.com/

Someone with better understanding of electronics will probably point you in the right direction.

[toejam]

FYI, Jackson pickups are not active. They're passive and can use some kind of Jackson active electronics such as a midboost, gain boost, wah sweep. Which module do you have?

Personally, I'd just pull the active system and use the pickups with new 250k or 500k pots.

[charvel750]

Well, the 1991 USA models did use the pots you mentioned. I have successfully replaced the (somewhat hard to find) 50 K ohm pots with (easy to find) EMG 25 K ohm pots. No noticeable difference. The 250 K ohm pot should be very easy to find, it's just for the tone. Chances are, only the volume pot is causing the trouble you describe. Carefully unsolder it from the active circuit board and replace with an EMG 25 K ohm pot and see if that fixes everything. If not, replace the mid boost pot too, then the tone.

[ps43203]

I have used the Jackson branded humbuckers J50?, Way back in the day. Anyway, they work fine with standard pots, 250k/500k. Just FYI.
It wont hurt to update it, unless you need to have it stock. If so I get it.

[charvel750]

Yeah, those pickups work fine with "standard" pots like 250k/500k ohms. But if he's running the active circuit those pots will be completely mismatched for that application.