I've read several comments about certain ASATs having a thin tone, 60-cycle hum and a quacky tone in the middle position. I've been through my share of ASATs, and finally came across one that had these problems. I've actually had it for about a year now. I'm not sure about its history, other than that the date stamps are from 1986 and it's in the production log on 10/16/86. I haven't taken good photos yet, but I believe it is this one from Greg Gagliano's website: http://www.ggjaguar.com/86bldasat.htm.
Anyway, this is a beautiful guitar with less-than-stellar tone. There is quite a bit of 60-cycle hum in all positions, the pickups sound thin compared to my other ASATs, and the middle position gives a significant volume drop and sounds almost out-of-phase. I finally got around to popping the hood and comparing the wiring to the diagram in the Gallery. Here's the diagram:
Here is the actual wiring in this '86 ASAT:





What I can see so far is that:
1. There is no wire running from the volume pot to the body of the switch.
2. The grounding wire to the bridge is attached to the volume pot instead of the tone pot.
3. There is a resistor rather than a wire connecting one tab to the casing of the tone pot.
4. The wires to the jack are not the same color as in the diagram.
I'm thinking at this point it will need a trip to the technician to fix #1-#3, as my soldering skills leave much to be desired. Before I do that, does anybody see anything I've missed?
Also, if anybody currently owns an ASAT with similar tone issues would you mind comparing yours to this? I am going to pop the hood on a couple of other early ASATs tonight to see if they match the circuit from the Gallery.
Ken