Turning my switch on my guitar to a killswitch...?

  • Thread starter Thread starter elenore19
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usually on these switches theres 3 prongs i beleive, one for each pickup, and a ground...and how the switch is constructed, i dont think you can bypass the middle unless theres a diff switch im not familiar with...for example, tom morello's got that setup on his 'creamy' guitar, but it's only because the switch itself is actually broken lol...i just put a 2-way killswitch in my right horn of my strat, and i've had a 3way toggle in place of the 2nd volume knob, so my 2-way is the kill, and my 3way is just a selector now
 
ZoSo58LP said:
usually on these switches theres 3 prongs i beleive, one for each pickup, and a ground...and how the switch is constructed, i dont think you can bypass the middle unless theres a diff switch im not familiar with...for example, tom morello's got that setup on his 'creamy' guitar, but it's only because the switch itself is actually broken lol...i just put a 2-way killswitch in my right horn of my strat, and i've had a 3way toggle in place of the 2nd volume knob, so my 2-way is the kill, and my 3way is just a selector now
Click to expand...
Oh alright. Hmm..

So like, would I be able to easily add a killswitch to my guitar? Maybe replace the tone knob? Or something?
 
if you have ample room and are willing to rid yourself of a tone knob..now remember, if you do this, you'll be getting the NATURAL sound from the pickups..when you bypass tone, you get the straight sound, whereas with a tone, even at 10 (which to me is the treble end of the knob), there's still a tonal change being applied to the pickups! i don't have a tone, and my hum sounds fine without it. liek i said, if theres plenty of room in the back to replace your knob with a killswitch, its easy! the wirings simple:

1.) cut the wire that goes from your controls to your output jack.
2.) if you want to use a killswitch, a 2-way is the best way to go! so if you use a 2-way, solder a wire to whichever end post you want the ON position to be
3.) pigtail the wires from the killswitch, the control area wire that you cut that goes to the jack, and the jack area wire that you cut thats hooked to the jack. solder all 3 together.
4.) now for a ground..the middle prong should be the ground on the 2way, so connect that to any ground..what i did was just pigtailed it to the ground that goes to the jack (my problem is though that I think my wirings too messy in my guitar, as i've been getting some unwanted noise even on just teh humbucker lateley) so just make sure your connections are great, or run a new ground to be sure you wont get extra noise
5.) now it should all be connected! words may be hard to read to udnerstand this, so if ya want more help just PM me or wahtever and ill draw ya up a simple diagram of how i got mine to work!
 
I'm just curious - why would you want to waste a pickup switch position on this? If you want your guitar to be silent, why wouldn't you just turn the volume all the way down? What's the purpose of a "kill switch"?
 
Just turn down the volume of the pickup you dont want to use
 
And also read other posts to see if somebody has already said what you're about to say
 
ggunn said:
I'm just curious - why would you want to waste a pickup switch position on this? If you want your guitar to be silent, why wouldn't you just turn the volume all the way down? What's the purpose of a "kill switch"?
Click to expand...

A staccato effect from flipping the switch back and forth in rythmm, like a super-abrupt vibrato.

Drill a hole, add a mini SPST to the output from the tone knob. If you don't want to drill, get a concentric pot, use one ring for master volume or tone, the other for neck pickup blend. I'd lean towards the tone knob/neck pickup volume combo, as I am picky about the action of master volume knobs.
 
Ace Frehley's LP middle switch position was a "kill". He used it all the time. Sounds cool. He didn't use any other switches. Just the regular p/u selector switch. I don't know how he did it though. i'm sure he was drunk and fooling around and fucked his shit up and it just ended up that way. :)
 
I remember reading somewhere, probably a mid-90s issue of Guitar World, that the bridge pickup was the only one that was actually wired in Ace's guitar, which would make the other 2 switch positions act like kill switches.

I think it said he detatched the wiring to the neck & middle pickup in order to be able to fit the smokebombs in there or something.
 
JB1979 said:
I think it said he detatched the wiring to the neck & middle pickup in order to be able to fit the smokebombs in there or something.
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Well, as long as he had a good reason... ;^)
 
Lol. Ace's smoker and rocket shooter guitars were specially equipped and werent used during the normal set. He'd bring them out for one song and a solo. The smoker would damn near suffocate him. :p

Anyway, my point is that his guitars were rigged to kill the pickups in the middle position with no extra switches are trickery that I know of anyway.
 
Wow, that stacato effect sounds increadably cool!!!

I would try a spring loaded momentary button switch. Then you would hit the note/chord and then simply push on the button to kill the sound and let go to turn it back on. and off. and on. and off. etc.

I think putting it in the circuit between the input jack and whatever is next in line would be the easiest approach. Now the question is.... how to avoid popping/arcing??? Or would it even be an issue?

Thanks, now I've got another project for my Frankenstrat!
 
honestly, the easiest way here is the 2-way or 3-way toggle..listen to any Rage song to understand how Tom Morello efectiveley utilizies the speed of the toggle, rather than a button
 
Typically I remember turning the neck pickup all the way down and the bridge pickup maxed-then switch the toggle switch between the middle and bridge positions for that effect. Didn't they use that way back on the 'Spirit in the Sky' song???
 
yeah this is the easiest way to do a toggle with the bridge, i did it forever too..but i also liked the sound of mixing my bridge and neck, or just the neck, therefore i added a killswitch so i could toggle with diff pickup positions.
 
The Gibson BFG's have a killswitch

where the normal pickup toggle is.

I think they put the pickup selector toggle in place of one of the tone controls.

You can see the demo on Gibson's site.


http://www.gibson.com/bfg/
 
get a push button volume knob. push down klls it, but if still has the regular volume know function.
 
Greg_L said:
Ace Frehley's LP middle switch position was a "kill". He used it all the time. Sounds cool. He didn't use any other switches. Just the regular p/u selector switch. I don't know how he did it though. i'm sure he was drunk and fooling around and fucked his shit up and it just ended up that way. :)
Click to expand...
A les paul has a separate volume knob for each pickup. Turn the volume of the neck pickup all the way off and flip the switch to the neck position. Instant kill switch.
 
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