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  • Electric Guitar Switches – a Beginner's Guide

    By Phil O'Keefe |

    Electric Guitar Switches – a Beginner's Guide

    Confused about what electric guitar switches do? We're here to help

    by Phil O'Keefe

     

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    Fig. 1: The toggle switch on a Gibson SG Electric Guitar

    Electric guitar switches are usually three-position switches. When the guitar switch is flipped up (towards you as you're holding the guitar), the guitar pickup that is closest to the guitar's neck (the "neck pickup") is usually selected by itself. On some guitars, this setting is marked "Rhythm." When the electric guitar switch is flipped down (away from you and towards the floor), the guitar pickup that is closest to the bridge (the bridge pickup) is activated, and the guitar neck pickup is turned off. This setting is marked as "Treble" on some guitars. A middle guitar switch position lets you use both pickups simultaneously

    Most Squier guitars and Fender guitars (and many others) use a blade style guitar switch for pickup selection. These come in two common varieties - three-position guitar switches and five-position guitar switches. Externally the two guitar switches look the same, and the only way to know what you're dealing with is to click through the settings and see how many there are. Three-position guitar switches are more commonly found on two-pickup guitars, while the five-position blade guitar switch is a common feature on guitars equipped with three pickups, like the Stratocaster shown in Figure 2.

     

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    Fig. 2: A modern Stratocaster uses a 5-way blade switch

    Three Position Electric Guitar Switch
    Three-position blade guitar switches are wired and function similarly to a three-position toggle guitar switch, with one setting (usually with the guitar switch slid fully "forward" or towards the neck) activating the neck pickup, a middle position where both pickups are active, and a third where only the bridge pickup is turned on.

    Five Position Electric Guitar Switch
    Five-way blade guitar switches can be wired in a variety of ways, but the most common has the bridge pickup turned on by itself when the guitar switch is thrown all the way "down", a combination of the bridge and middle pickups in the second position, the middle pickup alone in the third (or middle) position, the middle and neck pickups together in the fourth position, and finally the neck pickup alone when the guitar switch is flipped "up" (or towards the neck) all the way.

    Rotary Guitar Switches
    Rotary guitar switches (Fig. 3) often look like ordinary knobs, and they rotate like a volume knob does, but they actually click between different guitar switch positions when the knob is turned. Rotary guitar switches are sometimes used for pickup selection (such as on the vintage Fender Electric XII and some Paul Reed Smith models), but they're also commonly used as tone controls too, such as with the Gibson Varitone control.

     

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    Push Button Guitar Switch
    Even less common than guitars equipped with rotary guitar switches are guitars with individual pushbutton on/off guitar switches, or individual on/off mini toggle or slide guitar switches (Figure 4) for activating each pickup. These require multiple movements of the guitar switch to turn one pickup off and turn another one on, which takes extra time and effort, but they do have the advantage of providing more pickup combinations on guitars with three pickups than what you'll be able to achieve with a five-position blade guitar switch on its own.

     

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    Figure 4: This Bass VI has individual on/off slider switches for each pickup, plus another one wired for bass-cut

     

    When is a pickup switch not a pickup switch?
    There are some single-pickup guitars, such as the Fender Esquire, that have what look like pickup select switches on them, which seems kind of unnecessary, since there's only one electric guitar pickup. What gives? Well, in the case of the Esquire, the three-position guitar switch is wired to provide different tonal options, just as a regular pickup selection switch does, but it achieves them in a different way. Instead of switching between different guitar pickups, one position gives you the sound of the pickup alone, with the tone control completely bypassed, the middle position gives you the sound of the pickup but adds in the usual tone control, while the third position adds a capacitor that dramatically rolls off the treble, giving it a very deep, bass-heavy sound. Other guitars with single pickups are out there with similar guitar switch arrangements that may be wired to different tone caps, or pickup coil splits or other similar tone altering functions.

    Other switches for other tasks
    In addition to the main guitar pickup selection switch, some guitars have additional switches that provide extra functions. Oftentimes these take the form of additional smaller-sized toggle switches that are mounted on the guitar's body or pickguard. In fact, some guitars have a bewildering assortment of switches on them - enough that they can occasionally be a bit confusing and perplexing for even experienced guitarists!

    Sometimes where these guitar switches are located isn't immediately obvious because they're built into the guitar's other controls. The Volume and / or Tone rotary controls on some electric guitars have "push / pull" (Figure 5A and 5B) or occasionally "push / push" switches built into them that activate various features, such as pickup coil tapping (which turns a two coil humbucking pickup into a single coil pickup by disabling one of the humbucker's two pickup coils), or by inverting the polarity / phase of one of the guitar pickups, which creates a weaker, hollow, out-of-phase sound when that pickup is combined with another guitar pickup.

     

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    Figure 5A and 5B: These two photos show the push / pull tone knob (on the left) on a PRS CE 24, which is wired for pickup coil tapping

     

    Other times, mini toggle type guitar switches are used for accessing features such as built-in preamps and boosts, but these are far less common.

    How do you know for certain what all of the various switches on a particular guitar model do? You can always ask the store clerk, check the manual (if one was included with the guitar), or try the manufacturer's website - many companies list that information online, even for their discontinued models. Of course if you're really stumped, you can always try playing "stump the experts" and call a Sweetwater Sales Engineer for more information. 

     

    Want to discuss Electric Guitar Switching or have questions or comments about this article? Then head over to this thread in the Electric Guitar forum right here on Harmony Central and join the discussion!

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    phil-3eaec998.jpg.46ddfbdcdb00af7d80df80a4240598bf.jpg

    Phil O'Keefe is a multi-instrumentalist, recording engineer / producer and the Senior Editor of Harmony Central. He has engineered, produced and performed on countless recording sessions in a diverse range of styles, with artists such as Alien Ant Farm, Jules Day, Voodoo Glow Skulls, John McGill, Michael Knott and Alexa's Wish. He is a former featured monthly columnist for EQ magazine, and his articles and product reviews have also appeared in Keyboard, Electronic Musician and Guitar Player magazines.  

     




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    • CMS Author

    It's about time somebody wrote an article like this. Guitar switches and knobs are notorious for being unmarked and in the "well, everybody knows what that switch does" category.

     

    The real meat here is in your last paragraph, except that I've never seen a manual for a guitar (maybe because I've never bought a new electric guitar) or much of an explanation on the manager's web site. Ask a clerk? Ummmm . . . maybe they know more about guitars than microphones or mixers.

     

    But thanks for the starter info.

     

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    • Members

    An article about the quality of various switches put out by different manufacturers would be helpful, i.e. within a 5-position blade-type switch are some better than others? Does one stand out as the best? Also, are some tone and/or volume potentiometers better than others? Why?

     

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