Guitar Tech Support - Replacing Volume and Tone with On/Off and Kill switch

[CharIie]

Hi,

Just wondering if you have any guitar techs on the forum, or anyone with the skills/knowledge to help me out.
I just came across an article of someone saying they replaced the volume and tone knobs on their guitar by a on/off button and a kill switch. They justify this choice as being easier to use since they always play on max volume and with the tone toned all the way up, and that it prevents them from accidentally altering the knobs' setting when playing.
I do love the idea and I'd like to try something like that on some old guitar of mine that I do not use much and wouldn't care messing up (LTD Viper 100FM). However, I have absolutely no knowledge in electronics. I have soldered quite a bit throughout my high school education, but nothing that involved much electronics.

Is there anything to be particularly careful about?
How would you go about undertaking a project like that?

Thanks in advance.

 

[CharIie]

Oh, and just another quick question. I cannot seem to find a "On/Off" switch or button anywhere. Anyone knows what those can be?

 

[azistenostora]

Oh, and just another quick question. I cannot seem to find a "On/Off" switch or button anywhere. Anyone knows what those can be?

Electronically speaking, any two way switch would do. You could also use a three way switch, and simply not use the 3'rd position so it would be off on 1,2 and on on 3 or something like that. I personally never used the tone knob for anything sensible ever, so have disconnected it in some of my guitars as it's quite easy to "roll off" and wonder why your tone went all shit

 

[azistenostora]

Hi,
Is there anything to be particularly careful about?
How would you go about undertaking a project like that?
Thanks in advance.

Luckily plenty of switches/pots have the same or similar diameter so can be swapped out easily. Depending on where you live, shopping for and finding the correct switch is going to be your biggest problem I think. I just spent almost a day trying to find 22 awg single core shielded hookup wire for a guitar I'm building and nobody in the UK seems to be stocking it right now. Ended up having to use the stupid Gibson style "braided wire on the outside" type cable, which I absolutely hate.
Other than that, be brave and experiment!

 

[CharIie]

Thanks, I think I'll try first on one of my "shittier" LTD lying around. It has only 1 pick-up and 1 volume knob.
The idea would be to replace it with the sort of switch you'd find on a pedal (a foot switch maybe?) to act as an on/off switch.
Idea, something like the ones below (I was not thinking LED at first, but if that's something I could pull off, I'd definitely want to give it a go!):

Would there be any problem going from a "gradual" knob to a simple "Full on/off" knob?

Also, I keep reading everyone about 250ka/500ka pots. Knowing nothing about electronics, is this something I should be mindful of when purchasing the switch?

 

[azistenostora]

Would there be any problem going from a "gradual" knob to a simple "Full on/off" knob?

You can think of the volume pot as a "switch" (it's not a switch of course) with infinite states, that gradually passes the signal off to ground/nowhere. Whereas a switch only has two states, on/off, which would be equivalent to the start position of a volume pot (no resistance), and the end (signal to ground = off). Hope this makes sense. I'm trying to say I guess that it's absolutely fine to replace the volume pot with a switch that will produce the same output as a volume knob on 100% and 0%.
Since switches only have on/off positions, you don't need to worry about resistance (250 vs 500), which is giving the volume pot the "in between states". Since we're only dealing with on/off, it's not relevant.
Your button choice, while it will work, has me confused though. Wouldn't that look a bit silly?
Here's an idea: It would be possible to wire a push-pull pot in a way that if it's pushed, it's off, when pulled it's on (or the other way around) and turning the knob doesn't do anything. That way you would preserve the traditional look of a guitar and not look like pedal

 

[CharIie]

Well, I was thinking about a standard kill switch, but then when browsing on various guitar forums for clues/advises, I came across a comment saying that the guitarists in Avatar had done that. So I checked and they actually used "foot buttons" on their guitars. And while I am no fan of the band, I must say, their guitars look sick.

 

[Whiteknuckle Deathgrip]

Yes! Tons of options out there. I wouldn’t get one for a footswitch, as they sometimes require a hard press, that could hurt your hand.
I’d try something like this https://www.musikding.de/Pushbutton-switch-SPDT-knob

 

[CharIie]

Damn, I love the red look of that one. It'd look great on my white guitar.

Is there any way to know if it's a latching switch?

 

[Whiteknuckle Deathgrip]

Damn, I love the red look of that one. It'd look great on my white guitar.

Is there any way to know if it's a latching switch?

It’s the only one in that site that doesn’t say ‘momentary’ on it.
There’s also tayda, but I think they’re shipping from china or thailand, so you gotta take import taxes into account.
Tayda has everything, and not just music related stuff. So you gotta sift through more stuff.
https://www.taydaelectronics.com/el...latching-penel-mount-red-knob-3-pin-spdt.html