5 way SuperSwitch Fragility (?)

xscaramanga

normula1 said:

I tend to flick the lever with my little finger to achieve to do the emphasis thing. In fact the one thing I hate about PRS lever switches is that due to its location I have to reach over the vibrato arm to get to the switch so I can't do the qick flick.

On this subject: 

I have a budget superswitch (£9.95 from Axes RUs or somewhere like that). It works a charm, but it's stiff as hell compared to a standard Strat switch. If I spend a bit more, will I get a smoother action? 

If I tried a pinky flick with mine, I imagine I'd be rewarded with a bruised finger.

ibis

Mine 'chokes' too sometimes during gigs. Have stopped using that guitar live. Back to boring 5 way live and keep fancy pants for the studio.

gitapik

ibis said:

Mine 'chokes' too sometimes during gigs. Have stopped using that guitar live. Back to boring 5 way live and keep fancy pants for the studio.

Yeah...didn't want to hear that but there it is.

gitapik

Well...I finally got to the bottom of this and, in order to protect the innocent (and not), I'll just cut right to the chase, as stated by a tech at ErnieBall/MusicMan who consulted a couple of engineers and looked for the same dead spot on some guitars they had on the showroom floor, there:

The dead spot will always be found between the 3 and 2 positions of the Superswitch on this particular guitar (HSS Silhouette Special) specifically because there is no common circuit between the wiring of the 3 (neck/half humbucker bridge) and 2 (middle/other half humbucker bridge) positions.

All the other adjacent spots have common circuits: 5 = neck. 4 = neck/middle. 3 = neck/half bridge. 2 = middle/half humbucker. 1 = both halves humbucker.

So, when the toggle gets caught between any of the common circuit positions, the signal is maintained. When it hits between the 3 and the 2, where there is no common circuit, there's a dead spot with no or very, very little sound.

I don't think this will be true of the SSS models because the 3 position (neck/bridge single) has a common circuit with the 2 position (middle/bridge single).

I've decided to keep the guitar as is with the Superswitch for now. I love the silent circuit and don't use the 2 position as much as I do my Strat, because this guitar is mainly for leads and fills in my world. I'll try to adjust my toggling technique and just be more aware of that glitch in the meantime. And if I decide to sell it, it'll still be in it's original condition with kickass pickups to boot. Hopefully won't sell it, though. It's a great playing and sounding guitar.