Kill Switch Recommendations?

Wonky

I want to fit a reverse Kill switch to a guitar.  That is an off/on switch to activate the kill switch via a push pull on the tone control and then a normally off push switch that will sound when pressed (SPST-NO).  I ordered one off Amazon which I've had to return as it was way to small and way to hard to press.
So just to be clear once the circuit is activated by a push/pull switch the guitar would be silent until the momentary button is pressed and then sound will be made.
I need a momentary switch the right sort of size and the right sort of pressure to activate.
There are many different switches that look like they may do the job, but it's hard to tell without having them to hand.  I notice that a fair few of them don't seem to have enough thread to go through a guitar body, which is also an issue.
Anyone tried to do something similar?  Any suggestions?

meltedbuzzbox

Foot pedal?

Wonky

meltedbuzzbox said:

Foot pedal?

It's got to be guitar mounted for me I'm afraid.

bbill335

Wonky said:

So just to be clear once the circuit is activated by a push/pull switch the guitar would be silent until the momentary button is pressed and then sound will be made.

have you tried using a low-torque pot and a compressor/gate thing? are you going for morello-esque effects?

Wonky

bbill335 said:

Wonky said:

So just to be clear once the circuit is activated by a push/pull switch the guitar would be silent until the momentary button is pressed and then sound will be made.

have you tried using a low-torque pot and a compressor/gate thing? are you going for morello-esque effects?

Not tried this TBH.  I don't think it'd be quick enough for what I'm after. Also have to be a bit careful with a Noise Gate changing the tone of the note.  If I understand you right that is.  Would that even be accurate enough?
Good suggestion though, I've never heard or thought of it before.  Can you elaborate a bit more on how this works, just to make sure I understand what you're getting at?

Funkfingers

Wonky said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

Foot pedal?

It's got to be guitar mounted for me I'm afraid.

How about an externally mounted box, like Les Paul’s Paulverizer? 

My experience with Shadow kill switch pots is that they fail far sooner than their price might lead you to expect.

Wonky

Funkfingers said:

Wonky said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

Foot pedal?

It's got to be guitar mounted for me I'm afraid.

How about an externally mounted box, like Les Paul’s Paulverizer? 

My experience with Shadow kill switch pots is that they fail far sooner than their price might lead you to expect.

Aah now, I'm not thinking of using a pot as a shadow kill switch, just an off/on for the actual push switch/circuit, if you catch my drift.  A proper sprung off/on switch for the actual business end of things with a separate push/pull on the tone to activate the circuit is what I have in mind.  It's the actual push button switch is the thing causing me the problem.

OilCityPickups

Wonky said:

Funkfingers said:

Wonky said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

Foot pedal?

It's got to be guitar mounted for me I'm afraid.

How about an externally mounted box, like Les Paul’s Paulverizer? 

My experience with Shadow kill switch pots is that they fail far sooner than their price might lead you to expect.

Aah now, I'm not thinking of using a pot as a shadow kill switch, just an off/on for the actual push switch/circuit, if you catch my drift.  A proper sprung off/on switch for the actual business end of things with a separate push/pull on the tone to activate the circuit is what I have in mind.  It's the actual push button switch is the thing causing me the problem.

Push push pots have a much shorter life than push pull ones ... they usually fall apart fairly spectacularly with about a tenth of the use that would kill a cheap push pull.

Wonky

OilCityPickups said:

Wonky said:

Funkfingers said:

Wonky said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

Foot pedal?

It's got to be guitar mounted for me I'm afraid.

How about an externally mounted box, like Les Paul’s Paulverizer? 

My experience with Shadow kill switch pots is that they fail far sooner than their price might lead you to expect.

Aah now, I'm not thinking of using a pot as a shadow kill switch, just an off/on for the actual push switch/circuit, if you catch my drift.  A proper sprung off/on switch for the actual business end of things with a separate push/pull on the tone to activate the circuit is what I have in mind.  It's the actual push button switch is the thing causing me the problem.

Push push pots have a much shorter life than push pull ones ... they usually fall apart fairly spectacularly with about a tenth of the use that would kill a cheap push pull.

I've never used or even thought of a push pot.  By the sounds of it, good job too.  

bbill335

Wonky said:

bbill335 said:

Wonky said:

So just to be clear once the circuit is activated by a push/pull switch the guitar would be silent until the momentary button is pressed and then sound will be made.

have you tried using a low-torque pot and a compressor/gate thing? are you going for morello-esque effects?

Not tried this TBH.  I don't think it'd be quick enough for what I'm after. Also have to be a bit careful with a Noise Gate changing the tone of the note.  If I understand you right that is.  Would that even be accurate enough?
Good suggestion though, I've never heard or thought of it before.  Can you elaborate a bit more on how this works, just to make sure I understand what you're getting at?

just rolling the pot really fast, and using a pedal to reduce the "swell" effect to make it closer to an on-off sound. The CTS pot on my strat goes from 0-10 really quick and smooth, the pot has very little resistance. 

Danny1969

You could use a normally closed (push to break)  push switch wired from jack hot to earth wired with the switch portion of the tone control in series with the hot .... that would work pretty well. 

I use a little red one from CPC.co.uk 

OilCityPickups

Danny1969 said:

You could use a normally closed (push to break)  push switch wired from jack hot to earth wired with the switch portion of the tone control in series with the hot .... that would work pretty well. 

I use a little red one from CPC.co.uk 

I'm wondering if one could use an industrial kill switch like I have on my drill press ... those are built to take millions of cycles

InactiveX

Or a pinball machine button, perhaps?

joetele

Funkfingers said:

Wonky said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

Foot pedal?

It's got to be guitar mounted for me I'm afraid.

How about an externally mounted box, like Les Paul’s Paulverizer? 

My experience with Shadow kill switch pots is that they fail far sooner than their price might lead you to expect.

I've just realised that the killswitch pedal I've got could quite easily be mounted (velcro maybe) to the guitar as it doesn't require power. Hmmmm