Momentary Kill switches

fretmeister

Any installed one? The round push button ones that mostly seem to be red coloured?

Do they just get connected on the hot side after the controls and the output jack?

Jonathangus

@roberty ;

Sporky

They go at the output jack, and short the hot to earth. 

revsorg

I just swapped out the broken killswitch on my son's Ibanez Iron Label with a Tesi

One wire from the killswitch connects to the hot signal wire, the other connects to ground.  When you press the button it makes a connection which sends hot straight to earth, cutting out all sound.

I guess it's done this way to mean that if the killswitch fails, hopefully the guitar continues to work, and the signal isn't passing through extra wire and a potentially dodgy switch contact.

fretmeister

Any reason they wouldn't work with EMGs?

revsorg

They work with EMGs - that's what's in my son's Iron Label.

Sporky

revsorg said:

I guess it's done this way to mean that if the killswitch fails, hopefully the guitar continues to work, and the signal isn't passing through extra wire and a potentially dodgy switch contact. 

Also it's less noisy and less prone to pops or clicks. But also the reason you said too. 

Danny1969

Mines wired push to make / hot to ground but some like the  sound by using push to break ... 

I also have a cable I made  with a tilt switch in it, so raising the guitar and shaking it does the same effect without installing anything in the guitar 

octatonic

fretmeister said:

Any installed one? The round push button ones that mostly seem to be red coloured?

Do they just get connected on the hot side after the controls and the output jack?

You don't have to use the red caps.
I don't.

PLOP

revsorg said:

I just swapped out the broken killswitch on my son's Ibanez Iron Label with a Tesi

One wire from the killswitch connects to the hot signal wire, the other connects to ground.  When you press the button it makes a connection which sends hot straight to earth, cutting out all sound.

I guess it's done this way to mean that if the killswitch fails, hopefully the guitar continues to work, and the signal isn't passing through extra wire and a potentially dodgy switch contact.

Just what I’ve been looking for, thanks. Off the top of my head I don’t know what diameter my pot holes are on the LP or Tele - I want to swap the tone of the tele and one of the tones on the LP with buttons, are these a drop-in replacement or will I probably have to widen the holes to make it fit?

mrkb

I got some small black ones from James Home of tone. Easy to fit if you can solder.

Tesi Switch - Guitar Kill Switches – James' Home of Tone

fretmeister

Looking at my bass I think I’ll be needing a channel routed out under the scratchplate for optimal placement.

stonevibe

I have a black one on my partscaster

https://www.instagram.com/p/COP0WPyMLn_/

guitaraj

The lovely chaps at Feline guitar fitted one to my Panther and it is built into the tone pot. I love it

revsorg

fretmeister said:

Any reason they wouldn't work with EMGs?

Note that if you have solder-free EMGs with their simple plug together system this will limit the places you can solder in your killswitch.  The jack plug tabs being the most obvious place.  You can probably attach to the metal body of your volume knob as your ground, but with EMGs plug together volume knob I don't know this for certain.

DavusPG

guitaraj said:

The lovely chaps at Feline guitar fitted one to my Panther and it is built into the tone pot. I love it

Interesting....How did they do it?

Is it a push/push pot?

Sporky

I think there's a way to remove the latch from some push-push pots, so I think you're right. 

RandallFlagg

Forgive my ignorance but what would you use a kill switch for? I'm familiar with the 3 way toggle switch stuttering effect when the neck pickup is set at zero volume on say a Les Paul when it's feeding back, as used by Mick Jones from The Clash, Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols among others. Is the kill switch used in the same way?

revsorg

@RandallFlagg Yes, that's what it's for.  My experience of using the Switchcraft switch on my Explorer is that there is a lot more mechanical noise that the pickups capture, and it is harder to operate with precision.

DiscoStu

mrkb said:

I got some small black ones from James Home of tone. Easy to fit if you can solder.

Tesi Switch - Guitar Kill Switches – James' Home of Tone

That's real neat. What size is switch is that?

guitaraj

It’s just like a standard pot and I tap on it when I want the kill switch effect. I really like it. It’s just… fun! (Photo courtesy of Jonathan at Feline). Jonathan, could you shed some light on which type you used? … @FelineGuitars ;