Guitar Kill Switch without Body Mod

I have a quite expensive custom Ibanez electric guitar that I don't want to do any bodily modification on. (The guitar has no plastic pickguard.)

I want to install a kill switch on it so I had an idea; I do not know if this is possible though:

My volume and tone pots both have metallic knobs. Is there a way to sense when i touch one of these knobs (such as feeding the metallic knobs low-voltage and grounding them with your touch) so I can engage a kill switch on the pick-up output?

Touch switches are unreliable at best, if you want a kill switch (and why would you?) make a floor pedal one - no mods required, and easier to work.

Nigel Goodwin said:

Touch switches are unreliable at best, if you want a kill switch (and why would you?) make a floor pedal one - no mods required, and easier to work.

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Because I need to use my foot for a wah pedal at the same time.

I think what I'm looking for is push-to-break button.

Anyone know where I can buy a high quality SPST Potentiometer suitable for guitar volume knob? My volume knob needs change anyways - it's getting noisy.

transistance said:

Because I need to use my foot for a wah pedal at the same time.

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So you'd rather take your fingers off the strings than take your foot off the wah pedal for a split second?

I've known and played with quite a few good guitarists and haven't met any who wanted that. Is this for some specific piece which must be played a certain way or something?


Torben

Torben said:

So you'd rather take your fingers off the strings than take your foot off the wah pedal for a split second?

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That's not how it works really, you generally place kill switch where your ring or pinky finger can reach so that you can kill the signal without taking your right hand off of the strings by using an open hand pick grab.

Torben said:

I've known and played with quite a few good guitarists and haven't met any who wanted that. Is this for some specific piece which must be played a certain way or something?

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I want to use this method because it's really creative in battle solos. What has inspired me to do this is Tom Morello's Guitar Hero III battle.

transistance said:

That's not how it works really, you generally place kill switch where your ring or pinky finger can reach so that you can kill the signal without taking your right hand off of the strings by using an open hand pick grab.

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Gotcha. I take it that either the volume knob is not well positioned for pinky swells so you could just quickly slam the volume all the way down or else that's just too slow for your purpose?

I want to use this method because it's really creative in battle solos. What has inspired me to do this is Tom Morello's Guitar Hero III battle.

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Just so I don't come across wrong, I'm not trying to talk down the idea--it's just that I haven't run into it before. But there are plenty of guitar techniques I haven't run into before.


Torben

transistance said:

I want to use this method because it's really creative in battle solos. What has inspired me to do this is Tom Morello's Guitar Hero III battle.

Click to expand...

Tom morello used a guitar with two humbuckers, each with their own volume/tone pot. With a gibson style switching (neck, both, bridge) what he does is turn the volume all the way down on one pickup, then switches to the other.

Because when both pickups are switched in the volume pots are more or less in parallel (not quite but read on) so the 'both pickups' settings has no volume. By doing that, one pickup as set by its own volume, but the other two settings are silent. (other pickup on its own, or both). So, with the switch in the centre position, no volume - he just taps the switch to the 'non-muted' pickup to let the guitar sing. Not enough to switch it, but enough to make the connection, then it springs back into place, great for stuttering guitar effects.

I know ibanezes generally have humbucker and two single coils (5 way switch) so I assume you can't do the above In which case, the only thing I can think of, without adding another hole in the body is to try and find a concentric pot. Or...a pot with a hole in the middle. Then you can add a 'push-to-break' button, so it sits on the top of the knob. - Turn it for volumn, press it for 'kill switch'.

Something like this might work? although I suspect its latched:
**broken link removed**

Sorry for being so geeky, can't help it.

Blueteth

What if you changed your 3-way treble, bass, both switch to a 4-way treble, bass, both, off ?

@Mikebits: Possible but I don't really want to go into soldering wars with the switch - btw its already a 5 way as it is...

I've been trying to find a quality audio pot with a hole in the center for a while now as Blueteeth suggested but I keep failing.

Hi again, long time no see

Well, looking back at your original post (no bodywork mods) and considering the trouble finding momentary switched pots, you could possibly just remove one of the tone pots? I rarely them then on any of my guitars anyway.

As for a 'touch' system, I didn't think about it at the time, but thats not a bad idea really....You'll probably want to switch the guitar signal to ground (to silence it) using an FET rather than a relay, you don't want a slight 'click' as that will deafen you if you use distortion Also of course relays need power, so it will drop the battery life no end. A reed switch would be nice, but FET's are easy to drive anyway. I would say the MOSFET 2n7000, but they really aren't my forte, so perhaps audioguru could stick his oar in here...JFET's anyone?

Putting any actuve electornics in a guitar can be tough, because there isn't always space for the battery..usually 9v. The active preamps in guitars are also switched on by using a stereo jack socket instead of a mono one..jsut like in guitar pedals...when you plug a mono jack,. into a stereo socket, it connects the ring to ground, which you can use to switch the power to your circuit to increase battery life.

Some links to 'simple' touch switches:
**broken link removed**
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http://www.unitechelectronics.com/NE-555-FIGURE28A.gif
**broken link removed**
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As you can see most are used to drive relays or power transistors for control purposes, but if they are 'active high' (touching the plate makes the output high) then you can jsut use FET connected between the guitar signal and ground. Touching the input will shunt the guitar signal to ground, effectively silencing the guitar. A small cap from the FET's gate to ground should make the input to the FET rise slower...preventing any audiable 'clicks' in the output.

If you don't want to use an FET, there are plenty of cheap analogue switches which will do a similar job (CD4066) or an analogue multiplexer.


Blueteeth

Old thread I know, yadda yadda.

But here's another little possibility I've just knocked together too...

YouTube - Guitar touch toggle switch using scratchplate screw

could be used for a kill switch, or come to that anything that needs discreet/invisible switching.

You can also get pots that have a momentary action push switch feature on the shaft. So pushing down on the knob activates the switch.

I haven't seen them for a few years but one of those expensive industrial places like Farnell probably has one. Spending $50 for a specialised pot is probably ok on an expensive guitar.