Solderless Circuit Mods Help

[AbramT80]

I’m rewiring my guitar, putting EMG wireless pickups, 2 volume, master tone, and a 3 way switch. I’ve got all that set up but I want to add a couple more things: a treble bleed and a kill switch. Not a big deal if I can’t get the treble bleed but I would like the kill switch. I know EMG has a solderless kill switch available but its expensive so if theres a way to wire one on that would be helpful, please advise - thank you

[Bizman62]

First, how much is "expensive"? The EMG TKO B351 push button momentary kill switch is about $25 including wires and schematics.

That said, you can get a momentary push button for a buck and wire can be found everywhere. And a momentary switch just cuts a single wire when pushed and connects it back when released. Nothing too sophisticated there.

I'm not familiar with electrickery to any extent but I do know that a) the signal is a loop from the tip lug to ground lug of the jack and thus b) cutting either of the wires near the jack for a loop through a switch will cut the signal when pushed. But it can be done in several ways as described here: https://www.earthquakerdevices.com/blog-posts/killswitch-engagement

 

 

[curtisa]

40 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

and thus b) cutting either of the wires near the jack for a loop through a switch will cut the signal when pushed. But it can be done in several ways as described here

No. The correct way to do it is to short the hot signal to ground via the switch (the linked article also advises this as the preferred method).

Essentially a killswitch in an EMG-equipped guitar is the same as a killswitch in any other guitar - the switch is wired across the hot and ground wires at a convenient spot where the effect is the same as immediately winding down the volume pot to zero and back up again. The complicating factor will be the EMG Quick Connect system that their pots use, which makes it physically difficult to solder raw wires to the volume pot lugs. In that instance it may be easier to wire the killswitch across the hot and ground lugs of the output jack (depending on how easy it is to run wires to the jack from your preferred location of the kilswitch). The linked article shows this in  the second of the two circuit images.

A treble bleed mod can be done in the same way a treble bleed can be applied to any passive pickup circuit - a capacitor wired across the top and middle lug of the volume pot. But again, you'll be stymied by the Quick Connect system making it difficult to do the soldering. If you're feeling brave you can try it out anyway, but some experimentation with the cap value might be required. My gut feel is that if you'd normally use, say a 470pF treble bleed cap in a passive guitar, you should try a cap with a value 10x larger as a starting point for EMGs (ie 4.7nF) and tweak from there.

[Bizman62]

Thanks @curtisa, I already thought it would not be that simple for optimal results. Am I right to suppose that although putting the switch in between a wire would kill the signal, releasing the button for a reconnection would make a popping sound?

[henrim]

I have implemented kill switch twice on one guitar. First I just simply cut the signal and after trying it once, I re-routed the signal to ground. If you just cut the signal it pops. Though I guess someone could use that effect to their advantage too. 
 

[curtisa]

It's more to do with the fact that interrupting the circuit will result in excess noise while the button is depressed, akin to leaving a guitar lead dangling on the floor. The noise would naturally be worse if you were playing with a lot of gain, and worse again if the interruption point was in the ground wire rather than the hot wire.

[henrim]

It may as well be noisy. Anyway in my case popping was the reason signal cutting was not an option. It is possible that the arcade switch I used was not optimal either. 

[Bizman62]

7 hours ago, curtisa said:

akin to leaving a guitar lead dangling on the floor.

Now you're speaking a language I understand!