howard20 Posted July 3, 2004 Report Share Posted July 3, 2004 Hello, im trying to put in a kill switch into my guitar and have searched the topics here and one person suggests the best why to wire a kill switch is to " wire the switch to short the hot lead to ground". can someone tell me in the most simple terms what that means cause im pretty useless with this kinda thing and have no idea what it suggests i do. cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biohazard Posted July 3, 2004 Report Share Posted July 3, 2004 Ok basically, before you want to do any modifications to your guitar, I would suggest you familiarize yourself with the wiring inside a guitar. Now onto the kill switch. Basically you need a SPDT switch. Then, the output wire (the wire that is connected to the output lug of the jack socket) gets soldered to the middle leg of the switch. One of the outer switch legs then gets soldered to where you just disconnected the output wire from. The other switch leg then gets soldered to ground. This way when the switch is in the "kill" position, it is grounding the guitar signal. When the switch is not in the "kill" position, the signal just goes to the output jack as normal. Hope that all makes sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webster Posted July 3, 2004 Report Share Posted July 3, 2004 He means complete the circuit before it reaches any of your guitars electronics. The normal way a guitar is wired is the two wires that come out of the input jack connect to different parts of the guitar The Hot wire connects to one of the three things coming out of the vol pot or a switch or something. The ground wire connects to the top of a pot or something anyway when the switch is off it needs to connect these two wires so that all pots and pickups do not have any connection to the amp and when it is on is needs to function normal. I can't think of one switch that could so that right now but that may be because im a bit lost today. The only way I can think of right now would require 3 switches Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webster Posted July 3, 2004 Report Share Posted July 3, 2004 sorry dude, problem fixed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted July 3, 2004 Report Share Posted July 3, 2004 The easiest way to wire a kill switch is to use a SPST switch to connect one wire on the output jack to the other. That's what "wire the switch to short the hot lead to ground" means. It works exactly like turning the volume all the way down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biohazard Posted July 3, 2004 Report Share Posted July 3, 2004 Shouldn't it be an SPDT? or am i wrong? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted July 3, 2004 Report Share Posted July 3, 2004 You don't need anything but a simple short to ground, so SPST will work fine - when the switch is open, everything works normally, and when it closes, it shunts the guitar signal to ground, so no signal goes to the amp. Simple, easy and cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabidmoose171 Posted July 5, 2004 Report Share Posted July 5, 2004 http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/attac...tid=10507&stc=1 ^^^killswitch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted July 5, 2004 Report Share Posted July 5, 2004 This is simpler, and easier to wire : Honestly, it's a kill switch! It works just exactly like turning the volume all the way down, by sending the signal directly to ground. Anything more complicated is unnecessary, and likely to cause problems. rabidmoose171's diagram will work, but why bother with the extra complexity that makes absolutely no difference? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curtis P Posted July 6, 2004 Report Share Posted July 6, 2004 they are both the same though!! ^^ Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jefm Posted July 6, 2004 Report Share Posted July 6, 2004 nah...one is SPDT one is SPST... I'd go for the SPST as well...but depends on what you can find... DPDT are easier to find at my local store...it's overkill for a lot of what I use them for but meh why not Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
litchfield Posted July 6, 2004 Report Share Posted July 6, 2004 If you have 2 volumes and a 3 way, just turn the neck pickup off. That requires NO mods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabidmoose171 Posted July 6, 2004 Report Share Posted July 6, 2004 but then you cant use the neck pickup,and quickly cut that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapbarstrat Posted July 6, 2004 Report Share Posted July 6, 2004 I did the lazy version when my band used to play that stupid Filter song " hey man, nice shot". I would pull the cable out of the jack and then just move it back and forth so it would touch/not touch. Worked pretty good. A pedal switch would be better. Then you can be playing the guitar with both hands while doing the on/off thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howard20 Posted July 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2004 Thanks alot for the help, much appreciated! gonna start taking it apart today, lol. Edit: ok i installed it like the picture above, mine has 2 attachments, not 3. however it works in reverse of what i want it to do. ie, there is no signal at all when the switch is up, and when you press it, there is. will i need a new switch or is there something i can do Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britrock Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 As I'm installng one of these myself, and I'm trying to avoid doing as much work as possible, I have a few questions: Does the ground wire have to go to the ground part of the jack, or can I hook both the ground and signal up to one blade, and leave the other one empty, as when switched to, nothing will be selected, so there'll be silence. Or can I hook a ground wire from the back of the volume pot to the other blade and then take a wire from the blade back to the volume pot, as that would be a grounded wire, and no signal would be found when selected? Yes, I'm a noob to this, so if they're stupid ideas, I apologise. Just trying to save work, which would mean less to go wrong... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biohazard Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 Wire from volume pot to kill switch lug. Then one wire from there going to output jack. Then another wire from the other spare leg of kill switch, to either ground on the volume pot, or the ground lug of the jack socket. If you connect it to ground of the volume pot, make sure the volume pot then goes to ground of the jack socket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darren wilson Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 The easiest way to get a kill switch is to buy one of the Planet Waves "Circuit Breaker" cables that have a mute button built in. If i were putting in a 'kill switch' i'd probably be inclined to use a momentary switch or button, which springs back to the "closed" position by itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biohazard Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 Well thats also a possibility. But kill switches are not hard to do, and the wiring I gave above is suitable for a toggle kill switch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britrock Posted July 16, 2004 Report Share Posted July 16, 2004 Ahhh, damn. I wired it backwards. And it comes with one of those little label things saying which way should be on and which off, so I've got to disconnect it and swap them round. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britrock Posted July 19, 2004 Report Share Posted July 19, 2004 OK, this is really annoying me now. I swapped them round, and it's still backwards. Anyone got any ideas? The switch has 2 blades on the back, and is a normal on/off switch. I've tried connecting the wires up both ways round, and it's backwards both ways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted July 19, 2004 Report Share Posted July 19, 2004 Just physically rotate the whole switch 180º and remount it. If it only has two terminals, it's going to be the same no matter how you wire it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morben Guitars Posted July 20, 2004 Report Share Posted July 20, 2004 I'm a little late to this one...but I'll add my two cents. I put one of these in a guitar I built a few years back.. I used a momentary switch to achieve stacatto breaks in the signal ala Radiohead...A switch is too much of a delay. Anyways... I just used a "Normally Closed" switch with two lugs. Wire the hot out from the volume to the Jack, then from there to the switch. Wire the Ground from the pot to the other lug. I should note that I put in a small(.25) resistor between the volume and the jack. This is to avoid any signal "backwash". You can do without on a passive system, but it's a must-have on active pickups...no harm in wiring it in I figured. Hope it helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biohazard Posted July 20, 2004 Report Share Posted July 20, 2004 What is this signal backwash? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
litchfield Posted July 20, 2004 Report Share Posted July 20, 2004 a mometary switch in a foot pedal would work great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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