Switches are the key to achieving useful and original tonal combinations from your pickups.  Manufacturers generally choose the most common switching and wiring schemes that give the player a minimal but useful variety of tones.  It has been my goal for many years to illustrate that these versatile switches can become a virtual palate of tones from which many colors may be achieved.

A few manufacturers have begun realizing the potential of the same, simple switches they've been using for years - and even creating new switches accomplish more tones.  Even recently, a major manufacturer has developed a switch which is built into volume control and activated by pressing the top of the volume knob.  This is an original approach which has not been standard on any guitar in the past, essentially replacing the push/pull control.  This does show that more tones out of the same guitar is an advantage, and desirable.

The first step toward creating unusual tonal combinations is to think of each coil of each pickup as just that - a coil, or a pickup unto itself.  A humbucking pickup, for example, consists of 2 coils.  That means that a humbucking pickup can be 2 pickups instead of just one.  Half of a humbucking pickup is a single coil pickup.  2 single coil pickups can be wired to have a tone and output similar to that of a humbucking pickup.  You see, your guitar is more than what the manufacturer wired it to be.

All of the "hot rod" wirings used by major manufacturers can be found in my wiring diagrams - maybe not the exact wiring they use, but the unusual pickup coil combinations can be found there.  You can even find a few diagrams that feature pickup combinations you've never seen on a stock guitar.  The fact that I've been wiring guitars to achieve these cool, alternative tones years before the guitar makers caught on is insignificant.  My goal is not boast about my innovations but to show you how you can modify your guitar to get more tonal variety for free (I love that word...free).

SERIES: 2 or more pickup coils wired so that the output of one coil feeds into the input of another coil.  The result of this is a loss of treble and an increase of output.  Exm.: a humbucking pickup is 2 coils in series.

PARALLEL: 2 or more pickup coils wired so that each coils' input has its own feed from the amplifier.  The result is a tone somewhere between the tone of each coil individually with a slight decrease in output.  Exm.: 1) a Strat with the 5 way switch in positions 2 and 4.  2) a guitar with 2 P-90 pickups with the toggle switch in the middle position.

DPDT:  Double-pole double-throw.  This is a 2-way switch that has 2 seperate switches in one.  Each of 2 contacts in the switch can be routed differently depending on the switch's position.  Exm.: 1) a mini-toggle switch  2) a push / pull control.

PUSH/PULL:  A Double-pole double-throw switch mounted on a potentiometer (volume controle, tone coltrol...).  This switch is activated by pulling up or pushing down on a guitar's volume or tone knob.  This is useful for adding a switch without drilling additional holes in your guitar.

5 WAY:  A standard Strat switch.  The majority of my diagrams use a switch with 2 sets of contacts (like having 2 switches in one).  Some less expensive guitars have only one set of contacts.  I typically suggest replacing these switches immediately; they can be unreliable and do not provode the awesome switching potential of the standard 5 way switch.

3 WAY: A standard large toggle (Gibson, Guild, Gretch, etc...).  This switch is usually used for simple pickup switching, although it can also be used effectively in a more versatile wiring scheme.

"COMMON" TERMINAL:  The terminal(s) on a switch that, when the switch is changed to different positions, makes contact with different terminals.