Phase switch (???)

[cosmo440]

Could somebody please explain to me why anyone would want an " out-of-phase" switch on their instrument? Why have something that you're usually trying to avoid?

[line6man]

I've never understood it myself, but I suppose some people can find a use for the out of phase tone.

It's more useful on guitars, though.

[SGD Lutherie]

Yeah, it's cool on guitars, and fairly useless on bass.

You can do a semi out-of-phase signal by running the bridge pickup through a cap to remove some low end. That gets an interesting tone. But it's more like a special effect.

[anonymous02282011]

its one way to minimize feedback with acoustic instruments

[droo46]

On acoustic guitars I believe the intent is to prevent sound cancellation when micing and running a DI.

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by adbass

its one way to minimize feedback with acoustic instruments

Right, but we are taking about two pickups out-of-phase (opposite polarity) with each other. Not one pickup with opposite polarity.

On a two pickup instrument it gives you a very thin hollow tone with very little low end.

[BassLife77]

I find it very useful because I like a wide variety of sounds. On my HH bass I can put either pickup out of phase while the other pickup is in phase. The combination of both pickups gives me a unique sound and no loss of bass. I would only install a phase switch on an HH bass

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by BassLife77

I find it very useful because I like a wide variety of sounds. On my HH bass I can put either pickup out of phase while the other pickup is in phase.

Do you mean you are putting the pickup out of phase with itself, i.e. the two coils in the humbucker? That works for getting a thin tone from the pickup, but now the humbucker doesn't buck hum anymore.

That's not what we are talking about. If you reverse the polarity on the entire pickup, then the two pickups are out of phase. You will lose almost all the low end.

Back int he 70s I stuck phase switches in all my basses, but never used them in a band situation. The one cool thing was to put the pickups out of phase and use a Big Muff. When you played up above the 12th fret, you get a cool octave doubling tone.