In Defense Of Kill Switches

[MrUsefulAlien]

I recently put a Noll active preamp in my Lakland Hollowbody 34, I took out the 3-way switch and used the hole to install an active-passive switch.
This left me with a blank push/pull toggle. I thought, hm...maybe a mute switch could be cool, because, why not?

I have now installed a push/pull kill switch, or dpdt switch in my USA Precision, Aria Precision, Lakland 55-AJ and Lakland DJ4.

Pictured here, alongside the nifty series/parallel switch on a fretless 62RI Jazz

I never knew how great it is to simply kill the bass sound with one flick of the finger.
Intuition, and non-lazy thinking, would say that turning down the volume achieves the same result. Intuition would be wrong.
I can't really describe why it is an upgrade, but having the switch makes it easy to carry out a variety of mundane tasks that would previously have required a left-hand muting or laborious turning of the volume knob.

In retrospect, this is a pretty weak defense, but if you have a push pull knob with no purpose or a DPDT switch hole that you're about to plug, give this simple mod a try, and enjoy the strange bliss of having a kill switch.

I used this diagram with great success:

 

[rzamites]

The luthier building my bass "Gracie" installed kill switches on a couple of his previous instruments - gotta admit that it added a neat dimension to the bass I tested out!

 

[MrUsefulAlien]

The luthier building my bass "Gracie" installed kill switches on a couple of his previous instruments - gotta admit that it added a neat dimension to the bass I tested out!

It's difficult to quantify exactly what that dimension is, but it adds something.

 

[rzamites]

It's difficult to quantify exactly what that dimension is, but it adds something.

Think of Buckethead working the killswitch on his LP, then drop it a couple of octaves?

 

[MrUsefulAlien]

Think of Buckethead working the killswitch on his LP, then drop it a couple of octaves?

I guess so! My dimension is more 'keep the strings quiet while not in use without losing my volume settings'. Also, less noodling during soundcheck and during band practices

 

[BarfanyShart]

I always dreamed of a Les Paul three-way switch that goes active>passive>kill.

 

[MrUsefulAlien]

I always dreamed of a Les Paul three-way switch that goes active>passive>kill.

Doesn't a normal ON/OFF/ON 3 way DPDT achieve that? Or does it pop in the middle position?

 

[Paulabass]

You are absolutely right! If I added up the time I have spent using other muting methods, I could have saved seconds, perhaps even 4 or 5 seconds over the course of my life. I'm going to put them on all my home lighting too.

 

[BarfanyShart]

They are good for chainsaws as well!

 

[lz4005]

In retrospect, this is a pretty weak defense, but if you have a push pull knob with no purpose or a DPDT switch hole that you're about to plug, give this simple mod a try, and enjoy the strange bliss of having a kill switch.

My favorite bass has only a kill switch. No other controls. There really is something special about it.

I let a buddy play it at a jam once, he looked at it after he put it on and asked "what's the switch do?" I said "on". He said "oh...uh...OH!...Yeah!" and played it for 15 minutes with a big smile on his face.

 

[scuzzy]

My gas powered trimmer has one. Much handier than needing to run it out of gas each time I want it off.

 

[MrUsefulAlien]

A lot of envy veiled behind sarcasm!
It is MY bass that will make no sound when I smack the headstock into a cymbal, cab or the wall of crammed stage in a small club.
I'll be there in spirit, frowning, when all 4-5/6/7 of your strings embarrassingly ring out!

 

[MrUsefulAlien]

I always dreamed of a Les Paul three-way switch that goes active>passive>kill.

Totally whooshed on this, that's funny!

 

[Killed_by_Death]

make it a momentary switch & it's an effect:

 

[diegom]

make it a momentary switch & it's an effect:

Thank you for posting that distinction!
I always thought of the two-position (on/off) switch as an... ON/OFF switch! or like the "standby" on the Kubicki basses.
The momentary, push-button or spring-loaded was the KILL-SWITCH.

My "standby" switch is my tuner pedal. Then, I unplug the bass, to prevent the preamp from running the battery... I guess I could install a power switch, but...

 

[Claymore]

I only have 1 bass with a killswitch but it freed up a knob that I now use for something else so my P bass still has 2 knobs. You would never know it was modified by looking at it.

 

[nnnnnn]

I have now installed a push/pull kill switch,

I never knew how great it is to simply kill the bass sound with one flick of the finger.

I don't think "push/pull" means the same thing to me that it does to you. At first I thought you were talking about a push/pull knob, but one can't pull a knob up with a flick of the finger. Are you talking about one of your bass's toggle switches?

 

[MrUsefulAlien]

I don't think "push/pull" means the same thing to me that it does to you. At first I thought you were talking about a push/pull knob, but one can't pull a knob up with a flick of the finger. Are you talking about one of your bass's toggle switches?

Fair enough, it gets pulled up with a pinch of two fingers. One bass has a switch (sold the other switch-equipped one yesterday), the other few have push/pull volume knobs.

 

[JW56789]

A 'kill switch' or 'standby' is really handy inasmuch as whatever you've got everything set at on the knobs is just frozen in place, put on hold, however you want to think of it. Turn it all the way down, and just see when you come back if you're not fishing around a little to get it to sound like it did at the end of the previous set.

I like 'em.

 

[MrUsefulAlien]

A 'kill switch' or 'standby' is really handy inasmuch as whatever you've got everything set at on the knobs is just frozen in place, put on hold, however you want to think of it. Turn it all the way down, and just see when you come back if you're not fishing around a little to get it to sound like it did at the end of the previous set.

I like 'em.

This is especially the case on jazz basses wired vol/vol, of which I own two.
But also useful on single coil basses with a blend, where a hum or any kind of signal is unwanted in a quiet moment.