Ideas for things to do with extra mini-switches?

[Dan Hehnke]

My latest build has been languishing for months after a recent move, but I'm finally trying to get it finished up.

It's kind of a kitchen sink build, with all the bells and whistles. Triple mini-hums, a vibrato, 5-way switch, and for some reason I decided to put 3 mini-switches in, to split each humbucker individually. After playing it I realize that I never have a need to split one pickup but not the others. I can just split all three at once with one of the mini-switches.

Any ideas what to do with the remaining two mini-switches? Thanks for any input!

[Jason Rodgers]

Series/parallel? Phase flip?

[Gordon Bellerose]

How about a kill switch?

[Joshua Levin-Epstein]

How about:

1) Replace the 5 way with a 3 way and wire the outside pick-ups to it, like a telecaster
2) Mini #1 sends the middle pick up to the output so you have all combination of the 3 (in parallel)
3) Mini #2 is a phase switch for the middle pick-up
4) Mini #3 is the universal coil cutter

That being said, if all these switches are pick guard mounted, I'd simplify the wiring. As I've said any time I've been given the opportunity, I like 3 on-off-on minis, one for each pick up, on-off-on reverse phase. It sounds redundant, but you can accent tone from bright to dark depending on what pick ups are in phase. If you want coil cutting, I'd use a switching pot to eliminate clutter.

[JC Whitney]

Pyrotechnics.

[Dan Hehnke]

Ooh, I like the kill switch idea. Maybe that and a phase switch for the middle.

I think I'm going to stick with the 5-way since that's what I bought and it's a nice one.

I also like the pyrotechnics idea, haha.

[Dan Hehnke]

Oh, and these are all holes previously drilled into the top of the guitar. No pickguard this time. The clutter isn't too bad, I just didn't find individual coil splits useful.

[Dan Hehnke]

I may have posted some progress shots a while back, when I thought I was about to finish it (wrong!). Here's the guitar. It's a little further along now.

[Gordon Bellerose]

Nice looking piece of wood. What are you doing for a finish?

[Dan Hehnke]

Thanks. Olive is really nice to work with as well.

Good old Tru-Oil! My favorite.