Do unnessecary switches suck tone?

[triantobebrian]

Do (unnecessary) switches suck tone????
Hi all,

Building a Warmoth Strat with Bare Knuckle pickups and putting a Suhr noise (hum) reducing backplate on it.

I'm also going to put an S1 switch in to turn the backplate on or off. Why?? I don't know. - w*nk factor to be honest. if I ever want to hear the hum (why would you you ask??? Dunno) I can turn the plate off.

But talk unnecessary switches...... Am I robbing myself of tone on such awesome pickups just so I can pimp my guitar????? Or will an S1 not make much of a difference....

Cheers.

[BigB]

Do (unnecessary) switches suck tone????

From a purely technical POV, just anything you add between your pup and your amp will impact the signal. Practically, with a decent quality switch and a clean soldering job, I doubt you will hear much difference...

[triantobebrian]

Thanks.

I think I'll do it.....

[TheyCallMeVolume]

Shouldn't make that big of a difference.

[BigB]

Shouldn't make that big of a difference.

Yeps - much less than a bad quality cable... :mrgreen:

[Kiichi]

Shouldn't make that big of a difference.

Yeps - much less than a bad quality cable... :mrgreen:

Or bad stompboxes, or cables / signal chains that are too long, or the age of strings,....

[hunter]

The switch will rob less tone than the noiseless plate. You will hear the difference ant it will sound more open, brilliant with the noise plate off. However, well there will be noise  :P

[Philly Q]

I've never tried the Suhr system but I have tried lots of hum-cancelling Strat and Tele pickups.  They're great, but they never sound quite as good as true single-coils - even though I do hate the hum and it feels like a relic of the 1950s which we "should" be able to eliminate. 

So I think Hunter's right - it's probably almost better not to have the option of switching the noise cancellation on and off, because it will sound better off!  And therefore both settings are somewhat compromised in different ways.... which may or may not get on your nerves.  :lol:

On the other hand, I suppose you then have the option of only using the Suhr system when hum is actually causing a problem. 

(And I don't think the presence of the switch itself is going to compromise the tone)

[darkbluemurder]

From a purely technical POV, just anything you add between your pup and your amp will impact the signal. Practically, with a decent quality switch and a clean soldering job, I doubt you will hear much difference...

+1.

Cheers Stephan