Shared volume/tone on Explorer

[Dave Sloven]

I am thinking of modifying my Explorer because I really prefer the pickup selector to be in the SG position, near the bridge.  On an Explorer this is roughly where the neck volume pot is located.

To move it I would have to move the existing short-style Switchcraft selector switch to the neck volume position, and either convert the guitar to Vol/Vol or Vol/Tone config with a shared volume pot.  The tone pot is already shared on Explorers, and I have a push-push pot there that acts as a bypass for both volume pots (but cannot bypass the tone pot).

I don't really use the middle position (both pickups), so I don't need to have a mix of volumes and tones at one time.  Also the guitar is very dark so I tend to either have the tone right up.

I am thinking of running the following config:

Shared volume pot

Shared tone with push-push used as a bypass to run the bridge pickup straight to the jack when engaged, bypassing both tone and volume

Selector switch in current neck volume spot

A 3PDT true-bypass non-latching footswitch in the current selector switch hole wired as a kill switch for those Randy Rhoads moments (I could just hit it with my hand)

Any thoughts?

[AndyR]

Sounds good to me - I might think about going partly down this route myself, I can't get on with the switch position on my Explorer either.

I DO use the middle position a bit (not so much on the Explorer, I must admit) and up until recently I wouldn't have thought I could give up the independent volumes. But one of my recent acquisitions (Yamaha Revstar) is a two pickup machine with shared vol/tone - and I haven't missed the independent volumes at all. (Mind you, I am a strat-man at heart, wired as master vol, master tone, oh, and teles as well - so it's not that much of a surprise, I guess)

Kill-switch, er... yeah, I wouldn't use it meself... Never tried wiring a pickup straight to jack, either - but I can see how it would be useful.

[Dave Sloven]

Wiring a pickup straight to jack would be useful for this guitar simply because it is so dark.  The tone knob isn't very useful most of the time, because I have it on full.  The option to bypass the pots would give me another tone.  I would mainly roll back the volume if I was on the neck pickup.

Killswitch would (1) fill the hole in my pickguard (2) be something I could use for those Rhandy Rhoads style stutters.  Otherwise it would be pretty useless, but without independent volumes I wouldn't be able to roll down the neck pickup to do those stutters.  Also it would allow me to do them with either pickup without touching the pots