Guitar Killswitch

Step 4 Soldering two wires onto momentary switch

You don't need to solder the wires together, I do because I'm afraid that braided wires might come loose and the switch would become broken easier.

Carefully take two wires, and strip both ends. Then solder one end of each wire to the two contacts on the switch. The order does not matter.

This is where the helping hands come in handy, if you don't have one, ask somebody to help you....or do like I did and tape everything to a table and solder.

Comments

[Bunny Slayer]

i'm stuck between step 3 and 4.
i did everything right and when i tried it out...well lets just say i dont have a killswitch.
i have a liveswitch, my killswitch works backwards.
i have the volume wire (from V knob to guitar's input hooked up each to one side of the switch).
did i do something wrong?
oh and i have a behringer (its the same as a strat style but with a bridge humbucker and not a single.
help out please.

[itsachen]

 One of my initial thoughts was, perhaps you bought the wrong switch.
Since your setup is doing the opposite of what is supposed to happen, you may have accidentally bought a push to break instead of push to make.
You want a push to make, or normally open switch, not a push to break or normally closed.

But then again your wiring might be messed up. From what you described it sounds right though. Try intercepting the signal right at the guitar jack, just to be sure. Find the hot and ground that lead from the input jack and intercept it there.

[nittanyfan025]

 I'm new to soldering...whats the deal with braided wire, because thats what i have. Can you solder two separate braided wires that are still together or are you supposed to un-braid the wire, and what do you do with each end? Thanks a lot.

[itsachen]

I used the braided wire because thats all I could find, personally I find the braids annoying. I left the wires braided, without untwisting them, so they could be easiest to solder. Plus, they make the best electrical connections when they're all together.

[nittanyfan025]

 alright thanks yea thats probably what i'm going to do

[solomon684]

is 26 AWG wire ok to use?

[itsachen]

The .4mm diameter wire seems a little iffy to me, but it shouldn't be a problem. I'm just concerned about it accidentally breaking in the process of installation.

[solomon684]

Would you recommend getting one of these wiring kits from stew mac instead? (I'm wiring the whole guitar by the way, not just the killswitch)

[itsachen]

Hm...if you're wiring the whole guitar and need the caps that come in the stewmac kit, I think it'd be useful. If not, then just get 22AWG wire. Looks like 26AWG wire works too. It might turn out to be cheaper

[edensfinest318]

so thoses are random wires you buy or are they from your guitar

[itsachen]

random wires I found

[TheEpicNinja]

thoughs are some pretty badass soldering joints:P

[xqwerty101]

what kind of wires should I use, beaucse i see in one of the pictures that the wires for the killswitch look thicker than most wires under the faceplate

[itsachen]

it doesnt really matter. really. just use common sense, what looks right to you. Dont use like a bigass cable that obviously wont fit, or a super thin wire. i used what i had left lying around.