Toggle switch terminology?

[Karmasound]

Hi,

I see alot of mini toggles and would like some help identify what they do, or could be used for.

here is a little list of some, please add more if it's not there.

spdt (single pole double throw)
dpdt (double pole double throw)
on,on
on,off,on
(on),off,(on)
on,none,on
on,off,(on)
on,on,on

so does none pass signal in the middle?
off pass no signal?
on in the middle pass signal, right?

is on and none the same or?

[onboard]

All on the same humbucker? On-On-On.

Different humbucker for each coil cut? That's a good one. Off the top of my head I'm thinking On-Off-On to short a coil to ground in one or the other humbucker - if you have four leads per pickup. Don't quote me though.

Try looking around the wiring section of guitarnuts.com for some great switching ideas. Guitarelectronics.com is another good one.

Hmmm....two guitar switching threads up top......hmmm.....

Oh, if there's parenthesis around the "on" - it's momentary. That is, only making contact while you push in that direction. Let go and the switch returns to the middle.

[Karmasound]

edited the first post.

[onboard]

I'm embarassed to say I don't know the difference between on-off-on and on-none-on.

And a quick look around the net didn't turn up the answer...

[Peter Snowberg]

On-Off-On is a three position switch. On-None-On is a two position switch. Both are xPDT style switches.


I've always wondered if shorting 1/2 of a humbucker will deaden the string movement?

If you spin a DC motor with the coil connections open and then again with them shorted you'll see that the coil loves to convert rotation to electricity. I would be very surprised if the same thing didn't happen with a pickup.

I really think the best selectors switch between the full coil and the tap without shorting anything.

You could also use an On-On-On for a switch to select single coil in one pickup or the other. The pickup outputs would connect to the switch commons while the outputs and the coil taps would connect to the two switch positions.