Tone, price, and quality. I have spent many hours testing capacitors, and you will not find another switch that sounds this good. If you search the web, others offer varitone switches, but not at my price. My quality is second to none; each assembled component is wrapped in electrical tape to protect it from grounding out. After building each switch, I test it and make sure it sounds great, if not, I make another one. If you are not satisfied, I offer a full refund.
Send the switch back and I will get you a brand new one. Replacements will be issued once the faulty switch has been received.
Gibson Guitars charge over $150 for a varitone switch, and Baker Guitar sells a varitone switch for $125. My Switch is a condensed version of the Gibson switch, and only has two wires. Plus the inductor is wired in already! Nothing else to mess around with.
The ceramic capacitor adds a reverb type of sound so the switch has a great tone.
Fender uses ceramic chip capacitors in all of their old amps. Other companies use mylar capacitors, the sound is more generic, flatter.
My switches are usually made with capacitors that follow this range. It varies depending on the manufacturer, but tries to follow the same incremental change:
- C1 = .001 micro farads
- C2 = .01 mf
- C3 = .022 mf
- C4 = .047 mf
- C5 = .22 mf
My switch works in this format:
- Position 1 = Bypass - True bypass switch is pulled from the system, will not ruin your original tone!
- Position 2 = C1 - softer than bypass
- Position 3 = C2 - deeper tone than bypass, better response
- Position 4 = C3 - jazz box full
- Position 5 = C4 - jazz box mellow
- Position 6 = C5 -almost woman-ish tone
Many of you have asked what the difference is between the Gibson switch and my switch. The gibson switch uses smaller punch-roll type capacitors (either mylar or ceramic chip) that are placed into a half-assed plastic setup that holds them in place. Then that plastic setup has open wires that connect it to the switch output. Then from there they hide a large choke inside the guitar cavity. They also use a much larger choke then the one that I use, the use of the larger choke is needed because they add a resistor to stop the popping sound from discharging capacitors, when the knob is turned. Their switch is break-before-make, which means the connection is broken, then is made.
My switch is made so that its make-before-break, with only a small tick sound when you switch between the positions. This switch was designed to keep the smallest footprint possible, so that it could fit into any guitar type.
My switch is entirely made by myself: everything from wrapping the final switch to, buying the parts. No middle men, no crap Chinese manufacturing, and no stupid charges. I get my dial plates from electro-switch in NC, and my parts from various suppliers in the USA.
I have started to make the bass varitone switch again. I don't have specs because I have to order different components all the time. Essentially I double the values of the guitar switch and that seems to work best for the customers that have bought these. You can buy these via paypal on the how to order page.
It's a black base plate with silver numbers. Right now this is a setup up with numbers 1-5, and the bypass position would be off the dial. See pictures below.
