Introduction: Guitar Killswitch Install (Push-to-Mute and Push-to-Play)

By Jeremy Cook on YouTube
About: Engineer, Clemson grad, writer, maker of random contraptions for fun and profit.

Here's how to mod your guitar for a killswitch (e.g. Tom Morello) to cut off your guitar playing intermittently. Really neat effect, and here I'll show the circuit for both push-to-mute and push-to-play.

In everyday usage, you'll likely want to go for the push-to-mute option.


Supplies

For this project you'll need:

  • Guitar
  • Pushbutton (N.O. for push-to-mute, N.C. for push-to-play)
  • Drill
  • Soldering iron
  • Wire

Step 1: Drill Hole

Drill a hole for your killswitch. This will vary depending on your switch setup, but I chose to drill a smaller (1/2") hole through my pick guard with a paddle bit. I then removed the pick guard and drilled a much larger (1 1/2") coaxial hole to hold the wiring and allow for swapping things out as needed.

Mill a channel as shown to allow wiring to go from main cavity to this new cavity, or you can drill at an angle with a hand drill if that suits your equipment setup better. I used a milling machine/drill press for this build, but this operation should be possible with a hand drill as well.

While I tried to keep things neat, the pick guard will conceal most errors.

Step 2: Wire the Killswitch

What's outlined here is a grounding killswitch design, and the circuit is laid out in the above diagrams. Solder the switches as shown, and don't forget heat shrink to help keep your wiring intact.

N.O. Switches ground the signal when pushed, thus cutting off the output oscillations. N.C. switches ground the signal UNTIL pushed, meaning you tap on it to allow the sound to ring out.


Step 3: Reassemble, Play, Enjoy!


As to why you would want to use either an N.O. or N.C. setup, do check out the video. There's also a lot more explanation about how the build is done and how it sounds.

I've enjoyed this build immensely, and plan to post more builds and hacks on my JCo Audio YouTube channel. I'd invite you to check it out to see what comes next!