Killswitch
From Guitar Gear Building and Customising Wiki
In musical instruments such as guitars and basses, a killswitch is a switch in the form of a pushbutton or toggle switch that, when used, kills the guitar's signal. It has been used by a number of players of which the most famous are Tom Morello, and Buckethead.
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[edit] Uses
Killswitches have a number of uses. Some guitarists use killswitches (usually in the form of a toggle switch) in between songs to stop any additional hum or buzz which may come out of their amp, while others use them to create a "stutter" or "staccato" effect.
Many players who have guitars with just two pickups and two volume controls, one for each pickup (such as Gibson Les Pauls), take advantage of it by setting one volume control at 0 and the other at any number above 0, and flipping their pickup switch back and forth to emulate a killswitch. Tom Morello is known for using this technique.
[edit] Wiring
Killswitches can be wired very cheaply (usually only about $3), using any type of switch, but most people use either an SPST momentary (N.O.) switch ("pushbutton") or an SPST or SPDT toggle switch. For SPST, a wire is soldered to each terminal of the switch, and each wire is then connected to the hot and the ground lugs on either the volume potentiometer or the output jack.
[edit] How it Works
The principle of the killswitch revolves around grounding the output. When the killswitch isn't being used, everything is normal, but when it is in use, the hot and ground are connected, causing all of the pickups' output to be grounded, resulting in no sound.
Often when the killswitch is used, a small pop is heard. This is caused by the physics of the situation, since all the amplitude of the sound wave is cut. When overdrive or distortion is used the pop usually isn't heard because they clip the signal naturally. Many argue whether there is a way to get rid of the pop by wiring a large value resistor or capacitor between the contacts, while others say it wouldn't work.
