Most guitars have more than one pickup and each one has unique tonal characteristics depending on its placement, construction and materials. The pickup selector switch allows the guitar player to choose between different pickups or a combination of them. The pickup placed close to the guitar neck has a warm, smooth tone with more bass content and is frequently referred to as the “rhythm” pickup, while the pickup placed close to the bridge has a sharper, biting sound with more treble content and is frequently referred to as the “lead” pickup. Of course, these are just generalizations. You might find that the neck pickup sounds sweeter for your leads or maybe you get more rhythm crunch from the bridge pickup. The subjective nature of tone is one of the main reasons it’s empowering to be able to customize your own instrument.

People are often confused by the switch terminology of “poles” and “throws”, but it’s actually quite simple. The switch allows us to change the electrical continuity between its terminals. The “pole” is the name of the terminal whose continuity is switched between one or more throws. As shown in the DPDT (double pole double throw) switch drawing above, in position “1” there is continuity between “Pole A” and “A Throw (1)”. In position “2” there is continuity between “Pole A” and “A Throw (2)”. This A-side alone could be thought of as an SPDT switch because it has a single pole with two throws, but because we have an additional B-side the entire switch has two poles with each pole having its two respective throws (i.e. DPDT). The standard Telecaster switch could be considered DP3T because it has two poles with each one having three throw terminals. The standard modern Stratocaster switch adds two intermediate switch positions “2” and “4” (as shown below) where each pole has electrical continuity with two of its respective throw terminals at once.

Most guitars have more than one pickup and each one has unique tonal characteristics depending on its placement, construction and materials. The pickup selector switch allows the guitar player to choose between different pickups or a combination of them. The pickup placed close to the guitar neck has a warm, smooth tone with more bass content and is frequently referred to as the “rhythm” pickup, while the pickup placed close to the bridge has a sharper, biting sound with more treble content and is frequently referred to as the “lead” pickup. Of course, these are just generalizations. You might find that the neck pickup sounds sweeter for your leads or maybe you get more rhythm crunch from the bridge pickup. The subjective nature of tone is one of the main reasons it’s empowering to be able to customize your own instrument.

People are often confused by the switch terminology of “poles” and “throws”, but it’s actually quite simple. The switch allows us to change the electrical continuity between its terminals. The “pole” is the name of the terminal whose continuity is switched between one or more throws. As shown in the DPDT (double pole double throw) switch drawing above, in position “1” there is continuity between “Pole A” and “A Throw (1)”. In position “2” there is continuity between “Pole A” and “A Throw (2)”. This A-side alone could be thought of as an SPDT switch because it has a single pole with two throws, but because we have an additional B-side the entire switch has two poles with each pole having its two respective throws (i.e. DPDT). The standard Telecaster switch could be considered DP3T because it has two poles with each one having three throw terminals. The standard modern Stratocaster switch adds two intermediate switch positions “2” and “4” (as shown below) where each pole has electrical continuity with two of its respective throw terminals at once.