Tom Anderson Guitars - Pickup Switching

[perovaas]

One great thing that Anderson Guitars allow one to do is to choose the switching of the pickups of a customized guitar. But sometimes I get confused with so many options.

Does anybody know what "5-Way Add-Bridge w Kickback + Boost" means?

[nosacter]

their website has a page of explanations--have you checked there?

[perovaas]

Originally Posted by nosacter

their website has a page of explanations--have you checked there?

Thanks, Nosacter. I have checked it prior to initiate this thread. The only explanation that they have got is th B5 switching - which is a sort of add bridge + parallel/series switching.

[major-minor]

5-way-----typical 5 position "strat" switching
Add Bridge-----usually done with a push/pull tone control. It adds the bridge pickup to positions 4 & 5. In other words, you can get all three pickups in pos 4. You can get neck/bridge in pos 5.
Boost-----Is a passive boost that just adds a touch more girth & output to the pickups. It's not huge (like say a Clapton boost), but is useful. I leave mine on all the time.
Kickback-----Never had one with this, so not completely sure. I believe it is for Anderson's M series pickups (kind of a mini humbucker). Think it works similar to the boost function. Have also heard the it turns the mini humbucker sound into more of a traditional single coil sound. Like I say-----I've never used one.

Hope this helps. Get on the Anderson Forum, and Tom (the man himself) will probably answer any questions. Great company. Great guitars.

[fenderball]

i would just call them. someone will get on the line and set you straight...

[dspellman]

Originally Posted by perovaas

One great thing that Anderson Guitars allow one to do is to choose the switching of the pickups of a customized guitar. But sometimes I get confused with so many options.

Does anybody know what "5-Way Add-Bridge w Kickback + Boost" means?

My three-pickup guitars usually get a Bridge Add-in switch if they're using a five-way. This allows you to add the bridge pickup to the front two (neck only and neck plus middle) positions. On my H-S-H guitars, it allows me to put the two humbuckers together, like the middle position on an LP type guitar. My bridge pickup add-in switch is a mini switch (I generally hate push-pulls). I usually have two more mini-switches that control each of the humbuckers (serial/parallel/single coil). This is a standard array on Carvins, for example, that use a five-way.

I have NO idea what Kickback + Boost might be. Far as I know there are no meaningful passive "boosts" unless you're talking a simple bypass of volume and tone controls (some pots are full bypass at 10 or just past and sometimes this is accomplished with a miniswitch or push-pull), getting any resistance out of the way. Most significant boosts require a battery.

There are lots of other wiring tricks that can take place in a passive circuit. One is a mids cut. A standard tone control is nothing more than a treble rolloff. But you can also put a fixed-frequency mids rolloff on a guitar (the Gibson L6S has one, put together by Bill Lawrence). This gives you some nice spank and can lose some of the LP mud. In this case, the frequency of the mids rolled off is fixed, but the amount of rolloff is variable. You can also set up a mids-cut where the amount of rolloff is fixed, but the frequency at which it begins is variable.

Boost circuits (as mentioned above) usually require a battery. You can simply boost the overall output so that you can drive pedals and amps harder. Or you can set frequencies for boost (these are usually treble boosts, since high gain usually knocks off the treble). I have a Chandler Tone-X in one guitar -- it's a sweepable mid boost (you can vary the frequency of the boost but the amount of the boost is fixed at around 16 dB). Another name for a sweepable mid boost is a wah pedal. This is on a push-pull, and while you rotate the knob to select the frequency, you usually don't try to play with your pinky rolling the knob back and forth. This is used very much like a parked wah. I had my doubts about it, but I've found that it's outstanding for building lead and rhythm tones that will not be lost in the mix. And of course, pros have been using parked wahs in pedal form forever (ask Mark Knopfler or Boston). This puts it on your guitar.

Once you get used to where this stuff is on your guitar and IF you find it useful, it's hard to do without it. But most guitars are pretty bland in that area; tradition is a hard thing to break away from when you've got a lot of sheep nose-to-tail as we do in the guitar industry in general.

[perovaas]

Thank much to all of you. Your comments have been very helpfull. I own a wonderful Anderson T-Classic myself, with the traditional 3-way switch + the boost switching - which is exactly as described here: a passive boost.

It is time that I get into the Anderson forum.

[Jerrod]

I thought kickback was just for the M-pickups. I have it on an Atom for a lower output sound.