1.3 Tone, Volume and Selector Switch

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It's really important to get to grasps with the way that a guitar is wired.

This is a picture taken of a Stratocaster. As you can see there are 3 knobs and a switch. Knob "a" controls the volume, knob "b" adjusts the tone of the neck pickup, and knob "c" adjusts the tone of the middle pickup (see 1.1 for the positions of these pickups). Switch "d" selects which pickup is connected to the output jack.

Switch "d" is a 5-way switch in this case and works as follows:

How the 5-way Selector
Switch Works

The reason behind the existence of the 5 way selector switch and multiple pickups is due to the fact that the tonal content of the sound generated by each of the pickups is different. The 5 way selector allows the guitarist to switch between these different sounds, and the 'tone' knobs are there to maximise the range of different sounds that can be played.

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