Pickup selection by shorting to ground?

[lion]

Has anybody ever seen a 2 pickup wiring scheme with a 3 pos toggle setup to short either N, B or none to ground - instead of switching the hot?

Will it work - and has it ever been implemented?

[David Schwab]

If you short the hot, you will short out both of them. If you leave the hot end connected and disconnect the ground, you will have a lot of hum.

[lion]

huh - dumb question It's rather obvious!

The reason I led myself to even consider the possibility, is that I have bought a scratchplate with pots and a 3 pos toggle switch The strange thing is in the center position the switchlever has no contact to either of the poles, that is:
UP= contact A+B
CENTER= nc
DOWN=B+C
The seller claims that the harness has functioned with the switch as it is by shorting either of the PU's to ground. Obviously that's not possible, but I can't see how it could be able to switch both PU's ON as it is. The switch looks like a normal angled switchcraft and the switchblades doesn't look bent or damaged.

[David Schwab]

Switchcraft makes all kinds of those toggle switches. He got the wrong kind of switch and is trying to pass them off, or he just doesn't know any better.

No one uses switches like those for pickups. Those are used for tone switches on Gretsch guitars, where they switch caps in and out of the circuit.

Switchcraft GUITAR SWITCHES

[lion]

Thanks David.

[Sweetfinger]

You can wire like a Danelectro, where the pickups are wired in series and the switch shorts each pickup to itself to take it out of the circuit.