Tone before volume, coupled/decoupled - advantages and disadvantages?

[Stealth]

Suppose you had a two-pickup instrument with a pickup selection switch feeding a Vol/Tone stack.

What would be the real differences between:

• placing the tone control before the volume control
• using a coupled (center lug output) versus a decoupled (outer lug output) volume pot
• using a tone control that has its middle "tapping" the hot lead (that is, volume output connects to center of tone pot, then center of tone pot connects to output jack) versus a tone control that has the signal passing through it (volume output connects to center of the tone pot, tone pot outer lug connects to the output jack) - while the cap is connected to the unoccupied tone pot lug?