
Photo 1 shows the 4PDT switching matrix design for the "up" position, which will put the pickups half out-of-phase.
We've discussed full out-of-phase and half out-of-phase pickup switching. Here's a wiring for those who want it all in one switch.
Hello and welcome back to Mod Garage. After exploring the half out-of-phase pickup option several times in the past, there was a lot of interest, and I received a lot of emails from readers about it. A lot of you asked for a multi-phase switch to have all possible options at the ready and today we'll bring it all together. You asked for it, and the Mod Garage delivers!
Let's start with what we'll need to get out-of-phase or half out-of-phase sounds:
- You will need to engage at least two pickups to get such sounds. A single pickup played by itself will always sound the same, no matter if you play it in phase or out of phase (more about this later). The magic starts when you engage two (or more) pickups with one in phase and the other one out of phase or half out of phase.
- In general, you'll need one switch for each pickup you want to put out of phase. This can be only one switch, like on the middle pickup of a Stratocaster, to cover both in-between switching positions (bridge+middle and neck+middle), or three phasing switches, like on Brian May´s "Red Special," with one switch for each of the three pickups.
My design of a multi-phase switch that we'll cover today can be used to expand already existing out-of-phase switches in a guitar or to design a new wiring of your choice, integrating such a switch. With this switch, you'll be able to cover all three possible phasing options: in phase, out of phase, and half out of phase.
The magic starts when you engage two (or more) pickups with one in phase and the other one out of phase or half out of phase.
All you need for this mod is the switch, plus a capacitor and a resistor for the half out-of-phase option. So, let's start with the switch itself. For this mod you need a 4PDT on-on-on switch, which means a switch with three switching positions (up-middle-down) and a total of 12 lugs, arranged in four independent sections. Such switches are on the border of being exotic, but they're still available. Since every manufacturer uses a slightly different switching matrix for such switches, you'll need to get one with the same switching matrix I used, which is more or less the quasi-standard for it. It's possible to use 4PDT switches with a different switching matrix, but you'd have to adopt the wiring to it. I've provided three photos of the switching matrix and the switch design for each position. Photo 1 shows the "up" position, which will put the pickups half out-of-phase. Photo 2 shows the "middle" position, which will give you the full out-of-phase option. And Photo 3 shows the "down" position, which is just the normal in-phase operation.
Placing such physically large-sized switches on a pickguard or control plate can be a challenge, so you'll have to be creative. There is no way around such a switch when you want this mod because there are no existing push-pull or push-push pots with on-on-on switches. If you can find a 4P3T rotary switch, you can use it to substitute the switch by replacing one of the pots with it. There are also 4PDT slider switches available, but they're physically about the same size, and therefore, not a real alternative.
Photo 2 shows the 4PDT switching matrix design for the "middle" position, which will give you the full out-of-phase option.
Image courtesy of singlecoil.com
Here we go with the wiring of the switch, shown in Fig. 1. With the lever down you have the normal in-phase operation, with the lever up the pickup is half-out-of-phase, and in the middle position you have the full out-of-phase option.
Anyway, there you have it, all in one switch as shown in Fig. 1. On the left side of the switch, you see a capacitor in series with a resistor for the half out-of-phase option. A good average value is using a 0.01 uF capacitor with a 6.2k-ohm resistor in series as an additional serial attenuation of the system, preventing an impedance peak.
When looking at the switch, you'll notice that one switching stage is not populated at all. You might ask: Why don't we use a 3PDT switch for this if we only need three switching stages? This is because of the asymmetrical switching matrix of the 4PDT switches in the middle position (Photo 2) and there's no way around it. If the on-on-on switch had a completely symmetrical switching matrix, then three switching stages would be enough, but such switches aren't available today.
Photo 3 shows the 4PDT switching matrix design "down" position, which is just a normal in-phase option.
Image courtesy of singlecoil.com
In general, you add a controlled degree of reversed phase of the pickup when using the half out-of-phase option, which is great to mimic Stratocaster in-between "quack tones" on a Telecaster, like on the Jerry Donahue Tele models or with the Bill Lawrence Telecaster wiring.
Phase differences are measured in degrees. Totally in-phase sounds have either 0 or 360 degrees of difference, meaning none. Totally out-of-phase sounds have a 180-degree difference. So, half out of phase is either 90 or 270 degrees of difference. That's the reason why you can only achieve a fully out-of-phase effect when using two pickups together with one wired out-of-phase. (When both pickups are wired out of phase, they sound the same as both pickups in phase, because there are still 0 degrees of phase difference between them.) When a signal passes through a capacitor, the voltage leads the current by 90 degrees, so when a pickup's signal gets routed through a capacitor, it shifts the phase by 90 degrees—exactly half of 180 degrees—and therefore half out-of-phase ... in simple terms.
The cap connected to the switch is the phase-shifting cap mentioned above. A 0.01 uF cap is a great starting point, but you may try caps between 0.005 uF (5000 pF) and 0.022 uF. The smaller the cap, the sweeter the sound will be, but this really depends on your particular pickups. I recommend experimentation and fine-tuning to get as close as possible to a Strat's in-between tones.
As for the attenuation resistor, a 6.2k-ohm resistor works pretty well with the 0.01 uF cap and standard single-coil pickups. As a simple guideline, you can follow this rule by choosing and experimenting with this resistor: The higher the value, the more attenuation in the system, the smaller the impedance peak. A good starting point is the DCR of the pickup that's connected to the switch. For example, if your pickup measures a DCR of 6.8k ohms, you should start with a 6.8k-ohm resistor on the switch for a balanced sound and experiment from there. A good option is to use a small trim pot first so you can experiment until you find the value you like best. You can measure the trim pot and solder a fixed resistor with the measured value on the switch, or simply leave the trim pot where it is. A 10k or 15k trim pot is perfect for this.
That's it for this round. In honor of Fender's 75th Anniversary, next month we'll take a deeper look into Fender's history, busting some myths, misunderstandings, and urban legends, while celebrating the man behind the company that started it all: Mr. Clarence Leonidas Fender, or Leo Fender, as the world calls him.
Until then ... keep on modding!
- Mod Garage: “Jimmy Page” Les Paul Wiring - Premier Guitar ›
- Mod Garage: Adding an Out-of-Phase Switch to a Telecaster ... ›
- Phasing Out: How to get out-of-phase sounds from a Stratocaster ... ›
See and hear Taylor’s Legacy Collection guitars played by his successor, Andy Powers.
Last year, Taylor Guitars capped its 50th Anniversary by introducing a new guitar collection celebrating the contributions of co-founders Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug to the guitar world. The Legacy Collection revives five of Bob Taylor’s classic acoustic models, curated by the legendary luthier and innovator himself. “To imagine that we’re doing guitars that harken to our past, our present and our future all at the same time,” Bob says, “I really like that.”
In developing the collection, Bob preserved the essence of his originals while integrating performance and playability upgrades introduced during his tenure as designer-in-chief. “It’s an up-to-date version of what those guitars would be,” Bob explains, “but with the same sound.”
Visually, these guitars feel classic—clean, understated and unmistakably Taylor. While Bob’s original aesthetic preferences are showcased in his Legacy models, the nod to the past runs deeper than trade dress.
From his earliest builds, Bob favored slim-profile necks because he found them easier to play. That preference set a design precedent that established Taylor’s reputation for smooth-playing, comfortable necks. Legacy models feature slim mahogany necks built with Taylor's patented New Technology (NT) design. “My first neck was a bolted-on neck but not an NT neck,” Bob says. “These are NT necks because it’s a better neck.” Introduced in 1999, the NT neck allowed for unprecedented micro-adjustability while offering a consistent, hand-friendly Taylor playing experience.
What makes this collection unique within the Taylor line is Bob’s use of his X-bracing architecture, favoring his time-tested internal voicing framework over more recent Taylor bracing innovations to evoke a distinctive tone profile. Since Andy Powers—Taylor’s current Chief Guitar Designer, President and CEO—debuted his patented V-Class bracing in 2018, V-Class has become a staple in Taylor’s premium-performance guitars. Still, Bob’s X-bracing pattern produces a richly textured sound with pleasing volume, balance and clarity that long defined the Taylor voice. All Legacy models feature LR Baggs VTC Element electronics, which Bob says “harkens back to those days.”
The team at Taylor thought the best way to demonstrate the sound of the Legacy guitars was to ask Andy Powers, Bob’s successor, to play them. A world-class luthier and musician, Andy has spent the past 14 years leading Taylor’s guitar innovation. In addition to V-Class bracing, his contributions include the Grand Pacific body style, the ultra-refined Builder’s Edition Collection, and most recently, the stunning Gold Label Collection.
Below you’ll find a series of videos that feature Powers playing each Legacy model along with information about the guitars.
Legacy 800 Series Models
First launched in 1975, the 800 Series was Taylor’s first official guitar series. Today, it remains home to some of the brand’s most acclaimed instruments, including the flagship 814ce, Builder’s Edition 814ce and new Gold Label 814e.
The Legacy 800 Series features the 810e Dreadnought and two Jumbos: the 6-string 815e and 12-string 855e. Each model serves up a refined version of the Dreadnought and Jumbo body shapes Bob inherited from Sam Radding—the original owner of the American Dream music shop where Bob and Kurt first met. “I was making my guitars in the molds that Sam had made at American Dream,” Bob recalls. “There was a Jumbo and a Dreadnought. That’s all we had.”
All three Legacy 800 Series guitars feature one of Bob’s favorite tonewood combos. Solid Indian rosewood back and sides are paired with a Sitka spruce top, yielding warm lows, clear trebles and a scooped midrange.
Aesthetic appointments include a three-ring abalone rosette, mother-of-pearl Large Diamond inlays, white binding around the body and fretboard, and Bob’s “straight-ear” peghead design. Both Jumbo models also showcase a mustache-style ebony bridge—a nod to Bob’s early Jumbo builds.
Legacy 810e
The 810 Dreadnought holds a special place in Bob Taylor’s heart. “My first 810, the one I made for myself, was a thrilling guitar for me to make,” he says. “It’s the one and only guitar I played. It didn’t matter how many guitars we made at Taylor, that’s the one I took out and played.” The Legacy 810e brings back that bold, room-filling Dreadnought voice along with the easy playability expected from a Taylor.
Taylor Guitars | Legacy 810e | Playthrough Demo
Legacy 855e
Taylor’s first 12-strings found an audience in 1970s Los Angeles. “I was making guitars that would find their way to McCabe’s in Santa Monica and Westwood Music,” Bob says, “and these guitars were easy to play. Twelve-strings were a popular sound in that music. It was a modern country/folk/rock music genre that was accepting our guitars because they were easy to play. They also liked the sound of them because our guitars were easier to record.” The Legacy 855e, with its resonant Jumbo body, slim neck and gorgeous octave sparkle, carries that tradition forward.
Taylor Guitars | Legacy 855e | Playthrough Demo
Legacy 815e
The Legacy 815e revives Taylor’s original Jumbo 6-string, delivering a big, lush sound with beautifully blooming overtones.
Legacy Grand Auditoriums
In the early 1990s, Bob Taylor heard a consistent refrain from dealers: “Not everybody wants a dreadnought guitar anymore.” Players were asking for something with comparable volume but different proportions—something more comfortable, yet still powerful. This feedback inspired Bob to design a new body style with more elegant curves, more accommodating proportions and a balanced tonal response. The result was the Grand Auditorium, which Taylor introduced in 1994 to celebrate its 20th anniversary.
Thanks to its musical versatility and easy playability, Bob’s Grand Auditorium attracted a wide variety of players. “We came into our own with our Grand Auditorium,” he says. “People were describing it as ‘all around.’ It’s a good strummer and good for fingerstyle, but it’s not totally geared toward strumming or totally geared toward fingerstyle.” Also referred to as the “Swiss-Army Knife” of guitars or the “Goldilocks” guitar, the GA quickly became a favorite among guitarists across playing styles, musical genres and different playing applications including recording and live performance. “That guitar made studio work successful,” Bob says. It gained a wider fanbase with the debut of the “ce” version, which introduced a Venetian cutaway and onboard electronics. “That became one of our hallmarks,” says Bob. “If you want to plug in your guitar, buy a Taylor.”
Today, the Grand Auditorium is Taylor’s best-selling body shape.
The Legacy Collection features two cedar-top Grand Auditoriums inspired by past favorites: the mahogany/cedar 514ce and rosewood/cedar 714ce. Both models incorporate Bob’s original X-bracing pattern for a tonal character reminiscent of their 1990s and 2000s counterparts. Shared aesthetic details include a green abalone three-ring rosette, ebony bridge pins with green abalone dots, a faux-tortoiseshell pickguard and Taylor gold tuning machines.
Taylor Guitars | Legacy 815e | Playthrough Demo
Legacy 514ce
The Legacy 514ce features solid mahogany back and sides paired with a Western Red cedar top, yielding a punchy midrange and dry, woody sonic personality that pairs beautifully with cedar’s soft-touch sensitivity and warmth. It’s a standout choice for fingerstyle players and light strummers who crave nuance and depth. Distinct visual details include faux-tortoise body and fretboard binding, black-and-white top trim, and mother-of-pearl small diamond fretboard inlays.
Taylor Guitars | Legacy 514ce | Playthrough Demo
Legacy 714ce
The Legacy 714ce also features a cedar top, this time matched with solid Indian rosewood back and sides. The result is a richly textured sound with deep lows, clear trebles and a warm, mellow response. Inspiring as it is, this specific wood pairing isn’t currently offered in any other standard Taylor model. Additional aesthetic details include green abalone dot fretboard inlays, black body and fretboard binding, and black-and-white “pinstripe” body purfling.
While the Legacy Collection spotlights Taylor’s past, newer models from the Gold Label, Builder’s Edition and Somos Collections show the company’s legacy is always evolving. Explore the Legacy Collection at taylorguitars.com or visit your local authorized Taylor dealer.
Taylor Guitars | Legacy 714ce | Playthrough Demo
Detail of Ted’s 1997 National resonator tricone.
What instruments should you bring to an acoustic performance? These days, with sonic innovations and the shifting definition of just what an acoustic performance is, anything goes.
I believe it was Shakespeare who wrote: “To unplug, or not to unplug, that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of acoustic purists, or to take thy electric guitar in hand to navigate the sea of solo performing.”
Four-hundred-and-twenty-four years later, many of us still sometimes face the dilemma of good William when it comes to playing solo gigs. In a stripped-down setting, where it’s just us and our songs, do we opt to play an acoustic instrument, which might seem more fitting—or at least more common, in the folksinger/troubadour tradition—or do we bring a comfy electric for accompaniment?
For me, and likely many of you, it depends. If I’m playing one or two songs in a coffeehouse-like atmosphere, I’m likely to bring an acoustic. But if I’m doing a quick solo pop up, say, as a buffer between bands in a rock room, I’m bringing my electric. And when I’m doing a solo concert, where I’ll be stretching out for at least an hour, it’s a hybrid rig. I’ll bring my battered old Guild D25C, a National tricone resonator, and my faithful Zuzu electric with coil-splitting, and likely my gig pedalboard, or at least a digital delay. And each guitar is in a different tuning. Be prepared, as the Boy Scouts motto states. (For the record, I never made it past Webelos.)
My point is, the definition of the “acoustic” or “coffeehouse” performance has changed. Sure, there are still a few Alan Lomax types out there who will complain that an electric guitar or band is too loud, but they are the last vestiges of the folk police. And, well, acoustic guitar amplification is so good these days that I’ve been at shows where each strum of a flattop box has threatened to take my head off. My band Coyote Motel even plays Nashville’s hallowed songwriter room the Bluebird Café as a fully electric five-piece. What’s key, besides a smart, flexible sound engineer, is controlling volume, and with a Cali76 compressor or an MXR Duke of Tone, I can get the drive and sustain I need at a low level.
“My point is, the definition of the ‘acoustic’ or ‘coffeehouse’ performance has changed.”
So, today I think the instruments that are right for “acoustic” gigs are whatever makes you happiest. Left to my own devices, I like my Guild for songs that have a strong basis in folk or country writing, my National for blues and slide, and my electric for whenever I feel like adding a little sonic sauce or showing off a bit, since I have a fluid fingerpicking hand that can add some flash to accompaniment and solos. It’s really a matter of what instrument or instruments make you most comfortable because we should all be happy and comfortable onstage—whether that stage is in an arena or theater, a club or coffeehouse, or a church basement.
At this point, with instruments like Fender’s Acoustasonic line, or piezo-equipped models from Godin, PRS, and others, and the innovative L.R. Baggs AEG-1, it’s worth considering just what exactly makes a guitar acoustic. Is it sound? In which case there’s a wide-open playing field. Or is it a variation on the classic open-bodied instrument that uses a soundhole to move air? And if we arrive at the same end, do the means matter? There is excellent craftsmanship available today throughout the entire guitar spectrum, including foreign-built models, so maybe we can finally put the concerns of Shakespeare to rest and accept that “acoustic” has simply come to mean “low volume.”
Another reason I’m thinking out loud about this is because this is our annual acoustic issue. And so we’re featuring Jason Isbell, on the heels of his solo acoustic album, a piece on how acoustic guitars do their work authored by none other than Lloyd Baggs, and Andy Fairweather Low, whose new solo album—and illustrious career—includes exceptional acoustic performances. If you’re not familiar with his work, and you are, even if you don’t know it, he was the gent sitting next to Clapton for the historic 1992 Unplugged concert—and lots more. There are also reviews of new instruments from Taylor, Martin, and Godin that fit the classic acoustic profile, so dig in, and to heck with the slings and arrows!Ernie Ball, the world’s leading manufacturer of premium guitar strings and accessories, proudly announces the launch of the all-new Earthwood Bell Bronze acoustic guitar strings. Developed in close collaboration with Grammy Award-winning guitarist JohnMayer, Bell Bronze strings are engineered to meet Mayer’s exacting performance standards, offering players a bold new voice for their acoustic guitars.Crafted using a proprietary alloy inspired by the metals traditionally found in bells and cymbals, Earthwood Bell Bronze strings deliver a uniquely rich, full-bodied tone with enhanced clarity, harmonic content, and projection—making them the most sonically complex acoustic strings in the Ernie Ball lineup to date.
“Earthwood Bell Bronze strings are a giant leap forward in tone, playability, and durability. They’re great in any musical setting but really shine when played solo. There’s an orchestral quality to them.” -John Mayer
Product Features:
- Developed in collaboration with John Mayer
- Big, bold sound
- Inspired by alloys used for bells and cymbals
- Increased resonance with improved projection and sustain
- Patent-pending alloy unique to Ernie Ball stringsHow is Bell Bronze different?
- Richer and fuller sound than 80/20 and Phosphor Bronze without sounding dark
- Similar top end to 80/20 Bronze with richer low end than Phosphor Bronze
Brent Mason is, of course, on of the most recorded guitarists in history, who helped define the sound of most ’90s country superstars. So, whether you know it or not, you’ve likely heard Mason’s playing.
Professional transcriber Levi Clay has done the deepest of dives into Brent Mason’s hotshot licks. At one point, he undertook the massive project of transcribing and sharing one of Mason’s solos every day for 85 or so days. Mason is, of course, on of the most recorded guitarists in history, who helped define the sound of most ’90s country superstars. So, whether you know it or not, you’ve likely heard Mason’s playing. Levi shares the insight he gleaned from digging deep, and he tells us what it was like when they shared a stage last year. Plus, Levi plays us some great examples of Mason’s playing.