NHTom, on 04 April 2013 - 07:01 PM, said:
Could someone in the know explain these to a rookie?
What was the intent, what are all the controls, etc?
very interesting guitars, would love to learn more about them.
NHTom
Hello NHTom!
With the four pots You can dial in a year You would like to travel to. One of the switches sets "A.D." or "B.C.". Then, pluck a string and You are there.
Seriously...
These instruments have low-impedance pickups for exceptional tonal clarity. They either have separate output jacks for low-impedance mode - which allows the guitar to be directly connected to recording board or it's own amplifier, and for high-impedance mode, through which they can be connected to regular amp, or they have one output jack and a slide selector for the modes.
The pots are: Master Volume, Treble, Bass (I guess, no explanation needed), and an 11-position Decade rotary selector which varies the frequency cut of a filter. With this selector You can make the guitar sound single-coilish, or humbucker-like, even, almost like an acoustic guitar.
They also have switch for out-of-phase setting. This only operates when both pickups are on. It gives the guitar a quacky, hollow tone.
The 3-position bigger switch bypasses the Treble/Bass controls, and/or other sections of circuit.
Cheers... Bence