Big D Guitars Varitone

This is a varition on the Gibson Varitone switch which was developed in the 50's for their line of jazz guitars. Incredibly simple to install, it adds a whole new sonic sound plate to your guitar!

I installed this on a 2001 Samick 335 clone, that had suffered a bit of damage where the output jack was smashed in. The guitar has a set of 84 or so Duncans in it, and sounds wonderful in itself. With the varitone, it's now a 345 clone!!!

Output is a tad bit hotter than the normal out. There is a touch of fuzz in the 5 and 6 position, but it just adds to the tone. First position is a bypass, that you don't notice. then comes the fun. I love the neck pickup in the 3 position!! BB King watch out! The 6 position will make amps dance with the bass! It's the best upgrade you cvan do for the money!

I do guitar work out of Mill's Music in Kent WA, and have recommended these to a bunch of people. $40.01 won't buy a decent pickup, and this is the best way to spend the 2 20's! Not only the switch, but the plate and the chicken head knob come in the kit, and it's retro cool.

Much easier than tapp9ng your wah wah pendal, and more realistic that amp eg-ing. If you're searching for that elusive tone, get one of these!

I don't usually like having tone pots on my guitars. I never end up using them so why bother? If I need to add a little tone coloration I just tweak my crybaby a bit and that usually suits me just fine. But when I recently decided to rewire one of my old guitars I was looking for something different. My search led me to Derek Lenard and his Big D Veri-Tone switch. Now, Big D's Veri-Tone is not your average tone pot. In fact it's not a pot at all. A traditional tone pot works by bleeding your pickup's highs through a capacitor to ground. As you turn the knob, more highs are sent to ground leaving you with just the bass part of your sound being sent to your amp. The Veri-Tone is a six position Notch Filter and works by switching your capacitor out for an entirely different one with each turn of the switch. This gives the guitar a much wider range of tonal variation than your traditional tone pot. So I decided to give this contraption a try.

The guitar is an all mahogany set neck with a set of my Searcy s-90s in it.

I set the switch to the first position to hear if the "Bypass" really does allow my S-90 pickups to sing out unmolested. Sure enough it does. That means you're not "changing" the tone of your guitar, your adding tones to it. I then proceed to play all the switch settings in conjunction with all sorts of pickup variations through both clean and distorted signal chains. I AM BLOWN AWAY! It's sort of like having 5 great CryBaby settings with just the twist of a knob. I was able to quickly dial in one of my favorite guitar sounds, Michael Schenker, by simply cranking the gain on my amp and running the bridge pickup through position 3. I was also able to dial in some close Clapton and Santana with the neck pickup in position 5. With the amp tone cleaned up I can get all sorts of jazz head tones and in bypass I was able to get my country twang.

I couldn't be happier with the sounds I have added to my guitar using The Veri-Tone from Big D Guitars. I will be installing these switches on many guitars in the future.

I really like the cool vintage vibe of the switch plate and the chicken head knob. The looks and feel from the front are pure quality. The back of the switch is another story. It's wrapped in a lot of electrical tape with two solid core wires sticking out of it. Now, I have known some guitar builders that will not use solid core wire at all because of its tendency to break if bent back and forth repeatedly. I'm not worried about that. How often do you open your guitar and bend all the wire around? See what I mean? The truth is there are lots of vintage guitars out there that have solid core wire in them and have been playing perfectly for decades. And the tape? Well, it's not much to look at but it will be inside the guitar where no one will see it anyway so... who cares?

There were no instructions included with the switch so I went back to Big D guitars web site to find out how you wire this thing up. The instructions on the Big D website are so simple that I initially thought "That can't be right," but it really is as simple as soldering the red wire to the output jack and the white wire to the back of a pot. No cutting of any wires is needed. I was blown away; this may be the easiest tone modification you can do to your guitar. It's simpler than changing your pickups. You don't need to understand guitar wiring or electronics. If you can solder a wire you an install this switch. Did I mention that it's way easy?

Pickup features: passive
Impedence or other specs: ?

Model of guitar or bass: Strat
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: add on
Other pickups on guitar: Texas Specials
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Blues
Reason for pickup change: Add on

Perceived output level: Mix of Sounds
Tone: Trebly to bassy
Sonic evaluation: best tonal change in recent times, replaces a tone control

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: all styles

Comments: Best Tonal Change for the bucks, easy to install. This is just like the Gibson varitone switch only easier to install