Why do you dislike the rotary?

dogrocketp

dogrocketp

I drank the PRS kool aid, and it was tasty!
Joined
Apr 28, 2013
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Peeps,
Other than the volume drop, I like using my 5 way rotary switch guitars. I particularly like it when gigging. I find I’m only a click away from single coil or humbucking? The volume drop makes it aggravating. Would you still use the rotary if there wasn’t any volume drop? I notice a lot of people have removed theirs.
 
I always found the rotary switch difficult to get a hold of during a gig as my hands tend to get a little sweaty. So many times I'd go to move it to another selection and my hand would just spin around the knob, not moving it. I definitely prefer a knife type switch for pickup selection, either like on the McCarty or on a Strat type guitar; no ambiguity as to where you are and easy to grab on to. I also think you'll find the same volume drop going from full HB to Single coil even with a knife switch. The volume loss has everything to do with losing that one extra single coil "hum bucking" pickup inside so it's the overall volume of the pickups output when you bypass that second single coil in the HB that eliminates the noise that causes the vol. drop, not the selector switch. As to the vol. loss when going from full HB to single coil, I solved that issue with a mini-clean boost just to compensate for that volume loss. I pre-set the volume on the mini clean boost to be enough to just push my now tapped single coil HB back up to the volume is was before I eliminated one of the coils in the pickup. I use a Cusack More Louder as it's very neutral and does not color the tone of what I've already got going on, it just boosts my signal so that it's got more volume from the amp and my single note lines rise a bit over the mix. That's if I'm going to use the single coil mode for the whole song. For soloing I still use my "master clean-boost" as I would without tapping my pickups. I find my McCarty gets close enough for R&R live to a Tele-type sound when I put it in Parallel mode, eliminating that one coil. I got a mini to save space and it works very well just dedicated to getting my single coil mode back up to the same vol. I had the HB's. Good Hunting.
 
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Extremely hard to grab hold of it and get it to the setting you want in a live setting. I think at home its pretty cool and visually looks a bit more appealing. Vol drop is just the nature of the beast. You can go to the mcCarty 3 way toggle with a push pull with resistors to get a less drastic version, but it sounds different.
 
I got nuthin’.

The rotary is great, and I’ve purposely installed them in a few guitars that didn’t come with them.

I’ve also never understood the criticism of the volume drop when splitting coils. Real single coils have less output than humbuckers, so if I’m like, trying to approximate the tone of a single coil.. why would I want it to be hitting the front end of an amp like a humbucker?
 
sergiodeblanc said:
I got nuthin’.

The rotary is great

I’ve also never understood the criticism of the volume drop when splitting coils. Real single coils have less output than humbuckers, so if I’m like, trying to approximate the tone of a single coil.. why would I want it to be hitting the front end of an amp like a humbucker?
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Ditto. I've got nothing against them. I bought a CE-22 last year that the original owner changed to a 3 way. I'd like to get a rotary back in there one of these days. As for being hard to change on the fly, Hans had a simple fix for the '91 Standard that we traded for. Chicken head knob for the rotary.
 
I love the switching flexibility on my CE22, but it always feels clunky live. I miss the ease of a 3-way.
**I second Bodia's recommendation for the Chicken Head knob...it does help some...

These days my 90s Standards (with 3-way) get the bulk of the play, and the CE gets used when that "outer coils in parallel" sound is needed...
 
bodia said:
Ditto. I've got nothing against them. I bought a CE-22 last year that the original owner changed to a 3 way. I'd like to get a rotary back in there one of these days. As for being hard to change on the fly, Hans had a simple fix for the '91 Standard that we traded for. Chicken head knob for the rotary.
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Do you still have that guitar?
 
Other than the "stock" 3-position humbucker tones, the only one I really love on a rotary is the bridge HB/neck split combo. For me, the simplest solution is to use a familiar 3-position toggle switch, and then a push/pull tone to only split the neck pup, to get that favorite sound from the rotary. Much simpler (for my needs).
 
Dirty_Boogie said:
Other than the "stock" 3-position humbucker tones, the only one I really love on a rotary is the bridge HB/neck split combo. For me, the simplest solution is to use a familiar 3-position toggle switch, and then a push/pull tone to only split the neck pup, to get that favorite sound from the rotary. Much simpler (for my needs).
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you could also make the volume and tone pot be push pull/push and wire each pickup to it thus giving you all the options aside from series/parallel.

i also personally dont like outside coils by themselves, barely when they are together. It gives you a more bassy/"telecaster" sound but by themselves the bridge is far too shrill so the rotary kinda helps in that you cant get the bridge by itself.
 
For me, it was the ease (or lack thereof) in use - compared to the Blade/toggles I had been accustomed to. I also never knew what position I was in - something I could easily do by 'feel' or with a quick cursory glance at the position of the toggle/blade. The position of the switch is easily felt or observed, you know what position its in from the moment you pick it up.

I am sure I could get more used to a Rotary, but to me, its a bit like playing a Guitar with no fret-markers or side-dots - you may not 'need' to look, but without them, seeds of doubt replace the visual reassurance they provide. I don't know how often I take quick glances at my guitar for 'reassurance' that I'm actually playing it as I think I am - especially when playing in a band in a live situation. If I'm talking, singing etc as well, I can also use 'touch' to check the position of toggles/blades to know exactly what position I'm in and/or what pick-ups are split - but a quick glance too gives me all that information.

I'm sure that if Rotary switches were the 'norm' or I had used them for sometime exclusively, I'd feel more comfortable with that design. Aesthetically speaking, it looks OK - although I'd prefer not to use a 'tone/volume' knob that goes from 1 to 10 - something that would also give 'visual' feedback.
 
Mozzi said:
For me, it was the ease (or lack thereof) in use - compared to the Blade/toggles I had been accustomed to. I also never knew what position I was in - something I could easily do by 'feel' or with a quick cursory glance at the position of the toggle/blade. The position of the switch is easily felt or observed, you know what position its in from the moment you pick it up.

I am sure I could get more used to a Rotary, but to me, its a bit like playing a Guitar with no fret-markers or side-dots - you may not 'need' to look, but without them, seeds of doubt replace the visual reassurance they provide. I don't know how often I take quick glances at my guitar for 'reassurance' that I'm actually playing it as I think I am - especially when playing in a band in a live situation. If I'm talking, singing etc as well, I can also use 'touch' to check the position of toggles/blades to know exactly what position I'm in and/or what pick-ups are split - but a quick glance too gives me all that information.

I'm sure that if Rotary switches were the 'norm' or I had used them for sometime exclusively, I'd feel more comfortable with that design. Aesthetically speaking, it looks OK - although I'd prefer not to use a 'tone/volume' knob that goes from 1 to 10 - something that would also give 'visual' feedback.
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Yeah, I’m used to the rotary because it was the norm. Aside from the first year of CEs and some EGs rotary switches were on all PRS guitars when I started playing them.

I find it super obvious what position it’s in just by listening to the guitar, I don’t even have to look at it, and in all honesty even if I did I’d probably still be confused because of the numbering.

I’m not saying I have magic ears or anything, so I’m not trying to sound superior. In fact, the PRS I have difficulty hearing what positions I’m in the most are Siggy’s/408/etc. with the two mini toggles and resistors… I have to actually look at those to figure out what the hell is going on.
 
sergiodeblanc said:
Yeah, I’m used to the rotary because it was the norm. Aside from the first year of CEs and some EGs rotary switches were on all PRS guitars when I started playing them.

I find it super obvious what position it’s in just by listening to the guitar, I don’t even have to look at it, and in all honesty even if I did I’d probably still be confused because of the numbering.

I’m not saying I have magic ears or anything, so I’m not trying to sound superior. In fact, the PRS I have difficulty hearing what positions I’m in the most are Siggy’s/408/etc. with the two mini toggles and resistors… I have to actually look at those to figure out what the hell is going on.
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I have to agree with all of your points.

I swore I'd never own a rotary guitar only because I THOUGHT it was stupid.

I bought my first rotary only because when I first joined this forum there was frequent threads about how good D1 pickups were so after I became indoctrinated I bought a ce22 D1 rotary. Cheap too.

I immediately fell in love with D1s but then I got to really like the rotary too.

Like you when I'm using anything other than 1 or 5 I don't want to hit the front of the amp that hard anyway so I'm good with the volume drop.

Now I have several sets of D1s and three rotary prs guitars.

I tend to switch it up with my ce24 though. It came to me with toggle but I eventually put rotary in it, then went back to toggle and 8515 set.

I'm thinking about switching it again. I was thinking about blue wafer rotary with reissue T and B pickups BUT now I have a chainsaw pickup arriving in a few days so maybe I'll try that????
 
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