Lead/Rhythm circuit

[Puke+Cry]

It annoys me when I play and the switch goes up. Sometimes for clean though, but I like the lead better.

[El Podo]

Is there any benefit to disconnecting it, rather than leaving it intact, if you don't use it?

[zhivago]

I disconected it so I don't switch it on accidentaly while thrashing the guitar on stage,  Thurston-style!

[mynameisjonas]

Is there any benefit to disconnecting it, rather than leaving it intact, if you don't use it?

apart from what zhivago said, i don´t think there are any other benefits. theoretically, there might be a microscopic decrease in noise, and an equally microscopic increase in brightness, since the signal from the pickups travel a slightly shorter distance. but as i said, microscopic.

[Superfuzz]

I hate when I hit the rythm switch and I loose a lot of time in finding why my sparkle is went away..so I've put a little ring of rubber ,taken from one cable that I've resoldered , in the sqare space in the switch so now it's locked and correct looking..

[Stereordinary]

I tend to take most if not all of the circuits out of most of my guitars.  I basically go for getting the pickup connected to the output jack with as little in between as possible.  Usually this means little more than a pickup selector switch.

[daydreamdelay]

I never use it

[pullover]

I use mine some, I have a Tonebender clone and it cleans up nicely when you turn the volume down and roll back on the tone knob. On the lead circuit, when you turn the volume down the pedal sounds thin, but with the rhythm circuit it still sounds thick. It seams to me like the rhythm circuit was made for a tonebender or a fuzzface. That being said, it's much easier to push a button on the floor than flip a switch on the guitar. I find that I sometimes fumble when I have to remember to sing, flip a switch, and push a button on distortion pedal during a change while playing.
I think if you set your amp up for using the Rhythm Circuit, so it wasn't so muddy, you would actually find it useful. Most people set their amps up so that they sound good with the lead circuit, then they flip to the rhythm and wonder why it's muddy, and say, "what was Leo thinking?" Roll back on the the rhythm volume a little, set your amps tone knobs up so it sounds good, then flip over to the lead circuit and tell me that it's not cool. It's not "Holy Cow! Look at what I have been missing!" Cool, more like, "ohhhhh..." Cool.

[mynameisjonas]

I think if you set your amp up for using the Rhythm Circuit, so it wasn't so muddy, you would actually find it useful. Most people set their amps up so that they sound good with the lead circuit, then they flip to the rhythm and wonder why it's muddy, and say, "what was Leo thinking?" Roll back on the the rhythm volume a little, set your amps tone knobs up so it sounds good, then flip over to the lead circuit and tell me that it's not cool. It's not "Holy Cow! Look at what I have been missing!" Cool, more like, "ohhhhh..." Cool.

i hear ya. this occured to me when i had to borrow my bandmate´s jag once when i broke a string. having the amp set for a jm, the lead circuit on the jag was too bright, but when i switched to the rhythm circuit it sounded perfect. and then i found that kicking in the lead circuit for leads worked really well. go figure...

[FireAarro]

until you want to play rhythm on your bridge pickup

Yeah the rhythm circuit does sound good when you set your amp up for it, but then the lead circuit is too bright and I like to have pickup switching options. That pretty much sums me up.

[Green angel]

I use it to play Jazz, for toggle switch and on my VWH JM I've hooked it up with my bridge pickup JM90, in this configuration the rythm circuit become a second lead circuit to play smoother solos.

[Mad-Mike]

I'm always using the Rhythm Circuit......I usually have the lead set to bridge only, and just flip back and fourth between the lead and rhythm circuit, as I only use both pickups for my clean sound pretty much, unless I'm going for that old Sammy Hagar/Montrose rhythm type tone, then I use both pickups distorted, and rarely rarely do the pinch-flick thing to swap to neck only on the lead if I need a more strat-like neck lead tone.

[JazzBrew]

I'm just starting to figure out the lead/rhythm circuit thing, and am getting some cool tones from the rhythm circuit now.  Cool contrast between the two.  I think I get what Senor Fender had in mind now, but not sure it was really necessary. I'll take it though.

[darkstriker]

I use the rhythm circuit on my jaguar for e-bow work. Since it is independent, I can roll back volume and use it's darker Tone to get a good sound without fiddling with pots in the middle of the performance. And my you, one only flicks a jags switch if you really want to.