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BBG: The ToneStyler switch is not like others you would typically find. It’s much more compact and made to military specifications. Is the reason for using such high-quality parts to make the product last longer?
DC: I chose the Gray Hill switches because they are the only ones compact enough to be able to match the same diameter as a standard tone pot. Just about everything else tends to be of a larger diameter, which of course automatically creates installation problems because most solid-body instruments only allow a tiny amount over 1 inch in width in the routing of the body. This means that Fender or Gibson or anyone else who is making a control route in a body make a clearance that only accommodates a pot which would be a maximum of 1 inch in diameter. Standard pots are 15/16ths of an inch in diameter, as are ours, and we don’t make any that are wider than that, and we have not yet seen a guitar route yet where it did not fit.
Concerning longevity, Gray Hill switches have a high service life of an estimated 35 to 40 years. There are Gray Hill lab switches made in the 1970’s that are still working perfectly today and are seemingly indestructible. I would never expect the switch to wear out before the guitar does. Time will tell of course whether people have a working ToneStyle a century from now, but it is well known that the switches have an extremely long service life.
Concerning performance, all the Gray Hill switches have gold-plated internal parts. The rotors, the terminals, the solder terminal, the contacts, everything is 24-karat gold-plated. They are also hermetically sealed. The use of gold on the terminals means it will never oxidize or corrode in any way. Switches that use silver will eventually get silver oxide on the contacts, resulting in crackling and noise because of the switch not producing a solid contact. Even when you spend the money on silver contacts, you have to work the switch back and forth to get the dirt off it to have clean circuit changes. In our research, we have even found that a silver contact switch will start to go bad with only one year of use.
When you take into account the cheaper switches you can buy for just a few dollars use mainly copper contacts, those are the worst because a rotary in a guitar that uses that can have a life span that could be measured in just months.
