a good quality switch, with a positive action feedback, and accurate audio control – with a perfectly polished tip that feels smooth to the touch.
to be fair – and EMG is – this is the piece of "Eastern" origin in EMG catalog, as there's a "North American" one (at twice the price): while its basic element switch is probably sold under a hundred different brands, this one here has a neatly installed (custom) PCB that makes it "solderless" within the EMG ecosystem.
i actually bought it just to "cannibalize" this PCB, in order to install it onto an all-black hardware guitar that shall, em, have an all-black pickup selection switch – which EMG doesn't have on offer.
but, because i took it apart in the very moment it arrived, i can witness it is made with all the right parts and utmost care, and testify that its smooth run is only a function of how carefully you align its contacts' layers and insulators towards the lever prong that engage the selection.
i am not scared of soldering irons – we've been best friends since my first burn in my earliest teens – but i have to concede EMG that their very own "solderless" concept makes for a most attractive (and tidy) wiring in any guitar's control cavity.
now, if only an all-black version existed, i would be reviewing that one instead of this that i just took apart – and if a gold-plated one was offered, too, then i wouldn't have to order the next one to install on anyone's gold-plated hardware guitar with the same purpose!
to anyone else who's unconcerned with "exotic" finishes and color-match issue, buy confidently and replace what you have on board with this one: the switch is perfectly good per se, its neat wiring the real icing on the cake, and the very purpose that makes all the difference.
