Just bought my first T-40 - phase switch is three-way?

Hi everyone,

Glad to have found this place, looks to have many knowledgeable folks!

I just picked up an '82 T-40 in great shape - it had been sitting in someone's garage for something like fifteen years. Gave it a good setup and it plays and sounds great!

It's all stock except that the phase selector has been replaced with a three-way toggle - still the same flat style. Is this a common mod and might someone know what it's actually doing? I can't quite figure it out....

The three way doesn't do anything when the neck pickup is selected by itself.

With pickup selector in the middle (both pickups) position the sound goes from thin -> not thin when the phase selector/three-way moves from down to up, as I would expect a phase switch to do, but in the mid it just mutes the bridge (and so sounds exactly the same as when the neck pickup is selected by itself).

Here's the weird thing - when the bridge pickup is selected by itself:

phase switch down = slightly thinner, more aggressive sound

phase switch mid = muted

phase switch up = full sound

I've recorded samples of what it sounds like in the different positions:soundcloud.com/minervadreaming/sets/peavey-t-40

Thanks in advance!

I wouldn't say it's a common mod. Your T-40 and one of my T-60s are the only ones I recall having a 3-way switch in the phase position. But in my case it seemed to act simply as a kill switch. The up position allowed sound while the other two positions killed the sound. I never got around to fixing it as I never really use the phase function.