A sound pickup switching system for an electric string instrument which has at least two pickup coils and a multi-position selector switch, includes a switch matrix with a plurality of switches in it connected to the pickup coils. The switch matrix electrically interconnects the pickup coils in predetermined combinations of series, parallel, in-phase, or out-of-phase arrangements. A relay driver is coupled to the switch matrix to operate the switches under control of outputs from a table memory coupled with the relay driver. User input controls are coupled with the table memory for entering and storing groups of user selected switch combinations in the table memory; and connections are made between the selector switch on the string instrument and the table memory for enabling the table memory to cause the relay driver to operate predetermined combinations of switches in the switch matrix corresponding to different positions of the selector switch on the electric string instrument.