Volume pot in wrong place - How can I make them harder to turn down or swap them out

[ginsambo]

Hi all,

I have an SL3, Stealth LT, Charvel 1A and hopefully soon a couple of Charvel Star copies with ABR 1 bridges and some other TOM bridge guitars. My problem is this - I play with a hard pick and an aggressive attack, with my thumb bent backwards and and picking hand fingers hanging down loose and my hand rested on the bridge. I use my wrist for fast picking runs. I grew up with TOM bridges as my style/hand never really suited a strat, where I felt cramped congested and found that I had to bend the joint in my thumb to play and uses forefinger and first finger movement to cover picking runs. I've never liked the sound that comes from using a light pick and a careful and delicate approach to playing - but then that is just me and I am coming around to new techniques for different stuff.

I've just about come around to finding a way to accomodate my style on the SL3 without putting the floating floyd out of tune, whilst my hand rests on it, whilst playing and I love these guitars, although still hate the downtuning you experience with 2 step+ bends, but then that's the price you pay for a truely floating bridge that will trill I guess.

But problem is that I keep hitting the vol pots with my loose fingers, turning them down mid performance by accident...they are getting looser and looser with use, they are exactly in the wrong place for me. I am kind of am used to the position of them as with a Les Paul, ie out of harms way, unless you need them.

Is there a lock or a way of stiffening the vol pots, or swapping them for stiffer ones, or switching the neck tone and master vol pot around and do a wiring bypass on the tone? Is this quite a common problem? I'm using masking tape at the mo. I'm kind of a barn door man and its driving me mad!

Experienced advice and suggestions appreciated!

[Ward]

I have seen people on here mention that they have taken the volume pot and put it where the tone pot usually goes, then just leave the tone pot in the control cavity. Then they use a cap for the empty volume pot hole. You lose access to the tone control, but it is a fix that is easily reversible if you decide you want it back to stock.

I don't remember where they got the caps for the hole, but hopefully someone who has done it will chime in.

[ginsambo]

Sounds like a sensible idea, with no resoldering incase I decide to sell it, I'II try that thanks.

[ulijdavid]

You can also buy some small rubber gaskets or O-Rings and place them under the volume knob. Take the volume knob off, place the gasket or O-ring at the bottom of the shaft (the gasket or O-ring has to touch the base washer). Then place the knob back on and compress the gasket or O-ring until provides enough friction for how stiff you want the volume knob to be.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

You could also swap the volume and tone pot between their respective holes, then desolder or cut the white wire going to the tone pot. The tone pot will be out of the circuit, which will give you a brighter tone and a little more output.

This will cost you around $0 and take around three minutes to do. I always disconnect the tone pots on my Jacksons anyway. You might not like it, but again you can reconnect it in minutes and just leave it in the cavity and find a plug then.

[Newc]

I've found the CTS pots that come in the Charvel ProMods to be stiffer than other pots, and thus harder to accidentally turn down.

I think there's also some mini-me knobs you can get to have at least a shorter target.


And yeah, I never did like the way J/C cramped the volume knob right under the pinky. I mean, Rory fuckin Gallagher ain't gonna drop his Tele for a Rhoads, so WTF? Put that shit firther back under the bridge or further up under the inner coil of the pickup and let the player have the damn bridge.

[ginsambo]

Here is where it should be



That is the coolest guitar in the world though isn't it.

[MountainDog]

I think there's also some mini-me knobs you can get to have at least a shorter target.

Yes, Carvin has knobs that are sized 5/8" in diameter and height vs. the standard 3/4" x 3/4" knobs.

http://www.carvinguitars.com/products/single.php?product=K6&cid=90

I also use the 'gasket' method mentioned by ulijdavid above, I take foam (like the kind that comes with EMG pickups) and cut them to make foam 'washers' for under the knob. Put one or two or whatever works under there. Adjust the height of the knob on the shaft to get the amount of 'stiffness' you want. Foam is hidden by the knob (as would o-rings or rubber washers) so you can't see it is there.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

You can also buy some small rubber gaskets or O-Rings and place them under the volume knob. Take the volume knob off, place the gasket or O-ring at the bottom of the shaft (the gasket or O-ring has to touch the base washer). Then place the knob back on and compress the gasket or O-ring until provides enough friction for how stiff you want the volume knob to be.

I just used this trick yesterday thanks to you... I'm building a "strat that isn't" and I'm using the stock control locations and I don't want the "volume" knob to spin so I stuck a rubber strip under it. I hadn't considered it until you mentioned it... Good idea!

[catzodellamarina]

I too have run into the problem of accidentally hitting my volume knob.
On my Model 7 and a 650XL, I moved the vol to tone, filled the stock vol hole with a smooth head machine bolt, sand & painted the bolt head. Sometimes these bolts come with stamping so I use a Dremel and grind them smooth before painting.

On my Fusion I cut out round washer out of thin foam padding from a Duncan pickup box. I used this washer under the vol pot to add friction so the knob doesn't move so easily.