Volume pot location

PeachyDragon

Have you noticed that Fender guitars have the volume pot in a position that allows
one to swell the volume during playing?
With distortion the application might have limited success, but
why don't PRS and Gibson do the same?
I'm still considering options like this for my custom build.

AlanRatcliffe

There are two ways of looking at it: either it's in a convenient place to tweak the volume or do swells while playing, or it's in a damn inconvenient position so you knock the knob while playing. I fall into the latter camp.

Guys like Steve Morse make good use of it though...

=

PeachyDragon

Makes sense. My only concern is that in order to do swells I
have to stand by the pedal which isn't great for stage performance
in certain respects.

All things considered I suppose the normal position out of the way is better. ?

MikeM

???You're having a custom guitar built? Wow that's cool!!

PeachyDragon

MikeM wrote: ???You're having a custom guitar built? Wow that's cool!!

Yip. I'm very exited. I finished the CAD drawings and
designs and compiled a PDF with photos and technical specs
I chose so the luthier and I can finalize the details. Got my Adeson Burns Tri-Sonics
for the guitar already. And a flaming maple top.

MikeM

I was bugging you man, pretty much all the threads you post lately are about your custom guitar. Why not start a thread where you can pose all these questions, and post the build log once it starts happening for the rest of us to see as well?

PeachyDragon

MikeM wrote: I was bugging you man, pretty much all the threads you post lately are about your custom guitar. Why not start a thread where you can pose all these questions, and post the build log once it starts happening for the rest of us to see as well?

Lol. My apologies... I am rather excited and might be "name-dropping" or "topic-dropping" whenever something comes across my mind. I figured a questions about neck dimensions, for instance, would be better answered if the topic title suggests the question.

That said, I am CERTAINLY planning on starting a topic soonish which will contain photos of the wood blocks and such and updates along the way. I'm sure the luthier will receive many requests because of that as well. ?

MikeM

No worries man. I understand. If you look around, you will find my thread about my custom build.

Ito topic names, if you press the reply button (not the quick reply) you can change the topic name. Then you can have everything together in one thread, with different topics, as a history of your guitar decisions. Can be quite handy!

PeachyDragon

What was the title of your topic? I can't find it... terms like custom guitar build come up often.

MikeM

Mething like, custom strat, yes please.

Bob-Dubery

PeachyDragon wrote: Have you noticed that Fender guitars have the volume pot in a position that allows
one to swell the volume during playing?
With distortion the application might have limited success, but
why don't PRS and Gibson do the same?

All control layouts have pros and cons. Teles (proper Teles) and Strats have a single volume control but, as Alan says, not everybody likes it in the standard location. I've known guys to move the volume control down one - sacrificing a tone control. There's also a trick that some guys do with Teles which is to reverse the control plate and move the controls around. This can give better access (depending on your preferences) to the volume control and put the selector switch out of the way.

Fender Jags and Jazzmasters (and IIRC Mustangs) have the dual controls - essentially a "rhythm" circuit and a "lead" circuit and a control to switch between circuits.

No solution pleases all the people all the time. Some people like the position of the Les Paul selector switch as it's easy to flick it from position to position. You can also have different volume levels for each position - which you can't do with a Strat.

Where the Strat scores, for me, is that because the control plate is a drop in you have more options for repositioning controls and adding extra controls.

PeachyDragon

X-rated Bob wrote:
PeachyDragon wrote: Have you noticed that Fender guitars have the volume pot in a position that allows
one to swell the volume during playing?
With distortion the application might have limited success, but
why don't PRS and Gibson do the same?
All control layouts have pros and cons. Teles (proper Teles) and Strats have a single volume control but, as Alan says, not everybody likes it in the standard location. I've known guys to move the volume control down one - sacrificing a tone control. There's also a trick that some guys do with Teles which is to reverse the control plate and move the controls around. This can give better access (depending on your preferences) to the volume control and put the selector switch out of the way.

Fender Jags and Jazzmasters (and IIRC Mustangs) have the dual controls - essentially a "rhythm" circuit and a "lead" circuit and a control to switch between circuits.

No solution pleases all the people all the time. Some people like the position of the Les Paul selector switch as it's easy to flick it from position to position. You can also have different volume levels for each position - which you can't do with a Strat.

Where the Strat scores, for me, is that because the control plate is a drop in you have more options for repositioning controls and adding extra controls.

Makes sense. My wild ideas have been to have a bypass switch for the tone and volume control, so they dont sap tone but also so I can switch between 2 volume levels easily and effectively by flipping one toggle.
Otherwise I also thought of having one pickup selector with a tone and volume and a switch that bypasses that and has another pickup slector without tone and volume, allowing me to set up 2 sounds and switch between them, but I think that's a bit much. Essentially the sounds I'm most likely to want in terms of selection are neck and middle, middle and bridge, all 3 pickups, and neck and bridge out of phase. This will all be in series. Secondly I probably want to be able to switch on only one coil at a time, but I honestly think the applications of that are limited and will likely not be used as much.