locating controls on an acoustic - what's your preference?

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JLT
Posts: 296
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2011 9:13 pm
Location: Sacramento, CA USA

locating controls on an acoustic - what's your preference?

Post by JLT »

I don't know where exactly to put this, so this area seems as good as any.

I'm building a parlor guitar and installing a JJB pickup set that has a volume and a tone control. I've seen these with a thumbwheel just inside the sound hole, but there's not a lot of space on this size of guitar. So I'm thinking instead of three options:

1. putting the control knobs on the soundboard itself, like the usual electric guitar setup. The downsides are that the knobs may interfere with fitting the guitar into a hard case, and that the soundboard is so small that I don't want to put anything there that might deaden the sound, especially since I'd have to mount the controls on some sort of reinforcing plate. (Plus they look kind of tacky there, IMHO.)

2. Putting the controls on the upper bout on the bass side, just above the waist, mostly recessed and using thumbwheels instead of knobs.

3. Like #2, but on the flattest part of the lower bout, just below the waist.

I'm thinking that #2 and #3 would present the least problems with fitting it into a case, assuming that I can get a hard case for this beast.

If this were your guitar, where would you most likely want the controls to be?
tippie53
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Re: locating controls on an acoustic - what's your preferenc

Post by tippie53 »

not a fan of making holes but if you do want to do this the upper bout side is often the better spot. Place a small this veneer cross grain to the side.
My preference is the on belt control or DI box. With just the small knobs you won't stress the sides and they are off the top and more hidden and more visible to the player.
John Hall
Blues Creek Guitars Inc
Authorized CF Martin Repair Center
president of Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans
http://www.bluescreekguitars.com
JLT
Posts: 296
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2011 9:13 pm
Location: Sacramento, CA USA

Re: locating controls on an acoustic - what's your preferenc

Post by JLT »

Strange that I never followed this up:

I built the guitar with the controls on the flat part of the upper bout, recessed so that only a little part of the thumbwheel was protruding above the surface. (I'd reinforced that area with a 2 mm thickness of the same material that the ribs were made of, with the grain cross-oriented.) Since I couldn't find thumb-wheel knobs of the right size, I ended up going to a model airplane store and buying two 3/4" model airplane wheels, whose center I bored out so that they'd fit onto the shafts of the controls.

The system works well, looks good, and doesn't seem to affect the sound much, since the cutout slots for the thumbwheels is very small.
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