Last year, one of my favorite guitarists became endorsed by Paul Reed Smith guitars. It was a dissapointment that Fender did not endorse Davy Knowles of Back Door Slam. He brought a new fire to the blues along with a different sound for modern rock. Not bad for accomplishing this is just two years. Anyway, to my point... In an interview with him, he mentioned how he loves the set up of a PRS guitar and its control knobs for his volume swells. While its a realitvely new technique to me that I've recently started, I'm struggling a little bit with the control knob. So today, I picked up a PRS 25th Anniversery Santana model. (What a SWEET guitar!) It had a different control knob. Sort of a cross between a Gibson Speed dial and a Fender control knob. Much easier for me to use. Still straying from my question, here it is. Has anyone ever thought about using something other then Fender control knobs? I thought about Gibson style, but they're a little odd on a Strat I think. Anyone know of something with a little more meat? I did notice the Strat pot is a little harder to move then the PRS pot. Any thoughts??? (I know lots of rambling and questions, but its bothering me)

_________________
"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


facebook.com/313DBC

I am certainly NO expert here, but here are my thoughts-if the pot is hard to turn-could it be grime/corrossion? Mine turn very easily. as for the knobs, they are kinda small but in the same way they are unobtrusive in the size they are. While there is certainly room to go with larger knobs I do not know if they would fit your pots. Perhaps you could get a set of pots like are used on the PRS (Expensive I know) and change things around more to your liking.

_________________
So heres to your survival, swimming up the stream, crossing over one dam after another till we get to Rock and Roll Heavens Gate!

I'm starting to think its the knob size itself is just hard to turn with the pinky finger. Using the knob in a normal way, it feel perfectly fine...

_________________
"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


facebook.com/313DBC

Have you tried a knurled Tele knob? It might be what you need, I put Tele knobs on one of my Strats and I like them.

Put some of these bad boys on.

these do look cool on some guitars believe it or not.

Hi Detroit blues,

You can basically put any knob on that fits the shaft, havnt checked but its probably 1/4 inch or more likely 6mm.

Judging by your name yer probably in the states, somewhere like
radio shack ?? or maplin in the UK for instance.

About Davy Knowles i saw him in an interview on breakfast tv (must have been sickening for something) recently here in the UK, comes from the Isle of Man i think. Very nice chap and talented, lets hope he doesnt give up on strats.

.... Al

Yep, Detroit Michigan, U.S.A. Its not really known for Blues, but John Lee Hooker made his name here. As for Davy, well, he may still have his strats, but their artwork now. He plays PRS electrics exclusively. But if I was given a few quality guitars to play at shows, well I'd play them too.

I may try some tele style knobs. We'll see. There is plenty of guitar stores around here that may have what I want. Since my hardware is gold, I might just use gold plated metal knobs....

_________________
"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


facebook.com/313DBC

I agree.... I'm not changing pickup selection, I rapidly increasing and decreasing volume. Chicken head knobs aren't meant for that!

_________________
"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


facebook.com/313DBC

Hello!

You could try a set of these (below). Allparts sell them in white with a black grip as well. The rubber grip is a nice feature, much like the Fender Elite knobs.



Another option is these...



I'm sure there was a user who posted a pic of their strat with a set and it look pretty cool

Hope this helps

Andy

_________________
Pending Greatness

I wish they had the black knob in white or creme....

_________________
"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


facebook.com/313DBC

Some people seem to do all right with Strat knobs for volume swells (stick with it: lots more high speed swells later on):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUyA1_NGNI4

I think those Strat Elite knobs (above) are neat. And another nice alternative offering good grip to the pinky are these solid brass chromed Strat knobs with a knurled surface. These are so much more cool than the metallic coated plastic versions most suppliers offer:

http://www.wammiworld.com/u8003.html

Or for maximum finger control you could just Dimebag-ise some speed knobs...:

http://www.siglermusic.com/images/dean/ ... _knobs.jpg

Cheers - C

One thing about the position of the strat volume knob is while it's in a great placement for swells it is very easy to accidentilly turn it down, especially if you have a heavy picking hand. You might want to take this into consideration, imo a speed knob would be too close to the E string.