I hate bumping the volume knob and accidentally turning down the guitar in the middle of a gig. I would do it only once every few gigs, but it really made me mad. Then a friend of mine suggested I pull the volume control knob off. That fixed that!

Anybody else have a solution to a typical "operator error" ?

Learn how to control your hands....I mean really,you had to take the knob off to stop doing it?....not trying to be smart here,but that's unneccessary.

yeah, try controlling your hands.
the volume knob is major part of my playing. once i set the pedals and amp i control volume for cleans and dirty tone.

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Hi Guitarist1983,

You could make the knob harder to turn, with a thin piece of cardboard cut in a circle with a hole in the middle to clear the pot shaft and nut, placed under the knob and pushed down tight. I know that some people remove the middle pot (upper tone), move the volume to the spot where the middle knob was, and use the lower tone knob as a master tone. You will have two knobs, a volume and master tone, with the volume pot being well away from your strumming hand. Or, even swap the positions of the volume pot and upper tone pot.

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

I've been taking mine out and having only one volume, one tone knob. I do a lot of palm muting on the high E and B strings, so it was really in my way. I plug the hole with an LED from radio shack.







Since I don't do a lot of volume adjusting live, this works great for me.

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I know this will sound like a stupid question be, what does the LED do?
Is it just there to fill the hole, or do you have it hooked up to some pre-amp or other on board item?

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Great solution, Shredd6. Looks good.

As far as the suggestion to controlling my hand--its most difficult to correct a problem when it occurs only once per gig. At 240 strums/minute for 60 minutes that's 14400 strums. 1 bad out of 14400 strums is hard to fix.

This is exactly what I did when encountering the same problem. My method was to cram blu-tac inside the knob until it 'overflowed' (leaving a hole for the shaft of course). The blu-tac created sufficient resistance between the underside of the knob and the scratchplate to prevent it from moving when accidentally knocked, but still turn easily enough for me to adjust with my pinky.

I think I'll try the cardboard and/or blu-tac approach. Thanks, guys.

I've always found it best to treat the cause rather than the symptom. YMMV.

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You dig?

In 25 years of playing I never had this problem and never heard of it either. Maybe it's because I'm usually picking closer to the neck, between the neck and bridge pups... even if I mute the strings, vol knob was never in the way

Maybe this is an option

Believe it or not, many a Strat player had/has this problem. I must confess that back in the 60s when I picked up my first Strat, I had the problem too. It comes from "push picking".

As not all players use or even have heard of this technique, I'll briefly explain it: It involves anchoring the non-pick holding finger tips extended in a natural yet standoff position on a guitar's body. Its purpose is that it helps with speed picking and pinpointing more complicated arpeggios. The pick is more 'pushed' up or down, in or out by the finger or thumb, using the other three fingers as an anchor as required, rather than the more conventional (and proper) way of turning the pickup up and down, using both finger and thumb in a simultaneous, arc like manner.

Unfortunately, with a Strat, said natural position is on or too near the volume pot. Of course, Leo couldn't have foreseen this but the remedy is simply as stated above: Control the picking hand or in my case, turn the hand to where it is no longer an issue and learn to play this way.

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You dig?

Yeah that kinda makes sense, but as I mentioned, my picking hand is usually closer to the neck so even if my other fingers are resting on the pickguard it's not an issue for me... I actually have a problem hitting the pickup switch when playing rhythm sometimes, but never the vol knob.

I have the same type of problem, but I keep hitting the pickup selector switch, knocking it from position 5 to position 4. In my case, I tend to let the fingers that aren't holding the pick extend out while strumming quickly and they hit the switch sometimes. It just feels right this way, but if I can learn to keep my fingers under my hand it won't be a problem. It really only happens for me on a song like "I Know a Little", it's just so much fun that I really get into it and my fingers get a little wild.

_________________
---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

Yeah changing your playing style to compensate for not hitting a volume knob now and again is absurd!!

adj \əb-ˈsərd, -ˈzərd\
1 - ridiculously unreasonable, unsound, or incongruous <an absurd argument>
2 - having no rational or orderly relationship to human life : meaningless <an absurd universe>; also : lacking order or value <an absurd existence>

sorry had too people saying that anger's me

Solution:

Changing the washer on the volume knob and tighting it down will make it hard to turn, that could help, or swapping it with a tone knob, that way by mistake you are only shaving some tone off instead of volume. and its an easy fix