Pots Mounted Sideways - Bad Idea?

[avidosuite]

I consider myself a decent wood worker, a musician and an artist. I am planning on making a concept bass guitar but sure could use some advise. What's wrong with my ideas? The neck will be a solid hard maple neck-thru design. The body or wings will be a hard maple sandwiched between black walnut top and bottom. Body shape similar to an Avia but with cut outs on the top forward and bottom rearward. Now the real question - I'd like to mount the pots sideways so they angle down leaving the knobs recessed in the cut-out. Will I have enough room to route in the back to make this happen? Is this a cool idea or a very bad idea? Below is my concept mocked up. I welcome any opinions. Thank you.

[mwcarl]

That looks like it would be quite tight, the front pickup routs would be very close to the rear pot routs. I think it could be done with some tweaks and careful measuring. It would be very hard to see the controls when playing, which may or may not be a problem. Nice design though I like the cutouts.

[avidosuite]

Thanks - maybe I could sneak the neck pick-up a little closer to the fret board to give me another 1/2"?

[Buter]

If I were to try it...

Make the center section slightly thicker than normal, no worries with weight as you would be removing a good bit of mass with those body cut-outs. Do a swimming pool type route on the back so you have one big control cavity that you could mount the pups through - this has the added bonus of giving you a super clean look on the front. With the added thickness in the middle, you should have enough room to mount the pots after the pups are in. Carve down the top and back so that the edges aren't as chunky as your center section.

How to drill the pot holes? At an angle? Drill before attaching wings?

I'd do test runs until I had a layout that worked 'cuz you're gonna have a hard time getting everything to fit the way that you want it and there will be issues that you wouldn't have thought of. Get your design dialed in on junk wood before attacking any nice tonewood (common sense, I know).

Just being different for the sake of being different?

Good luck with it.

Cheers

Buter

[verhoevenc]

Works just fine, take a peek here: Myka #64

Chris

[gibsonboy]

sideways mounted pots are a novel thing, i did it on a flying v putting them on the sidewall of the bottom wing . gets them out of the way i guess.

[IPA or death]

You might try some of these too.

[Buter]

You beat me to it.

I was in a bit of a hurry this morning (good surf ) so I didn't try to look up them fancy little thumbwheel pots.

The more I think about it, the easier it gets - just needs good planning.

Thanks for posting that link to David's guitar, Chris. He does some damn fine work, not that you need telling.

Cheers

B

[avidosuite]

Some very sound advice...and good options too! I do appreciate it. I'm intrigued by the thumbwheels too - that could put a new spin on the design as I never new these existed.

Thanks again all!

Paul

[3DogNate]

Looks weird.... probably feels weird too... I'd suggest a working mockup to see if you even like it. I'm not sure the ergonomics are there for it to be easy... I know I'm all over the volume knob when I play. I do not like to have to use a thumb and finger to twist a knob. I have to be able to curl my pinky finger around it to manipulate it. Of course this is a bass and not a guitar... might not be as big of a deal as it would be for a guitar.

Edited September 30, 2010 by 3DogNate

[IbanezDudeCK]

Not sure about the convenience of the locations on the side, but I've seen it done. I believe RKS and that dude that made guitars that look like motorcycle fuel tanks both did that. I like the looks of that hand grip cutout, but I think it'd be weird having the knobs in an unusual spot like that.

[WezV]

also look at maverick guitars for unusually mounted pots

but lets not forget dear old leo

would something like that be more appropriate/ easier to work into the design?

[avidosuite]

You all bring up some very good questions. You've made me think deeper about this. I don't mind brushing the edge of my hand across a knob or thumbwheel on the fly ....but thanks to you all, I realized I have to be careful of the backside. If the knobs protrude out beyond the cavity, brushing against the body while thrashing about could create some unwanted alterations in my sound. See - this is good!