Steve Morse - control relocation?

[I like Rush]

Hi all.

My first post. Sorry if this topic has been covered before.

I recently acquired a beautiful, sunburst Steve Morse (original specs) guitar in a trade. It is without a doubt an outstanding instrument, but I am constantly annoyed by the location of the volume knob and the front toggle switch, which I bang into frequently. I have tried adjusting my right hand position/technique, and although I can certainly do that, I'm just not as comfortable playing that way. Has anyone else had this problem? I am wondering if anyone has tried relocating the locations of the "offending" controls slightly to get them out of the way. I haven't tried taking anything apart to look at the guts to see how difficult the change might be.

Thanks.

 

[banjoplayer]

one idea would be to turn the toggle swith around 180° so it´s already down when it´s not activated (which is I guess most of the time). so you can´t activate it accidentally.
I heard people doing that, but not heard of somebody relocating the volume knob although it should be not a big issue with a custom made pickguard

btw welcome to the forum, have fun, it´s a nice place. and show us a pic of your guitar, otherwise it doesn´t exist (forum rule )

 

[banjoplayer]

here are pics of the "guts" of my Morse

 

[kestrou]

Hey Noob!

Big Rush fan here too - still have my t-shirt from "The Tour of the Hemispheres" in 1978

As the pics above show, it wouldn't be easy to relocate those controls...

Maybe a Y2D, without the front "add bridge" toggle, would be better suited to your needs?

I agree that volume knob is close, but that's the way Steve likes it as he does lots of volume swells - so the guitar is built to make those easy.

Not sure how long you've had the guitar to get used to it, but give it some time and it just might grow on you - which I've heard happens to some players!

Kevin

 

[Tollywood]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[beej]

As Kevin says ... the best bet is really to play it and get used to it.

If you really can't, you do have options. For example, if you could live without the tone control, you could relocate the volume there (and plug the hole). Or rearrange the switching and lose the 'add bridge' toggle. Or get a new pickguard made with slightly different spacing between the pots. But really, just getting used to the existing layout is much easier.

 

[I like Rush]

As Kevin says ... the best bet is really to play it and get used to it.

If you really can't, you do have options. For example, if you could live without the tone control, you could relocate the volume there (and plug the hole). Or rearrange the switching and lose the 'add bridge' toggle. Or get a new pickguard made with slightly different spacing between the pots. But really, just getting used to the existing layout is much easier.

Thanks for the replies. Not sure what I'm going to do yet. Maybe I'll just play it a bit more, but I fear that I'm a little too set in my ways... Y2D would be great, but I think I actually prefer the idea of having the additional SC.

 

[beej]

Well you can always wire the morse up like the Y2D, plus the additional toggle for the extra single. That would give you a 5-way on the lever and remove the need for the 'add bridge' toggle.

 

[Stratty316]

Welcome to the forum, glad to see people not afraid to mod guitars!