Volume Knob Location - Preferences?

[Danley]

Just have to vent my new achilles heel, but first some background: I've been a bit silent on this forum because I need to avoid accumulating more guitars - let's face it, when I see everyone post awesome gear my next stop is eBay. Instead I'm focusing on playing what I have; I'm taking guitar lessons for ~four months now after being self-schooled for the better part of fifteen years. Overall I've made a lot of progress (though not as much as I want - yet.)

One area I'm refining is my picking technique - I went from something goofy to a bit more of a conventional approach. This is where my achilles heel showed up: for lessons/practice I play three guitars primarily; my Lace Sensor Strat, my MIM Telecaster, and my Squier Jazzmaster (the G&Ls are an occasional thing - I worry about dumb things like scratching them, but I don't care at all about my MIM Fenders or Squiers to that degree.)

But the other day I picked up the Tribute ASAT Deluxe I keep at my mother's house - I almost could not play it Though I do not 'anchor,' the volume knob is now exactly where my curled fingers are when I pick high strings, and it wasn't like that before. It took me a good hour to acclimatize my picking to that guitar. So I went home and tried some of my other (neglected) guitars:

• Fender Jaguar: Has a SHARP-edged volume knob my hand cannot help but slam into; very uncomfortable
• G&L F-100: I don't hit the knobs, but I tend to knock the pickup selector out of whack
• G&L SC3: Mostly fine, except due to the small body size I also can hit the pickup selector on occasion
• Jackson Soloist (Floyd: ) Volume knob is alright - fine tuners *murder* my wrist
• Fender Mustang: Totally fine! (Even though it was always uncomfortable before...)

So I'm going to have to bring this up with my teacher and ask how to deal with it - But wondering, how much impact does knob placement have to you? Do you need time to adjust? Because to me it's basically rendered only three guitars I own playable with significant effort to change certain habits. The funny thing is I used to always hate Strat volume placement, but my fingers now naturally curl around it so it isn't an issue.

[john o]

i know what you're saying, i have to reacclimate when i switch guitars re: knob and selector positions. the differences range from pretty minor to very noticeable, but the only one that has been a problem for me is my strat ('07, usa). i use that sometimes in a 3 man reggae/blues band i play in, and it's annoying when i "lose volume" mid-song because i knocked the vol knob back an 1/8-1/4 turn. interesting, that doesn't happen when i bring my skyhawk. i would use the skyhawk all the time, but sometimes the strat is just right for that music.

[ieso]

I prefer all my knobs to be out of the way. However, I had to seriously alter my normal picking technique to work around one of my guitars intrusive controls and ended up discovering some unexpected coolness. You never know!

[LAPlayer]

Uhhh.......nope. No preference. I like them right where they come. That's how they were when I purchased the guitars and where they've always been. Gas pedal on the right, brake on the left, volume in front, tone in the rear. It is what it is.