Strat switch-knocking while playing...

TimmyO

Is there a cure for this? 

Having cut my teeth, and played subsequently mostly on non-Strats, it doesn't seem to matter how long I hope I'll get over it but I still knock the selector switch out of the neck position.

Anyone else solved his or is it basically tough shit ? 

p90fool

Glue a razor blade to it. 

 

axisus

Yes, change your technique.

I do it very occasionally, but it's rare.

Nitefly

I have more trouble with the volume control.  

I've only ever had one strat, an 80's Strat Plus with Lace Sensors that I had in the late 90's.  When I gigged it I was forever hitting the volume control, and it made a bad humming noise when near fluorescent lights.

Cabicular

I do the volume control bit too
I did a chillis tribute for a few years which pretty much cured of me of it for a while
jumped up to jam with a band the other week and spent all my time doing exactly that!

olafgarten

When I am doing complex picking with the neck pickup I usually grab the switch with my pinky.

alanchanxd

Yes there is by modding:

You can wire dpdt/spdt switches in different locations of the pickguard (by drilling holes), e.g...

Jazzmaster / jaguar style switches
http://www.bakatronics.com/images/ssw-37L.jpg

The usual spdt switches (you can make the switch levers lower so that your hand doesn't hit it by accident)
http://d1gsvnjtkwr6dd.cloudfront.net/large/SW-MT-SPDT_LRG.jpg

The outcome should look like this (my old loaded pickguard project from 2011):
http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx224/AlanChanXD/SOLD Loaded pickguard/21062012304.jpg

You can move the switches anywhere you like beneath the pickguard (preferably somewhere you wouldn't hit the switches), as long as it is within the electronics control cavity (so that you don't need to route an extra cavity for the switches)

ICBM

If you don't use the tone controls I've seen one where the switch was moved to roughly where they are, and the volume knob slightly further away from the strings as well.

Ah… found it. It's a two-humbucker one but you could do the same with a normal pickup layout too.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v476/jnuyts/guitarsandrabbits080.jpg

(Apologies for Photofuckit link.)

TimmyO

I do use one of the tones (for the bridge pickup - for some reason the other tone is controlling only the neck pickup - I could actually live without that one)

Maybe a 'blower' switch where one of the tone pots is, but that forces the neck pickup on (rather than bridge) - that way the 5-way can do as it feckin pleases until the neck blower is off? 

Octafish

The location of the selector switch on a Strat is one of it's advantages for me. Makes it easy and quick to change pickups mid-playing and I've never had an issue knocking the selector (or the volume) so maybe it's a playing style issue? I've played a Strat of some sort pretty much since I started playing plus I like my strumming hand floating so I can pick in different places for different tones rather than have my hand anchored to the bridge, so maybe that's an adavantage?

richardhomer

Octafish said:

The location of the selector switch on a Strat is one of it's advantages for me. Makes it easy and quick to change pickups mid-playing and I've never had an issue knocking the selector (or the volume) so maybe it's a playing style issue? I've played a Strat of some sort pretty much since I started playing plus I like my strumming hand floating so I can pick in different places for different tones rather than have my hand anchored to the bridge, so maybe that's an adavantage?

I covered this in another thread - same as you I pretty much learned to play electric guitar on a Strat and have nothing but admiration for the control layout. Perfect as far as I'm concerned.

I don't have what you might describe as a 'thrashy' right-hand technique which may also help. That said, SRV had a very strong right-hand attack and never seemed to have a problem.

TimmyO

I suspect it's as you say: what you're used to.

Similarly I can't understand how anyone would accidentally hit a LP selector, but based on today's Googling on this topic it's a problem for many who didn't start out on those guitars

octatonic

It is a technique thing.
Here is something that might help, it has worked with students in the past.
Play a couple of songs by strumming and plucking around the 12th fret and concentrate on not letting your pick go outside the width of the neck.
Then go back and play normally, but keeping an eye on what your right hand does.

Do this a few times and see how your technique alters.

ICBM

I definitely have a 'thrashy' technique. I knock the switches on Strats, Les Pauls, Teles, Jaguars, even 335s and Rickenbackers. The only ones I don't are either too far down and forward (Firebird) or back (PRS lever) to be easy to reach when I do want to... and the best one, which is the Hamer/PRS toggle behind the bridge.

It may be because I play in a sort of Pete Townshend 'acoustic/electric rhythm' style, rather than a more controlled 'electric lead' style, and I play with fingers-only even when I'm strumming, so I tend to hit the strings with my whole hand.

Bucket

I just live with it.

I played my Strat earlier and knocked the switch, all I did was knock it back to where it was.

sweepy

I must one of the few that have never had an issue with the Strat control layout at all, though I'm often cradling the trem arm

DLM

One man's meat might be another man's poison. I switch pickups *a lot* to get different tones when I play lead and get frustrated when the selector isn't where it is on a Strat. I'm trying to get where Yngwie, Steve Morse and Blues Saraceno are. They change pickups in the middle of phrases for emphasis, the latter wears the selector switch down doing it!

Lots of guitars that would otherwise suit me are immediately out of the running owing to switch placement.

http://www.promusictools.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/3200x2133.3333333333/bd5be3e4bffe87df985139cc5e5c836c/j/a/jackson-usa-custom-shop-soloist-sl2h-bengal-yellow-10_copy.jpg

http://www.promusictools.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/3200x2133.3333333333/bd5be3e4bffe87df985139cc5e5c836c/c/h/charvel-usa-custom-shop-strat-slime-green-floyd-rose-mn-mh-10-black.jpg

How am I supposed to get around the volume knob to switch pickups? With the wang bar potentially in the way, too?

Babones

The answer is Telecaster.