[kingofamerica]

I've had this Gretsch Archtop (g100ce, nothing fancy) for about 3 years. I really like the way is sounds live. I can get a nice variety of tones out of it going through my pedal board. But, I digress.

The one thing that has always bugged me about this guitar is the positioning of the volume and tone knobs. They are mounted on a flimsy plastic pick guard, which is raised up above the lower f-hole, with the wiring going from the floating pup, up through the f-hole. This poses several problems. First, the plastic pick guard gets static built up in dry weather, which creates an audible "crackling" through the amp. Not a huge issue. I usually just wipe it down with a dryer sheet throughout the gig. Second, I tend to strum pretty hard on up-tempo rockers and the proximity of the knobs to the strings causes me to move the position of the volume knob inadvertently. Finally, I recently noticed that the pick guard has become warped down at the tail. Because the tone knob is mounted near the tail piece, the pot taps against the guitar's body anytime I even brush the pick guard with my hand.

What I would like to do is mount my controls to the body, similar to the Godin 5th Avenue Kingpin. My question is, how the heck do I get in there? The f-holes don't leave much room to work with. Is this something that a hobbyist can do with a little internet guidance, or is this a job that I should leave to the professionals? Is this something that an accomplished luthier could do with relative ease? Advice please.