Brett, getting the balance right is more important than where the elevator is . the 1/2 Fast, Wow, Greased Lightning, Nobody will all fly smooth and level with a hot rock handle when balanced right ,closing the handle spacing more than that is only masking the problem.
either lengthen the nose or shorten the tail
if it is tail heavy will slow the controls but once u give it control it will jump and be gone
back in the day i built an FAI combat ship with a long boom and couldnt control it ,kept cutting it down until the stab was mounted on the trailing edge of the winglike todays FAI's ( i was ahead of my time
) and it flew great