Do you modify your guitars?

Started by madrab, January 09, 2014, 03:32:17 AM

madrab

I am curious. Do you mess around with your tools? Let me know. Since a few of us have more than one, you can vote twice.

I have always opened up, messed around with and modified my guitars – and basically everything that I own and like.

My -78 tele has changed pickups, bridge, electronics plus a few smaller non-reversable mods. That is why I like cheep guitars. You are not afraid to mess with them (the tele was cheap when I bought it "Fender from the seventies are just shit" was the common knowledge..).

And my other guitars have been changed around a lot. New pickups can really make a guitar shine and even changing caps can make a big difference..

But I really think about it, one big reason to do it is to make the guitar my own. To mark it.

Let me know.

Geir

None of the above ;D

I did once put a tremolo system on my Ibanez ST300 but have since removed it. I do have the knowledge, but don't feel I have the time. I may change some pickups on a guitar or two some time in the future, but for now I'd rather spend my time playing and recording with the gear I have.

So:

No - I just can't be bothered with that right now.
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Oh well ........

Burtog

Yup - I have a roadworn Tele, to this I added Brass compensated saddles and I opened it up and shielded the pick up compartment to reduce the buzz. I also flipped the tone/volume plate so that I could acces the volume knob for swells like you can on a Strat, not sure why they aren't all like that.

I also have a Squire Jag, I have only added an upgraded bridge to it to improve tuning stability when using the trem. This is a standard mod for Jags but essential.

I've modded most of my guitars over the years - not all the mods where a good idea tho!!
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AndyR

Yep, I mess with my guitars.

Most of them have replacement pickups (some of the guitars were actually bought to house the pickups!).
I always rewire strats so that they have a master tone (and one un-used tone knob).
I always replace 3-way switches in teles with a 4-way to give me the both pickups in series option.
I always remove any treble-bleed capacitor that I find over a volume pot (mainly happens in teles).
I replace bits that wear out or aren't up to a set-up job, eg bridge saddles, nuts, and tuners.
On teles I've been known to replace bridge saddles with saddles of a different metal to get a different tone (steel to brass and vice versa).
All my strats have heavy cold-pressed steel trem blocks now, replacing the light ones they came with.
One has a completely new trem assembly - did it for tone, but I'm not sure it was that much of an improvement so I just stuck with the blocks on the others.
Guitars with floating trems have had their trem-springs replaced with nicer ones (can't remember the make off the top of my head) - affects the feel and the tone.
If the volume/tone pots are naff I'll replace them - but by "naff" I don't mean "oh no! they're not CTS (or wotever)", I mean are they scratchy or not working properly or are overly dulling to the sound? - I'm quite happy to leave cheap pots in if they do the job.
Similarly with capacitors for tone controls. In the past I've experimented with the cheapie ones that come in your guitar, PIO and orange-drops etc... I've discovered they are different, but which I prefer depends on the instrument itself - I've even put the cheapies back in because I didn't like the sound of the expensive ones in that particular guitar!
I also mess with capacitor values for different operation of the tone controls.
On all bolt on neck guitars, I remove all paint/varnish/stickers between the neck and body. Had a huge effect on some guitars, barely noticable on others.
On maple necks with rosewood fingerboards, I remove all of the lacquer on the back of the neck so I'm playing bare (oiled and polished) wood. I don't do this to maple boarded necks - too much hassle, where do you stop stripping? (You don't want to strip the board, the frets are installed over most finishes - stripping the board can mean some fretwork needs redoing!)
Oh, and I completely stripped a sticky Gibson Explorer and refinished it with a woodstain, Danish Oil and Briwax...


So, umm.... yes, I modify my guitars a bit! :D

But all of the changes are because the instrument isn't quite doing the job I want... once it's done, it's usually done and I don't mess anymore (although pickups might swap around from guitar to guitar occasionally when I realise something interesting might happen).
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Farrell Jackson

I use to but not so much any more. I've sent pickups out to be rewired to increase their tone and output, replaced bridges and saddles with brass, changed to better tuners, and sanded the back of the necks. I've also  changed the frets from standard to jumbos on a 1967 Tele and 1974 Tele Thinline but I didn't do the work. I hired a pro to do that. Nowadays, unless there's not a big problem such as tuning/intonation/set up, I just leave them alone.

Farrell
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Farrell Jackson


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Test, test, one, two, three.....is this mic on?

AndyR

Actually, that describes me as well, Farrell... (and you've reminded me, I had the frets on a tele replaced with huge ones a few years ago).

Of that long list I posted cos I was bored at lunchtime at work - it's at least a year since I've done any of that kind of stuff (and that was just moving pickups between two guitars that I hadn't got round to doing a year or so earlier).

I'm just kinda playing them all now, in rotation, on and off. When I know I need one for something, or just to have blast on, I clean it up, new strings, set it up and I away I go like it's a new guitar again :)

Actually - that might be why I haven't done any modifying recently... no new guitars for quite a while... well over two years for six-string beasties... And all the existing ones, bar an overhaul and set-up in some cases, are battle-ready weapons and have been for some time. I'm feeling quite happy with my little arsenal, I've got all bases covered that I need covered, so no buying or fiddling required at the moment.

But yeah, if you gave me a new guitar, I'd would automatically start assessing it while using it, pondering whether it needs just a spot more something to make it into the best tool it could be for what I want it to do. I don't seem to want to change the thing or it's appearance or basic design - eg add more pickups or replace a vintage trem with some modern variant - I just want the thing I fell in love with, the complete package, to be working at its optimum for me.

I must admit, with the experience of messing with changing pots and caps etc a few years back, I now know that for me, it's not worth the effort. Same with "better tuners" - usually the existing ones are fine with a bit of TLC. The main thing about the "oh dear, cheaper components" on budget/midprice instruments seems to me to be that they wear out faster, not that they don't work in the first place... So nowadays I only tend replace stuff when it stops doing the job properly... and because there are other guitars on hand, a repair/replacement modification is less of a high priority (which reminds me, there are 2 Epis, 2 Squiers, and a Fender Japan in the loft in various states of "needs work" to get them going again!! :D)
recorder
PreSonus Studio One

(Studio 68c 6x6)
   All that I need
Is just a piece of paper
To say a few lines
Make up my mind
So she can read it later
When I'm gone

- BRM Gibb
     
AndyR is on

   The Shoebox Demos Vol 1
FAWM 2022 Demos
Remasters Vol 1

Flash Harry

Yes and no. Cheapies I do, but the pricey ones I leave alone.
We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different
- Kurt Vonnegut.

madrab

Geir, that was a good response. I added an extra alternative.

I thought about it and I guess it it is compulsive for me – I have to fix things in order to stop thinking about them while playing. It is part of the same thing.
But if I could it would be good to be able to just pick up a guitar and play.

Blooby

#8

This is a fascinating thread. I haven't modified much in the past, but I have a hankering to put a Bigsby on an Ibanez AM93 I got a couple years back. Ironically, the only other mods I can think of were blocking off bars.

Blooby

bruno

Never change a thing - always leave them as they are. My strat is exactly as it was when I bought it some 30 years ago :-)
     
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