This thought grew out of the thread about customizing a MIM Strat. There's a lot of discussion here, in the Forum, about hot-rodding or customizing our guitars in a variety of ways, and not always about upgrading cheap guitars, either. In most cases, we're not expecting to increase the value of our guitars, but to improve some basic function of the guitar, tone, playability, you get the idea . . .

So, I wanted to ask, how many of us have guitars where we've swapped out parts, pickups, even necks? Have you done it to your main performing/recording guitar(s)? Does anyone keep their guitars totally stock, no matter what? Do you tend to customize one guitar, or one type, but not another? How about a favorite upgrade, something you do to all your guitars?

I suppose I could make this a poll, but it's more than one simple question, and I expect more substantial answers than Yes or No. Anybody?

As of this moment, I've only customized one of my several electrics, though I'm planning on doing another soon.

The one in question was a luthier's prototype. There was basically nothing wrong with the gear in question, but one of the pickups simply died- its output was a fraction of the other 2 in the guitar. Near as the tech could determine, it must have been some bad winding deep within the thing.

So I replaced all 3 with Lace Alumitones. Not only did they sound great, they dropped the guitar's weight by a noticeable amount- nice on a hollowbody.

And my planned change is much the same- a mere pickup upgrade.

Beyond that- or something similar- I don't see myself doing much modding of my guitars.

i love "sleepers" guitars that are not overly priced but have solid construction. i don't go nuts when i personalize but i do extra work to make them as good as can be. i will do my own setup work and intonation. tweak the pickup height which can make a huge difference. i pay attention to the specs so i get the most bang for the buck.

recently i have acquired my Epiphone limited edition negative flying v because it had specs i couldn't get without shelling out some bucks. not much chance of getting a set neck v with a maple fretboard unless you custom order.

i was happy with the pickups but wanted to take it a bit further and dropped a Super Distortion in the bridge position.

i wanted it to have maximum crunch and even though the pickups are good, i knew i had done as much tweaking as i could to improve it to fit my needs. and since i wanted a little more the pickup swap was needed.

i have no problems modding anything but i am not going to do much more to this seeing it is unique and i would like to keep the girl as original as possible. only 120 made for Long and McQuade. collectable? doulbt it. but unique? yes.

if i could get another i would repaint it red and add a trem and possibly scallop the fretboard ala KK Downing from Judas Priest.

normally my acquisitions have what i am looking for so neck swaps would not be on my list. i have a 26 yr old Ibanez Roadstar 2 rg420 which is the first year for Ibanez'z edge trem. and it has a oil finished neck in a very strat like profile..no super thin wizard neck. i wish it was a maple fretboard but i wouldn't end up with as nice a neck if i went aftermarket. the rosewood imho is much better quality than a new neck. the bridge pickup was originally going to be the super distortion but i have no issues with their tone so i went with the epi as the recipient.

the roadstar is all original and built like a tank. those duosound pickups have balls and a clear tone with definition, why change them?

with these two puppies i will probably only do some fretwork and cosmetic stuff. since the v is white with a black pickguard i will continue with that and add speed knobs with white accents from greasy groove parts and possibly a white truss rod cover with something engraved on it. maybe eventually add a Dimarzio evo in the neck or a humbucker from hell.
even though my RG 420 is hard to find now in original form i am toying with a new paint job.

i have had plenty of more expensive guitars and now i am not really interested in big buck axes as they rarely sound as expensive as they cost.

fave upgrade? strap locks.
and everything else is dependent on the guitar in question.

i strip my bolt on guitars down to check any build issues like paint in the neck pocket or crappy solder joints. i like to focus on the basic structure because a "tune up" can do so much more than just adding new parts to a poorly assembled axe.

my v is my main love right now and it sounds great and plays great. right now it is loaded with Ernie ball cobalt strings which are quite interesting.
i don't collect nor do i care about resale value. i want my guitar to do what i need and to make ME happy. it isn't an investment to me it is a tool , i am not trying to make money i am trying to make music.

I never noticed!

I just did a quick and unscientific survey of the V's I know, and I mostly found Vs with set-necks and ebony or rosewood, or with maple bolt-ons.

I've put strap locks on 8 guitars. The other 4 I use them on came with the right pins. I put locking tuners on the brown 355 to offset the Bigsby. Pups on my Tele, Strat, Warmoth, and V have been replaced. New caps for the LP.

I have to ask, what is the deal with strap locks? The only time I have ever had a strap come off of a guitar, my hand was on the neck. (And the strap was pretty flimsy.)

Warning for squimish!
Reason for Strap locks

Yeah, I get it...but like I said, the only time I ever had a strap give way was with my hand on the neck, and using a cheap strap.

ok buddy, tell me about those Alumitones. i have been hoping to get some first person impression on those for quite awhile. when they first come out i was curious and now i am getting even more interested.

I put Schaller strap locks on all my electrics, even the Squier Mini. I don't think of it as an upgrade, so much as security. I'm also a big fan of Grover tuners for my electrics - among other things, they can add a little mass to your headstock, which is supposed to enhance sustain. I started using Grovers because I really don't like the green plastic Kluson-style tuners that come on some Gibsons.

On my Gibson guitars, I swap out the Gibson hardware, and drop in a Schaller roller bridge, and a Schaller fine-tuning tailpiece. The roller bridge is fully adjustable, prevents string pinching, and you don't have to go to a repair shop to have them cut string notches for you. The fine-tuning tailpiece is big, like Snickers bar-sized. Both of these will drop right into your standard U.S.-made SG, LP, Flying V or Explorer. They've made the most difference in my SG. SG's tend to be neck-heavy, and the added weight of the bridge & tailpiece help to balance that. I also like being able to fine-tune the strings, without having my hand on the neck, or adding tension by turning a tuning key.

On my PRS SE Custom 24, I've already added Grovers, strap locks, and a Roland GK-3 pickup. In the meantime, I have three sets of pickups waiting, a high-output set w/hex pole pieces for the 24, a set of chrome-covered HB's for my SE Singlecut, and a set of white high-output HB's for the dreaded pink V. All the pickups came from GFS, from their OEM page - there were very strong hints that these are Duncan pickups, which I've always liked, and I couldn't beat the price. We'll see if I've fooled myself.

The most extensive hot-rodding is on the Epi V - along with the white HB's, I got a replacement FR trem, new pots, a new switch, new jack, black strap locks, and new metal knobs, with pearl inlay.

Somewhere down the line, I'll probably get some better pickups for the Squier Mini, while I'm at it. It's the best $25 guitar I've ever had . . .

very few of my guitars are bone stock.
i almost always upgrade the tuners to schallers, my personal favs..
and often re-do the pickups as well, and the electronics. nothing is sacred to me, i'll swap pickups from guitar to guitar to make what i hear in my head translate to physical reality.

I have 3 hotrods and they are all American made Fender Strats with SSS, HSS and HH drop-ins with active EMG's with custom wiring, knobs, etc. One of them is an American deluxe. They all have locking tuners and strap locks. I can put them all back to stock in no-time-flat if someone wants them that way should I ever decide to sell any of them...I still have one stock American Deluxe Strat just in case I want that vintage sound.

On the Taylor T5 & T3, I have no desire to change anything about them...

First of all, they are as quiet as they come. No hiss.

Second, the original Alumitones are essentially identical in sound whether they are single coil or humbucker sized- the only difference is the shape of the pickups. (They have since developed others that are voiced to mimic P90s or a heavier sound for metal- the Deathbuckers.)

Third, that sound is kind of its own thing. Mine are in a maple hollowbody that held some single-coils. Sonically, they won't get as twangy as the stock pickups in a Strat or Tele, nor will they deliver the same growl as the SD humbuckers I have.

So in a sense, they are the most neutral, color free pickups I've had any dealings with.

As stated before, they're much lighter than standard pickups. To that end, I'm planning on getting one of Jon Kammerer's small-bodied standard scale semihollow guitars* with some Alumitones to use as a travel guitar. They're already lightweight, but using Alumitones instead of SD humbuckers might drop the thing to around 4lbs.





* They're called Model 19s in this video, but he's changed their designation since then: http://www.gearwire.com/jkg-guitars-model19-guitarshow.html

I find that there is a certain niche of guitars that I will mod. In today's economy, my money be runnin' funny but if a guitar comes between the price of "free" to $250, then it becomes a prime candidate for a mod. I have some pieces like my 77 Les Paul or my Sting Ray 5 bass that I would not touch at all because of sentimental value as well as the fact that they serve as mark for me to build my projects to. As a music teacher, you'd be surprised at the stuff i get for free or next to free from students who quit or parents trying to recoupe their investments and sometimes, these guitars are beyond the starter pack types. Pickups and electronics usually get switched.....I love Seymour Duncan Pickups and find that I have a lot of luck with GFS stuff (in spite of the ney sayers) Most Strats styles will get trem block upgrades (really partial to brass blocks) and I've found a really nice locking TOM bridge from GFS that I'm starting to make a part of a common formula in Gibbies. I've got about 25 keepers and I sell a lot of the other projects. The mods help me develop my "amateur luthier" status and being in a rural area, it keeps me busy

Most of my guitars are bought because I like them or need what they do as-is. Some of them were bought pre-modified. Straplocks do go on most of them, as I've seen a guy's axe go flying when trying to do super-cool hairband flipping tricks. Which I do not attempt.

My BC Rich ST III needed new pickups as the stock ones were just plain bland. The tone pot did very little to them. (As I was playing in a metal band at the time, and the distortion was almost always on, it didn't matter much). Put a Dimarzion SDS2 in the middle, when I was in a Robin Trower phase. Then put a Carvin stacked humbucker in the neck, and a Carvin MDS (?) in the bridge (with a series/parallel switch). Got the bridge pickup in red, to make it stand out. Also took off the original black plastic knobs and put on gold knobs, to go with the rest of the hardware. Now it's a decent guitar with a variety of tones.

The only guitar I've bought with the intent of modifying is still in the work stage. It's a Fernandes Dragonfly, that had the Sustainer pickup & tuners removed when I bought it ($60). I put on some tuners, strung it up, and decided the feel of the neck made it worth keeping. The 2 pickups still in it work well, but I decided to go for something I don't have in any other guitars: lipstick pickups. S/S/H, black lipsticks from Guitar Fetish. Seeing as they should be bright & chimey, I decided to use the extra holes in the guitar (from the sustainer controls) for a GFS Mod Board Wah/Midboost. One of these days I'll finish wiring it. Hopefully before the Mayan calendar runs out. I have no illusions that the mods make it a more valuable or investment-grade instrument; but they should make it worth more than $60. It was just a chance to try my hand at making something unique.

I`ll switch pups or tuners in a heartbeat-the first thing I did when I got my Cole Clark back from Sydney is start thinking about new pups. I find that most house pups are okay, but just that-for a sound that goes the extra kilometer that`s the first place I look. Most other things I leave alone unless there`s a reason not to. For the Killer, I tried to find a reason to switch something-so far haven`t found a thing, it`s freakin awesome. I could do without the lacquered fretboard but so far it doesn`t seem like a big problem, it`s still plenty fast and there`s no way it`s worth redoing with oil or something.
For the Edwards LP I could see looking at new pups but the short time I had it with me didn`t suggest any pressing need.

What kind of pickups do they use in Killers, do you know?

As far as I can tell they are proprietary, and the ones I`ve heard sound fantastic, no inclination to change mine at all.
You can buy them separately, if you want I could try putting on my thin ice skates and see if I can get any information in Japanese:
http://www.killer.jp/killer/accessory/lq500dynabite.html

The LQ-500 is neck, Dyna-bite is bridge.

It was more idle curiosity than anything else...though I am sort of shopping for pickups.

I mean, I've already narrowed the field on the current swapout project, but who knows what the future holds?

Well if you haven`t noticed already, catalog prices for Killer are quite high. Usually you can get better deals in the shops-if I have a chance I can drop by the place where I got my guitar and see what their prices are like.
As far as referring something online-forget it. You haven`t experienced internet road rage until you try to look up something with the actual brand name Killer. They aren`t killer pickups, they are Killer pickups-yeah that works...

Strap Locks for sure on ALL guitars....that is a must!

I have one Am. Strat that I have replaced the stock pickups with VanZandt Blues.

Another Am. Strat I have replaced the pick guard and the pickups as well with a couple of SD Duckbuckers and JB?.

I have one Fender Tele Deluxe that I replaced the pick guard only but was for personal reasons...to make it my own.

I think these improvements that we all make keep the creative juices flowing in the tone department.
Everything we do to improve our individual tone and add our signature to that tone...is what makes music worth listening to.
Long live the DIY'ers!

Randy

I gotta say to all the bolt on guys strat , tele , p bass jazz bass ect... guitar Johnson on the bay sell a great upgrade to machine screws from the old wood screws for fender necks. It may be something you want your local luthier to do , but I have done my 1969 P bass and a late 70s tele, the sustain went up greatly on the p bass and the tele the neck no longer moves in the pocket. Just a great hot rodding tip from me.

Lok

My friend, I am The Tortoise.

I have been aware of Killer guitars for some time, and have bookmarked their site...and I found it by doing an Internet search.* My patience served me well.









* Yeah, it was a pain!

for real...i had a strat hit the floor last nite, a nice vintage aria pro II "jackson" copy i built up for my son. it landed flat on it's back, snapping the neck at about the third fret. fixable, but very fugly break.

Well I was hoping there might be an advertised deal at one of the shops that`s more reasonable than ordering directly. So far I haven`t found separate parts, and there`s already been a price in elevated blood pressure.

Don't kill yourself looking for Killer parts...that's just what they want you to do!

Hot rod is the ONLY way to go!

That explains why they`re not more popular-at least among the living...
perfect Halloween guitar.

I've done a lot of hotrodding and a bit of asembling using allparts bodies and neck.

Rarely does any guitar of mine stay stock off the rack if ever ...my Gibson classic Les Paul got a graph tech nut, Studio Faded got a graph, tech nut, and the neck thinned a bit and refinished. It was a gift so my wife had no idea i would have preferred a thinner neck like the latest Studio 60's style Les Pauls.

American strats and teles at the minimum get pickups swapped out for noiseless ones as well as graph tech saddles. I like standard saddles but i tend to break a lot of strings with Fender saddles....for some reason i do ok with brass fender saddles and not too bad with gibson saddles.

The cheaper the guitar...the more hotrodding it gets LOL....

I have some American fender and some gibson les pauls but i've enjoyed my Epi Les Paul and Classic Vibe Tele just as much once they're properly rodded!

The most stock instrument i have right now i guess is an American Jazz ...

as someone stated above ...everything gets strap locks!