Pimp My Guitar: Let's see your mods

TheRedDevil

TheRedDevil

Inspired
I have large hands and I need space for playing on my guitars. That's why I made these mods:

Stratocaster: Knobs/switch height
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Telecaster: Switch position and bridge, replaced pickguard
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PRS: Volume knob position, humbucker covers
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Les Paul: Greeny Mod for neck pickup, removed pickguard
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Please let us see your guitar modifications to learn from each other.
 
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Found a Charvel Charvette for $50 at a Thrifty Shopper. Tried swirl paint finish, but didn't come out as nice as I hoped. Will re-do it sometime with Magic Marble paints. Put on a locking Gotoh, Sustainiac, Dimarzio's and matched the volume pot/pickup selector.
Charvel Before.jpg
Charvel After.jpg
 
Replace knobs? Change pickguard? 😴
Bored Monsters Inc GIF


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Looking Good Old School GIF by Holly Logan
 
Presence7682 said:
Found a Charvel Charvette for $50 at a Thrifty Shopper. Tried swirl paint finish, but didn't come out as nice as I hoped. Will re-do it sometime with Magic Marble paints. Put on a locking Gotoh, Sustainiac, Dimarzio's and matched the volume pot/pickup selector.
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maybe you expected something else but I like the final result!!
 
I use two Vol knobs on Strats, one 500K for bridge humbucker, a 250K for the singles. The Tone pot is for the singles. The humbucker gets 0,02uF cap and a 470-560K resistor soldered like a 50s tone pot directly the Vol pot to bring down the resonance. It is a little different sounding to a smaller pot.
 
Piing said:
Replace knobs? Change pickguard? 😴
Bored Monsters Inc GIF


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I built a ghost hex/ piezo Strat many years ago. Shadow makes kill switch momentary switches built into volume pots. I used two of those for s1/s2 on the gk control and 3 volumes (mags/piezo/synth) so it looks like a stock Strat. Then I drilled out the trem baseplate to feed the piezo leads through underneath. it was a really stealth 3 output electric/acoustic/synth setup.
Piing said:
Looking Good Old School GIF by Holly Logan
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acwild said:
Can you do volume swells easily on your Strat?
I generally don’t mod my guitars but I absolutely loved swapping the pickup selector out on my Tele.
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Cool! Yes and it's now easier than before because the rubber ring has more grib and it is as high as my little finger wide but not more.
 
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TheRedDevil said:
"I have large hands and I need space for playing on my guitars."
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I constantly turn down a Strat volume w/ my picking hand on accident, so I just eliminated one of the tones altogether. I'd never go back to the stock layout.
I use my volume pedal for any volume swells & generally leave my guitars controls maxed out at 10.
I've been using MIDI controlled preamps & effects for years so I've always just pre-programmed my volume for each patch & stored it in the rig.

When I first joined this forum I wrote a post about how you can remove the switch from a two pickup guitar & wire each pickup to the tip & ring of a stereo jack. Then into your AXE FX 3 w/ a 'Y' cable.

From here you can control inputs & have complete midi control of your pickup selection of your guitar.
I've been doing this for years before buying my first Fractal using a little relay box I built, but now the Axe FX makes it stupid easy.

I'm pointing out this really neat mod because this thread shouldn't be buried. Check it out!
https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/how-to-control-guitar-pickup-selection-on-axe-fx-3.199445/
 

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Yeah, thank you. That is a great idea!

As a SG player I have the same problem with all pots and switches on my Strats, Teles, PRS guitars. I hate this layout and thats why I made all the changes. E.g. for the Strat it really works. The position is not the biggest issue, it's the height of the pots. I reduced it by removing the plastic knobs, adding some washer between pots and pickguard and put some rubber rings around if I hit it with the hand (the edges are a bit sharp). I also bend over the switch and put some shrink tubing over it. It works much better if you still want to access all on your guitar.

I'm wondering that there are no bluetooth modules + APPs or touch screens for guitars available to change the settings easy without the need for pots and switches ;) :tearsofjoy:
 
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