Pimp My Guitar: Let's see your mods

Planta Fantasma said:
Swamp Devil was just in for some mods. All new pickups. So I made an entirely new pickguard to go w/ it. Good thing I saved some of the Ash from the original build. ;)
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I do this same thing with a strat that I built many years ago. The bridge ground and output jack wires are on quick disconnects (small blade connectors). I have two pickguards currently - one with dual humbuckers and one with H/S/S pickups. Every set of pickups I've ever put in this guitar sound great. Much easier to store a couple of pickguards than another guitar. :)
 
Deaj said:
I do this same thing with a strat that I built many years ago. The bridge ground and output jack wires are on quick disconnects (small blade connectors). I have two pickguards currently - one with dual humbuckers and one with H/S/S pickups. Every set of pickups I've ever put in this guitar sound great. Much easier to store a couple of pickguards than another guitar. :)
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Did that with my Strat, too. Makes the swapping around of things much easier.

Speakinowich, the L500 that just went in last week is getting ousted by a new L500L that is coming. R just barely got up to the level I needed when very close to the strings, but sounds better a few screw turns further away. The L is 6.9H instead of 4.8H, so it will have a bit more oomph from further away, and a little more mids from the higher inductance....
 
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The photos are from 2011 with my Ibanez RG1570 Prestige - swapped to a HH pickup configuration, UV edge glow scratchplate with a custom image.
I still have and play that guitar but much prefer my Charvel DK24 for comfort.

Guitar UV and Daylight.jpgGuitar UV light 3.jpg
 
Fender Telecaster American Special. Changed the pick guard to a custom made from Carmedon (He's on Etsy) in a Seagrass finish. Actually got two pickguards with the other one in a more orange abstract finish, so I switch them from now and them depending on my mood.

Upcoming mods will be an Evertune bridge and locking tuners to make it more efficient in my studio (I want things to be fast).

2020 - 2023 - Fender American Telecaster.jpg

Solar Guitars A1.6 Flamed Black. All original except pickups are swapped to DiMarzio D Activator and LiquiFire. Tuned to C Standard.

2020 - XXXX - Solar A1.6 FB.jpeg

Solar Guitars AB1.6 Gold. All original except pickups are swapped to DiMarzio CrunchLab and The Chopper. Tuned to C Standard.

2020 - XXXX - Solar A1.6 G.jpeg

Solar Guitars A1.6 Distressed. All original except pickups are swapped to DiMarzio D Sonic and Air Norton. Tuned to E Standard.

2020 - XXXX - Solar A1.6 LTD.jpeg

Solar Guitars S1.6 PB-27 Poplar Borste Matte. All original except pickups are swapped to DiMarzio D Activator and LiquiFire. Tuned to Drop-A.

2020 - XXXX - Solar S1.6 PB-27.jpeg

Fender Player Jazz LTD. Absolutely gorgeous finish on this. Changed the pick guard to an all black one. Original had the metal plate in plain metal finish where the controls are. A lot nicer like this with everything in black. Tuned to C Standard.

IMG_5172.JPG
 
I recently finished building this crazy multiscale, 7 string, headless, hollow body, guitar, that's loaded with all sorts of crazy options (Check out the HUGE frets!):
Paulownia Body
Quilt Maple Top
Roasted Flame Maple/Zircrote Neck [Carbon Fiber reinforced]
Zircrote Fingerboard
Richlite Black Binding and Rear Headplate
Paua Inlay
Zircrote & Flame Maple topped Pickups
25 XXXL Stainless Steel Fret Rods (.156" Wide X .074" Tall!)
"0" Radius Fingerboard:
T4M Headless Hardware
Piezo Pickups W/LR Baggs CTRL-X Preamp
1 Mini 3-way Piezo/Mag/Mix Switch
5 Way Mega-E Switch
2 Ebony Knobs for: Vol &.Piezo/Mag Mix

Body Closeup.jpgDetail Frets.jpgFull Top.jpgFull Back.jpgDetail Armrest.jpgDetail Pickups.jpgDetail Treble.jpg
 

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5th-Tuner said:
I recently finished building this crazy multiscale, 7 string, headless, hollow body, guitar, that's loaded with all sorts of crazy options (Check out the HUGE frets!):
Paulownia Body
Quilt Maple Top
Roasted Flame Maple/Zircrote Neck [Carbon Fiber reinforced]
Zircrote Fingerboard
Richlite Black Binding and Rear Headplate
Paua Inlay
Zircrote & Flame Maple topped Pickups
25 XXXL Stainless Steel Fret Rods (.156" Wide X .074" Tall!)
"0" Radius Fingerboard:
T4M Headless Hardware
Piezo Pickups W/LR Baggs CTRL-X Preamp
1 Mini 3-way Piezo/Mag/Mix Switch
5 Way Mega-E Switch
2 Ebony Knobs for: Vol &.Piezo/Mag Mix

View attachment 136334View attachment 136342View attachment 136335View attachment 136336View attachment 136337View attachment 136339View attachment 136340
Click to expand...
Damn that’s cool (and nice!) 👍🏻❤️👏🏻
 
This is my Washburn Parallaxe Trevor Rabin; this thing is a tone and playability beast, just a great guitar in every way. To me, tonally it has all the nuance I want. I replaced the stock uncovered JB/59 set with a covered set of Duncan Saturday Night Specials. The JB/59 were direct mounted, and I didn't want to strip the threads on the Specials, so I just used trial and error to screw the proper threaded screws through the Specials and into the wood, until I found the right height. I drilled two small holes and did some minimal control cavity routing for 2-way mini switches to give me series/parallel for each pickup, I installed A500K/A500K CTS dual concentrics to allow for 50s Les Paul wiring, with a .010 bridge and a .015 neck tone cap, for maximum usable range on the tone knobs, and I shielded the control cavity with copper foil. I freaking love this guitar. The frets are a little smaller than what I see on most superstrats, and I love that too. I guess having my fingers right on the fingerboard just feels better to me. The upper fret access with the neck heel is totally to die for; I think you'd have to get a Dean Exile for anything better. Man, it's a shame this Parallaxe line didn't take off for Washburn; they were designed so well, in my opinion. It even comes with really cool Grover locking tuning machines that lock as you wind. But the two main things are: it's a dream to play, and I get everything out of thing tonally.

Washburn Trevor Rabin.jpeg
 
Budda said:
View attachment 135791

Pulled 2 knobs and pickup selector, put a Gibson 57 in the bridge. Currently 12-60 in B standard, probably 12-54 in C later.
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That control arrangement begs for Gretsch wiring- two individual pickup volumes, wired with input and output to the pot reversed (reverse taper works nicely for blending), and a master volume and tone....
 
Joe Bfstplk said:
Did that with my Strat, too. Makes the swapping around of things much easier.

Speakinowich, the L500 that just went in last week is getting ousted by a new L500L that is coming. R just barely got up to the level I needed when very close to the strings, but sounds better a few screw turns further away. The L is 6.9H instead of 4.8H, so it will have a bit more oomph from further away, and a little more mids from the higher inductance....
Click to expand...
L500L arrived today.

Post in thread 'Pimp My Guitar: Let's see your mods' https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/pimp-my-guitar-lets-see-your-mods.202108/post-2527242
 
IMG_9678.jpgLTD EC-1000T: Installed pickup rings because direct mount on a LP shape is wrong. Rewired controls to neck volume/voice select, bridge volume, tone/coil split.

ESP Eclipse Standard: Gotoh 510 bridge and tuners. Fishman Classic pickups. Same wiring scheme as the LTD. Buffed satin finish to a shine.
 
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State of Epicicity said:
This is my Washburn Parallaxe Trevor Rabin; this thing is a tone and playability beast, just a great guitar in every way. To me, tonally it has all the nuance I want. I replaced the stock uncovered JB/59 set with a covered set of Duncan Saturday Night Specials. The JB/59 were direct mounted, and I didn't want to strip the threads on the Specials, so I just used trial and error to screw the proper threaded screws through the Specials and into the wood, until I found the right height. I drilled two small holes and did some minimal control cavity routing for 2-way mini switches to give me series/parallel for each pickup, I installed A500K/A500K CTS dual concentrics to allow for 50s Les Paul wiring, with a .010 bridge and a .015 neck tone cap, for maximum usable range on the tone knobs, and I shielded the control cavity with copper foil. I freaking love this guitar. The frets are a little smaller than what I see on most superstrats, and I love that too. I guess having my fingers right on the fingerboard just feels better to me. The upper fret access with the neck heel is totally to die for; I think you'd have to get a Dean Exile for anything better. Man, it's a shame this Parallaxe line didn't take off for Washburn; they were designed so well, in my opinion. It even comes with really cool Grover locking tuning machines that lock as you wind. But the two main things are: it's a dream to play, and I get everything out of thing tonally.

View attachment 136739
Click to expand...

I forgot to mention that, in order to make room for the covered Saturday Night Specials, I had to rout the pickup cavities ever so slightly. All I have is a Dremel 4000, so I just set it to the highest speed and moved very slowly and very carefully not to go too far. I had the pickups right next to me, and every time I stopped the Dremel U reached for the pickups to double check. I'm happy with the results. If you look closely right up on it you can see it was just a freehand job, but from any distance it's not noticable at all.
 
I like the Ibanez S Series, but most models look way too busy with the H-S-H pickups, ugly pickup rings, and locking trem. The SV5470 was more what I was looking for: direct mount pickups and a more vintage-style trem. I picked up this virtually mint condition SV5470F NBL for a bit of bargain pre-covid. This model is supposed to have a flame maple top, but the flame is barely visible, nothing like the press photos. There was one more pickup than I wanted, and the pickup selector switch is always an eyesore on the S Series, so I set about changing that. Here's what it looked like originally.

IMG_0452.JPG

I wanted to make it H-H and get rid of that pickup selector, and wanted a finish I could do at home that didn't require a professional respray. I've always liked swirls, but thought it would be too complicated, so I tried an acrylic swirl instead, here's what that looked like:

IMG_3193.JPG

It looked really good in-person, it was metallic-effect which you can't really see in the photo. But it wasn't quite right, so after watching some videos on YouTube of people refinishing motorbike parts, I did the old plastic bag trick with silver paint and over-sprayed it with a plum candy paint. I then finished it with carnuba for a glossier finish. It turned out great (imo):

IMG_4918.jpeg

IMG_4920.jpeg

Hardware is Schaller ruthenium knobs, strap buttons and no-hole pickup covers, which are a pretty good match for the original Ibanez trem. I've left the original black machine heads as they have that great thing where they self-trim the strings when you wind, but might change them to Schaller M6 in ruthenium at some point.

The pickups are Pariah Pickups (Blackheart bridge, Leone neck) - they sound fantastic, miles better than the stock pickups. The original switching was a 5-way selector with a push-pull pot. I thought most of the non-standard tones were pretty weak, and I'm not that confident with wiring diagrams and soldering, so kept it simple. I initially wired in a 3-way rotary pickup selector where the tone knob is, but decided on using a 3-way micro-switch instead and added back in a no-load tone pot.

I had absolutely no idea what I was doing when I started, but it was a fun project and it turned out better than I ever expected, and the guitar sounds and plays fantastic. The only thing that could make it better is a black Richlite fretboard with offset dots...

I'm currently modding a Charvel DK24, we'll see how that turns out.
 
emw1sns said:
I like the Ibanez S Series, but most models look way too busy with the H-S-H pickups, ugly pickup rings, and locking trem. The SV5470 was more what I was looking for: direct mount pickups and a more vintage-style trem. I picked up this virtually mint condition SV5470F NBL for a bit of bargain pre-covid. This model is supposed to have a flame maple top, but the flame is barely visible, nothing like the press photos. There was one more pickup than I wanted, and the pickup selector switch is always an eyesore on the S Series, so I set about changing that. Here's what it looked like originally.

View attachment 136911

I wanted to make it H-H and get rid of that pickup selector, and wanted a finish I could do at home that didn't require a professional respray. I've always liked swirls, but thought it would be too complicated, so I tried an acrylic swirl instead, here's what that looked like:

View attachment 136912

It looked really good in-person, it was metallic-effect which you can't really see in the photo. But it wasn't quite right, so after watching some videos on YouTube of people refinishing motorbike parts, I did the old plastic bag trick with silver paint and over-sprayed it with a plum candy paint. I then finished it with carnuba for a glossier finish. It turned out great (imo):

View attachment 136913

View attachment 136914

Hardware is Schaller ruthenium knobs, strap buttons and no-hole pickup covers, which are a pretty good match for the original Ibanez trem. I've left the original black machine heads as they have that great thing where they self-trim the strings when you wind, but might change them to Schaller M6 in ruthenium at some point.

The pickups are Pariah Pickups (Blackheart bridge, Leone neck) - they sound fantastic, miles better than the stock pickups. The original switching was a 5-way selector with a push-pull pot. I thought most of the non-standard tones were pretty weak, and I'm not that confident with wiring diagrams and soldering, so kept it simple. I initially wired in a 3-way rotary pickup selector where the tone knob is, but decided on using a 3-way micro-switch instead and added back in a no-load tone pot.

I had absolutely no idea what I was doing when I started, but it was a fun project and it turned out better than I ever expected, and the guitar sounds and plays fantastic. The only thing that could make it better is a black Richlite fretboard with offset dots...

I'm currently modding a Charvel DK24, we'll see how that turns out.
Click to expand...

Dude, excellent work! I love what you ended up with. How did you make the original blade switch holes completely disappear?
 
State of Epicicity said:
Dude, excellent work! I love what you ended up with. How did you make the original blade switch holes completely disappear?
Click to expand...
Thanks! It was just some wood filler, same stuff I used to fill in the middle pickup hole. But I glued a thin piece of wood in the control cavity behind the pickup selector switch holes so the wood filler wouldn't just sink into the control cavity. Then I did A LOT of sanding to make sure the areas I'd filled in were flush with the body. Seems to have worked out ok as I did it 3+ years ago and there's no sign of the filled areas sinking or anything. The S series is already super thin, but mine is definitely the thinnest after all the sanding I did :)
 
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