Modification

[Johnny_Wah]

Hey all.

Anyone had any sweet mods done to some of your gear? It could be anything for any instrument, even if you built it from scratch. Did you do it yourself or take it to someone?

Here's a good site for modding:

http://www.singlecoil.com

Discuss and get modding!

[too cool for hyphens ed]

I have a super fly modded amp. It has some electrical tape on the top to put my guitar picks on. It gives out the sweetest tone.

[Fritz]

hahaha nice

yeah ive modded alot of my gear in some way or the other....

Nothing too full on... Modded some amps so they can run at half power, added an extra gain channel to a marshall of mine, ummm I totally deassembled a fender tele and made a whole brand new tele out of it !

Ummmm and to my gretsches, real simple stuff like swapping the tone and pickup switches or (in my oppinion) better access!! Ummm woah thats loads more but i cant think tonight

[Jawn]

I don't believe in modding instruments that much, so I usually play them as they are off the shop floor. I don't want to spend a lot of money on an instrument, and then more to improve it. If it isn't perfect for me stock, then I don't want it.

The only "modification", if you can call it that, that I have ever done was resurrect a 30+ acoustic guitar and converted it to a slide guitar. But that involved me putting a pickup in the soundhole and changing the strings to a heavier gauge.

[Quakin Jake]

Im building a guitar at the moment, so thats like extreme modding I guess? :p
The amp I use is an old Musicman combo that my uncle fixed up and added new shit into it. Im not quite sure what he did but yeah, it sounds pretty damn sweet! And I put a bigsby and some straplocks on a guitar a few months back.

[Deanis]

I lowered the bridge on my gretsch hollowbody, is that a mod? LMFAO...
Im planning to mod it once the cash comes in, mainly cosmetic stuff though, I still need a new amp though, so I need to get my priorities right.

[thelivingvines]

Ummmm and to my gretsches, real simple stuff like swapping the tone and pickup switches or (in my oppinion) better access!! Ummm woah thats loads more but i cant think tonight

is it worth doing that? It would be a lot easier for me, I'm always knocking the tone one by mistake too. Is it easy to do?

[Johnny_Wah]

Some more sites.

General Guitar Gadgets (http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/)

DIY Guitarist (http://www.diyguitarist.com/)

[Armistice]

I was trying to look for a bass someone made on YouTube, but couldn't find it. I was prettymuch a box of 100yr old wood, haha

Did find a 12 string bass, lol

My mods are I had to grind down a screw that had a burr coz it would scrape up my pants... aaand... the clear plastic that's on the white part is finally pealing off

:D

[Jonesie]

I've modded the shit out of my MIM Standard Tele.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v13/Teleman027/DSC02554.jpg

Bigsby B5
Black Pickguard
Schaller Locking Tuners
Bone Nut
Fender Texas Special Tele Bridge P'Up
Fender Texas Special Strat Neck P'Up (had to route out the pickguard)

and soon I'm getting a 5 way switch installed (It'll be: N+B Series/N/N+B Parallel/N+B Out of Phase/B)

[BonesTLE]

Well my guitar is slightly unique. My lefty falcon has right-handed pots and switches in it. So to turn the volume up I turn the pot in the down direction.

It's nothing much and it wasn't even intentional. But I'm used to it now :D

[Julian]

That is amazing

[BonesTLE]

I'm thinking of setting it up like one of Setzer's. ie, swapping the tone and pickup switches around...
That's one of his mod's I really like.

[Fritz]

haha yeah i do that to all mine. its just easier to get to the pickup selector

[thelivingvines]

is it easy to do though? I'm thinking about it but I dont want to cock it up.

[BonesTLE]

It's fiddley but get a pro to do it if you're worried.
TV Jones also make this (http://www.tvjones.com/harness_toneswitch.htm) if you feel like spending a little cash. :D

[Johnny_Wah]

I just blocked off the trem in my Strat with a piece of wood.

:cool:

[Armistice]

I had a question. I got this wild hair all of a sudden yesterday to make my own guitar... like I mean the WHOLE thing. Are there kits you can buy? Ok, well, by the whole thing I mean pretty much just the body. It'd be cool if there's like a layover for the fret board, so you can make the neck and such and then lay a fretboard on it(seeing that getting the frets right would be hard

Any kits?

I'll prob never have time with school, but it be something cool to do

[BonesTLE]

Do a search for guitar parts or something like that. You can buy necks and wood that you can shape as desired and all sorts of stuff.
I was looking at doing the same thing a while back but the idea never really went anywhere :D
I don't think i'd be that good at it anyhow.

Good luck to you though!

[Jawn]

Sure you can. Eric Clapton built his famous Blackie guitar from three seperate guitars, all combining the different bits he liked. It went for a fuckload at a recent auction as well.

[Armistice]

Yah, I did a search and some were actually a whole guitar that you put together. The only thing I'd want made is the fretboard... I think you can buy them seperately. I'd have to buy the hardware before hand to make the holes and such

Ok, so I was thinking of a solid body, but with hollowbody Fholes that went all the way through, lol

It seemed like it'd be soemthing cool to do... and we have a router and sander and hand jigsaw... so we're good with tools. Only think would be to find a place to laquer it... or I just airbrush it, haha. Or rattlecan, haha... primer grey

[BonesTLE]

That sounds good man. Yeah with a solid body I guess you can pretty much do what you want, I don't know too much about them though as I don't use them much.
I reckon the fun part will be the finish, you'll be able to be really creative with it. You'll have to post photos if you go ahead with it. Like the various stages and the final guitar.
You should install one of these (http://www.tvjones.com/tele-bridge-pop.htm)

[kempos2112]

iv always wanted to make my own guitar, design the whole look and all, but a friend of mine has made 3 himself, with preemade necks and stuff. personally, they all sound and play like shit, so i have decided to just spend my time working to buy a professionally made guitar instead,*not that i need another in a hurry. perhaps i will just buy and paint one one day.
any-who, dont let me put yous off, would be an awsome thing to pull off.

[Armistice]

You should install one of these (http://www.tvjones.com/tele-bridge-pop.htm)

That looks cool

at a job I worked last summer I welded stainless steel food conveyors. Welds were damn hot. I was thinking of making a hollowbody out of stainless steel... thin sheets of course... something like 22gauge I think. It was an idea that came to mind

the body type would be something like an archtop with Fholes cut into it(though not all the way through like I mentioned before

I don't want everyone to get worked up about it though, lol. I still have 6weeks of school left, then a 6week summer class. After that, I hope to have a TIG welder to start up my fabrication business or may find a jobto work therest of the summer before Fall session starts, but I don't know. If I don't do anything... and still have enough money, I'll try to at least work on a body or something

Kempos, you said that the one guys sounded like crap? What would do that? Pickups and strings or... ?

[BonesTLE]

I have no idea how a steel hollow body would go... Would there be issues with grounding and that sort of thing? I really don't know.

I think it's a pretty unique idea though. Whether it will work or not is another question :P

[Jonesie]

James Trussart already makes "Steelcasters" which are Hollow Steel Telecasters, and they're critically renowned for their tone. So yeah.....

[BonesTLE]

Sounds good. Like I said I have no idea - I wasn't trying to say Armistice was wrong or anything :D

[Julian]

I want a tele so bad, I think i'll die if I don't have one

[Johnny_Wah]

The awesomest site ever:

Build Your Own Clone (http://www.buildyourownclone.com/index.html)

You can order kits and make real pedals...

[Jawn]

Yeah, If i was to buy another guitar, it would be a tele. Or a Gibson ES-355. Actually, I only need those two and my collection is set. Anymore and I'm being a self-indulgant greedy rockstar. Awesome.

[Johnny_Wah]

Get yourself a vintage Rickenbacker 12 string.

They kick both Teles and 335s.

[Julian]

No they don't

[Johnny_Wah]

Oh yeah? Prove it.

:D

[Jawn]

12 strings are pretty limited in their use. There is only so much you can do with the 12 string sound.

[Johnny_Wah]

That can be argued.

Some artists will remove some of the strings to differ the sound...Many 12 strings have the potential to better 6 strings.

[Julian]

Teles are way more versatile

[too cool for hyphens ed]

i wouldn't mind a rickenbacker bass. i like that sort of clank sound they make.

[Armistice]

I have no idea how a steel hollow body would go... Would there be issues with grounding and that sort of thing? I really don't know.

I think it's a pretty unique idea though. Whether it will work or not is another question :P

gounding the wire or grinding on the body

I think it's be really heavy and would take a lot to balance. It'd have to be über thin metal... prob a bit too much for me

I'm going to draw up the body on Inventor, I'll post up when it's done-ish. This will be awesome. Also, dad and I were in a wood place, he was looking for plywood or something... but what wood would be the best, quality and sound wise? Maple?


*Edit*
Ok, it's been 2hrs 13mins in Inventor 11. Here's something I did. Not an accurate interpretation, but you get the idea. Pretty much to show the bodystyle... perhaps off any other hollowbody- went off a Gibson- but hope to have something like 22frets and the hand cutout deeper(On the Ibanez I tried it was har to gret 17!) so it'l prob go to the 19th. Fhole design won't be that, but will be cut in. Anyone have any ideas? OH OH, a TLE Forums guitar!!! Everyone submit ideas, haha

http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/8805/guitarkn5.png

[Johnny_Wah]

That looks great Armistice!

We're building a guitar at school during lunchtimes. It'll be a Tele with 'Buckers. We started on it today with an awesome luthier.

[Armistice]

Just a rough sketch... that took 2hrs, lol

[Johnny_Wah]

BUMP.

I feel horrible bringing my own thread up, but if anyone's interested I'm gonna stick a Korg KP2 (kaoss pad) in an Epiphone LP like this guy (http://www.unmaintained.com/forums/ShowThread.aspx?PostID=43#43) There's a KP2 at cash converters and im gonna have a look at that. Then I'll get a cheapie LP and stick it in. Should be sweet.

[kempos2112]

Found this site (http://www.pamelina.com/pamelina_010.htm) with some sweet custome guitar paint jobs, for anyone whos interested.