Customisations?????

[lard]

Just wonderin if anyone has done many good customisations to their guitars? I’ve done a few but here are the best (and easiest) two:

On my Vester Strat copy (3 s/c pu’s) i’ve added a switch so that you can have all three pickups on at once, or the bridge and neck pickup on at the same time. I especially like the latter since it gives it a nice warm sound with a bit of edge.
I also got my dad to take it to his work (Nissan car factory) to get it re-sprayed. I got this cool green colour that changed to purple depending upon how you looked at it (you might have seen it on cars). A small tester tub of the stuff cost £100!!! Meaning the paint job is worth more than the guitar!!!!!!! <img>

On another (shit) strat copy (floyd rose, 2 H/B PU’s) i rewired the PU’s so that you could have them in series or parallel. This worked OK in series and did still have a nice sound (not as warm as parallel) but the level of the output was slightly lowered through doin this. <img>
Oh, yeah then i painted this one with Pixies saucers!!! <img>

I didn’t bother messin with my real baby’s* though

(*nice guitars, not the little screamin’ things)

How about you guys and gals?

[Randy Jane]

I also take odd guitars to the customizing table. My 89 Squier Strat….its black with maple neck (one piece). It has been customized as follws: Black pickgaurd, Floyd Rose single lock (regular nut, no fine tuners on bridge). A Seymour Duncan JB humbucker in the bridge, Schaller SH-2 in mid, and some other single in the neck. Yamaha Japan tuners…crap crap crap. Stickers come and go and dents and chunks are always getting knocked into/out of it, (like the time my friend wouldnt stop playing drums to help me move a few cabs so i chunked my geetar into the drums…..he stoped playing..hehe.

My Telecaster (Squier as well) I just took the tone pot out and put the jack in the tone pot hole and turned the switch around. It has a humbucker in the neck, and I always play with it, and it kept switching.

I customized a Harmony Stella too….put a single in it and a volume pot and a strat jack plate. Routed it out with a screwdriver……couldnt do it with my dremel…..wouldve woken my parents up, and I just couldnt wait untill the next day to do it.

I may think of some more……who knows. RJ.

[Chris]

Hi Lard,

That sounds really cool that you got a paint job the way you did from your dad’s work.

I have not yet obtained an electric guitar yet and have considered trying to maybe get something used and some-what vintage, what are the thoughts of putting a new pain job on an old piece of equipment? <img>

Just curious for anyone. Thanks, Chris

[Randy Jane]

……….you can, but remember this…………….if its Fender and old….and you put new paint on it………….Telecaster’s have been known to find their way into peoples houses and into their rooms and onto their noggins. Hehe, no, but seriously, uh, if you dont ever want to sell it, do it. If you do something to a guitar, and like it…chances are…someone out there is going to like it as well. If you dont know what you are doing, it could kill your tone. It will affect your tone in any case, anything you do to a guitar affects the tone, (stickers, paint, dents, etc.) even if you cant really hear it. Sometimes its like taking a pebble and chunking it into the ocean…the level of the ocean rises, but you would never know it. On the other hand, it could be like taking a car and parking it into a small pond. If you could find something that has already been refinished, that would be the best…plus, it will probably be cheaper too, because, it as well affects the value of the guitar. But dude, if its something youre going to hang on to for good…make it exactly the way YOU want it, dont listen to anyone but yourself, im just telling you this stuff….so youll know.

RJ.

[Chris]

thanks RJ for the good info.

I think you are right in your thinking about what you do to a guitar to make it your own thing. It it was something vintage and worth alot I can see keeping it original. You also gave a great option of finding soemthing that has already been refinished once and then doing it again to your own style.

RJ are you still in TN or did you make it out to CA? Thanks, Chris

[Randy Jane]

im in CA now….you can read more about it in the RJ is moving post.

RJ.

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