This is the chapter about cool guitar modding projects that will help you to enhance your guitar with a minimum of work and money. Most of the mods are very simple and not really new, but as you know the old-fashioned and simple things always work best ;-) A good way to practise is to buy a used and cheap guitar and make it the modding guitar. Here you can try, practise and test all the things. If you like the mod, perform it on your real guitar and have fun !
General tricks to make every guitar sound much better (PDF, 11kb)There are a lot of basic things that are very easy to do to make any guitar sound better. Check your guitar step by step and try some things described here. You canīt switch all possible pickup combinations of a Stratocaster with the common 5-way selector switch. Here is how you can solve this problem. If you are a Strat player and need a Tele like tone sometimes, this is a good and easy method to try. You can purchase tested high-quality parts for this project in our Webshop If you have a Strat with a weak bass response, especially when using the bridge pickup alone, this might help you ... at least a little bit ;-) You can purchase tested high-quality parts for this project in our Webshop Our friend Magnus is the Mc.Guyver type of a guitar modder, and here he shows you how to make a Strat pickup fit into a Telecaster bridge, this time with a humbucker. Lotīs of pics and details, a big shoutout to Magnus for this project. A fantastic mod to get a much fatter sound out of any Telecaster, but you can also perform it on any other guitar with more than one pickup, eg. a Stratocaster. A good trick to get rid of the controls load inside a guitar system. It wires all pickups directly to the output jack and will enhance the signal. This ultracool little mod from TDPRI member "Fezz Parka" will enhance the function of your Telecasterīs tone pot drastically. This mod was developed by John Cochrane from Australia and he describes it as follows: A useful mod that I use for changing a Strat type pickup combination choice from a standard sequence Strat type 5 way switch and standard pickup and control layout is simple, quick, easily reversible and costs nothing, and you only need a Phillips head screwdriver You have a good Les Paul guitar but it donīt sounds like the guitars from the famous Burst slingers ? Here is how you can convert your Les Paul into a vintage sounding, roaring monster. Thanks to Udo Pipper from G&B for publishing the vintage wiring diagrams of the tone pots. You can purchase tested and selected pots and caps in our Webshop This amazing mod is from Ritchie Laird and he shows you, how to build your own active EC style Stratocaster, without breaking the bank. So a big shoutout to Ritchie for sharing this piece with us. Here are also some soundfiles from Ritchie to hear this mod. The pots in a guitar are often ignored but they have a huge influence on the overall sound of your guitar, so you should take some of your time and learn a little bit more about this little rascals. You can purchase selected, tested and matched pots in our Webshop As you all know, the caps from the tone control circuit can influence the overall sound of your guitar, even in bypass mode. There is a lot of discussion about old caps, here you can get some more information about this subject. You can purchase selected and tested high-quality caps in our Webshop You all know the hazzle with passive single coil systems, a small cut in volume creates a far greater loss in treble response - here is how to get rid of this problem. This solution works fine in Stratocasters and Telecasters. You can purchase tested systems for this project in our Webshop A lot of players donīt use the guitars tone control pot because itīs not very flexible and often the caps are way to big and therefore the tone getīs very dark. Here is a suggestion to get rid of this problem. The ideas and drawings are from Helmuth Lemme and published in his book "Elektro-Gitarren-Sound" You can purchase tested high-quality rotary switches in our Webshop This is a summary of the fantastic article about line- and speaker cables for musicians from the former GUITARNUTS webpage which is no longer online. Itīs very informative and a "must-read" for every electrified musician. You can purchase high quality guitar cables for a decent price in our Webshop By taking care of the internal wiring of your guitar you can enhance the overall tone of it with only a little bit of work, here is how to do it. You can purchase a lot of different high quality cables in our Webshop Here is a great article about how to shield a guitar if neccesary. If your singlecoil guitar is humming, try this first before you start to buy humbucker pickups. All the stuff is from the former GUITARNUTS webpage which is no longer online. The first example is showing how to quiten a Strat or similar guitar, but there is also a detailed instruction on how to quieten a Telecaster (PDF, 1.5 MB) You all know the stories about musicians who died from electrical shocks while playing electric guitar. The reason for this is that the strings are normally connected to ground for hum-cancelling reasons, especially on single coil guitars. Here is how you can protect yourself from being grilled while playing. Thanks to Martin Koch for this feature, published in his book "E-Gitarrenbau". You can purchase tested anti-hazard systems in our Webshop When you have problems with a single coil guitar and noise, this is a very effective and super-simple way to quieten the beast in any situation. This neat trick was posted by the famous Nashville session player Bill Hullett on his webpage. You can purchase a high-quality solution for this project in our Webshop |
