Modifying Your Guitar

By Terry Ann

Guitar players have been modifying their instruments longer than any of us have been alive, and for a variety of reasons, today guitarist most likely modify their guitars because of the quality of cheaply made inexpensive imports from outside the U.S., and the cost of high-quality American made instruments, which are usually beyond the pocketbooks of most musicians.

Or you may simply want to upgrade an outstanding instrument with a different set of pickups or the paint job you've always wanted. However, some guitars maybe beyond "fixing" and will end up being a waste of time and money when it comes to trying to make them better than they were straight from the factory.

Most will want to reflect their personality in the design of their guitar, either change the instrument's look, tone, playability or a combination of the three modifications. In addition, the cheaper guitar imports may have issues with high action, tuning stability, terrible tone, or even have all three problems.

I began building guitars to be able to continue playing guitar with an extremely bad back. I wanted a good guitar that was less than 5 pounds total weight, a guitar that had an exceptional neck, great electronics, a great feel - balance, and was well made. I found that guitar on the commercial market, for $3000.00 USD, clearly out of most people's budget range. Money is a huge factor in most struggling musicians’ lives and is a major factor when modifying their own instrument.

There is a danger when modifying your guitar if it is poorly made, I don't worry about the electronics, I worry about the playability, and play it unplugged to get the feel of the overall guitar, considering while I'm playing what I like and do not like about the guitar. And then I plug the guitar in to listen to the electronics to see what I like and do not like about the guitar's electronics, and if they amplify the strings equally, or if the lower strings drown out the higher strings, and if the pickups are weak and tinny; keeping in mind the electronics can typically be easily replaced.

And I don't consider the neck on a cheaper guitar, if the guitar is under $150.00, because I know in almost 100% of cases the neck will be subpar and need replaced. After all, a body on a good guitar, minus the electronics, can cost less than $100.00 USD, whereas the neck can easily cost upwards of $400.00 to $900.00 USD. As you can see, because of the cost of a good neck, you will not get an acceptable neck on a cheap guitar, and a good neck can cost more than the entire guitar!

When looking for an instrument worth modifying first make sure the guitar has a good neck, if you do not plan on replacing the neck. And secondly, I would make sure the body is what you are looking for in body size, shape, weight; and once you've accepted that the overall build of the guitar fits your preferences, make sure the electronics and hardware can be easily replaced with better quality hardware and electronics. Do not buy a guitar that is housed with single-coil pickups if you want to equip the guitar with Humbuckers, unless routing out the wood is also in your plans.

Fender style guitars with a bolt on guitar neck are easier to modify than Gibson style guitars with through body necks because the neck can't be replaced. You want to make sure the knockoff Gibson has a neck you are comfortable playing, because you will not be able to easily replace the neck. However, if the guitar plays well unplugged but doesn't sound great or even stays in tune that well when plugged in you can switch out the tuning keys, bridge, and electronics to give it tuning stability, a brighter tone, and allow each string to ring out equally.

Fenders, as mentioned, are the easy guitar to modify, and they usually come with a passable neck, even on their budget Squire Line of guitars. And the overall look and feel of both the Squire and Bullet Lines make them a great, affordable guitar to modify. And Fender's budget guitars are great guitars to learn your modifying skills with because you won't break the bank if your first attempts fail.

Changing the number of frets on the fretboard, single coils with Humbuckers, a hard tail with a Floyd Rose Bridge or adding a whammy bar will require modifying the body and or neck with shop tools and will not be possible for the weekend modifier.

(a) Chances are the tuners on a cheaply made guitar do not offer the stability required for playing for any length of time in tune. A better set of machine heads, locking or non-locking will hold their tune better, and will have more teeth on their gears than cheaper made tuners, even the better made guitars of yesteryear only had 12 teeth on the gears, whereas it isn't uncommon for the tuning keys of today to have gears with 18 teeth making it even less likely for the tuner to slip out of tune. There are different style tuners from vintage, which are lightweight, locked tuners, which are heavier, and closed gear tuners, which are also heavier than vintage style tuners.

(b) Cheaper made guitars will often come with high nut action, even some of your better guitars will have high nuts because nut height is somewhat subjective, that is string gauge and playing style has some impact on nut height. Slide guitars require higher nut action and larger gauged strings require deeper grooves; however, nut height can affect the comfort and intonation of the guitar.

There are different style nuts to choose from like bone nuts usually found on high-end guitars, and for good reasons, the material is hard but easy to work with and it helps maintain a bright, consistent tone, and properly filed will help keep the strings in tune. Metal nuts are known for sustain and warmth they add but are more difficult to sand and file. Wooden nuts add warmth to your tone but lack stability and are not as durable over time as harder material. Graphite nuts offer tuning stability, have all the benefits of bone, and are great for players who enjoy bending their strings while playing.

(c) A guitar needs to be in tune down the entire length of the guitar's neck. And an open note needs to be in tune with the same fretted note at the 12th fret, albeit three octaves higher. If the note at the 12th fret is higher than the same open note than the saddle needs to move back, and if the same note, three octaves higher is lower than the saddle needs to be moved forward. There are times, albeit, when the saddle or saddles cannot be adjusted, when the bridge is either too far forward or too far back and then the bridge needs to be moved either back or forward.

(d) The odds are that you want to modify your guitar because you're looking for a different sound. Whether the sound is weak or shallow or just not to your taste, you can change your single-coil pickups for Humbuckers or Humbucker pickups for single-coil. You can change your non-active with active pickups, or Fender with Seymour Duncan pickups. Anyway, you choose, there is a wide range of pickups, some quite costly, but usually less expensive than an expensive new guitar.

(e) It isn't often you have to change or even move the bridge on a guitar because of a problem with playing or intonation. However, you may want to change the bridge because it doesn't fit your playing style. If your guitar has a whammy bar you never use, you may want to swap it out for a hard tail bridge for added string sustain and tuning stability. And a hard tail bridge is much lighter in weight than a tremolo bridge system. Swapping a whammy bar bridge with a hard tail bridge requires extensive body modification.

(f) You'll often find that older pots, as well as cheaper made pots do not respond as quickly as you would like when you dial them forward and back, that the sounds become muddy, don’t appear to have any mid-range, or become scratchy with age that lubricant can not correct. You may want to consider installing Audio Taper Volume Potentiometers, which will give you more of a gradual increase in volume.

(g) A rather difficult modification for your average tinker is the scalloped fretboard, which is common style of fretboard used by musicians that like fast solos and overdriven bends, but not very practical for playing chords. If you haven't scalloped a guitar's neck before, it may be wise to practice on a cheap neck, or even the neck that came with the guitar if you plan on replacing the neck and remember you do not need to carve too deep into the wood.

(h) If your guitar has a lot of unwanted hiss or noise it may get annoying after a while, and you may want to consider shielding the electronics with copper or foil tape to block out external electronic devices which may interfere with your guitar's pickups. It can be as easy as putting the copper or foil tape under the pickguard, or a little more difficult if needed inside the electronic cavities.

(i) Switching out the pickguard cover is an easy way to personalize your guitar and change the overall look of your instrument. There are even guitar pickguards that come pre-loaded with electronics!

(j) Another simple modification is changing your strap buttons to locking strap buttons which will secure the guitar better than your typical strap buttons or even switching the buttons out for oversized buttons will not only change the lock, but offer more security from the strap coming loose and your instrument hitting the floor!

(k) And finally, another simply modifying technique is to switch out the knobs for better made and better designed knobs, it is all a matter of taste and preference. But keep in mind not all knobs are the same size or style!

Skoukor Music - Equipment - Opinions - Advice - Production - History - Culture

Modifying Your Guitar

By Terry Ann

Add Comment

Comments

Today's Issue		Friday 18th April 2025