Guitar Mods-How much is TOO much?

[hedzeppelin]

Ok, most of us are into modding and hot-rodding our guitars.
However, some of us more than others seem to be continually
modding their stuff.

Question: When does it stop? Are you ever totally satisfied to the point that
you feel you are done modding your axe? Or, do you do it just for the joy of doing it?

 

[tarddoggy]

Ok, most of us are into modding and hot-rodding our guitars.
However, some of us more than others seem to be continually
modding their stuff.

Question: When does it stop? Are you ever totally satisfied to the point that
you feel you are done modding your axe? Or, do you do it just for the joy of doing it?

man I love to tinker and my tone is constantly evolving!!

 

[dwagar]

Good question. I put a Clapton circuit board in my Strat, figured, that's good enough. Haven't had a desire to do another thing to it since.

But the Les Paul, well, that's a different story. Tonally I find an LP way more intricate and richer. Modding a Les Paul is a joy, maybe it never does end.

 

[lp59aholicDon]

man I love to tinker and my tone is constantly evolving!!

Yep , I am a tinkerer also, but Hmm I would say for me stops short of adding a Roland Pickup for one of their guitar Synths to any of my present Les Pauls or Strats, My Strats are still in early evolutionary states, my lastest has had nothing done to it by me -- YET, Still in the planning stages, my other is going to get new pickups, two of which I already have .and some added switching options, My Orville LP may soon have its third set of pickups go in , being custom handwound by a member here
Miss Honey, I may have done the final mod on today, adding the VitaminQ's and switching to vintage wiring , Lovin it ! Hmm Tweaking, probably also why I still have my Seymour Duncan amp, a tube tone tweakers dreams amp IMO

 

[hedzeppelin]

Yep , I am a tinkerer also, but Hmm I would say for me stops short of adding a Roland Pickup for one of their guitar Synths to any of my present Les Pauls or Strats, My Strats are still in early evolutionary states, my lastest has had nothing done to it by me -- YET, Still in the planning stages, my other is going to get new pickups, two of which I already have .and some added switching options, My Orville LP may soon have its third set of pickups go in , being custom handwound by a member here
Miss Honey, I may have done the final mod on today, adding the VitaminQ's and switching to vintage wiring , Lovin it ! Hmm Tweaking, probably also why I still have my Seymour Duncan amp, a tube tone tweakers dreams amp IMO

Brother Don, you are a techie on this stuff! There's stuff that you're talking about that I've never even heard of!

 

[lp59aholicDon]

Brother Don, you are a techie on this stuff! There's stuff that you're talking about that I've never even heard of!

Well Brother, I roadied but practically lived in my local Gibson dealer store, especially when my first Les Paul was on layaway, I was always learning lil tweaks here and there, In my HS senior year I helped a guy build a solid body electic bass . after HS, I did a few jobs one of which was being , sound light, and instrument tech/ repair for this club band in Saipan, Commonweath of the Mariana's ( North of Guam ) Putting Franken Paul together tought me alot as well , One of thes days gonna build another guitar, I want to make either my own Firebird, or Flying V, patterned after Albert Kings last Lucy

 

[Samantha]

you stop when your guitar is no longer a guitar, but even then you may want to tweak it just a litle bit.

 

[Blues Power]

ehh nowadays i really dont do anything except for a cap change or if something breaks ill replace it with the same thing

years ago in my teens i was mod crazy. my 80 is modded to the max. not much more i can do except route it for P-90's or a bigsby

 

[5F6-A]

if you really can't stop there's something not quite right there....

 

[Bluesjam]

When you look at that piece of sandpaper, you've gone too far!

 

[alanfc]

Here's one,

So radical and sacreligious would this be, to all of Les Pauldom.

I love my 1993 standard SO MUCH, and will never sell it. The one last thing that is keeping from being totally happy with it is the bridge volume knob placement. This isn't a minor irritation or a matter of adaptation -- this is so bad that I decide to go back to my Strat for weeks at a time and come back to Les Paul. I need it right there for going between verse and choruses and everything in between. I use the volume knob constantly in a song..

I want to have the bridge volume knob moved right up close to the bridge pickup like a Strat.

I'm even embarrassed to take it to the shop tech . But it must be done.

How shall I do it ?

 

[ozone]

I finally found a setup that I'm happy with. It took about 2months of continous modding. So I pobably won't mod for a while but if I read some mod that is interesting to me, I'll probably do it. So I guess I'll never stop.

 

[Alligatorbling]

I love to tinker... Ive chaged caps several times in my LP, ive also swaped pups... I try to not mess with it to much though. I build and mod pedals to get my fix now lol

 

[eddie_bowers]

I can't stop trying thigs, but i'm actually happy with my tone now. It's easy to try things on the LP and then go back.

As for the volume control question, It sounds like wiring your LP for a master volume control (like a strat) would be the solution. Would that be close enough?

-Eddie

 

[alanfc]

.

As for the volume control question, It sounds like wiring your LP for a master volume control (like a strat) would be the solution. Would that be close enough?

-Eddie

hi thanks- its not the function, but rather, the physical location of the knob that I'm crazy about...
its like a mile away!

 

[stryker59]

if you take a saw to the body to change the shape, then id say thats to far!!! other than that...the quest for tone never ends!

 

[mrkenny]

I don't really care for tinkering around with my axe/amp. I just want it to be done. For me was the search for that elusive tone, the one you want to hear and feel. You have your guitar/amp and that's a whole lot of experimenting, a whole lot of places to go. After a lot of time and money I'm done. My 4x10 Bassman started out as a reissue but the only thing left is the chassis, most of the rest of the parts are 50's stuff. Same with the Historic '54 LP. All electronic's are 50's. All I do now is PLAY. I guess your done when your satisfied.

 

[lp_junkie]

When you spend more on the mods than the original price of your guitar you should be done.

 

[lexluthier]

I usually only tinker with my stuff if I think it will improve the guitar. Some guitars I haven't done anything to except for a good setup. I also have done a lot of stuff to a few guitars.
Most of the time it is either fretwork or electronics, sometimes both. Once I have them dialed in to my liking, I usually stop there. I think a person can start chasing their tail if they continually tweak and tweak (and tweak) the same guitar. At some point you run into the point of diminishing returns. At some point you have to tell yourself it's done.

 

[hbucker]

What is too much? When you think of improving your tone do you automatically think it means replacing or modding a piece of gear or practicing and adjusting gear you already have?

We all go back and forth between the two. But I think too many times people think it's the guitar's problem when in fact it's actually their lack of skill or ability to work with the rig they're playing that is the problem.

Go crazy. Mod your guitar until you can't mod it any more. But just know that you may be the weakest link in the chain. Until you mod yourself, you're pissing into the wind.

And with that, you can't mod yourself too much.