Would drilling holes into a Slash Les Paul devalue the guitar?

[bigwhitecloud]

Who cares, I say…drill and mod it to ur desire

And never sell

-chris

I’m also going to replace the pickups with some double creams, but I noticed buyers don’t really care as long as the original pickups are in the guitar.

 

[bigwhitecloud]

i'd hog it out and put a kahler with a locking nut and EMG's

Hell no. I hate EMGs and I also hate tremolo/whammy bars. I had a bigsby for a long time and a Floyd rose, and I rarely ever saw myself using them. I play blues-metal… and even when I play metal, I never use it. Haha.

 

[bigwhitecloud]

Alright.. thanks dudes! Yeah, I’m gonna do it. It seems like the general consensus is that it won’t devalue it by much, or at all.

I mean, why would they give you a pickguard? I’m sure it would be more blasphemous if you bought the pickguard aftermarket when it didn’t even come with one.

 

[Peter M]

I mean, why would they give you a pickguard? I’m sure it would be more blasphemous if you bought the pickguard aftermarket when it didn’t even come with one.

When you custom order a Gibson LP, you can specify "no guard" and it will come without the holes. It's a legit option. Slashers come with the no guard option, but give you one in case want to add it later. Adding a pickguard to a Les Paul Standard is never blasphemous... it's part of the original design.

And yeah... enjoy your Slasher however you like.

 

[cooljuk]

The originals have pickguard holes, even though they don't have guards on them, anymore.
It's only more authentic if you drill it.

 

[moreles]

Personal preferences aside, as a piece of merchandise, the greatest value and marketability comes with original condition. In this case, that means no pickguard (hole). The criteria you may use for determining what to do are your own. Since I neither need nor like LP pickguards -- really cheesy, cheap items -- I'm obviously not going to drill. But I wouldn't hesitate to buy one with a correctly located hole. Only you can decide if this one, specific move carries enough of a downside to ruin the upside of having it look and feel as you would like. IMO, if you play it with a pickguard, install the pickguard.

 

[jstarr]

You can't undrill a hole.. so no.

 

[Phillycheez402]

Threw some SD APH-2s in mine

 

[danzego]

Unless you’re selling to someone who wants the pickguard on, then you’re limiting your market or devaluing the guitar.

With that said, do you own the guitar for what it’s worth to others on the resale market or what you want it to be? Get what YOU want out of the guitar, whether it’s having a pickguard or retaining value if you anticipate selling it. If it’s the latter, though, I’d stop playing it right now if I were you.

 

[Nintari]

Drilling a hole into any good guitar drops its value. How much is another issue.

 

[Christosterone]

Threw some SD APH-2s in mine View attachment 620165

holy
that burst
Perfection…pure perfection

-chris

 

[Christosterone]

Drilling a hole into any good guitar drops its value. How much is another issue.

i had never used a router in my life until this below “project”

bought a husk from stratosphere simply to learn how to route a 3rd pup…I’ve never looked back and eventually every guitar I own will have 3 pups except the recording...i can’t make heads or tails of the low impedance setup so not gonna try

anyhow, drill away I say

 

[Roxy13]

It wouldn't matter to me, but I like to rest my pinky on the 'guard when I play.

I do the same thing so I would put the PG on.

 

[Nintari]

i had never used a router in my life until this below “project”

bought a husk from stratosphere simply to learn how to route a 3rd pup…I’ve never looked back and eventually every guitar I own will have 3 pups except the recording...i can’t make heads or tails of the low impedance setup so not gonna try

anyhow, drill away I say

View attachment 620213

Nice work. I wish I was as gifted at that sort of thing as you clearly are. Growing up, I was that one straight kid who was better at home economics and cooking than I was shop class. Even today, I can't seem to wrap my head around woodworking. For instance, one of the steps on my back deck broke. I took a tape measure, measured it out, then went to the hardware store for the appropriate replacement. I hand the guy the measurements, he looks at it, clearly puzzled, and was like, what the hell is 3 and 6/10ths? lol

 

[Christosterone]

Nice work. I wish I was as gifted at that sort of thing as you clearly are. Growing up, I was that one straight kid who was better at home economics and cooking than I was shop class. Even today, I can't seem to wrap my head around woodworking. For instance, one of the steps on my back deck broke. I took a tape measure, measured it out, then went to the hardware store for the appropriate replacement. I hand the guy the measurements, he looks at it, clearly puzzled, and was like, what the hell is 3 and 6/10ths? lol

im not gifted at all…
get the right equipment(good router and securable template-both inexpensive).
and have no fear…

my soldering Looks like a toddler got loose with a tube of silver toothpaste…but it all works lol

no fear and make it ur own I say

-chris

 

[jbash]

I’m my opinion, it looks so much better with a pickguard.

The way Les and God intended.

 

[gitmohair]

The way Les and God intended.

I strongly suspect both are thinking "they really don't get this, do they?".

 

[01GT Eibach]

Also ... for a pickguard you don't "drill" a hole. It is way too small. You just screw it in with a screwdriver.

 

[DaveSG]

You could just do a 2015 guard and rings - the clicked together and no holes drilled in the guitar.

Gibson Screwless Pickguard and pickup rings 2015 Cream | Reverb

Gibson Les Paul pickguard from a 2015 Les Paul Standard. Uses tabs that fit into slots on pickup rings instead of screwing into your Les Paul if its one of the more recent models without a guard. Somewhat rare/hard to get, as Gibson doesn't sell them as an aftermarket accessory like their normal

reverb.com

 

[efstop]

One could fabricate this with a very thin piece of plastic. I thought of this a couple of years ago, but I my Tribute has a guard already, and the LPMM doesn't need one. I have no other Les Pauls.