The Best Thing I Ever Did To My Guitar

[Golfxzq]

Hi Guys... It seems that we guitar lovers are always fiddling with our guitars... adding something, adjusting something, changing out something... we are only satisfied until we learn about something new and then we start all over again. A lot of folks talk about using different strings, changing to different pickups, adjusting the action, or installing higher frets, adjusting the tension rod, using different picks... stuff like that. I thought that it would be interesting to start a thread to hear what everyone thought was the best addition, modification, adjustment, etc. that they ever made to their gear. In other words, what did you do that you thought made the most improvement to your guitar (or amp or pedal or anything for that matter).

What got me thinking about this is recently my instructor recommended that I buy a set of Grover machine heads for the Black Cat (a Les Paul rebuild). After a few month or two of procrastination and mulling it over I finally found a new set of Grovers on eBay for a reasonable price. Now I think it's the best thing that I have done to this guitar. It is easier to tune, holds tune longer, and it even seems like the strings sound better.

What's the best thing that you have ever done to your gear?

[rocknroll93]

suprisingly the best thing i did was raise the action on my semi hollow. I raised it so i could play slide wih no problem, and it worked. I only raised it enough so i could still play normally on it too. when I lowered the action I fould I could still play slide but I caould also play alot smoother and quicker with no problem at all.

[MikeJackal]

I have done many mods to my Epiphone Les Paul "Lilianne". The best ones are the same as you, I changed the tuners to Grover Vintage 135 with green tulip buttons, they really do make a difference to the overall sound and keep in tune so much better than the cheap stock ones. The second thing i did was to change the bridge to a Tonepro's locking bridge that is wider like a Gibson bridge so offers more room to make intonation changes, plus when you lock it the the guitar using the little allen key screws it adds to the sustain and tone of the guitar much more than i was expecting.
Other than that I replaced all the stock electronics with CTS pots and caps and Switchcraft jack and toggle switch. I can now make much more subtle differences to the volume and tone that i couldn't with the cheapo stock parts.
The coolest addition i made was to add a N-Tune onboard electronic tuner, it's really acurate and makes your guitar look very space age without being too fancy and taking away from the classic look of the Les Paul. Here is a picture, definitely an addition I recommend.

[HalfBlindLefty]

I could keep my answer simple and just say I'm playing them, but that -although true- would be taking the easy way out :)
The best thing, I only did to First Lady. I locked the tremelo using 5 springs, making it stay in tune like a rock. Since I'm not a addicted tremelo user, I guess it will eventually happen to my Fender strat to.
However right now I'm considering the slower approach by starting to tighten the screws first and see what happens. I tightening the screws doesn't do the trick I will add a single spring and try that for a while and so on. Part of the case-candy is a set of 2 extra tremelo springs btw.
The other goodie Fender included is the 5 position switch. I'm unsure if I'm going to use that... I have no trouble selecting the in between position right now.

One thing I have in mind for a while is isolating the strats better, by covering the scratchplate and cavities with copperfoil so there is less static interference.

[2WheelsOfBlues]

When i started i did nothing, but,

After a while I went looking for the Pick which i liked.
After a few months i had one that i liked and i got a lot of them.

Then the strings, and the search for it was very long.
After almost one year I had found them.

I've got a strat (my 1-st) but almost never played because I missed something.
After a long time and much talked about it, I have effectively vitage '60 pick-ups recently, and that was it.

But now?, no nothing, i have a mod. amp and I'm already busy to find the perfect tone.

BUT,

Just what one member here says;
I was trying to find "that" tone - now I've realised there's lots of tones to find!

[ElMano]

Hay Golf, As you know, I own a lot of guitars, and i mod them all i guess. The most of work is on black betty The fender prodigy has have a El Mano special make over, She sounds one of a kind i like to think. This is a more than multi functional guitar I describe on this forum all the things i do after i bought here
The most important mos was the filling of the space between the pics with hard wood and made connection between the Kahler trem and the body with a smal bolt resting on a 2cent coin ( lower the action, crowned the frets, changed the jack into a strat type, put in a second tone poy push pull to split the hb into a coil neck pub)

The J & D Les Paul P90 goldtop has had a make over. The bolt on neck has had a dowel 1/2" radius and 20 mm long between the bolts with some glue at the neck site (not the body!) So i has a lot of sustain like a lot more expensive guitar. And so on. I collected a lot of ideas i have and after this holiday i start to build an Les Paul style guitar with the Neck size of my Epiphone Genesis. The same toggle switches included the coil splitters but with two volume and two tone pots,and the scale of a strat. I think it is gonna be a neck true, but it dependence if i could find the right kind of wood with the right lenght
Till that i have to finish the lapsteel.

[MojoJim]

Best thing......Hmmmmm.... OK, I've got it.

Last week I wiped the dust off of my guitar with a microfiber cloth. And...and...that's not all!! I put some Fast Fret on the fingerboard and strings. When I tear into a guitar there's just no stopping me.

Seriously, I'm a bit intimidated by my Strat. I need to get over that and become a friend to my guitar.

Once when I was changing strings I took the back plate off to reveal the screws that hold the neck on. I assumed that because the neck position and all the associated angles are so critical that there would be a complex, very precise and sturdy joint mechanism between the neck and the body. So I took out the three screws to see - and the neck fell off!! Arghhhhh, Oh NO. I just ruined my guitar! What do I do? I'll never get it back on properly! Where's the nearest guitar tech? Where's the nearest luthier?

Of course, it went right back on with no problems. (That's all there is to that joint? How much did I pay for this thing?)

Then I decided I didn't need the whammy bar so I unscrewed it and took it off. And a small spring went zinging across the room. (See?! That's what always happens when I mess with stuff). I finally found it. I still don't know what it does or why it was there or exactly where "there" is.

So mostly I just dust my guitar from time to time.

But I'm carefully reading what everyone else is posting because some day I'll get up more nerve - and then.... Look out Strat, here I come - and I've got a screwdriver in one hand and a beer in the other (in case my courage falters).

[ratfinkdan]

I had a really nice Fender strat , that I just wasn't able to comfortable play anymore, a few years back I developed tendionitise in my left hand, took a good year and a half to work through it. I traded the strat for a Gibson faded les paul studio, short scale guitars with 9 and a halfs seem to work well for my hand. The gibson had burst bucker pros in it, I though it sounded really good but I had a set of Tom Short Marc Ford humbuckers that I had for another guitar, I was really unsure about swaping the pickups in the les paul. But what a difference they made, lower output vintage style pafs, the tech who did the swap, couldn't belive the difference and how good that guitar sounded esspecially the neck pickup! Shes not the prettiest and she got some character about her but what a sweet tone, I'm a real sucker for p90s but this studio has been getting a lot of play time, I think my special is starting to get jelouse! So swapping those pickups were the best thing I did to that guitar!

[MikeJackal]

Seriously, I'm a bit intimidated by my Strat. I need to get over that and become a friend to my guitar.

But I'm carefully reading what everyone else is posting because some day I'll get up more nerve - and then.... Look out Strat, here I come - and I've got a screwdriver in one hand and a beer in the other (in case my courage falters).

I've always been quite gung-ho when it comes to modifications, like when I ripped the cover off my neck pickup, prised the magnet out with a screwdriver and flipped it around to do the "Peter Green Mod". Or when I de-soldered all of the electronics and threw them in a bag before realising I didn't know how to put the new ones back in correctly (Luckily my uncle has a degree in Electronics).
Or the time when I was fed up with the "candy coat" of polyeurethene that Epiphone puts on their Les Paul's so I took a orbital sander to the finish and thinned it out to a nice satin sheen.
Of course none of my guitars have real monitory value of any significance so that plays a factor, but the sentimental value is quite high.

[DeaconBlues]

Besides setting the intonation, playing it.

[oneeyedslide]

The best thing I ever did to a guitar was buy a two dollar raffle ticket for a cheap model Epi Les Paul at the Winter Park Colorado Blues Festival last Spring. Won it too! Put a set of Classic '57 Reissues in it and it's a keeper!

I suppose playin' 'em is the best thing to do to any of 'em.

[Blindboy]

That's a tough one... I have done a fair bit of work on many of the guitars I have had. I basically built my Strat, I have filled in the holes that a bridge was mounted in and re-drilled them on my old SG, I refretted my '52 Gibson ES-125, I have messed with electronics on several of my guitars, I repaired the busted headstock on my Ibanez. All in all, I guess the best thing I have done to my guitars, as far as getting useful mileage out of it, was to build the FrankenStrat. I have played that guitar for more than 20 years, and it is like a part of my body.

[Golfxzq]

Besides setting the intonation, playing it.

DeaconBlues... this a very good point. Setting the intonation is a simple thing that anyone can do with a screwdriver and an electronic tuner. If you think about it we play most of our notes "up the neck", not in the open position. Wouldn't we want our strings to be in tune in the higher positions as well as in the open position, if not even MORE so? I consider this the most important and also the easiest thing to do to a guitar.

Of course a close second would be OneeyedSlide but I could buy two hundred $2 raffle tickets and never win a guitar. That was great... congratulations on your win. I wish we could all be so lucky.

[12bar]

I blocked the tremolo of my strat - good idea.
I changed the neck PU for a humbucker - no good idea.
No new parts except strings on my Sheraton - I'm happy with it as it is!

[Kalle]

I changed pickups in my Yamaha to Tonerider Alnico IV Classic (PAF clones) and got a good balanced classic LP sound. As these pickups hade splitable coils I also installed a "tone" potentiometer with a push/pull switch. So now I have a guitar with a Humbucker sound and a Single Coil like sound.
Yesterday I installed a (small) 1000 pF capacitor on the volym pot (between input and output pins).
With this change I no longer loose treble sound when I reduce volume (as you normally do on all electric guitars). This is a "easy to do" modification that I can recommend.
/Kalle

[MikeJackal]

Yesterday I installed a (small) 1000 pF capacitor on the volym pot (between input and output pins).
With this change I no longer loose treble sound when I reduce volume (as you normally do on all electric guitars). This is a "easy to do" modification that I can recommend.

I also did that when I upgraded the electronics on my Epi LP, also known as a treble bleed cap, really does help when playing at lower volumes.

[BadBluesPlayer]

I have a Les Paul Studio Deluxe. It had 490R and Burstbucker Pro pickups that were wired for coil splitting. I put in new Burstbucker 1 & 2 pickups - which is what Gibson is currently using in their reissues to produce the PAF sound. I rewired it without the push pull pots and replaced the cheap caps so its wired like a regular old LP from the good old days. Now it sounds really nice.