Best Guitar Mods?

Pickups, wiring schemes, switch techniques and onboard active electronics for guitars and basses
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CHEEZOR
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Post by CHEEZOR »

I was just wondering what has been the best/most useful guitar mods they have ever done. This is all totally subjective, of course.

I'll start it off:
Best mod I have ever done was lower the tone cap to a more usable value. Something like 0.0022uF or 0.0068uF. I use cheap ceramics. With the 0.0068uF you get a hint of cocked wah sound when you turn it down all the way. Cool sound.

I've tried:
Coil tapping: As soon as I engage I wonder where all my tone went. I have never liked this mod on any guitar ever.
Out of Phase: Same as above.
Passive distortion using diode pair instead of the tone cap: Too much volume and treble loss to be useful.
Treble bleed cap on Vol: Interesting. I'll have to do more experimentation, but Im not sure I totally like it.
500k Pots with Active EMGs: Volume boost. Will never go back to 25k's.
Parallel vs Series wiring: Never tried. On the list of things I should try someday.

Note: Sorry if you happen to like one of the mods that I don't, but everyone is entitled to their opinion and this is just mine. :horsey:
I think its interesting that I like one of the cheapest/simplest mods the most. Any thoughts? What do you like/dislike?

Oh! And Im also a huge fan of putting beefy stereo jacks in guitars and wiring them up for mono. You get a nice solid connection for pretty cheap.

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Post by MarcoMike »

the best mod I've ever done to a guitar is changing the standard jazzmaster bridge pickup to a SD phatcat (p90 style)... :) not a real mod but I will never go back to the standard setup!

regarding coil tapping and out of phase: my other guitar has coil tapping, but also have a boost switch which gives some 3dB... I love the sound of it, but without any boost, it's not gonna work.

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Seiche
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Post by Seiche »

CHEEZOR wrote:Oh! And Im also a huge fan of putting beefy stereo jacks in guitars and wiring them up for mono. You get a nice solid connection for pretty cheap.
not sure i get what that means. :scratch:

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CHEEZOR
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Post by CHEEZOR »

Good idea with the boost. Do you have it all wired to the same switch or 2 separate switches?

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Post by sinner »

There is just one mod I'm using with all my guitars since I was shocked

http://singlecoil.com/docs/shock.pdf

I'm using plastic knobs, or at least pots with plastic shafts for the very the same reason

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Post by allesz »

[quote="Seiche"]CHEEZOR wrote:
Oh! And Im also a huge fan of putting beefy stereo jacks in guitars and wiring them up for mono. You get a nice solid connection for pretty cheap.

not sure i get what that means.
[quote="CHEEZOR"]


He speaks of a stereo female output jack on the guitar; this way the guitar cord stays firmly plugged in, even if you are a pretty wild guitarist and, sometimes, step on the cables.

the best mod for me is a four way switch on my telecaster, I like the added humbuking option.

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CHEEZOR
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Post by CHEEZOR »

allesz wrote: He speaks of a stereo female output jack on the guitar; this way the guitar cord stays firmly plugged in, even if you are a pretty wild guitarist and, sometimes, step on the cables.
Yeah, thats what I was talking about.
allesz wrote:the best mod for me is a four way switch on my telecaster, I like the added humbuking option.
Is that like: Neck <-> Series <-> Parallel <-> Bridge? That sounds like a good one. :)

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Post by Seiche »

CHEEZOR wrote:
allesz wrote: He speaks of a stereo female output jack on the guitar; this way the guitar cord stays firmly plugged in, even if you are a pretty wild guitarist and, sometimes, step on the cables.
Yeah, thats what I was talking about.
ah nice! makes sense! :thumbsup

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Post by allesz »

CHEEZOR wrote:Is that like: Neck <-> Series <-> Parallel <-> Bridge? That sounds like a good one.
It is bridge, parallel, neck and series (if I recall correctly the two pickups in series give a quasi humbuking sound).
It a very handy option, for a single coil equipped guitar, it gives a stronger and darker signal that really extend the sonic capability of the guitar. I like it so much I added this option on my 3 single coil guitar, disconnecting the middle pickup (being a tele player mostly I always find the middle sounds not very useful).

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Post by lolbou »

On my Applause Strat, I did:

- wire the tone pot for the bridge pickup too.

- add a switch that activates both the neck and bridge pickups. You then can have all three pickups when using any intermediate position on the 5-way selector. It's a nice feature. I think the magnetic polarities are all the same, but I should check. It may sound different if not...
- Are you a mod or a rocker?
- Uh, no, I'm a mocker.

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Post by sinner »

lolbou wrote:On my Applause Strat, I did:

- wire the tone pot for the bridge pickup too.

- add a switch that activates both the neck and bridge pickups. You then can have all three pickups when using any intermediate position on the 5-way selector. It's a nice feature. I think the magnetic polarities are all the same, but I should check. It may sound different if not...

Try G&L s-500 wiring, I had this, and loved it. Strat and tele in one :thumbsup

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Post by mictester »

My favourite mods (to my guitars): a built-in rechargeable battery pack and a UHF radio transmitter for fully cordless operation:

In 1977 I fell into an orchestra pit during a rehearsal because I tripped over a guitar lead, and played that night's gig with a broken wrist - unbelievably painful! After that, I swore that I'd ALWAYS use a cordless rig, so went for wireless guitars, a worn radio mic, and wireless in-ear monitoring!!!

The other, "best" mods include upgrading pickups, adding an active VCA-based mixer stage inside the guitar body (so any scratchy pots don't affect the audio), active tone controls, balanced outputs.....
"Why is it humming?" "Because it doesn't know the words!"

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Post by sinner »

mictester wrote:active VCA-based mixer stage inside the guitar body (so any scratchy pots don't affect the audio)

Chris, could I have more info about that?

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Post by Ihunda »

Not sure if active counts but the best mods I've done and actually do on all my guitar is either a fetzver valve from ROG http://www.runoffgroove.com/fetzervalve.html (An always on second harmonic boost, not much of a volume boost, maybe 20-30% more volume) or replacing a tone control with an onboard treble boost like the catalinbread naga viper.

This one transistor treble boost actually consumes less than 150 uA so I don't even need to think about batteries draining for a very long time (years), it's very useful on an all mahogany guitar like a les paul, it replaces a tube screamer and using a push push pot, it's the only effect in my chain sometimes :) Push for less mud in the bass and/or some djent :) The pot controls bass, volume and gain are fixed with trimpots.

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Post by Ben N »

allesz wrote:the best mod for me is a four way switch on my telecaster, I like the added humbuking option.
+1. Did this on my son's Tele clone with Bill Lawrence noiseless pups--sounds awesome. I think maybe one tends to set the treble a touch higher for the noiseless pickups, which creates a nice space for the series position.

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Post by GuitarlCarl »

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Stacked pots on my partscaster...standard 3 way switching and a mid blender, split tone too.
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The SteamPunk LP has a standard 3 way and Vol/tone wiring for two pickups, with a micro switch that throws the mid pup from rhythm to lead... both schemes pretty versatile.
I want it to sound like bees buzzing around in a 55 gallon drum...

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Post by MarcoMike »

CHEEZOR wrote:Good idea with the boost. Do you have it all wired to the same switch or 2 separate switches?
yes, two separate switches, but they are usually switched at the same time, for that volume drop reason.

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Post by DrNomis »

The most useful mod I've done to a guitar recently is to replace a stock Stratocaster vintage-style Trem Bridge with a Super Vee Double-Locking Trem Bridge, it made it alot easier to keep my Mexican Fender Standard Stratocaster in tune..... :thumbsup

Next mod is to replace the stock pickups with some Fender Vintage Noiseless types.... :thumbsup
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Post by phibes »

Treble bleed caps. Once you use em, you don't go back.

Changing volume pot values is a big plus. If you go by what the recommendation is for your pick-ups, you can really miss out.

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Post by Seiche »

new higher quality bridge, especially tune-o-matics that don't buzz (no retainer wire).

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