Join the mod Squad
We reveal the best tips for successfully changing everything from pickups to plastics for increased performance
Before, it used to be that you’d only change apart on a guitar if something broke. but now imagination is the only limit to the ways in which you can turn your stock strat, les paul, prs or what have you into a hot-rod, custom instrument.
a whole industry has sprung up around aftermarket upgrades – from pickups that are slavish replications of vintage paFs to bolt-on vibrato systems for guitars that aren’t routed for a trem. it’s easy to feel like a kid in a sweetshop when faced with all these ‘magic bullet’ solutions to all your tonal woes. but whatever upgrade you may have your eye on, it’s important to remember that the classic goal of a modding project is to arrive at an instrument that serves your needs and pleases your ears better than it did before you started work.
guitar makers put quite a lot of thought into making their guitars work optimally straight out of the box–so the possibility that you might just make your guitar worse rather than better by modding it is a very real risk. many are the baffled mod ders who followed the advice of a friend who earnestly assured them that a certain boutique pickup is the best thing they ever played – only to find that the magic ‘upgrade’ didn’t work so well in their own guitar or simply wasn’t what they were expecting. neither the friend nor the disappointed modder is necessarily ‘wrong’ in that case. it’s just a matter of understanding the factors that influence tone and making sympathetic mods to suit the guitar that you play, the rig that you use and the style that you play in.
modding guitars is about anything but a one-size-fits-all approach, so while the advice of friends, forums and, yes, guitar magazines can provide great ideas, the best thing you can do is to understand the tonal principles in play and how to avoid falling prey to common mod ding mistakes that take you further from what you want rather than nearer – and cost you a packet in the process. With that in mind, grab your screwdriver and soldering iron and delve deep into our 20-page guide to modding mastery…