Basswood mods.

[Shooter.556]

Re: Basswood mods.

Just a pickup swap. The guys over at the Chapman forums said that it was too soft and that I needed something made out of mahogany. So... I was more or less lost. Then I was wondering about bridges. Just... Something that has a trem that holds tune. That was it.

Yeah, I was on that forum for about a week, they are a bunch of know it all's who don't like anyone who doesn't agree with them implicitly and their ultimate goal is to get you to buy everything that Chappers endorses or Andertons sells.. I have had words with Chapman so I don't like him or his little army of monkeys anyway.. The mere mention of that dirty hippies name boils my blood..
They are a bunch of retarded monkeys even suggesting that basswood is soft.. I just bought a $1200 Ibanez RG Prestige that is made out of basswood, it's an amazing guitar. Rivals my $3000 Les Paul in quality and workmanship and honestly is probably better made overall.
EVH uses basswood.
Joe Satriani
Steve Vai
Guthrie Govan
The list of artists goes on..
The mere thought that basswood is soft and inferior is stupidity at it's finest..
My advice, log out of the Chapman forums and stay here, some of us may run our mouths and bicker among each other about who's right from time to time but we wont steer you wrong if you give us the chance to help and answer our questions so we can figure out what you're looking for..

Welcome and we hope you learn and grow.. That's why we all stay on here..

 

[Brandenburg]

Re: Basswood mods.

i would like to add that basswood is indeed the softer/lighter of the tone woods but that isnt a bad thing.ALOT of shred sticks from the 80's where basswood..

My LTD M107 body is basswood which was apparent by the color/texture when i had to remove some wood. Just made removing the wood easier and had to be careful i didnt remove too much.. which was quite different that one of my other guitar body.. f*cker was so hard, my dremel router bits turned several shades of blue from the head as you can see.. thought the body was going to bust into flames before i would finish

 

[kramersteen]

Re: Basswood mods.

i have had my dremel so hot that it burns your hands just to hold it. I am suprised it still goes. Its not dremel brand maybe that's why?

Cheese it already. with rat

 

[Brandenburg]

Re: Basswood mods.

i have had my dremel so hot that it burns your hands just to hold it. I am suprised it still goes. Its not dremel brand maybe that's why?

Cheese it already. with rat

mine gets hot too partially because i hold it right where the air vents are LOL... man.. but that bit was so hot it was glowing and the wood was starting to smoke a bit.. i use a Black and Decker rotary tool.. 1/2 the price of a dremal.. works like a charm ..and has lasted several projects that it probably wasnt suited for but thats all i had.. i just use the name dremal as a more general name

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Basswood mods.

mine gets hot too partially because i hold it right where the air vents are LOL... man.. but that bit was so hot it was glowing and the wood was starting to smoke a bit.. i use a Black and Decker rotary tool.. 1/2 the price of a dremal.. works like a charm ..and has lasted several projects that it probably wasnt suited for but thats all i had.. i just use the name dremal as a more general name

I use Dremel Tool generically as well lol

 

[Shooter.556]

Re: Basswood mods.

https://m.mscdirect.com/mobileweb/product_detail?id=92059104

I use a regular Dremel too but I just bought this Makita.. It's like a Dremel made a love child with a hammer drill.
It's almost too much. I bought it for a project at work to install gauges in some engine control panels.
I love tools..

 

[Owwwccchhh]

Re: Basswood mods.

I don't know. The first time there I was asking about a beginnner setup and a few of them suggested cheap basswood guitars, while others outright swore that I shouldn't have anything with basswood. I also asked about a Blackstar ht-1, which I realize isn't all tube, but figured it might be a nice little starter amp compared to like a little spider or mustang. They said I should avoid it like the plague because of the solid state components. Oh, whatever. I love little Jacksons. The dinky's look nice as hell and I actually found a $200 pro model soloist used on guitar center. I'm thinking about the dinky because I don't want to pay shipping costs (actually I don't have an extra $25 to spend on shipping :/) also I like the matte black finish on the dinky. Also I've played it in the store and absolutely love the feel of it, I just find that the pups on it sound a little too muddy for my taste, so I'll swap them out for some proper Duncans when I have the money. All the other mods are just things that I want to do for fun more or less. I love tinkering with things, so like pickup switches and putting a new bridge a guitar sounds right up my alley. I just want to make sure if I spend extra money on a guitar that will be my first guitar, and only guitar for a while that I get quality parts. Speaking of parts, what pup set would work well for metal. (I know, special snowflake.) I was thinking full shred, and Duncan distortion or alt 8.

 

[Shooter.556]

Re: Basswood mods.

I don't know. The first time there I was asking about a beginnner setup and a few of them suggested cheap basswood guitars, while others outright swore that I shouldn't have anything with basswood. I also asked about a Blackstar ht-1, which I realize isn't all tube, but figured it might be a nice little starter amp compared to like a little spider or mustang. They said I should avoid it like the plague because of the solid state components. Oh, whatever. I love little Jacksons. The dinky's look nice as hell and I actually found a $200 pro model soloist used on guitar center. I'm thinking about the dinky because I don't want to pay shipping costs (actually I don't have an extra $25 to spend on shipping :/) also I like the matte black finish on the dinky. Also I've played it in the store and absolutely love the feel of it, I just find that the pups on it sound a little too muddy for my taste, so I'll swap them out for some proper Duncans when I have the money. All the other mods are just things that I want to do for fun more or less. I love tinkering with things, so like pickup switches and putting a new bridge a guitar sounds right up my alley. I just want to make sure if I spend extra money on a guitar that will be my first guitar, and only guitar for a while that I get quality parts. Speaking of parts, what pup set would work well for metal. (I know, special snowflake.) I was thinking full shred, and Duncan distortion or alt 8.

I had an HT5 for several years and it's tube goodness, nothing wrong with a Blackstar for bedroom use. I regret selling mine..
I had a Dinky pro for a while too.. It was a fantastic guitar and at $200 I'd jump on it..

 

[greekdude]

Re: Basswood mods.

mine gets hot too partially because i hold it right where the air vents are LOL... man.. but that bit was so hot it was glowing and the wood was starting to smoke a bit.. i use a Black and Decker rotary tool.. 1/2 the price of a dremal.. works like a charm ..and has lasted several projects that it probably wasnt suited for but thats all i had.. i just use the name dremal as a more general name

a 30x5x5cm piece of indian rosewood almost destroyed my Bosch drill, it smoked and stank so much my wife almost sent me out :firedevil

 

[uOpt]

Re: Basswood mods.

Just a pickup swap. The guys over at the Chapman forums said that it was too soft and that I needed something made out of mahogany. So... I was more or less lost. Then I was wondering about bridges. Just... Something that has a trem that holds tune. That was it.

The trem is usually not directly responsible for out of tune behavior anyway.

 

[Owwwccchhh]

Re: Basswood mods.

Oh. So is it just bad tuners being overworked by the trem? Or what? Why exactly to trems put guitars out of tune?

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Basswood mods.

Oh. So is it just bad tuners being overworked by the trem? Or what? Why exactly to trems put guitars out of tune?

Tuning problems can stem from many issues...most common ones I've encountered either a guitar not being set up or cheap tuners (and a combination of the two.)

I switched to a Floyd Rose because of tuning issues but now just have properly setup Strats without any locking systems. Amazing what decent tuners, properly adjusted and setup bridge & nut will do for tuning.

 

[Owwwccchhh]

Re: Basswood mods.

Tuning problems can stem from many issues...most common ones I've encountered either a guitar not being set up or cheap tuners (and a combination of the two.)

I switched to a Floyd Rose because of tuning issues but now just have properly setup Strats without any locking systems. Amazing what decent tuners, properly adjusted and setup bridge & nut will do for tuning.

I don't know if it's any different, but I have a cheap acoustic and it just little Ibanez tuners and it stays in tune forever. Again, it could be very different than on an electric but I play that thing hard, I don't know how it keeps in tune like it does.

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Basswood mods.

I don't know if it's any different, but I have a cheap acoustic and it just little Ibanez tuners and it stays in tune forever. Again, it could be very different than on an electric but I play that thing hard, I don't know how it keeps in tune like it does.

Ibanez makes a great product even at their lower price points (although I'm not a fan of they locking tremolos.) I've not played a ton of Ibanez acoustics but the ones I have did not have tuning issues.

 

[Brandenburg]

Re: Basswood mods.

Tuning problems can stem from many issues...most common ones I've encountered either a guitar not being set up or cheap tuners (and a combination of the two.)

I switched to a Floyd Rose because of tuning issues but now just have properly setup Strats without any locking systems. Amazing what decent tuners, properly adjusted and setup bridge & nut will do for tuning.

man.. my jt580 lp trem stays in tune really well AND never breaks a string.. in fact i end up changing my high e more so because the string is old and not because i break em AND im a serious string bender.... the high E starts to "chime" annoyingly if its been on my guitar to long.. my guitar's way of saying "CHANGE my damn strings once in awhile"... only string that ever exhibits that characteristic

one other thing that makes a guitars go out of tune and is often overlooked IMO.. not stretching the strings.. i do so religiously

my dk-2 has totally spoiled me..

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Basswood mods.

man.. my jt580 lp trem stays in tune really well AND never breaks a string.. in fact i end up changing my high e more so because the string is old and not because i break em AND im a serious string bender.... the high E starts to "chime" annoyingly if its been on my guitar to long.. my guitar's way of saying "CHANGE my damn strings once in awhile"... only string that ever exhibits that characteristic

one other thing that makes a guitars go out of tune and is often overlooked IMO.. not stretching the strings.. i do so religiously

my dk-2 has totally spoiled me..

Excellent point, after changing strings it is very good to stretch the strings and re-tune and then repeat. lol