Have you ever tricked out a cheap guitar into something great?

[super rad stuff]

Re: Have you ever tricked out a cheap guitar into something great?

cool thread, despite it's age
all my stuff is junked-out cheap stuff that i've modded the hell out of:firedevil

 

[muttznmongrelz]

Re: Have you ever tricked out a cheap guitar into something great?

See my entry/post/pics on the "First Act Thread"...I'm pretty **** happy w/the results of my SFA CE140 Lola...just a great base for upgrading the electronics and playing the hell out of a guitar!

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=163936

 

[crossbow]

Re: Have you ever tricked out a cheap guitar into something great?

Hondo II Strat (modded)

new pickguard (tortoise creme)

JB-4 Bridge

Classic Stack - mid (thanks Dan-ola)

lil 59 in the neck

 

[Jerry Madderra]

Re: Have you ever tricked out a cheap guitar into something great?

This was a rondo sx . I recut the headstock to a Tele shape, refinished the body, dressed the frets, made a new pick guard, changed the pups, pots and bridge. Not much left of the SX

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Have you ever tricked out a cheap guitar into something great?

I replaced the bridge, nut, pickups, potentiometers, capacitor, switch, control plate, push pulls on a Squier '51 and it is badass now.

Before: all stock

====================
The Build --- tons of pictures at every step!

====================
After: GFS Bridge, TUSQ nut, 250K tone pot, 250K volume pot with push-pull coil split on Seymour Duncan Little '59 neck pickup, GFS Mean 90 Alnico P90 bridge pickup, drilled control plate and added DPDT 3-way mini toggle for neck-both-bridge, lots of time and energy on the neck sanding the fret ends and adjusting the neck for the perfect relief. Now it's a monster.

Video of the guitar in action

 

[muttznmongrelz]

Re: Have you ever tricked out a cheap guitar into something great?

Great job on that SX Tele. You should slap a "Fender" Decal on it and call it good. Very nice. Love the bound neck and reshaped HS.

 

[cvansickle]

Re: Have you ever tricked out a cheap guitar into something great?

Yeppers! I turned an ordinary MIM Strat into my Dave Murray tribute guitar!

 

[KeeperOS]

Re: Have you ever tricked out a cheap guitar into something great?

oh yeah!

First was my first guitar, an MiM Strat.
From this to this:

All-new pickguard assembly (all SDUGF Custom Shop pickups), Sperzel tuners, Wilkinson bridge, Schaller strap locks. Basically all I kept were the neck and body

and the all-out is this:

Swing EZ-10. Bought her for 300€, now I have about 1000€ worth of parts and luthier costs on her!!! Again, all I kept were the neck-thru-body (ok, this time I also kept the strap buttons )
Suhr Dough Aldrich at the neck, Tom Anderson H3 at the bridge, Gotoh FR, Sperzel tuners, Ebanol (non-locking) nut, chrome pu rings OVER SD trembucker black plastic rings, DiMarzio 500K push/pulls, Switchcraft 3-way and locking jack and the Tremol-No.

 

[crossbow]

Re: Have you ever tricked out a cheap guitar into something great?

Great job keeperOS!!!! Both guitars are gorgeous!!

 

[KeeperOS]

Re: Have you ever tricked out a cheap guitar into something great?

Thanks, what doesn't show is that I also installed a Tremol-No at the FR to turn it to dive-only (for drop-d purposes) and that the trussrod cover was trimmed so as to clear through the two retention bar screws (the bar itself was removed though since I installed the Sperzel locking tuners and replaced the locking nut with a non-locking one).

 

[Mark Cearlock]

Re: Have you ever tricked out a cheap guitar into something great?

Yep:View attachment 13444
View attachment 13445
Need to change the knobs on the peavey. peavey: a-2jb/jazz (ok, but not great)
Squier custom 2: custom 5/aph5n cts/switchcraft/orangedrop/electrosoket (I love this one)

 

[Carl762]

Re: Have you ever tricked out a cheap guitar into something great?

I've got a couple cheapie sweeties. Good setups, added better parts.

 

[LtKojak]

Re: Have you ever tricked out a cheap guitar into something great?

and the Tremol-No.

Hi, KeeperoS!

How's the Tremol-no? Is it worth it? Do you care to share your experience with it? I for one, I'm all ears!

Inquiring minds would like to know...

 

[vladmarr]

Re: Have you ever tricked out a cheap guitar into something great?

i upgraded my '98 Jay Turser Les Paul copy. the only thing that's original in it is the wood. it's been with me for over 10 years now and it's the only guitar i own that will stay in tune for months. i'm not kidding either, the thing just stays tuned way better than my Gibby LP Standard!

 

[SlowGroove]

Re: Have you ever tricked out a cheap guitar into something great?

Well, i have this idea of taking a cheap Gibbo MM (the twin PU model) . . .

. . . and give it a Gibson TP6 bridge w. GraphTech nut.

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/Gibson-Tailpiece-TP6?sku=306102 - TP6

Then some Duncan (strat ?) pick up's and replace the wire'ing with something from RS-Guitar Works !



James

 

[LtKojak]

Re: Have you ever tricked out a cheap guitar into something great?

and give it a Gibson TP6 bridge

I've had it in my LP for over a year. It did what was advertised.

I took it off. No difference. The guitar didn't change. It tuned OK with AND without.

A hundred bucks lost.

Bottom line: it doesn't help if your tuners are OK.

 

[rashayritto]

Re: Have you ever tricked out a cheap guitar into something great?

i did a crap neck repair on a broken SG and somehow made it resonate like a mofo

did a couple of thinks to the lowest end BC rich you can possibly get. it was super resonant to begin with, now it has an active SD in it

i took my epi SG and had Mastodon sign it so now it is embued with mystic powers

go figure

 

[crossbow]

Re: Have you ever tricked out a cheap guitar into something great?

Well with the Hondo..more changes were in store.

After the humbucker and pickup switch...

Changed strap locks to Dunlop strap locks
changing the plastic nut to bone nut
and
changed the strings and had to go to the luthier
for filing down the frets and realigning the neck.

Actually plays very nice and sounds very good, distorted and clean!

 

[dr. ad]

Re: Have you ever tricked out a cheap guitar into something great?

black squier tele custom II
neck and nut were ok (tidied up and graphited the nut)
neck joint wasn't, so i've re-fitted that
changed the P90 scratchplate to a 2 x HB until i've nutted out some mount brackets etc for some non-standard soapbars; has a GFS dream 180 in the neck and an airzone with a flipped mag in the bridge
i wired the pickup selector backwards so it'll go to the bridge if it's bumped while windmilling etc ; ] and if the 2 HBs are at the same vol it's out of phase.
favorite.guitar.ever. makes my LP and PRS SE look/sound bad.

 

[\m/(00)\m/]

Re: Have you ever tricked out a cheap guitar into something great?

my main guitar and nicest sounding guitar is the 2nd guitar i've received, an epiphone les paul my parents bought me like 8 years ago.
everything in the guitar has been replaced except for frets and the bridge...it sounds amazing