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

[ES350]

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

I have some good guitars, vintage and relatively new, that I don't mess with too much---I bought them for what they are and they don't need any work. I just be having some fun messing with a cheap hunk of inscrutable Oriental plywood and attaching bits and pieces that are just laying around in a box anyway...

 

[Bludave]

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

Hers a Pic of one just like mine. My wife bought it at a Garage sale for $15 a few years ago. I stuck it in the basement and forgot about it for a while. The pickguard was broken and it needed to be rewired. I set it up for slide and the guitar smokes in open A. I love it for slide.

Its a Harmony H44 scroll down a little ways its the one that is gold and has the matchjing amp.
http://www.broadwaymusicco.com/Harmony23.htm

 

[Amateur]

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

I had converted quite a few cheap guitars to great ones. However, those guitars were good to begin with even though they were cheap. When I got them, I made sure they were of good quality and sounded godd when unplugged. I then changed the pickup according to the guitars' sound characteristics. With a good set up, they would play and sound awesome. I have to agree that good wood is not the same as good sounding wood. I had found this out recently on some Squiers, Epiphones and Ibanezs that were made in China but they sound beautiful when unplugged, and that was a big surprise to me when I compared them to some Gibson Les Pauls and they actually sounded better.

 

[Jeff_H]

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

Yes. I wish I would have taken before pics, but I didn't think of it at the time.

My first guitar was a cheap Yamaha double fat strat copy, in a thick, thick black sparkle poly finish, with cheap hardware. I stripped the paint, thinking I was just going to paint it another color. To my suprise, I found some very attractive wood grain underneath all that crap. I switched gears, spent a lot of time hand sanding, getting the bare wood prepped. I then stained it and put on a hand wiped light poly finish.

The bridge was in complete shambles..chrome flaking off, hex screws stripped out and non functional. I had to drill some of the hex screws out. I took the bridge apart and ground each piece on a grinder with a fine attachment to get all of the old finish off, and to grind out the scratches/gouges. I then re-painted it in a satin chrome color and put it back together.

Then John Johh, a member here, re-finished the neck for me in Nitro, and put a custom graphic on the back of the neck...after my wife and my favorite Allman Bro's song.

I think it turned out great, and as a total bonus, it's a fantastic playing and sounding guitar. I recorded my cover of Heavens Door on it...you can listen if you click on "My Soundclips" in my sig.

 

[Lu_B]

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

I went down the cheap route (and it was cheap at £100!) and bought a 80's Fender Japanese Squier Strat, had it set up and fret dressed (£70) and put a set of SSL-1 in it (£100).

I like it alot and for £270 it plays as good if not better than as any American made strat I've tried.

The other way to go cheap is buy a brand thats not as popular as the big two - Fender & Gibson, there are many bargains to be had

 

[BillyThe Wild]

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

I had a full fret level and put rio grandes in my mim telecaster.

Plays good and sounds good enough.


I've found that it's far cheaper just to buy what you want in the 1st place.

Yes, agree! Unless you do the work yourself. I owned a Carvin 127T. Ripped out the stock pickups, replaced them with Gibson 490R and Pearly Gates. Man that guitar sounded great!

 

[butnut]

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

Kindrid_Spirits, love what ya did!
From this...

To this...

Got this Fender Tele with Mitey-Mite neck for $150.00. Got all my money back and more selling the Tex-Mex pups and neck (I relic'd). Turned it itno Seymours Jeff Beck Tele-Gib using Jazz neck and JB bridge and relic'd similarly. Wanting to mod further, I put in a LP toggle and made a 3 control hot dog plate...2 vol, master tone. Put on the infamous Jimmie Vaughan Strat neck...my fave axe for years. Plays, sounds unreal. Probably have about $400.00 into it with the neck and pups, parts. Have since moved out of my 'relic pahse' :13: and got a nice black body with binding, ebay deal, $90.00, did the route work, and now it's my drop D special, my Epi Riviera with P94s has moved into the #1 spot.:bowdown:

 

[C-Martin]

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

Heres my story..


(Like 10 years ago)... my friend bought this 250$ (Canadian... so thats like what.. 10$ us back then? ) Squier Strat.. It aparrently was the crapiest of strats, noisy as freakin hell, the bridge pickup with pierce trough your ear like and icepick and the middle and neck pickup sounded like.. think of a cheap pawnshop radio that you cant get the tuning right on a station so you get this low volume "mufled" sound commin out..

Anyways.. since it was cheap he decided one day to powersand and remove the black finish and paint it gold to get that Dic'k Dale look... so then it looked like crap and sounded like crap (brush painted, no laquer.. very "gritty" finish)

So basicly what we had was one of the worst guitars ive ever seen and heared... no one even used the thing anymore, but it had a certain "character" or "mojo" to it for some reason when i played it.. like it was hiding something. One day i go and tell him to let me have it, i would strip it apart and repaint it so it would atleast look good lol. Once it was in my posetion i did a complete full cleaning, restup, intonation, even fixed and changed and rebuild a few parts (im a machinist.. so it helps and we had a paint shop too).. i convinced him to buy some pickups of ebay i had found for rather cheap (for 2 of em it cost 45$ US) redid the electronics and installed the new pickups. Apart from my AR-50 it was the bigest project ive done to a guitar so far.. the AR-50 has its own story too lol (melted pickups, juice stains, no more laquer only bare wood, cracked in many places... the usualy stuff lol)

When finished, played it at first at home trough my small amp and pandora and it wasnt nothing to go crazy over.. it was a bit less noisy, tho stil kinda noisy under gain.. with my pandora and it sounded better with certain amp setings but stil nothing great. The magic hapened when i brought it to hte studio to return it to him and show him the work id done.. he was already happy that it didnt look like crap but when we pluged it in my marshall the neck pickup sounded awsome! Kinda "woody" with some hints of glass and twang.. very warm vintage sounding, great clean and with gain. The other setings are quite alright, the bridge sounds a bit harsh but it always did only now it sounds like a "good harsh" lol if that makes sence.. Anyways, that guitar has one of the greatest neck pickup sounds pluged trough my JTM-45 ive ever heared from a strat! I dont know how it hapened... but it hapened. It has some mojo to it.. just control the volume and tone to dial in a seting you like and play some blues or funk and itll deliver awsome neck single coil tone!

 

[CGord]

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

I took a $199 Dean Z-X & put an SH-6 in the bridge. Couldn't be happier with it. (Well, except now I'm thinking about a matching neck pup.)

I just bought a $99 Squier 51, & I'm sure I'll play with it, too. The thing goes out of tune just sitting there, I might try shimming the neck a bit, & I'd like a little different sound from it.

 

[Skarekrough]

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

Eh..."Cheap" is a funny term.

My first-year Squier Tele was (and still is!) "cheap" by the price tag. I got it when everyone saw them as knock-offs and didn't thin they were any good. But every time I'd haul it out at a jam session or rehearsal it would turn heads. The wood on it didn't look "cheap." The neck certainly didn't feel "cheap." Nor did the components act "cheap." I didn't play "cheap" or sound "cheap" either.

And by all accounts some Japanese knock-off should very well be considered "cheap."

It has Duncans in it now and I've been playing it for almost 20 years. It still is everything I could want in a Tele.

I constantly hear those great caveats..."but sometimes you get a real gem!" It makes me bristle a bit. Some of the nicest axes I have are undesirable or were due to the reputations and misconceptions; my MIM stock Strat, my two MIJ Les Paul Clones from the 80's.

 

[noth]

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

I agree, although i have sunk a TON of money into expencive instruments, I have a Dillion LP Copy, completly redone(Gibson pots/speed knobs/Jackplate, switchcraft jack&3-way switch,SD Phat Cat/80'sDimarzio"black back", and a Tusq Nut, and I must say, it plays and sounds like a $2k+ Instrument now

~Mitch~

Ditto on Dillion. I've got the PRS copy, and I've redone most of it, saving the best for last - the SD pickups. I want to be able to hear what they're doing when I put them in. Garbarge is garbage, but if you start with a decent economy axe - well built, good neck and feel, good intonation - it's pretty amazing what you can turn it into these days. I've read about so many expensive guitars being built like crap these days. Not that I'd object to buying one, but I'd really srcutinize it.

Noth

 

[Wattage]

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

I think so anyway. I've got a few things that started life as Squier's that have some serious legs now.

 

[kmcguitars]

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

The Flying V in my Avatar is really a Epi Goth model I got Cheap ( If Cheap is the operative word here?) I sanded it ALL down, Put a Korina style finish on it. (NO IT's NOT KORINA WOOD) Cut a new bone nut, Put Block Inlays in, Changed the electronics, Installed 2 SD Zebra's, A Gibson TRC, New tuners and just put the Autism Awareness decal on. That's pretty tricked out now..Isn't it?

 

[Hellion]

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

The Bastardcaster is originally a $250 used Mexi-Tele that I've pretty much rebuilt. About the only thing on it that's original is the neck & original body, and even those have been reworked and refretted.

 

[unleashthejay]

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

I have read every post and this was all a great read! The reason why i started this post is because I recently got a throw around guitar and when i played it, it was just magic. Unpluged it is soo great and the sustain is amazing! so now i've decided to trick it out. I mean really get the best sounding parts and am planning to get a custom pup made for it. If in the end it turns out bad I always have the parts to put on other guitar but I think it has the mojo I need to make it great.

By the way: I'm a big Eddie Van Halen fan and I read something that reminded me of you guys. He spent like $100 for a guitar and tricked it out with a humbucker and a brass nut, locking tuners and fender vintage bridge and it came out great. The guitar of course is the black and white frankenstrat on the first album!

 

[Corbic]

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

My Squier Bullet has a Custom Shop Brobucker in it, and it sounds great! But then again, I don't know what wouldn't sound good with this pickup in it.

 

[ex-250]

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

my first guitar is the lowest-level LTD you can get, and still plays & sounds great. i suppose there wasnt any tricky out involved, but im just saying

i am gonna trick out my sister's squier though. it plays pretty good but the pickups suck. im thinking of a single-sized tone zone in the bridge and god knows what for the other 2

 

[Loserchief]

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

I have a Johnson Deluxe Tele that cost me 99€ new. I redid and exchanged the electronics, shielded everything and put a Jerry Donahue in the bridge and a Quarter Pound(tapped version) in the neck. Since hardware and feel on this guitar were very good to begin with, it's now a very versetaille guitar with lots of mojo.

 

[Brow]

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

My SSS Strat is a 1970s cheapie Jap copy that I FOUND in a cupboard while at college.

They were moving buildings at the time and were throwing away alot of stuff that was no longer used. It turns out the Strat was bought into college by a former Music Tutor for use as a drama prop and he never took it home. I expressed an interest in the guitar and they gave it me sooner than throw it away.

When I acquired the guitar it had a very battered black body and a worn maple neck. I stripped the black off and underneath it looked like this:

The stripped colour of the guitar was originally a little lighter, as after the body had been stripped it had Linseed Oil rubbed into it and then had wax put on-top to seal the oil in.

The 1st pickups I put in the guitar were a JB Jr in the bridge, a Quarter Pound in the middle and a Lil 59 in the neck. The guitar stayed this way for a while until I wanted a more traditional Strat sound. So I removed the pickups and fitted a set of Duncan Antiquity Texas Hots (the bassist in my band has just bought the JB Jr etc to put in a Squier Strat he bought for £20).

The guitar now has a set of aged Bareknuckle Mothers Milks in it, which I prefer over the Antiquities. The Antiquities were good pickups, but they always sounded a little dull, which I'll put down to the (mainly) mahogany body of the guitar.

All in all, it's a great guitar and it essentially cost me nothing (apart from the pickups obviously)

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

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

My Korean Wolfgang is cheap POS guitar, I yanked out the licensed floyd and installed an OFR instead, found some Schaller tuners, and Duncan pickups...
Now not much will make me part with that one!