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Ever regretted a modification on your guitar?


PelhamBlueFire

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Have you ever modded a guitar in anyway that you regretted afterwards? For instance, you sometimes see guitars that have holes drilled into them because someone put a Bigsby on them, and took it off later on. This could be a great example of a mod that you regretted afterwards. Another example could be with a new set of tuners. Sometimes, it's required to drill holes as well, and it's a point of no return of course.

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yes...

 

back in 1979 I bought a Ibanez Musician series MC400.

 

sometime in the mid 80s, I had a kahler trem installed which required extensive mods to the body (Eg: routing the cavity for the kahler bridge) The guy who did the work, although a reputable tech, mess this one up so badly cosmetically that he was embarrassed when I picked it up, and didn't charge me the labor. (When he went to route the cavity he lost control of the router and it skipped across the front of the body, as well as one of the studs cracked the surrounding wood when installed. it was a mes.

 

It worked ok, and as expected, but the guitar was severely devalued, and cosmetically a train wreck,, (would have lost the value even if he did it perfectly.)

I wound up offing it in trade for something totally stupid for around 300 bucks cash value.

 

Had I left it alone, I probably never would have parted ways with the guitar,

 

I played many many gigs and it is on countless recordings I did... It was my only electric for a number of years.

 

 

Those guitars are fetching some good money these days... Kinda of rare I think..

 

 

 

BIG mistake.

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Back in around '77 I put a pair of DiMarzio Dual Sound p'ups on my 'Grant' LP GT copy. This meant drilling holes for the coil-split micro-toggles.

Hindsight being that wonderful thing I now wish I had bought Super Distortions and left the guitar unmolested.

 

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Then again, I don't suppose I regret my actions quite as much as will the creative genius behind this tasteful right-to-left conversion of a real 1959 Les Paul Standard;

 

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As Billy Connoly once said;

"Hanging's too good for some people; It's a good Kick up the Arse they need!"

Pip.

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yes & no. My '72 Strat. back in '76 or '77, I stripped it to bare wood, kept it like that for a year. had it painted black for a couple years, then stripped it again and repainted it's original white/cream color. hindsight, i wish i'd left its original paint on it. wish i'd left its original pickguard & knobs as well. late 70's got the bright idea of adding a humbucker at the bridge position. too dumb to borrow a router, chipped it away with a wood chisel. lol. 2 weeks later, put the single coil back in. late 80's the frets were shot. bought a used warmouth tele neck, but it was 4 bolt, my strat is a 3 bolt. so i just drilled 2 extra holes for the replacement neck. once i had the original neck refretted, , slapped it back on. still has the 2 extra holes back there lol. theres numerous scrapes and chips ...

it would be nice if it were all original, but then it doesn't really matter. it's a workhorse. all the imperfections and scars are just part of its story. i'll never sell it. my kids argue over who gets it when i kick the bucket. lol.

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yes & no. My '72 Strat. back in '76 or '77, I stripped it to bare wood, kept it like that for a year. had it painted black for a couple years, then stripped it again and repainted it's original white/cream color. hindsight, i wish i'd left its original paint on it. wish i'd left its original pickguard & knobs as well. late 70's got the bright idea of adding a humbucker at the bridge position. too dumb to borrow a router, chipped it away with a wood chisel. lol. 2 weeks later, put the single coil back in. late 80's the frets were shot. bought a used warmouth tele neck, but it was 4 bolt, my strat is a 3 bolt. so i just drilled 2 extra holes for the replacement neck. once i had the original neck refretted, , slapped it back on. still has the 2 extra holes back there lol. theres numerous scrapes and chips ...

it would be nice if it were all original, but then it doesn't really matter. it's a workhorse. all the imperfections and scars are just part of its story. i'll never sell it. my kids argue over who gets it when i kick the bucket. lol.

 

 

Oy!!!!

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Sometime in the early 90s I had the brilliant idea to strip the finish off my Japanese Charvel Model 1 with an orbital sander. I didn't realize that they don't use pretty pieces of wood on painted guitars. Plus, the body shape changed a bit from the overpowered sander I used. I never finished it and ended up giving its corpse to a high school teacher for a classroom decoration. The damn thing would have been worth $500-$600 today if I'd left it alone!

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Same here...

 

Never really modded any of my guitars apart from when I changed the plastics to black on my Standard.. But that's easily reversed.. Its the only guitar I ever felt the need to do anything on.. For some reason it was just screaming at me... I wanted to make the top as prominent as possible and I thought the white was distracting from that

DSC01188_zpshemjjllr.jpg

 

Ive never ever messed with the pickups or electronics... I feel the same as some of the others.. When I buy a guitar its cos I like how it sounds and looks.. No need or want to mod anything (would rather buy a new guitar which has the current features im looking for :)).

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Nope.

 

I put a Bigsby on my SG '50s Tribute—using the VibraMate. I caught some grief for it, but it was the smartest approach, as I eventually took it off. No ugly drill holes to lament!

 

Below is a modification I just completed ("Before" image is a stock photo of how mine originally looked). It went on for a while, but I finally got around to finishing it this week. "0" regrets on this one!

 

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I used to love getting my guitars modded so that mods were - generally - either completely reversible and/or not visible, so no regrets.

This year I got the modded push/pull wiring on my Tele restored to how it was when I got it, which is stock Tele wiring but with a switch to put the mid pos out-of-phase.

 

Any regrets I have are more about amp modifications which considerably affect their value.

 

Got my ultra-linear 70s silverface Fender Dual Showman combo changed to pentode.

Actually it probably sounds better now and certainly would do if I had enough £££ for a total valve change.

 

Got the Trainwreck mod (non-reversible I think) done on my Park 100MV.

Should not have done that one. Still sounds bloody good to my ears though.

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Ive enjoyed every one of my mods,,in fact all my gtrs have some type of mod,,everything to PU's to mounting Floyd Rose on gtrs most look at,, and gasp at what Ive done,,lol, But they play or sound better after mod,,and thats all I care about.

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My one modification regret;

 

My factory-original (2003) Subaru Baja radio/cd player crapped out a few years ago, and I went to the local car audio place and had them install a Pioneer model to replace it.

 

MAN, how I hate this smoking turd of an automotive audio component.

 

a. It looks like a gold tooth sticking out on an otherwise attractive face.

The in-dash radio just doesn't look like it belongs.

 

b. It sounds okay, but much like every other Pioneer component, it has a multitude of small, mysterious buttons and switches that serve no apparent useful purpose.

I hate it.

 

c. It's been so many years now that, if I wanted a factory OEM unit installed, it would cost me more than the Subaru is worth.

That, plus a left-nut, my first born child, and a quart of blood.

 

Shoot.

I hate regrets.

I don't do regrets.

 

But there it is.

I hate this radio.

:(

 

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I used to love getting my guitars modded so that mods were - generally - either completely reversible and/or not visible, so no regrets.

This year I got the modded push/pull wiring on my Tele restored to how it was when I got it, which is stock Tele wiring but with a switch to put the mid pos out-of-phase.

 

Any regrets I have are more about amp modifications which considerably affect their value.

 

Got my ultra-linear 70s silverface Fender Dual Showman combo changed to pentode.

Actually it probably sounds better now and certainly would do if I had enough £££ for a total valve change.

 

Got the Trainwreck mod (non-reversible I think) done on my Park 100MV.

Should not have done that one. Still sounds bloody good to my ears though.

We need a thread showing your amp collection!

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No. I don't do irreversible modifications. If such is needed, You have got the wrong guitar.

 

Bence.

Or the right ones simply are not available stock, and having them custom built would cost crazy money... :unsure:

 

I had two MIM Fender Floyd Rose Strats routed for battery case and active circuitry, the HSS PUs swapped for Noiseless SSS and a Graph Tech Ghost LB-63 piezo bridge added. No regrets, they provide just what I wanted them to! [biggrin][thumbup]

 

By the way, the other two of my MIM Fender Floyd Rose Strats are HSS to Noiseless SSS modded, too, but without routings and thus completely reversible. I'm not prone to going back though. :)

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There were two that sort of run together to form a regret.

 

I had an Epiphone LP Junior, the P90 model, that cost me less than $100. It was cool, loved the P90 sound, but hated the tuners, absolutely awful cheap covered tuners. At the same time, I had (still have) a Jay Turser JT-133, which was really a nice guitar for the money, except that the bridge pickup kept dropping in and out. So my plan was to replace the electronics in the Jay Turser, switch the tuners from the Turser (which were decent) to the Epi LP JR and buy a new set of $45 Grover tuners for the Turser.

 

Well, I attempted the repairs myself on the Turser and wound up screwing up a brand new wiring harness, because I could not get the thing into the semi-hollow body because the Turser F holes are freaking tiny. I gave up on attempting to got through the F holes and drilled under the bridge pickup to the semi-hollow chamber and still couldn't get the blasted thing in. Meanwhile the guitar is sitting around for weeks without its strings and the neck goes out of wack (slightly), so I decide that I would instead put the $45 tuners on the $100 Epi, since the Turser wasn't looking any too healthy. So after I get the Grovers on the Epi, I decide to sell it. And after that, I take the Turser to a luthier who rewires it, fixes the neck, levels the frets and changes out the pickups. It now is great.

 

My regret is that I didn't go through with my plan to switch the tuners. The Tursers tuners work, but the Grovers were much nicer.

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I found this on Facebook. Guess when the wife says you can't buy any more guitars, it's time for Builds! Lolmsp_flapper.gifI wonder if this dude regretted doing this? I laughed so hard I had to share it here. It's a photo from my cell ph.

image.jpg2_zpshypzeiya.jpg

It says, I wonder what the wife will say?

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