NSchuler Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 I'm new to the forums, and am a bit of a novice when it comes to upgrading a guitar. I have a old Epiphone Special Model Special II Ebony guitar that hasnt seen much play time due to me playing other guitars. This was my first guitar that I have ever had, and I want to make it look, and sound, amazing. I'm planning on doing a lot of cosmetic changes to the guitar as well as electronic changes. I am looking at buying a replacement neck to work on that has trapezoid inlays instead of dots and a empty headstock. What I plan to do is get a custom waterslide decal with my last name in the Gibson/Epi logo font. I also plan to put the diamond logo on the middle of the headstock as well. Custom truss rod cover should be easy to put on, as well as Vintage Gotoh style locking tuners. I will be replacing the guitar knobs for creme bell knobs (I currently have some redicuolus looking skull ones from when I was 12 and thought it was cool). I will be putting in CTS pots and Switchcraft Switch and Jack. Creme colored washer for switch and tip as well will be added. Chrome jack plate will replace the plastic black one. Dunlop dual design straplok buttons to replace current ones. PRS Zebra Pickups will replace the stock ones. A bone nut will be added as well. Im looking at dremeling down a Gibson Les Paul Creme colored Pickguard to compensate for the high placement of the knobs. Any advice about changing some of the listed equipment to better ones or advice about the headstock situation are greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'Scales Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 if you're doing it on the cheap you may well find you can get trapezoid and diamond decals rather than new neck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NSchuler Posted December 31, 2015 Author Share Posted December 31, 2015 if you're doing it on the cheap you may well find you can get trapezoid and diamond decals rather than new neck. I was planning on it, but i figured it would be better to buy a new neck than to remove the epiphone inlay on the headstock and sand and refinish it to be able to put the waterslide decal on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fromnabulax Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 Don't take this the wrong way because I am being completely sincere when I say that I just love a guy who's willing to spend triple what he spent on a guitar to make it uniquely his! Just so ya' know, for under twenty bucks you can get a truss rod cover with your own name engraved that would fit your guitar. Have yerself a ball! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NSchuler Posted January 2, 2016 Author Share Posted January 2, 2016 Just so ya' know, for under twenty bucks you can get a truss rod cover with your own name engraved that would fit your guitar. I found a company called Philadelphia Luthier Tools that offers a two lines engraved truss rod cover for epiphones for 15 dollars, planned on picking one up from them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fromnabulax Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 I found a company called Philadelphia Luthier Tools that offers a two lines engraved truss rod cover for epiphones for 15 dollars, planned on picking one up from them Yup, that's the place. I slapped a couple of those on a couple of Epiphones that I had heavily altered. A cheap price for a bit of ego bling! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col Mustard Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 I'm new to the forums, and am a bit of a novice when it comes to upgrading a guitar. I have a old Epiphone Special Model Special II Ebony guitar that hasnt seen much play time due to me playing other guitars. This was my first guitar that I have ever had, and I want to make it look, and sound, amazing. I'm planning on doing a lot of cosmetic changes to the guitar as well as electronic changes. I am looking at buying a replacement neck to work on that has trapezoid inlays instead of dots and a empty headstock. What I plan to do is get a custom waterslide decal with my last name in the Gibson/Epi logo font. I also plan to put the diamond logo on the middle of the headstock as well. Custom truss rod cover should be easy to put on, as well as Vintage Gotoh style locking tuners. I will be replacing the guitar knobs for creme bell knobs (I currently have some redicuolus looking skull ones from when I was 12 and thought it was cool). I will be putting in CTS pots and Switchcraft Switch and Jack. Creme colored washer for switch and tip as well will be added. Chrome jack plate will replace the plastic black one. Dunlop dual design straplok buttons to replace current ones. PRS Zebra Pickups will replace the stock ones. A bone nut will be added as well. Im looking at dremeling down a Gibson Les Paul Creme colored Pickguard to compensate for the high placement of the knobs. Any advice about changing some of the listed equipment to better ones or advice about the headstock situation are greatly appreciated. +1 on some of the above comments... I don't think you need to buy a new neck. The only reason to do that is if your old one is too warped to be straightened. A custom truss rod cover is a great simple upgrade... check out this website too: http://www.ebay.com/usr/acmesupergenius I have bought several of this guy's creations... two for Epiphones and two for Gibsons, and I like them a lot. Expensive, but elegant, made of ebony and MOP etc. I don't like decals or stickers on guitars... they don't last and seem tacky. I'd play your Epi with the simple dots as designed, and spend your dollars and your efforts on the tone and the setup. >If you want to upgrade your old Les Paul Special ll, here's my suggestions on where to spend your money: 1. Gotoh tuners... not too expensive and work better than the stock ones. 2. Tusq nut... same comments but more so. The nut is a crucial element to tone and playability. Bone is a good idea as well, but more expensive to make and install. Either will be a good choice. Your call. 3. Gotoh locking bridge and tail... same comments as above. These upgrades will improve your tone IMHO. Combine them with professional setup and turn your humble Special ll into a real player. 4. Pro setup should straighten the neck, level the frets, make sure the nut fits properly in the slot and that the nut slots are the correct depth and size for the strings you prefer. Then adjust the action and set the intonation. Watch this inexpensive guitar come alive in your hands once it's set up. 5. New wiring harness as you describe above. After doing this mod, you might decide that your stock pickups are fine and you don't need to buy new ones. PRS p'ups ought to sound awesome even so... but I'll always suggest that you upgrade the wiring first, and then play the guitar for a month or two and listen carefully. Then decide if you need to spend more money on new p'ups. Quite often, you don't. http://www.philadelphialuthiertools.com/bridge-and-tailpieces/gotoh-ge103b-t-guitar-bridge-with-large-metric-posts-nickel/ So you can see that my recommendations are to spend money and effort on tone and playablilty, not cosmetics. The Les Paul Special ll is a plain-jane guitar, but with these upgrades it turns into much more guitar than it looks like from a distance. To me, there's a coolness factor that goes with sounding great on a supposedly cheap guitar. I've seen it done. To me, a well setup Epiphone is a much more useful guitar than a poorly setup Gibson Les Paul Traditional plus custom quilt top heritage supreme figured Ultra ll signature re-issue that cost ten times as much. But remember this bit of folk Wisdom (which ought to be a sticky on this site): YOU CAN INSTALL A $2000 STEREO IN A $500 CAR AND IT'S STILL A $500 CAR... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Amon Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 Col. Mustard did it in the forums with a keyboard. I'm nodding so hard it's starting to hurt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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