Electric guitar Modifications are essential to utilize the full potential of the guitar. Most stock hardware installed on guitars are not top level or well say, not what you want. There are times when you really want a particular guitar, but it does not come with your favorite hardware.
Guitar manufacturers cannot make a guitar with all the specifications you want. There are parts they cannot install on their guitar because they might not have the agreement with the company that manufactures that particular part. Now if you want to have yours built by a luthier, it will cost you tons of money.
The solution to that problem is to pick a particular guitar you want, then have it upgraded with the parts you want. There is always an upgrade available for any brand of electric guitar. It is up to you as the player/owner whatever upgrade you want. I will describe here some of the possible upgrades you may want in your guitar.
Floyd Rose Upgrades
Floyd Rose bridges produce less sustain than a fixed bridge. It is because of reduced contact between the bridge and the body of the guitar. It is the reason why a Gibson Les Paul with a fixed bridge will have more sustain compared to a guitar with a Floyd Rose Tremolo. That is the reason why Floyd Rose upgrades is a must.
A floating tremolo is a headache when it goes out of tune. There are a lot of products out there to keep the tremolo stabilized. They have Tremol-no, Hipshot Tremsetter, Tremolo Stabilizer and The Black Box Tremolo Stabilizer. I consider the Black Box Tremolo Stabilizer as the Best Tremolo Stabilizer.
Coil Splitting
Single coil pickups have a distinctive sound which is different from a humbucker pickup. There are songs composed with single coil pickups as well as humbucker pickups. As a gigging musician who covers songs these you have to give justice to the guitar sound to both of them.
When time comes where you must have a single coil pickup on a humbucker equipped guitar, the only solution to that is by coil splitting.
Pick Up Upgrades
Seymour Duncan pickups vs. DiMarzio pickups.
There has been a long of debate among guitar players about which one is better than the other. If somebody asked me, I would select DiMarzio personally. I find it has more character than Seymour Duncan. Seymour Duncan is more on tone shaping.
Tone Capacitors Upgrade
Is it essential? If you are a guitar player who dials your tone knob (potentiometer), yes otherwise it is not useful. Upgrading tone capacitors are cheapest and one of the effective upgrade for your tone.
Silencing The Beast
Guitar hum is also an annoying issue on an electric guitar. Old guitar pickups are mostly single coils. When it was discovered that single coil pickups produce a hum even on a low gain setting, the humbucker pickups were invented. They even make some humbucker pickups in single coil size.
Guitar Frets Upgrade
Nickel Silver frets or normal frets is the industry standard, and they wore out easily. Stainless Steel Guitar Frets are much harder thus will not wear out for a long time even lasting longer than the guitars lifespan.
When polished they are very slick thus a lot of players are saying that “it’s like playing on ice.”
Essential Guitar Accessories Upgrades
Some guitar accessories are cosmetic in nature. It improves the appearance of a guitar. There are guitar accessories that are essential for a guitar as it adds security to that expensive guitar you own. Guitar strap locks are a must for a guitar for safety.
The cable you are using will also make a lot of difference in your overall guitar sound. If you have an expensive guitar and boutique amp, you need a decent cable. I recommend the Mogami Platinum Guitar Cables as it is the best guitar cable that money can buy. Ask John Petrucci of Dream Theater. If you have a friend who owns it try it and you will not use another cable. It is very expensive, but it is an essential upgrade if you are serious about your sound. If the budget does not permit, the Mogami Gold Guitar Cable will do just fine, just don’t compare it with the Platinum.
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Hello Everyone,
I am Belden but friends call me Den, and I am the owner of this Website.
I have finally quit my job in Aviation as my online business is giving me financial freedom.
I love doing this online business as I love to help people quit their day job and do things they really love.
You will mostly find me hanging out at the coolest site to learn anything about online business.
PRS Custom 24 10-Top Electric Guitar Mccarty Tobacco Sunburst (Paid Link)
Ibanez RG5170G Prestige Electric Guitar (Paid Link)
Recommended Guitar Music Theory Book (Paid Link)
Music Man Majesty 7 Enchanted Forest (Paid Link)
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Recommended Complete Guitar Method Book (Paid Link)
I have never thought that there is so much you can do to a guitar in terms of modifications. I always thought that an expensive guitar is about it and will always produce the best sound. Your post changes the way I think about electric guitars. Thanks for the information.
Hi Taylor,
Electric guitar modifications is very important to serious players and celebrity artists out there. For them, tone is sacred. Do you think celebrities like Slash, Kirk Hammet, Brian May or Edge of U2 will just grab an expensive guitar from a guitar showroom and go to their concerts? No way. Even Bruce Springsteen who plays only rhythm guitar uses a highly modified Telecaster.
Slash have his tremolo upgraded, Kirk Hammet is a very good guitar technician and do his own modifications, Brian May made his own guitar and there is no way you can produce U2 sound from a showroom guitar. Of course he uses a lot of effects but he also uses a sustainer in his guitar which is a major modification. I have a very long list of celebrities that uses modified guitars.
Thanks for the comments,
Den
Wow this is really cool to learn. An Electric Guitar is a very expressive musical instrument . I actually didn’t know you could modify a guitar itself! That’s awesome! I always thought you would just plug a guitar into an effects pedal to get the different sounds. This is a very informative article you have regarding electric guitar modifications. This is really a great post!
Hi Caleb,
You need guitar effects to make different sounds from your electric guitar. The thing is, even if you have the best guitar effects in the market and you have a bad sounding guitar, you will not have a good sound. The best sounding guitar will still sound decent on a cheap effects pedal.
The importance of guitar modifications is that sustain and clarity of sound. A cheap guitar when upgraded to a good pickup will have a tremendous improvement in tone and sound. A guitar upgraded to Titanium components will have a vast improvement in sustain. Sustain is the holy grail of lead guitarists. It is one of most sought after character of a guitar. It is the capability of an electric guitar to prolong a note, which is very important when you are playing lead solos.
Natural sustain is different from digital sustain.
Thanks for the comments,
Den
Wow! I’ve always wanted to learn how to play the guitar and thought that I would have to buy a massive amount of sound effect equipment along with it. So for someone like me just starting out, what would you recommend I start with first when modding out my guitar? And does the type of electric guitar I purchase make a difference when modding?
Any cheap to medium priced electric guitar will benefit from a pickup upgrade. All of those guitars I mentioned will have cheap pickups installed. On these guitars, the pickup is the weakest link in the tone chain. Once the pickups are replaced with either Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio or EMG pickups, a tremendous tone and sound improvement is highly noticeable.
Thanks for your comments,
Den
Hey, really good page. I really loved the explanation about the first guitar to purchase and also very good explanation of the fret buzz and how to fix it. Honestly it’s a great page.
You got interesting posts and many different solutions to most of the problems faced by many guitar enthusiasts out there which is why this page is really cool.
Good luck with the page and keep it up!
Hi !
It is very heart warming to know that you find my website informative. It is my intention to really share my passion to the world .
Thank you for the comments,
Den
Hey Belden. Really like the site man! It is very informative, and contains info you don’t find many other places. I teach guitar lessons and will share this with my students for sure. Glad to see someone else on here in my niche. Check out my site if you get a chance. I just started it last week, so there is a lot more content I have yet to add.
Best of luck, and stay in touch!
Chris
Hi Chris!
Yes your students are most welcome to my website. It would be helpful to them ,so they can pick up some information about guitars.
Thank you for the comments,
Den
I’ve been Playing the guitar For over 3 years and i really can relate to what goes on in this article. right when i seen the Floyd Rose upgrade i knew this site knew what it was talking about because i personally have that upgrade for my electric. Thank you so much for the information and i’ll be sure to be visiting back soon!
Hi!
Glad to know that you experienced how it is to have an upgraded electric guitar. If it is a Floyd Rose upgrade then it is really worth it.
Thanks for the comments,
Den
I’ve been playing the guitar for a very long time and I’ve been using pedals to solve my sustain problems. After reading your post, I’m now seriously considering modifying my guitar to improve its sound production. All of the items here makes a lot of sense if you want to achieve improvement especially if you want to eliminate that annoying hum.
Hi!
Yes guitar modification is worth it. Even if you have the best effects and the best amps, you will still not sound good if you have a bad sounding guitar .
Thanks for the comments,
Den
nice post I enjoyed reading it .It was informative and engaging. The lay out was nice, not to busy. this would be a good place for beginners and pros alike to gather information. you have nice images the text was broke up well. keep up the good work. this would be a good site to send guitar players and anyone wanting to find info on this subject
Hi Allen!
I always wanted to share my knowledge on guitar modifications. I got that accomplished when I have this website.
Thanks for the comments,
Den
Wow! This is great! Does this work the same with semi acoustic guitars? How can I use this on a Dean?
Don’t get me started on the humming. Unfortunately I don’t know enough to fix these problems myself, but I found your website very informative! Great Tips Den I will definitely use these tips in the future!
Hi Grace !
Yes the tips here can be used on semi acoustic guitars as long as they have magnetic pickups. Changing stock pickups with good quality pickups on semi acoustic guitars will really improve its sound.
Thanks for the comments,
Den
I am a bass player, and I had no idea that you could do these types of modifications to help improve the tone of the guitar. I especially like the simple modifications to improve the buzz on the pickups.
What I wounder is how do you differentiate between an amp problem and a pickup problem? How do you know if it is a cord problem? You have much experience, and I am going to be following your page!
Hi John !
Even Bass Guitars have modifications. Have you heard of Bartolini Pickups? Have you heard of Titanium Bass Bridges? Bass with stainless frets? I am planning to include bass guitar modifications on my future articles.
If there is a hum, the easiest way to pinpoint it, is to tough any metal part of the bass guitar or electric guitar. I f the hum vanish, it is a grounding problem on the instrument itself. If there is no sound, try to tap the magnetic poles with a metal object, if there is an audible tap through the amp the instrument is live, it is an amp problem. Bad cables can be detected if you try to move around and sometimes ir creates the problem, sometimes it solves the problem while you are moving it.
Thanks for the comments,
Den
I don’t know a great deal about electric guitars (even though I’ve always wanted to know more), but I feel after reading your blog I know a great deal more about the guitar that I never seemed to grasp when people have tried to explain how they work. I am curious about the floating tremolo; I want to know what makes it go out of tune? Is it human error or something else?
I appreciate you taking the time to answer my question, and I’ve also recommended your site to a good friend of mine who both he and son are crazy about electric guitars.
Hi Amberlee!
The Floyd Rose Tremolo is a fulcrum type tremolo. If you set it up floating, meaning not locked in place, it balances itself on two forces, the tension of the guitar strings and the tension of the tremolo springs.
If you move the whammy bar and then release it, the tremolo should go back to its initial position, or zero point and the guitar is still in tune. If the tremolo is not properly set up , the tremolo will not go back to its zero point and the guitar is out of tune.
The Floyd Rose Tremolo is designed to go back to its zero position but somebody has to do it right. I can set up a Floyd Rose Tremolo without any stabilizer installed but the Black Box Tremolo Stabilizer makes life easier as it gives more margin of error in set up.
Human error is one reason but there are a lot of other factors as well. Worn out knife edge on the tremolo, old strings, even humidity is a factor. If you have a guitar technician at your side every time you play you are in good shape but only the celebrities can afford personal guitar technicians.The Black Box Tremolo Stabilizer can solve it.
Thanks for the comments,
Den
Hey Den
I like your explanation on the different Floyd Rose Stabilisers and can see why you choose the Black Box Stabilizer as the best option.
Getting back to the zero point is obviously so important to stay in tune, and having the ability to raise and drop the bar makes it the stand out in my opinion.
I have a whammy on my PRS but I haven’t gel’ed with it, so I just leave the bar off and stick to a pedal whammy for my use.
Nice site for guitar tips.
Cheers
Wade
Hi Wade!
The Black Box Tremolo Stabilizer is the best tremolo stabilizer available on the market. It combines the stability of a a Tremolo Stopper and at the same time allowing pull ups.
A stabilized Floyd Rose is unmatched in dive bomb range and pull ups. A pedal whammy is a different thing. The sound it creates is digitally produced, and no big name guitar players would use that instead of a real Floyd Rose.
One example is John Petrucci of Dream Theater.He left the Floyd Rose fanatics hanging when he left the sponsorship of Ibanez and went to Musicman. His signature Ibanez Guitar has a licensed Floyd Rose by Ibanez which is also a good quality tremolo and expensive too. With his Musicman he rarely makes tremolo tricks because as we all know his Musicman has a different type of tremolo. Now comes his latest signature from Musicman, and guess what, it comes with a Floyd Rose Tremolo. His playing on a different dimension now.
Thanks for the comments,
Den
I never knew that you could do this to a guitar, I was aware that you could buy effects pedals or plug your guitar into some outboard effects gear, or even a software processor, but never did I know that you could modify the guitar.
I play piano, and I desire to learn how to play the guitar. I’ll keep this in mind once I start taking lessons! Thanks.
Hi Christian !
Most guitar pros do not play their guitars straight from the store . they will have it set up and modified. You cannot get all the specifications you want in a guitar from a store bought guitar. One company may not install a part you want on your guitar because of patent issues. So the way to go is to buy a stock guitar and have it modified.
Thanks for the comments,
Den