Customising Electric Guitars

jimi_t

I'm just wondering has anyone "customised" their electric guitar - fiddling with the electronics or building-in pedals Matt Bellany style . I'd love to do something to improve my Squier but I'd want to read up a lot before touching it with a screwdriver... Can anyone reccomend any sites?

david

I changed the pickups, rewired and am currently installing a fuzz factory style oscillator into my Ibanez RG... If its Matt B style mods then you might find useful info in this forum... I think you would be better off saving for a better guitar before modifying it... ie you cant paint a turd...

jimi_t

Well, there's "painting a turd" and there's just trying to improve what is probably my main guitar - also, it's a 20th Anniversary Squire "Double Fat" strat so it's not quite as turd like as the stock models. What exactley did you do when you "rewired" your guitar, and do you have any tutorials for installing a fuzz factory? Cheers

david

jimi_t wrote:

Well, there's "painting a turd" and there's just trying to improve what is probably my main guitar - also, it's a 20th Anniversary Squire "Double Fat" strat so it's not quite as turd like as the stock models. What exactley did you do when you "rewired" your guitar, and do you have any tutorials for installing a fuzz factory? Cheers

Heh... Not as bad as the bog standard affinity series so... I rewird the electronics (pots, switches/output jack) when i changed the pickups... You wont fit a FF into a guitar without routing thats why im getting an oscillator custom made by a guy in england... It will be really small... And I have a fuzz factory on my board so im fine... search the muse forums for info on FF installation... but dont start a new thread you'll get slated! every second matt wannabe there has a FF installed into their guitar!

jimi_t

Well, didn't find too much but this looks promising on the wiring front. I wonder would the "quieting the beast" mod make any noticeable difference though... First thing I'll do when I get back to Dublin irregardless though.
Also, slightly O/T, but has anyone ever made their own pedals?

disgruntled

Yeah I'd do that "quieting the beast" mod first, its very straightforward basically just shielding and star grounding. I did something similar to my bass recently and it didn’t take long to do. That guitarnuts site is great and should give you loads of other ideas for other mods. As for pedals, its something I've been thinking of trying for a while but as stomp boxes not on board effects. I might give it a go in the summer when I get my finals out of the way. There are loads and loads of sites with pedal schematics on the aul interweb. I like these ones because they have sound samples but there are hunderds more
moosapotamus.com
diyguitarist.com
runoffgroove.com
I'm planning to start with something very simple like a loop selector or something like that first and see where I go from there.

Karl Hungus

Recently put in some new pickups on my main guitar, but nothing like installing built-in effects or the like. I simply don't use any effects at all, I like a simple Guitar--->amp setup with nothing in between.

feylya

jimi_t wrote:

Well, didn't find too much but this looks promising on the wiring front. I wonder would the "quieting the beast" mod make any noticeable difference though... First thing I'll do when I get back to Dublin irregardless though.
Also, slightly O/T, but has anyone ever made their own pedals?

If it's a double fat strat then you won't (shouldn't) have a lot of hum. That article will give you a few ideas though.

I've made a couple of pedals and modded a couple of others in my time.

disgruntled

feylya wrote:

I've made a couple of pedals and modded a couple of others in my time.

What pedals did you build and how did they turn out?

feylya

Big Muff Pi and a DOD Overdrive 250+. The Big Muff wasn't too bad until I decided to rewire it at 4 am... Was a bit noisy but very cool sounding. The DOD was good while it worked. They were just the loose strip board without a box (good boxes are expensive)

curtains

A local musician in my area took a really crappy squier and turned into some kind of monster. He didn't mod it up as such, but new pickups, frets and and an amazing action make a hell of a lot fo difference.

-=al=-

theres my bad boy, i made the scratch place, cut out a hole to fit a humbucker put ny name and symbol on the headstock scalloped the neck ( after this pic was taken) n jus fixed it up!! rocking geetar

+ this was a "tansen" guitar i tihnk its worse than squire, it was a present to me