Component Improvements

[just strum]

What is one of the improvements to the guitar do you most enjoy?

One of the things that I find that I like is the locking tuners on my Strat. It's a simple thing, but being one that hates changing strings, they take a lot of the hassle out of the task.

[thearabianmage]

Dude, anything electrical. Changing pickups, capacitors, and right now the mission for trying to figure out how to wire a killswitch into my guitar is proving somewhat fun. It'll be better when it's there. It all has to do with the satisfaction of having taken something everyone has - or has the potential to buy - and making something that only you have (unless they, too, take time and money out of themselves to make the same changes)

The more changes you make to your guitar, the more unique it is. That's appealing to me, personally. Which is why making electrical changes gives me the most satisfaction when it comes to modding a guitar.

[marnold]

New pickups. The Area 61s in my Floyd made a world of difference, as did adding my Model 7's neck pickup to my Squier '51.

WRT locking tuners, my Floyd Speedloader is like a Christmas miracle. Changing strings on any guitar to say nothing of a Floyd in a minute or two is downright amazing.

[Plank_Spanker]

What is one of the improvements to the guitar do you most enjoy?

One of the things that I find that I like is the locking tuners on my Strat. It's a simple thing, but being one that hates changing strings, they take a lot of the hassle out of the task.

They are nice, aren't they? :D

They make changing strings a snap.

[thearabianmage]

Locking tuners are used to help change strings? I thought it was tuning stability so that guitars without locking nuts can use the whammy and not throw their giddy out of tune. . .

[just strum]

It could help that too, but you run the string through the hole, lock it in, and turn. As simple as that. No winding the string around and over and overlap while tightening.

Hopefully you weren't pulling my leg and had me explain for nothing.

[street music]

Just Strum, thanks for that note, I don't have locking tuners on anything that I own . I like the changing pickups and want to get more into the wiring of the switches for different setups and maybe a push-pull pot.

[just strum]

Just Strum, thanks for that note, I don't have locking tuners on anything that I own . I like the changing pickups and want to get more into the wiring of the switches for different setups and maybe a push-pull pot.

I've kicked around the idea of a push-pull, so I can switch the Strat HSS to triple singles when I want, but not sure I want to mess with my baby.

[Bloozcat]

Re-wiring with new pots, switch, jack, and caps. It's sort of like a tune-up is to a car. Even without necessarily changing the pickups, re-wiring can make a tremendous difference in tone.

[wingsdad]

Since I 'work' the pots on an electric, if they don't seem to react well, I go to DiMarzio 'Custom (audio) Tapers'. I put those (500K) in the Ibanez ARC300 I had, Strum, and they made a BIG difference.

Toggle switches. Switchcraft or they're trash.

Shielding the body cavity on a Strat.

That's about it.

IMHO, replacing the nut on an acoustic or non-trem electric, unless the slots are worn out, is overrated and overdone.

And of course, your favorite topic, Strum: Strings can have a more dramatic effect on tone & sustain. From varying gauges to type and material of winding. Without changing a single component on any guitar, just trying a different type and/or gauge of string can produce a totally different sounding guitar. Go from 9's to 10's, or round wound to flats or nickel to chrome on an electric, or 10's to 12's or bronze 80/20 to 90/10 or to Silk n' Steel on an acoustic. Oh...and never a condom-coated string like Elixir.

[mrmudcat]

I have to choose?? I like modding in general,although electronics is my comfort zone:beer:

I love different old school caps and believe strongly in tonal variations they have on/in the circuit:whatever:

[just strum]

Since I 'work' the pots on an electric, if they don't seem to react well, I go to DiMarzio 'Custom (audio) Tapers'. I put those (500K) in the Ibanez ARC300 I had, Strum, and they made a BIG difference.

.

I don't understand how pots make a difference pertaining to tone. It's for lack of knowledge, not difference of thinking that provides that lack of understanding.

[marnold]

I don't understand how pots make a difference pertaining to tone. It's for lack of knowledge, not difference of thinking that provides that lack of understanding.
One of the big ways is that a pot's value can often vary dramatically from what it's marked at. I've heard of people measuring a 500K pot at 350K. That's going to have a significant impact.

[wingsdad]

I don't understand how pots make a difference pertaining to tone. It's for lack of knowledge, not difference of thinking that provides that lack of understanding.
All I know is the tech at my local GAS Station does this surgical transplant procedure a lot. And the other players/customers who hang there swear by it.

Not a difference in tone, per se, Strum. At least not to my limited understanding. I'm not that technical, nor do I care to be. To me, it's about an improvement in the precision of dialing. That's what I meant by 'reacting'. Moving the vol or tone pot 'one notch' actually makes a difference with 'better' pots, vs. spinning the thing and getting little or no change between '10' to 'zero'.

Technically? The best I can offer there is that the more precise you can be in controlling variable signal output level, it makes a difference on what reaches the preamp circuit of the amp.

[luvmyshiner]

While I won't pretend to understand the why's and how's of it, I do know that when I changed out the pots on my D'Aquisto, and changed the wiring on the tone pot, it made a tremendous amount of difference in the sound and in the control. It's like the difference between night and day.

[Bloozcat]

Just a simple explanation...

A pot is just a variable resistor. It regulates how much signal is bled off to ground. High frequencies are bled to ground faster than lows.

By changing under spec pots, to pots that are on, or above spec, the tone will brighten. This is a good thing if the tone is muddy sounding, but not if it's bright already. The higher the k-ohm value, the brighter the tone.

The rule of thumb is that single coils use 250k-ohm pots, and humbuckers use 500k-ohm pots. In either case, if the pots actually read well below the rated k-ohm rating, the tone can sound dull, or muted. With so many pickups out there that are all over the board on resistance values, tailoring your pots to your pickups is important.

A couple cases in point: I have a set of Rio Grande Genuine Texas/Texas BBQ humbuckers in one of my guitars. I know from experience (and the experiences of others), that these pickups need pots that read at least 500k-ohm or they will sound dark, dull, and muted. In a particularly dark sounding guitar, some have even gone to 1-meg pots to compensate for this.

Another example is with overwound single coils. Many of these pickups are wound well above the normal k-ohm range of std., or vintage single coils. I have some that read in the 7k-ohm to 8k-ohm range, which is in PAF humbucker range resistance wise. And there are some out there even higher. These pickups don't sound good unless the pots are in the 275k-ohm to 300k-ohm range. Ever heard someone say that they don't like Fender Texas Special single coil pickups because they're too dark or muddy sounding? I'll bet they never actually checked the resistance on their pots, nor replaced them with some of suitable resistance.

Part of the fun of re-wiring a guitar is in figuring out what you've got, and how to go about changing it to get the tone you're looking for.

Here's a great tutorial on guitar wiring from Stew-Mac that explains (among other things) how pots work in a guitar circuit:
http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/i-4000/

[just strum]

Thanks Blooz. I don't understand all the electrical talk, but you explained so I at least have an understanding of the results.:AOK: