Customize Your Electric Guitar
A mass produced electric guitar is meant to satisfy the demands of the general public, and it work fine as it is, until you get the itch to customize or improve it. The good news is that there are now so many options available. If the same old look bores you, you can put on a sticker, or go all out with a full body relic and re-paint. If sustain and playability seems to be lacking, you can replace some of its parts. If your fickle ears want some new sounds, you can make small adjustments or replace the pickups and electronics all together. A customized electric guitar can be the breath of fresh air that you are looking for, to inspiring you to make good music. Below are some customization tips that to help you get started.
Personalize the Finish
Changing the finish of your guitar maybe considered superficial but it provides an undeniable aesthetic impact and more importantly artistic mojo. For starters, a well placed sticker can add the right amount of attitude to your electric guitar just like skin tattoos do – think SRV. Changing the color and finish of your guitar can also do wonders, especially if you change the finish into something that inspires you. Just bring it to someone who can paint guitars or do it yourself. You can go beyond plain colors and use the body of your electric guitar as a wooden canvass that reflects your personal style, just like Buddy Guy’s polka dot Strat, or Zakk Wylde’s Vertigo LP.
Ironically, dents and scratches on a guitar are now considered stylish so don’t be sad when you see scratches or when paint wear off. Thanks to artists like Rory Gallagher, SRV and John Mayer to name a few, artificially induced “beat-up” or “aged” guitars are now something that you pay top dollars for. Now you can welcome wear and tear – specially those that are naturally induced by your playing. You can also cheat the aged look by “intentionally” scratching or wearing off the paint. You can also artificially age your hardware by doing various techniques, with some even dipping the plastic parts of their guitar in their favorite coffee. Finally if you have a Gibson Les Paul Goldtop, changing the finish or putting on an Apple sticker would be horrifying, but then again you can do anything you want with your instrument.
Improve Performance
There are plenty of upgrade options available to improve your electric guitar’s intonation, sustain and playability. Prior to considering any hardware changes, it is important that you’re guitar be properly set-up so you have a good basis on the things that you want to improve. The easiest upgrade is to change the guitar “nut”, many guitarists swear that changing this small detail enhanced the sustain and even the tone of their guitars. You can also change the bridge, or the saddles, by doing so, you will have improved your guitar’s string contact points.
Other things to look at are your tuners and your bridge. You can consider replacing your tuners, specially if you have an old guitar that easily goes out of tune. Adding a Floyd Rose locking tremolo, (or a Bigsby bridge for vintage fanatics) will add a whole new dimension to your stop tail piece guitar, and it also works the other way around for those that use tremolos – changing your guitar setup will provide you with the mojo to play outside of your comfort zone. Note that upgrading these parts will require professional installation. In summary, you can have all the shiny parts upgraded, and you can even replace the neck with a reverse headstock, as long as you are doing so to improve your overall playing experience.
Get the right Tone
Upgrading your pickups is the most common method used to improve or customize an electric guitar’s tone. It is relatively affordable compared to buying a more expensive guitar that sounds better. This method is also useful if the guitar that sounds bad happens to have sentimental value. Having said all that, we have to remember that a guitar pickup is just one facet of your tone, the resulting sound will also rely on your guitar, amp and effects.
There are various types of aftermarket pickups to choose from with each one have their own unique “voicing”. Because of this variation, plus taking into account your current rig, upgrading your pickups will have varied results. What worked for someone else will not necessarily work for you, it is best to do your homework before buying, you should read reviews and better yet listen to some demos.
To help you in picking the right pickup, you can check out the ones that artists use for the style of music that you play. Conventionally, you will want active EMG humbuckers on your guitar for metal and hard rock, while you can check out Seymour Duncan or DiMarzio pickups if you need traditional and versatile tones. If you’ve got the money to burn and you are craving for classic sounds, there are expensive handwound pickups that many professionals swear by, like the Jason Lollar made pickups. If you want to go beyond conventional guitar sounds, you should look into the Roland made MIDI pickups, giving you synth capabilities without having to do any modifications to your guitar body.
Note that when upgrading, it is easiest to stick with the same shape and type of pickup, because installing a different type of pickup may require permanent modifications on the guitar body. In summary, apply the same creativity that you put into your music into finding your pickups, and with patience, you might end up with the tone that you will love, well for at least for a few months, until the next vintage-correct pickup hits the stores.
Coolest customized guitar – the Frankentrat (replica)
It will entail a lot of research and imagination, and you will also have to do some work and spend some money, but it will be all worth it once you have your unique and personalized guitar ready for action. Even the excitement of picking the right parts and upgrades – is by itself, a great mojo inducing experience. So check your wallet, shake the dust off your electric guitar, and breathe new life into your instrument and your music.
