Replacing Volume or Tone Pots

Replacing volume or tone pots is a guitar modification you can do to make a big difference in your guitar's sound. Volume and tone pots are the electrical side of the volume and tone knobs on your guitar. They are what actually effects the sound when you move the volume and tone knobs. Modifying the volume and tone pots will change your guitar's output and control.

This type of guitar modification requires working with the electronics of your guitar and soldering wires. If you do not feel comfortable with that, take it to a guitar repair technician and they can do it for you, it shouldn't cost that much either. Theres nothing wrong with letting professionals handling your guitar modifications and customizations.

The two basic types of volume and tone pots that you will encounter are 250k pots, and 500k pots. There are also 1meg ohm pots but these are less common. In general, the higher the value of the volume and tone pots, the brighter the sound. So if you are modifying your guitar and you want a brighter sound you can replace it to a higher pot, and if you want a more mellow sound you replace it with a lower pot. Volume and tone pot modifications will also change the way your knobs effect the sound. For some they might make your tone and volume controls more rapid and less precise.

Replacing volume and tone pots can be a good guitar modification that effects the sound and control of you guitar. Just make sure you know what you are doing if you try this yourself, and take it to a professional guitar customizer if you don't.

Guitar Customization Projects

To see what kind of customizations other people have done, I am now accepting pictures and descriptions of your guitar customization projects. If you send some pictures of any guitar you have customized along with a short description of all the modifications you have made to it I will publish it all in an article here.

This should be a good way to build up some examples of what you can do with different types of guitar customizations. I am in the middle of upgrading and modifying my main guitar so it will be nice to see what some other people are doing.

So if you want to, send in some pictures of your guitar customizations. My email is at the bottom of this blog. Make sure to give me your first name or whatever you want me to publish your stuff under.

< How to Replace Guitar Pickups

How to Replace Guitar Pickups

In the last post about replacing guitar pickups I talked about how they can improve your guitar's sound by getting new pickups. It can be an effective customization if you are not happy with the tone of your electric guitar.

Because it requires soldering and generally more work than some other guitar customizations, some people may just want to have a guitar technician do this upgrade for them. But for anyone who wants to do this modification theirselves, I found a pretty good guide for how to replace guitar pickups, here.

With that guide you should be able to replace your guitar pickups without any problems. You also might learn something about how guitars are made and how their electronics work. Doing guitar customizations like replacing guitar pickups yourself can be beneficial to your guitar and help you with future modifications.

< Types of Wood for Guitar Parts

Types of Wood for Guitar Parts

If you are looking for wooden guitar parts to customize your guitar with, you should know how different types of wood will effect the sound and look of your guitar. Here are some types of wood for guitar parts and what you can expect from them.

Alder: light weight, tan color, good clean tone, light wood grain.

Maple: bright tone, medium weight, good sustain, visible wood grain.

Mahogany: mellow, warm tone, medium weight, great sustain.

Rosewood: heavy, warm tone, less high end.

Walnut: generally warm tone, good sustain, nice looking finish.

Ebony: bright tone, good sustain, durable, black finish.

These types of woods can compliment certain guitars better than others. The color of them will obviously be important when considering what guitar to put them on, but the sound they produce should also be considered in relation to what your guitar already does. Wooden guitar parts can really improve a guitar and with all of these types of wood to chose from, you can find the perfect wooden guitar part to customize your instrument.

Removable Guitar Customizations

There are a few mostly cosmetic guitar customizations you can make that are removable and require no outside help, unlike replacing guitar pickups. Most of these are perfect for using wooden guitar parts. The benefit of removable customizations is that you can take them off and reinstall the original parts if you need to sell the guitar. This also means that these removable customizations are mostly for the look of the guitar, but can have a noticeable improvement on the sound in some situations.

The first of these are the tone and volume knobs. They can be taken off by hand in most cases, and then the replacement parts can just be pushed on in their place. Many guitar makers use cheap plastic tone and volume knobs so this can be a great simple guitar modification.

Another easy removable guitar customization is getting new pickup rings. Only slgihtly more complicated than the tone and volume knobs, you have to unscrew these which will change your pickup height. Then just screw on your new ones in the same place.

One more removable guitar customization is replacing the truss rod cover. These are just a matter of unscrewing a few screws and taking the old one off, then screwing the new one on.

The same applies to the backplate cover of the guitar. As long as you find one that fits your guitar you can remove the old one with a screwdriver and install the new one yourself.

All of these guitar customizations are removable and easy to do yourself. So if you have a guitar that you do not want to improve but not permanently change, these are perfect guitar modifications to consider.

Replacing Guitar Pickups

Replacing the pickups of your electric guitar is one of the biggest changes you can make to the sound your guitar produces. It is also a guitar customization that can greatly improve a lower quality guitar and make it compete with high priced instruments. The only downside to replacing the pickups of your guitar is that you will most likely need to get a guitar technician to do it for you, and this will add to the cost.

Replacing guitar pickups will require sodering wires, and this is why you may need some help. But if you know how to soder you can do it yourself, just find a guide on exactly what to do.

To find a good pair of replacement pickups for your guitar, you can look online or in just about any guitar shop. There are models available for any type of guitar and usually a few different options to chose from. The pickups are the most important part of an electric guitar in regards to sound, and replacing them can make a huge difference. You should know what type of sound you are looking for and read some reviews of replacement pickups before making any modifications to your guitar.

Replacing the pickups of your guitar can do more than change the sound though. You can get different colors and styles to better match the rest of your guitar. Or if you have customized your guitar with new pickup rings, you can get some pickups that match those better.

Replacing electric guitar pickups is a powerful customization you can make to any guitar. Some people even buy cheap guitars with the intention of replacing the pickups and modifying them in other ways. This can end up saving you money and still getting you a high quality customized guitar.

Wooden Guitar Parts

Wooden guitar parts are the best things to customize your electric guitar with. Whether you need new pickup rings, tone and volume knobs, or a truss rod cover, wooden replacement parts will improve your guitar the most. This is not just because of how they make your guitar look better, they also improve the sound of your guitar. Wooden parts can help turn an ordinary guitar into a custom high quality instrument.

Guitars are made mostly of wood, even electric guitars. The wood they are made out of greatly influences the sound they produce. Adding wooden guitar parts to a guitar just adds more wood to color the tone. Plastic and metal pieces do not favorably enhance the tone. Plastic is probably the worst thing you can have on a guitar, so you want to replace anything that is plastic with new wooden guitar parts. Having more wood attached to the electronics of the guitar will let the sound vibrate through more favorable materials, and this can help your overall sound, sometimes just a little bit, but sometimes a lot.

Wood also just looks nice. It is detailed where plastic and metal is plain. It feels more organic to the touch. Having wooden guitar knobs will make adjusting your volume feel so much better. You will enjoy looking at the grain of the wood while playing if your guitar has wooden parts.

The best part about wooden guitar parts is the variety you can get them in. If you want black tone knobs get some ebony knobs. They will look like plain black from far away but up close you will see the nice grain of the wood. If you want reddish brown get rosewood. There are also tan and whitish woods and some that are multicolored. Whatever part or color you need, you should be able to find a wooden guitar customization that works. Instruments should be made out of wood, thats how its always been and for good reason.

Replacing Pickup Rings

Replacing the pickup rings of your electric guitar is a great guitar customization that improves the appearance of your guitar and the sound. Most guitars, even high end ones, come with plastic pickup rings that might look fine from a distance but up close they look cheap and plain. This can be fixed with a simple guitar modification.

New pickup rings are available on many online sites, you can get them in various types of wood or metal. If you are planning on replacing the pickups of your guitar, make sure you know what color and style the new pickups will be so your pickup rings will match.

As with other guitar customizations, I tend to view wooden parts to be the best replacements. They have a high quality detailed look to them, and the closer you are to them the better they look. They make the guitar feel much more high quality. In general, it is nice to have a guitar that is made out of wood, so replacing the pickup rings for new wooden ones is a great modification.

To remove your old pickup rings you will usually just have to unscrew all the screw that are in it. This will disconnect the pickup rings from the guitar and the pickups, allowing you to take them off and screw in the news ones. Take note of your pickup height before you do this so you can reset the pickups to how they were. This is another guitar customization that you can easily do yourself.

The Joy of Having a Unique Guitar

Customizing or modifying an electric guitar is all about making your guitar unique. There is nothing wrong with a mass produced guitar for a beginner but eventually you need an instrument that you can call your own. I hated it when I would see someone who had the exact same model of guitar as me, and I know most guitar players probably feel the same. Having a guitar that is a different color is not enough, I have to have different parts and everything. Thats why I started making simple modifications and customizations to my electric guitars, its makes them feel so much more personal.

Its not only that the guitars look different when you customize them, you also gain a connection to them through putting them together and changing out parts. The fact that you have worked on modifying your guitar makes it feel like more of your own. This can be important as it can have a positive effect on your playing.

When you have a self customized electric guitar you are more inspired to play it and practice, much in the same way that you are when you get a nice new instrument. Modifying a guitar makes it new in a way and that makes you more exited to play it. Having an ongoing guitar customization project can keep you interested in your guitar and always exited to play it. This is why guitar modification is such a great hobby.

Current Electric Guitar Customization Project

Im currently customizing my main guitar with some upgraded parts. So far I have the tone and volume knobs switched out for some nice rosewood dome knobs. The ones that came with the guitar were see-through cheap plastic that didn't really match the color of the body. Now they are red tinted rosewood, which perfectly matches the quilted wine red color of my guitar. Rosewood is also the type of wood on my fretboard so that will go nicely.

Its amazing how much better my guitar looks with this simple modification. The colors match better and the wood makes it seem more classy and high end. I may just be imagining it but I think the wooden knobs have improved the sound. That could make sense becuase they are attached to some of the main electronics of the guitar.

There are a few more things I need to modify for this guitar to be complete. I am going to get rosewood pickup rings to match everything else. This should definitely improve the sound as the pickups are directly screwed into the rings and having them vibrate through wood will be a lot better than the plastic ones that are on there now. I can wait to see how much better my guitar will look with custom rosewood rings instead of cheap plastic ones.

Once my guitar has been completely customized I will post some pictures of it

Customizing a Guitar with a New Truss Rod Cover

Customizing your electric guitar with a new truss rod is a small modification you can easily make yourself. It can be a good finishing touch to a guitar that you have been upgrading. For those who don't know, the truss rod cover is the small plastic (most of the time) panel that is right above the nut of the guitar. It covers the hole in the headstock that makes the truss rod reachable for adjustments.

Guitar makers usually put some cheap cover on this spot that will often have the model name of the guitar. Most of them do not look good, so getting a nice custom truss rod cover can be a pleasing guitar modification. As with other methods of customizing your guitar, you need to make sure that the new parts you buy will fit your instrument. This isn't as big of a deal with truss rod covers as they will fit most guitars pretty well.

New truss rod covers come in many varieties and can be purchased on the internet or in some guitar shops. To get a nice wooden one you may be better off looking online but any guitar store should have plastic covers that come on most guitars. Wooden ones can be found in lots of different types of wood and shapes for different guitar models. Whatever type of guitar you have, you should be able to modify it with a nice wooden truss rod cover.

To put on your new truss rod cover is really easy. You unscrew the old one, some may have only one screw some may have three or so, and then you screw on the new one. Thats all there is to it. For one last guitar customization, upgrading to a new truss rod cover is a simple way to modify the look of your guitar.

Modifying the Pickup Height on an Electric Guitar

Changing the pickup height, a modification similar to lowering the action, is a customization that can make a big difference in your sound. By moving the pickups closer or farther from the strings, you can make the sound they register more or less focused. This means that it will be louder and sometimes clearer if the pickups are closer and you can get a softer airy sound with them farther away.

To make this simple modification on your guitar, look at your pickups and try to see how they are connected to the pickup rings and the body of the instrument. Many guitars will have different set ups but for most humbuckers with pickup rings you will have a screw in each corner and two in the middle. These are the screws that control the pickup height.

Now that you know how to raise or lower the pickups, start moving them around and test out the sound they produce. Note that you can raise one side higher than the other to have certain strings closer to the pickups than others. Make sure if you have pickup rings that you do not break through the rings by going too far with the screws.

Modifications such as this wont change the look or feel of your guitar but they can do a lot to the sound. It is an easy and free way to customize the sonics of your guitar so you might as well play around with it to get your sound as good as possible. After modifying your pickup height you may be surprised at how good your guitar is sounding.

Lowering the action of your guitar

The action of your guitar refers to the height of the strings off of the fretboard. If you have never had your guitar set up professionally this is an easy modification that you can do yourself to improve the playability of your guitar. The method that will be discussed here is for guitars with tune-o-matic style bridges.

There will be a large screw on each end of your bridge, to lower the action of your guitar, simply tighten the screws. Thats it. Some people say you should loosen the strings before doing this but if you are lowering the action it doesn't matter. To lower the action evenly on both sides you should use quarter turns of the screws, but you can also make one side slightly lower to the fretboard if that helps even out the thinner strings with the heavy ones.

Lowering the action of your guitar can have many benefits. It makes notes easier to fret and easier to play, which will increase how fast you can play and increase the ease at which you play. This is obviously a good thing, your guitar should work with you, not against you. Another benefit of modifying for lower action is that it makes the strings closer to the pickups, which makes your guitar louder and helps the pickups get a more accurate signal from the strings.

There is only one potential downside of lowering your guitar's action. If you lower it too much, some notes may produce buzzing from the strings being too close to the frets. If your guitar's neck wasn't made very well or has become warped slightly this will happen at a higher action than on well made instruments. If this happens your action is too low and you should raise it back up until every note is clear again. Lowering the action of a guitar is an easy modification that can improve your playing considerably.

Customizing An Electric Guitar With A Replacement Bridge

Another easy way of customizing a guitar is to get a replacement bridge. As with other customizations discussed here, they can be found in a variety of styles and colors including gold, chrome, and black. You just have to be sure to get the right kind of bridge for your guitar. Many use tune-o-matic bridges with tailpieces, and some, like Fenders, have model specific bridge designs.

The removal of these guitar bridges is usually simple enough to do yourself and provided that you purchased the right kind of replacement, it should be easy to put in your customized replacement. Obviously a change of strings will be required. In some cases customizing your guitar with a higher quality bridge that fits will improve guitar intonation and tuning problems. Many bridges also enable easier action adjustments.

Customizing the bridge of your guitar can have a big effect on the overall look. Sometimes changing out the stock chrome bridge for a nice gold one will make a huge difference in the visual appeal, as many higher priced guitars tend to use gold hardware. If you are looking for a guitar customization that will make a difference and cost around or less than $50 consider buying a new bridge.

Why customize your electric guitar?

Customizing your electric guitar is a beneficial and worthy activity for many reasons. The most obvious is that you are either improving your guitar's sound or appearance, many times both at the same time. It is always good to have an instrument that feels nicer and sounds better, and guitar customization will accomplish that.

Beyond the fact that you are improving your guitar with customizations, you are also helping your development on the instrument. Having a guitar that you really like and that you have made sound good and play well will inspire you to practice more and become more musical. You react to the sound you are producing when you practice or perform and if the sound is really good you will play better with it. Also just seeing your guitar looking better becuase of customizations will make you want to play it more.

Customizing your electric guitar is also a fun and relatively inexpensive hobby. You can make a long term project out of your guitar. This will make an instrument that may not have been anything special feel like a one of a kind item that you are investing effort and time into. It is very rewarding to see your guitar slowly turn into a higher quality device than what you could have imagined. Electric guitar customization is a great hobby for any player.

Customizing Your Guitar With New Tuning Pegs

Customizing your guitar by replacing the tuning pegs is a little more involved than other customization techniques we have looked at but it is still pretty easy to do. Not only can you improve the appearance of your guitar but you can greatly improve how it stays in tune and how accurately you can tune it. This customization can cost about $50 or more and you might have to get a guitar technician to help you do it.

Tuning pegs can come in silver, gold, black, or even wooden styles, so it should be easy to fine a set that works well with your guitar's appearance. However not all set will fit all guitars so you need to be sure that the ones you get can be placed in your instrument. If not, you may still be able to get them in but this will require more work and time, and you may damage your guitar.

If your current tuning pegs don't work very well some high ratio pegs or even locking tuning pegs will really be a big improvement on your guitar. Most music or guitar stores will sell various brands of these replacements and online stores or ebay will have anything you are looking for. Replacing your tuning pegs is a customization that will make a big difference in your guitar without a huge cost or effort.

Customizing Your Guitar With Tone And Volume Knobs

One easy way to improve your guitar's appearance and maybe even the sound is to put on some new volume and tone knobs. This is one of the most simple customizations you can do becuase control knobs are widely available in many different styles and materials. I personally like switching out the stock knobs for some wooden ones. They create a classy and high end look and also may improve the sound since it will be vibrating through wood instead of plastic or metal.

Along with just about any kind of wood, you can get them in silver or gold painted metal or various plastic forms. They can come in many different shapes and sizes so there should be a perfect match for whatever type of guitar you have. The wooden volume and tone knobs generally cost more but its worth it.

The best part about customizing your guitar's control knobs is that most of the time you will be able to pull the stock ones off yourself. Just pull straight up on them and they should slide off but if it seems like they are not going anywhere you may have to take them to a guitar repair person to get them removed. Sometimes they are just stuck on there really tight and you dont want to damage your electronics by ripping one off. Volume and Tone know customization is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to significantly improve your electric guitar.

When To Not Customize Your Electric Guitar

Guitar customization can be a great thing but there are certain situations when you do not want to start changing parts or reconstructing your guitar. Many vintage guitars will lose value if you replace the original parts or do any sort of altering. You probably know if you have one of these valuable guitars but even more recently made instruments can lose value if they are reconstructed. Expensive popular name brand guitars like Fenders and Gibsons should probably not be altered unless you can restore them to their original form.

Most of the customizations that will be looked at on this site are things that can be restored to original form without any damage to the guitar, and to make sure that this is the case you should keep all of the original parts that you take off. Making sure that you don't damage or devalue your guitar while customizing it is important if you are working with your main instrument, but if you are upgrading a cheap guitar feel free to get really creative with your alterations.

Welcome To The Electric Guitar Customization Blog

I am a guitar player and teacher and something I have always been wanting is a custom one of a kind guitar. Unfortunately, those can cost thousands of dollars, so I decided to look for ways to make the guitars I had more unique and customized. It turns out that there are many cheap and relatively easy to set up changes you can make to your guitar to heighten its appeal, and I have made this blog to look at some of those upgrades.

You would be surprised how a small customized part on your guitar can raise its appearance and sound. More importantly, it can inspire you to practice more and make better music and can become a really fun long term project or hobby. So I hope you can get some helpful tips from this site and start customizing your electric guitar.