From: deadhead@cco.caltech.edu (stephen thompson)
Newsgroups: alt.guitar
Subject: Guitar Modifications SUCCESS!!!
Date: 5 Oct 1992 00:37:51 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
NNTP-Posting-Host: sandman.caltech.edu




Hey, all.

I figured I'd tell the story of my recent guitar project, in hopes of
inspiring others to improve their guitars or simply give someone their
do-it-yourself fix for the day.

I started off with a Squire Strat II w/ black body, white pickguard,
maple neck, rosewood fretboard, single coils in neck and middle, and
a humbucker in the bridge position.  I bought the guitar a year ago for
somewhere around $250, though I'm sure my improvements have greatly
decreased the value.

I first sanded off that thick black lacquer, which took days.  To my
surprise, though probably not to yours, I discovered that my guitar was
plywood...but this ended up being a good thing.  The body was basically
4 pieces of wood stuck together and then stained on both sides, so that
places where the body was cut away or routed or whatever were not stained.
This gave the guitar a bizarre (unique) look.  I then stained the entire
body with an American Walnut stain, which simply darkened it a bit.  I
then finished it off with a few coats of a satin polyurethane...which I
had doubts about, but it seems to have worked.  The guitar looks great.

Then I moved on to the guitar's innards.  I replaced the 5-position strat
switch with 2 on/on toggle switches and 1 on/on/on toggle switch, which all
fit nicely into the slot where the 5-position switch was taken out.  These
toggle switches gave me the following 12 selections...bridge alone, middle
alone, neck alone, bridge&middle in series, middle&neck in series, bridge&neck
in series, bridge&middle&neck in series, bridge&middle in parallel, middle&
neck in parallel, bridge&neck in parallel, bridge&middle&neck in parallel,
and bridge&neck in series with bridge in parallel.  Next, I replaced my two
tone pots with push/pull pots, which allows me to put the neck and middle
pickups out of phase, which, in effect, allows me to throw any pickups or
combination of pickups out of phase whenever more than one pickup is selected.

I also shielded the body cavity and pickguard with a conductive paint while
I was at it.  The sound of my guitar is at least an order of magnitude better
with this shielding.  I'm all for feedback and distortion when you want it,
but not when you don't.  I can now turn up my guitar all the way up and my
practice amp all the way up and I hear nothing until I grab hold of those
strings and rip away.

My plans for the future involve the construction of a metal pickguard to
give my guitar a wood & shiny metal look.  I also may add a switch to my
humbucker to choose single/double parallel/double series(humbucker) if
someone can convince me that it's worth the effort and cost of the switch.
Anyone willing to try?

I have a few warnings to those who plan to do any messing around with their
guitars.  First, the lacquer on most guitars is rather thick.  When I remounted
my bridge and neck I discovered that my strings clung to both the neck and
to the pickups because the strings had been lowered by the thickness of the
lacquer that I had removed.  (I'm still trying to get the alignment better.)
When soldering, do not solder over things such as bare feet.  If you're going
to be sanding, you may want to find a power sander.  (My hands had many
blisters when I was done.)  Be sure you have the right parts before you start.
Oh, the severest warning is to not take apart your guitar until you have
everything ready to go, otherwise you're increasing the amount of time that
you will not be able to play your guitar.

Take care of yourself and your guitar...

Steve




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