• From: massachusetts
  • Registered: 2010-10-18
  • Posts: 1,674

Topic: Hot Rodded Guitars

Russells NGD post brought this to mind. How many of us have "Hot Rodded" an electric guitar? Maybe to make it sound or play better, or simply because  certain parts weren`t that great from the start. If so What Brand?  Why?? And how did it turn out?? Do you still have it??? Mine was back in 1984. I had a single pickup gold metalflake Tele Star. It had a great action, looked cool and sounded awful. The pickup was basically a microphone. If you talked into it, you would hear your voice. I had the pickup replaced with a Lawrence Dual Pickup. At the flip of a mini toggle switch it could go from humbucker to single coil. To fit the toggle switch I had the tone control removed completely. It had the pickup, toggle switch and volume control when it was done. It sounded great when it was done. I ended up giving it to a friends son that was starting to take lessons. That was the last I saw of it. The guitar cost me 60.00 and 80.00 for the work. I got out cheap and had a one of a kind guitar when it was done.

Enjoy Every Sandwich
Nothing In Moderation  -- Live Fast. Love Hard. Die Young And Leave A Beautiful Corpse. -- Buy It Today. Cry About It Tomorrow.
  • From: Probably Somewhere
  • Registered: 2010-12-09
  • Posts: 2,446

Re: Hot Rodded Guitars

You count new pickups and stuff like that?

3 Reply by joeyjoeyjoey (edited by joeyjoeyjoey 2014-01-20 16:43:02)

  • From: massachusetts
  • Registered: 2010-10-18
  • Posts: 1,674

Re: Hot Rodded Guitars

Baldguitardude wrote:

You count new pickups and stuff like that?

Yes anything like that. If you replaced a bad part with a better one. A part it originally came with but was replaced. Even paint. If it makes it a one of a kind.

Enjoy Every Sandwich
Nothing In Moderation  -- Live Fast. Love Hard. Die Young And Leave A Beautiful Corpse. -- Buy It Today. Cry About It Tomorrow.
  • From: Probably Somewhere
  • Registered: 2010-12-09
  • Posts: 2,446

Re: Hot Rodded Guitars

I've modded all my guitars then. New nuts, new pots, new capacitors for treble bleed, and new pickups in all but the 335.

  • Zurf
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Re: Hot Rodded Guitars

I tried to restore a bass that someone had tried to hot rod, but failed miserably at.  I got it back to original for all but the neck pickup.  For that I put in a MusicMan style pickup from Bartolini.

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  • From: massachusetts
  • Registered: 2010-10-18
  • Posts: 1,674

Re: Hot Rodded Guitars

Oh, by the way. That Duo- Sonic I fixed up now belongs to my daughter. The short scale neck is too small for my fat little fingers to fret. The frets are also smaller.

Enjoy Every Sandwich
Nothing In Moderation  -- Live Fast. Love Hard. Die Young And Leave A Beautiful Corpse. -- Buy It Today. Cry About It Tomorrow.
  • From: Nova Scotia, Canada
  • Registered: 2013-01-20
  • Posts: 4,083

Re: Hot Rodded Guitars

JJJ, that's a cool thing you did to the ol' beast. Some of those early-era budget-priced pickups were pretty sad, eh?

I added a Stetsbar Pro II tremolo to my Les Paul last Fall ... love it.

When I was in my early20's, I had a 1971 Ibanez Telecaster copy with a couple of single-coil pickups in it. They were fairly low output, so i took the caps off, peeled out the old wire, and re-wound them with a much thinner wire, just as full as I could get them. It helped make them a bit hotter, but certainly wasn't the Brian May sound I was hoping for.

My favorite "hot rod" was something I did in High School wood shop. I took a cheap electric bass and a cheap electric guitar (a Squier 6-string and a Tempo bass) sawed a flat side on each of them, and then glued / doweled them together to make a double-necked rig. I'll bet that monstrosity weighed 75 lbs, but at the time I thought it was very cool, and so did my goofy friends.

Good thread topic, JJJ !

  • beamer
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  • From: WASHINGTON ST
  • Registered: 2006-07-29
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Re: Hot Rodded Guitars

Every so often I have a guitar I need to change tuners on, an My SG has the custom Duncan Lynch pick up in the bridge. other than that im stock.

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– George Lynch 2013 (Dokken, Lynchmob, KXM, Tooth & Nail etc....)
  • reeta
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Re: Hot Rodded Guitars

Thanks, beamer...

I can play quite a lot of Led Zeppelin, but this crazy little picking pattern is a strange one. I can do it, but keeping it up for an extended period is like a tongue twister.

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  • From: Nova Scotia, Canada
  • Registered: 2013-01-20
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Re: Hot Rodded Guitars

Reeta ... you must be talking about "Immigrant Song". Tongue twister is a good description.