Personal favorite electric guitar mods?

[blue]

On the wiring side, the Cooked Wah mod on an esquire wired tele (subsitute a c for the second "o" when searching youtube). I find it makes an esquire a much more flexible guitar than a standard wired telecaster. The three-way switch gives you Bridge no tone/Bridge with tone/throaty, cooked wah . Tried in vain to nail Biily Gibbons, or knockoff tones like Money for Nothin'? This'll do it!

On the setup side dropping strat pups as low as possible. Not so you don't hit the middle pup with a pick, but for the tone. Crank that amp!

I have others, but I don't want to hog all the answers...

So how about you? Not just electrical either. Feel free to add setup tricks/mods

[Yamaha Man]

My favorite mod ?? Switch pickups on my Strat to Lace Sensor golds....

[muscmp]

mine was changing the standard pickups on a jazz bass to bartolini pickups. great sound and got rid of the buzzy originals.

blue, i think you mean a cocked wah, instead of a cooked one. unless you put it in the oven!!

play music!

[1neeto]

On the wiring side, must be the 'bucker mod on a SSS strat.

[51 Relic]

For me it's got to be the Jerry Donahue Tele wiring mod with the Strat pickup in the neck position

[blue]

Originally Posted by muscmp

mine was changing the standard pickups on a jazz bass to bartolini pickups. great sound and got rid of the buzzy originals.

blue, i think you mean a cocked wah, instead of a cooked one. unless you put it in the oven!!

play music!

I did mean what you wrote. After an experience very recently I didn't think I could sneak that word you typed past the auto-censor software. So I wrote cooked and said to substitute the second "o" for a "c" when searching on youtube. Software isn't exactly context sensitive

Notice I still won't type it? It's previously been called "roostered" with great success to get past censoring software too.

[blue]

Originally Posted by 51 Relic

For me it's got to be the Jerry Donahue Tele wiring mod with the Strat pickup in the neck position

That's why I started this thread. To learn new ideas. Yikes! That wiring may be just out of my league! But dang. That's a heck of a mod! Those Jerry D Fret Kings are pretty affordable. Just sayin'

[Steve DeRosa]

Strat::
The "Van Halen" mod: "unfloating" the tailpiece by tightening the trem-spring claw until the bridge lies flush on the top - only allows for down-bends (didn't hurt Eddie none) but increases tuning stability and sustain, especially if you add the two additional springs that Leo, in his wisdom, shipped them with in '54
"Key Club Acoustic": named for NYC's answer to Detroit's Funk Brothers and LA's Wrecking Crew, this studio players' trick consisted of dropping the middle pickup on a Strat flush with the pickguard while setting the neck/bridge pickups as high as possible, without causing string warble or tuning issues; along with the aforementioned EVH mod and a set of flatwound 12's, this would provide an on-demand quasi-acoustic tone (the neck/bridge pickups served full-on electric duty - remember that Strats were still equipped with 3-way switches) which, while not exactly high-fidelity, occupied the same sonic space in an early-60's Brill Building-style mix - listen to some of the Four Seasons' hits from the period ("Dawn", "Ronnie", "Save It For Me") to hear it used to best advantage

Tele:
"Wooden Ships": allows you to achieve Gretsch-type tones by wiring in a 5-way switch and some caps, as follows:

• Position #1 - neck PU/.1mfd cap (bypass tone control)
• Position #2 - neck PU/.047mfd cap (bypass tone control)
• Position #3 - neck PU through stock tone control with .022mfd cap
• Position #4 - both PU's in series/in phase
• Position #5 - bridge PU through stock tone control

Toggle between #1 (or #2 depending on amp) and #5 to duplicate Stephen Stills' "Ships" lead tones - IME far easier than flipping multiple switches on a Gretsch

Gibson Basses (post-1972 with 3-point bridge):
"Gasser": like those thundering 1200 HP/150+ MPH hot rods of the '60s, this consists of raising the front end of the bridge while simultaneously lowering the rear as close to the top as possible without actually touching; this creates additional string tension as well as increased downward pressure at the front of the bridge, which IME allows for lower action as well as increased string definition and attack - string one up as they did back in the day with a flatwound .050 or .055 set (LaBella still makes them BTW), and you'll put the lie to any talk of short-scale basses having "inferior" tone

All "classic" solidbody (Strat, Tele, LP, SG, Duo-Jet, etc.) and all hollow/semi-hollow instruments:
Vintage setup: 12's for the solids/12's or 13's for the semis and hollows (usually flatwounds) and lowest possible action; those '50s jazz and rockabilly cats knew a little something about playing guitar - most of us aren't bending up three or four steps anyway, the heavier strings allow for lower action (you don't need 9's or 10's to play 64th-note runs - listen to the post-war bop guys), the additional vibrating mass creates a stronger signal (you'll probably never need to swap pickups), and once you've experienced the sweet woody tones these guitars are capable of producing (think all Strats and Teles are edgy and steely-sounding - think again) you'll never want to go back,,,

[blue]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

"Key Club Acoustic": named for NYC's answer to Detroit's Funk Brothers and LA's Wrecking Crew, this studio players' trick consisted of dropping the middle pickup on a Strat flush with the pickguard while setting the neck/bridge pickups as high as possible, without causing string warble or tuning issues;

Lots of great info. Ritchie Blackmore did the same thing in th early days, later to include a dummy middle pickup for hum cancelling mounted flush to the guard. In fact his signature strat, Hecho en Mexico and quite affordable, has that same dummy middle pickup setup, and a three way switch. Pretty darn unique factory offering.

Thanks again for the info!

[Steel and wood]

After I put Fender Custom Shop pickups on Stratocaster I then put a Bigsby on my Telecaster.

If I had another Telecaster then on goes the Waylon Jennings leather cover and a hip shot B-Bender.

[Mr Fingers]

For me, it is always finding the "right" pot and cap values that yield the tones I want most from the pickups I'm using. I do tons of other stuff, but it always begins, for me, with liberating the sound by arriving at the best PU, pot, and cap combo.

[jaybones]

Free floating a vintage tremolo on a Stratocaster.

Installing a Tremsetter in each tremolo.

A Gilmour switch that turns on the neck pickup regardless of 5 way switch.

Lace Sensor hot gold (in one) and red (in another).

[blue]

Originally Posted by jaybones

A Gilmour switch that turns on the neck pickup regardless of 5 way switch.

Dick Dale has a similar switch that activates the neck and middle regardless of blade switch position. The weird thing is his custom shop strat uses a 3 position switch. So the only way to get his signature neck/middle sound is that toggle switch! Well, unless you can pull of that in-between-er position on the fly.

[rmp]

I tend to not mod much..

Will do pickup changes as needed,, I swapped out a set of Gold Lace Sensors for Texas Specials in a strat, just didn't get on the the lace sensors.

Swapped out some burst-bukers in a les paul, standard opting for a pair of Seymour Duncans. the original pickups lacked some of the bite I was getting out of my 490/498 in my other standard.

Also modded a few guitars with Bigsby's.. one was permanent, the other I used a vibramate so I didn't have to make any permanent changes

[Steel and wood]

Originally Posted by rmp

I tend to not mod much..

Will do pickup changes as needed,, I swapped out a set of Gold Lace Sensors for Texas Specials in a strat, just didn't get on the the lace sensors.

Swapped out some burst-bukers in a les paul, standard opting for a pair of Seymour Duncans. the original pickups lacked some of the bite I was getting out of my 490/498 in my other standard.

Also modded a few guitars with Bigsby's.. one was permanent, the other I used a vibramate so I didn't have to make any permanent changes

Yep, I too put the Vibramate Bigsby on my Telecaster.