The Official GS Mini Upgrades / Mods / Customizations Thread

[Yanto]

Thought all minis came fitted with mediums? My mahogany did

[wborisenok]

Originally Posted by Yanto

Thought all minis came fitted with mediums? My mahogany did

They do. I bought mine [barely] used and the previous owner had lights on it. Waiting until my new bridge pins come to swap them back to mediums.

[Long Jon]

Did I mention already how great I think mine sounds with Martin PB or 80/20 mediums ?
Don't like any coated strings that I've tried myself.

[Yanto]

That would explain it then!

[Marshall]

I spray painted mine. It's a tobacco sunburst nitro finish from Guitar Re-ranch. I ordered a new pickguard.



After this I removed the Baggs M1 and installed a Schatten HFN.

[wborisenok]

Marshall, how the heck did you do that?? It looks great and genuine

[Long Jon]

Woah !! Nice work there Marshall ! I always knew the shape would really lend it'self to a nice Gibsonesque 'burst.
Did you take the bridge and neck off or what ? How did you do the "binding" ? How did you mask the rosette ? Tell all.

[Marshall]

I didn't remove anything, except the picguard. I masked off the bridge and neck and binding and soundhole rosette with transparent duct tape. That allowed me to cut along the curved surfaces with an exacto knife. The masking and cutting was the tough part. That took hours.

You can see there's a "blond shadow" around the bridge, where the bridge and tape caused eddies in the spray pattern. There are a couple mistakes that show up on closer examination. I used a black felt tip pen to touch up some places. paint doesn't flow into the corner where the neck meets the body well. It's important to NOT keep spraying to fill things in. Instead, let the paint set up some then go back at it a 2nd and/or third pass. But touchup with the pen is still required.

I removed the pickguard and ordered another one from Taylor. It doesn't look right if the top under the pickguard is all blond.

I have tried this on 3 guitars now. I'm getting better at it. Same can of $13.50 tobacco sunburst spray from Guitar ReRanch.

[wborisenok]

How did you get it to fade so evenly?

[guzzijeff]

Hey Whitney! Where'd ya get those sweet looking bridge pins? ... and how much $?

[wborisenok]

Originally Posted by guzzijeff

Hey Whitney! Where'd ya get those sweet looking bridge pins? ... and how much $?

Perfect timing, Jeff! Just put them on. They came from Amazon for $17. Here they are:



I'm just a bit concerned because they're fitting a tad weird. They sit at different heights. Not sure if it's actually something to be concerned over; I've never bought new bridge pins for any of my guitars so maybe this is common and I've just never paid attention to it. Maybe I just put them in wrong. Thoughts? Here's the best pic I could get that shows it:



ALSO, my Mini came with lights on it so I swapped them out for a set of Elixir PB mediums. I'm not loving them. It's noticeably "harder" to play. I put it in quotes because the reality is that the guitar could never really be hard to play, I can just feel a big difference since changing the strings. I normally use lights but Taylor advises the use of mediums for the GS Mini. I also was feeling that the lights weren't responsive enough. Does anyone have any suggestions for strings that are somewhere in between lights and mediums? Is there such a thing?

[guzzijeff]

Hi Whitney, Thanks for the info.
According to what I've read here on AGF, mediums on the GS Mini should feel about the same as lights on a larger guitar... because of the shorter scale length.
Re: your bridge pins being different heights... I suspect your strings/ball ends aren't all seated equally. Might want to loosen up some & jiggle/push/pull them... you shouldn't have to mash the pins down, but they might need a little nudge. Good luck.

[moccaguitar]

On my mini hog i
removed the pickguard,
changed the bridge pins to taylor ebonys with abalone dots,
installed a k&k pure mini,
changed the truss rod cover to a beautiful hog one from bruce petros shop

... and i glued 2 wiggle eyes inside which are looking through the soundhole :-))

Greetz,
moccaguitar

[wborisenok]

Originally Posted by guzzijeff

Hi Whitney, Thanks for the info.
According to what I've read here on AGF, mediums on the GS Mini should feel about the same as lights on a larger guitar... because of the shorter scale length.
Re: your bridge pins being different heights... I suspect your strings/ball ends aren't all seated equally. Might want to loosen up some & jiggle/push/pull them... you shouldn't have to mash the pins down, but they might need a little nudge. Good luck.

Maybe my action is a bit high. Or, maybe it just *felt* like a big difference because I had played it for two weeks with the lights.

Originally Posted by moccaguitar

On my mini hog i
removed the pickguard,
changed the bridge pins to taylor ebonys with abalone dots,
installed a k&k pure mini,
changed the truss rod cover to a beautiful hog one from bruce petros shop

... and i glued 2 wiggle eyes inside which are looking through the soundhole :-))

Greetz,
moccaguitar

You should post pics!

[Marshall]

Originally Posted by wborisenok

How did you get it to fade so evenly?

That's just the nature of spraying. You aim at the edge and natural dispersion takes care of the rest.