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[Nekkoru]

I have a question for all of you guitarists here.



This is my guitar. It is an Epiphone Junior SG, my first guitar. I have some minor problems with it and I'm considering one of two things.
1. Sell it and buy something else
2. Mod it so it sounds nice.

The guitar won't fetch much, I could get up to a hundred dollars for it (I've only had it for six months or so), and that money would go for an used Gibson SG or something. If I were to mod it, however, would this cost me less than getting a new guitar? I'm thinking of getting a better pickup or something. Maybe some effect pefals, or something.

So, I ask you this: do I sell this one or try to milk it for all it's worth with effects and pickups?

[MadassAlex]

A real Gibson SG is pretty rad.

But doing some DIY work can produce some awesome tonal results. Plus, since it's a cheap guitar, you won't feel bad if you plaster it with stickers and tape.

The thing is that a higher-grade guitar will have better handling, almost no matter what. It really depends what is important to you.

[Lummer]

Toss in a Seymour Duncan JB pickup, and have it adjusted and set up by a pro, and you'll be flying.

[imapiratearg]

Do what Lummer said and buy some stomp boxes as well.  They're a bit pricey if you want to get really nice ones, but you can get a decent overdrive or distortion for fifty forty or so bucks at the cheapest.  Danelecto and Digitech usually sell some decent pedals for cheap.  Or, invest in a new amp.  A shitty guitar through a shitty amp is going to sound shitty.  A shitty guitar into a nice amp will sound much better.  However, a nice guitar into a shitty amp will also sound like shit.

I've got a cheap Squire Stratocaster run through a ProCo TurboRAT distortion, a DOD FX90 analog delay, and someday soon here a Vox Tonebender MKII clone, into a Fender Hot Rod Deville 410.  It sounds pretty damn fine.

[Nekkoru]

Toss in a Seymour Duncan JB pickup, and have it adjusted and set up by a pro, and you'll be flying.

http://rnr.pl/p7615.1245_seymour_duncan_sh_4_jb_model_pickup.html

That the one you mean?

Bit pricey, but I could save up and have it by the end of the year.

[valley_parade]

Honestly, I'd recommend a Custom 5 over a JB. They're about the same price.

[Lummer]

Toss in a Seymour Duncan JB pickup, and have it adjusted and set up by a pro, and you'll be flying.

http://rnr.pl/p7615.1245_seymour_duncan_sh_4_jb_model_pickup.html

That the one you mean?

Bit pricey, but I could save up and have it by the end of the year.

Oh my dear lord. I feel truly sorry for you, if that pickup counts as "Pricey" :S

It's dirt cheap, compared to so many others. DiMarzio may be a bit cheaper, but stuff like BareKnuckle cost double or more.

[tuna ketchup x]

I second the Danelectro pedals. I have three of them (chorus, overdrive, and flange) and they were all $15 each and they make my guitar sound wacky and awesome. Even my Sears guitar from high school sounds cool through the flange.

I think you just have to decide whether you want something that sounds like, well, a really nice guitar, or if you want that distorted/modded sound. I'd personally go for the latter, but you have to base it on what you want to play. If you'd only get $100 for it anyway I'd just keep the thing whether or not I got another.

[imapiratearg]

Totally.  I plan on totally making a new guitar out of my Strat.  This is what I want to do:

-New bridge.
-24 fret maple neck.
-Wire the middle pickup's tone control to the bridge pickup.
-New tuners.
-New, custom paint job & finish.
-Black pick guard, knobs, caps, and pickup covers.

[BaneAtvar]

y'know, there's only so much you can do to make a crappy guitar good.

If the basics aren't good enough, there's nothing you can do to make it pro.

Squiers and low entry epiphones, don't qualify as good basics in my opinion. Some Mexican Fenders do, higher level Epiphones do (although I hate Epiphones, if there's isn't a Casino or Riviera in front of the name). Don't spend 300$ on a squier, EVER.

Rule of thumb here. If the modding costs more than the actual guitar, you're doing it wrong.

[DarkAvenger]

Agreed, my Squire Tele sounded perfectly fine. Of course it's the Custom II with the P90 Pickups... Although I may eventually change those. Only $150 too

[billiumbean]

The Wikipedia article about Sonic Youth states the following:

Azerrad writes that early in their career, Sonic Youth "could only afford cheap guitars, and cheap guitars sounded like cheap guitars. But with weird tunings or something jammed under a particular fret, those humble instruments could sound rather amazing – bang a drumstick on a cheap Japanese Stratocaster copy in the right tuning, crank the amplifier to within an inch of its life, and it will sound like church bells"

I actually wired a pair of iPod headphones into the humbuckers on my Squire and played James Taylor through them with distortion and fuzz cranked to +9000, whilst hitting the strings with a screwdriver.  It sounded...  beautiful...  Like, soothing goth rock with electric birds twittering emphatically while rain-nymphs had sex with chickens...

Conclusion, modding is fun and all, but if you want innovation, try the junk drawer.

[Nekkoru]

Yeah, I tried sticking a thick pick between the strings, it gave out an empty tone. I kinda liked it, I might use it more.

Also, how did you wire a pair of headphones to a pick-up?

[Touch Me Im Sick]

Sonic Youth eh? I rip a lot of their techniques off a lot. I use the screwdriver-under-strings technique, and I also nabbed some tunings (EADECD and EGDEGD)

It sounds awesomely awesome

[locafoca]

Toss in a Seymour Duncan JB pickup, and have it adjusted and set up by a pro, and you'll be flying.

http://rnr.pl/p7615.1245_seymour_duncan_sh_4_jb_model_pickup.html

That the one you mean?

Bit pricey, but I could save up and have it by the end of the year.

Oh my dear lord. I feel truly sorry for you, if that pickup counts as "Pricey" :S

It's dirt cheap, compared to so many others. DiMarzio may be a bit cheaper, but stuff like BareKnuckle cost double or more.

Consider:

Nekkoru is likely from poland, as the website he posted that is selling the pickups is a polish seller. The price advertised was 319PLN, which is about $137.49 USD. That, in my opinion, is quite a bit for a pickup.

[billiumbean]

Also, how did you wire a pair of headphones to a pick-up?

Scared shitless that I would die.

I took Apple earbuds, popped them open, and taped their guts to the business parts of the humbuckers.  Worked really nicely for a while, but the earbuds died from being too exposed to the raw intensity of how I play.

Maybe not "wired", per se, but there were wires involved, and initially saying that I taped the earbuds to the pickups sucks a good helping of cool out of the whole thing, even though the product was epic.

Putting the earphones themselves, unadulterated, onto the pickups will produce the same result, but they get in the way of the strings, so playing isn't as fun/possible.

[billiumbean]

Sonic Youth eh? I rip a lot of their techniques off a lot. I use the screwdriver-under-strings technique, and I also nabbed some tunings (EADECD and EGDEGD)

It sounds awesomely awesome

I was using a screwdriver before I knew Sonic Youth did, and when I found out that they came up with it, I felt good, like I shared an artistic brainwave with them or something...