Alex Santilli Alex Santilli created this axe from a yard-sale Squier Strat and spare parts from his guitar repair work. “The pickups came from an Epiphone S310,” he reports. “The pickguard is from an American Strat. All in all, the guitar plays and sounds pretty nice.”
Armin Solo “I got this 1989 Fender Japan Stratocaster sent all the way from Osaka,” says reader Armin Solo. “It was completely beat-up and unplayable. I upgraded it with EVH Wolfgang pickups plus a Seymour Duncan Antiquity Texas Hot in the middle position. A custom-wiring scheme allows for nine switching options.” A new German-made Floyd Rose (upgraded with FU-Tone brass and titanium parts), a black jack plate, and a special edition red D-Tuna complete the makeover. “It cleaned up pretty well, and it’s got so much mojo,” Solo raves.
BJ Byers “Here are a few pictures of my modded ESP EC-1000 Deluxe,” writes BJ Byers. “I considered upgrading to a nicer guitar but was so attached to my ESP that I decided to upgrade the guitar instead. I changed all the hardware—including the fret wire—to gold, with abalone accents on the knobs, which makes the amber sunburst finish look amazing.” The guitar also underwent an electronic makeover: The pickups are Duncans (a ’59 at the neck and a Pearly Gates at the bridge), wired with three push/pull knobs for coil splitting, series/parallel routing, plus a volume kill switch. “It sounds and plays like a dream,” Byers says.
Carlos Contreras Carlos Contreras shares two of his colorful creations: “My Les Paul SG has a handmade paint job inspired by Clapton’s ‘The Fool’ SG,” he says. “It has flower-like inlays in addition to the ones that already come with the guitar. The Strat is a MIM Standard in agave blue, with the pickups modded to make them sound like humbuckers.” Both guitars have replacement bridge pickups from Seymour Duncan under the original pickup covers.
Dan Bontrager
Before acquiring its celestial finish, Dan Bontrager’s Ibanez JS700 had a standard red-stained mahogany body. “I picked it up from Craigslist, and it was in poor shape,” he says. Bontrager and a buddy rebuilt a routed-out bridge pickup cavity and stripped the original finish before applying a large-flake glitter coating. “The process was very low-tech,” reports Bontrager. “Spray clear, dump the glitter on, repeat. Finish with about 20 layers of clear, and then buff.” Dan says it’s a heavy guitar thanks to all that varnish, but that it sounds great with its GFS P90s. “Best of all,” he confides, “you can blind everyone at a gig with only a single 60-watt light bulb.”
Danny Carr
Danny Carr of San Jose, California, says this sparkle-flamed beauty started out as a 2004 Roland Ready Strat. “Aside from the wood, frets, Roland circuit boards, and hex pickup, there’s not much left that’s original,” notes Carr. The new neck and middle pickups are single-coil GFS Vintage Staggers (neither is reverse-wound), while the bridge is a Duncan Li’l Screamin’ Demon humbucker. The pickguard is from Pickguard Heaven, the pearloid-knob tuners are by Schaller, the locking whammy system is by Super Vee, and Willies Rod and Kustom Car Shop of Campbell, California, provided the glorious paint job.
The electronics are equally ambitious: Switch 1 is a standard 5-way pickup selector. Switch 2 activates the bridge pickup (providing seven possible combinations from the non-synth pickups). Switches 3 and 4 control the synth pickup, and a push/pull tone knob houses a fifth switch to toggle the humbucker between series and parallel mode. “For 16 years I’ve played in a classic-rock cover band, which means I have to cover a ton of sonic territory,” says Carr. “With the mods on this guitar, there’s not much I can’t do.”
Don Finan #1 Colorado reader Don Finan shares this check-bedecked beauty. “Meet ‘Mr. Nielsen,’ my tribute to Cheap Trick’s illustrious guitarist,” says Finan. “Mr. Nielsen started out as a broken and battered First Act guitar bought at a Goodwill store for $4.99. I stripped the original blue finish and painted the checkerboard design, threw in a Seymour Duncan Custom Custom pickup wired for single-coil or humbucking, installed new tuning machines, leveled the frets, made a new nut, and gave it a full setup. The result is a full-on rock machine that’s a blast to play.”
Don Finan #2
“This is my custom built ‘Moderne Special,’” says Colorado’s Don Finan. “It has a poplar body shaped like a Gibson Moderne, three Burns Tri-Sonic single-coil pickups (the bridge duo in humbucking configuration), Brian May Red Special wiring (individual on/off and phase switches), and a Hipshot Baby Grand bridge. This is the first guitar that I’ve built, and I’ve been thrilled by how well it plays and all the amazing sounds it has.”
Jordan Basso
“My Fender Modern Player Jaguar has seen a ton of modifications to make it into a workhorse,” says Jordan Basso. “I play country/alternative rock, and needed to get a wide range of appropriate tones from one guitar.” Basso expanded the neck pickup cavity to accommodate a Jazzmaster pickup, carved a middle slot to install a Stratocaster middle pickup, and left the stock P90 in the bridge position. “Now this thing roars!” he says.
Matt West
Sometimes hot-rodding a guitar makes it look <em>less</em> showy, as with Matt West’s customized Carparelli S4. “It was a decent Les Paul-style guitar, but I wanted to improve its looks,” says West. “The original had moderate-output generic humbuckers and all gold accessories, which looked too gaudy against the red quilted-maple top. I bought handwound pickups and replaced all the gold hardware with black.” The new tailpiece and roller bridge are solid brass. The new tuners are Sperzels. Even the screws are black. “The new handwound Carparelli pickups scream at full volume, growl at medium volume, and mellow out nicely at low volume,” observes Matt. He replaced the original pots with push/pull units with switches that split the pickups’ coils.
Matthew Short
This vision in red from Matthew Short is a 2006 Mexican-made Fender Strat with a Floyd Rose trem. Short replaced the stock pickups with an Arcane Inc. Desert Eagle neck pickup and an Arcane Mr. Scary at the bridge. He also added the red pickguard.
Scott Bennett
Greenwich, Connecticut’s 812 Guitars made this double-cutaway axe for Scott Bennett, lead guitarist for the band Awaken. It boasts a one-piece roasted quartersawn maple neck (with reverse headstock), a one-piece alder body (with the words “Olde School” carved in), direct-mounted DiMarzio Tone Zone and Air Norton pickups, Hipshot tuners, and brass hardware. “It sounds like a Les Paul but weighs in at under seven pounds,” reports Bennett. “It plays incredibly well and sounds ballistic!”
Tommi Aaltonen
Tommi Aaltonen created this 3-string from a special box: “As a child I used it as a rock-collection case,” he says. “Now it’s rocking with three strings tuned to open G.” Aaltonen made the neck from an old table leg, while an upside-down steel pot lid serves as a resonator. The soundholes are also fashioned from kitchenware, while the knobs were scavenged from an old tube radio. “I had a blast building this beauty,” says Tommi. “It has a nasty, springy tone.”
Throughout the year we collect stories and photos of guitar-mod projects created by you, our dear readers. Some are so inspiring that we include them here in our annual Hot Rod issue.
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