"Eric Slu's guitar features a an old Fender single-coil custom fitted to a humbucker mounting plate and cover in the neck position, maple pickup rings, and a mini switch for putting a single-coil of the bridge pickup in parallel with the neck pickup."
"I wanted a guitar like my Ibanez Joe Satriani Chromeboy but without the active bridge set-up and fragile finish issue, explains Bill Tant. He took a JS1600 and had the body and headstock face done in a chrome finish and located a headstock decal replacement. He swapped out the pickups for a chrome-topped DiMarzio PAF Joe and matching Moу Joe. He enthused: рMy ChromeToy plays and sounds fantastic!"" "
"This Michael Addition American Standard Strat was modded by Mike Caldwell of N'Stuff Music with an AAA flame-maple pickguard, DiMarzio Area pickups, custom switching (push-pull combos), and active tone control for the bridge pickup."
"Tony Flying-Squirrel's recently completed project is a baritone Telecaster guitar that he began about 18 months ago. It is covered in buckskin, houses a locally custom-wound ""Bari-Twang"" humbucker in the bridge (which is configured as a cross between a vintage PAF and a FilterуTron), a GFS Neovin Tele neck pickup, Warmoth baritone neck, and GFS body. He says it has ""lots of low twang, and the Tele 4-position pickup selector switch along with a coil tap on the volume push-pot yields a wonderfully diverse amount of tones and dynamics without having to change amplifier settings.с"
"This 1999 Fender American у52 Reissue Tele was bought by Todd Powers as a lefty model with copper finish. He's since added a bone nut, re-radiused the neck to 10"" and refretted with 6105 wire. The pickups are a Lollar T52 in the bridge and C.C. in the neck, and the backside of the bridge plate has been drilled out to accommodate a Hipshot B-Bender/Drop D lever (no longer on the guitar). The saddles are Callaham Brass and the jack is an Electrosocket. According to Powers: ""Thirteen years, approximately 400 gigs, and countless jams worth of hands-on relic'ing яpriceless!"""
Mark Tullo also shared this Custom Strat with a spalted-maple body and a scalloped Warmoth neck.
"Roman Landin's ESP LTD EC-1000 Deluxe is now known as ""The White Fox."" He swapped out the stock EMGs for a pair of white DiMarzio Tone Zones with black poles. It's wired for one master volume and one master tone with PRS knobs. He also moved the toggle switch down and put in a RadioShack momentary button (killswitch) in its place."
"This is my guitar I built named Dirty,"" writes in Jon Clarke. Weуll let him tell the story in his own words: рNamed after the infamous Sonic Youth album, this guitar is a fascist-killing-machine. Originally built for a metal guitar, this guitar worked better in front of fuzz-based rigs and not well with fast (and cheesy) metal. I grew out of the metal phase and relic'd the hell out of this one. It was never played in a show but was recorded in a couple of albums I was on and seeks to impress me more every time. With the SD Full Shred in the one position (it doesn't fit the strings as you can tell) the guitar has a bit of an imperfect tone that I love very dearly. We go really far back and I hope you enjoy it!"""
"Luis Galang hot-rodded these Ibanez Mikros he'd gigged with since he was 9. He replaced the tuners with die-cast tuners and added coil-splitting tone knobs on both. The blue model (right) has Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio pickups, while the black one (left) has a Floyd Rose and DiMarzio pickups."
"Why hot rod just one guitar? Joseph Feher has eight fancy axes that heуs proud to show off: a candy apple red Squier Vista Jagmaster; a custom Warmoth Super Strat (chambered lightweight ash body with flamed-maple top, Lace Vintage Hot Gold pickups with Clapton Mid Boost Kit, Wilkinson bridge, Planet Waves locking tuner, Warmoth standard thin profile CBS neck, finished in Tru-Oil); an Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plain Top in honeyburst with vintage-style tuners; a Fender Classic у50/у60s Strat T-hybrid with Custom Shop 69 pickups and a black pickguard; a Fender Classic у70s Stratocaster in olympic white with a blue pearloid pickguard and Seymour Duncan Antiquity pickups; a black Ibanez s520ex; a Squier CV60 Strat in candy apple red; and a blonde Squier CV50 Telecaster sporting a Seymour Duncan у59 humbucker in the neck position."
"Ryan Williams blended Steve Vai and Paul Gilbert influences for this custom Fireman guitar. The Swirl paint job was inspired by Vai's ""Passion and Warfare"" guitar. The pickups are a DiMarzio Super Distortion in the bridge and DiMarzio PAF Pro in the neck. The 3-way switch coil-splits the pickups and the neck is from an Ibanez RG320. The paint was done by Perle Guitars and electronics and wiring by Dennis Rotterman in Kettering, Ohio."
"This 2005 Epiphone Les Paul Classic is outfitted with a Schaller roller bridge and Bigsby, Seymour Duncan Hot Rodded humbucker set, Jonesyblues Jimmy Page 21 tone wiring with four 550k push-pull pots, a Switchcraft toggle and input jack, and bone nut. Owner Jim Barr says: ""The stock Grover machine heads stay in tune perfectly, but I'm adding Grover self-locking 18:1 machine heads for the hell of it."""
"This hot rod began as a Robin that had been rode hard and picked up cheap on eBay. David C. Newman changed the input from a straight in the top to a Strat-style, dropped in a JB-58 with slip switch, changed the neck (""'cause I hated it"") and dubbed the final product the Davocaster. рAll totals tallied, I've got about $250 in it and have had it about 10 years,"" he says. ""Great player and was relic'd naturally."""
"Jim Mackenzie put together his рsuper stratс from Warmoth parts: a surf green ash body, flame-maple neck, Fender Custom Shop '54 pickups, Super-Vee BladeRunner bridge, pearloid pickguard, and gold hardware."
"Jonathan Bustos Esquivel's Yama RGX-A2 was a Christmas gift from his girlfriend but, he explains, ""It didn't last long stock."" He added a brushed aluminum finish, pair of DiMarzios, a coil tap, and changed the rotary for a 3-way."
"William Brethauer loaded his Ibanez AM75 with Seymour Duncan Triple Shot and P-Rail pickups, a push-pull phase switch and glow-in-the dark-knobs. рItуs drop-tuned to C#,с he says."
"Doug Hilbert calls this his ""StratoTele Jr."" He says: ""The P-90s are in your face with 1-meg pots, and a separate tone knob for the Tele bridge pickup. This axe has it all covered!"""
"Richard Crews calls this his ""Firecaster."" A dragon is burnt into body, and he says the EMG 81 and 85 pickups make it so the guitar, ""burns everything else."""
"This Ibanez Artist model has a replaced bridge, replaced tailpiece, replaced pickups (Seymour Duncans), replaced pickup switch tip, and more, via owner Todd Madson."
"Wes LeRoy's 2008 Fender Deluxe American Strat was modified with a red Seymour Duncan Distortion humbucker in the bridge, chrome knobs, and a buttered popcorn-colored pickguard. "
"Nathan Pearce continued his modding adventures on a 1987 Squier MIJ Strat by adding a black pickguard, CTS pots and switch, copper screen-taped cavity and inside of the pickguard, Seymour Duncan mini у59 bridge pickup, IronGear Texas Loco neck pickup, EMG middle pickup, roller string trees, coil-tap switch for bridge pickup, and a Neutrik jack socket. Pearce says he replaced all of the wiring with high-quality parts, and since this image was taken heуs added Graphtech String Saver saddles."
This desert sand Baja Tele was striped by Dave Austin and belongs to reader Jeff Marshall.
"Eric Larson's Floyd Rose Discovery Speedloader (рor what's left of it,с he says) has a stock FR neck and bridge, but he built the body himself with Alaskan red cedar and a quilted-maple veneer. He uses DiMarzio PAFs and notes, ""The tone is amazing and it is extremely light, but all that porous wood has sacrificed some sustain. Despite all the bad press on the Speedloader, I really like this guitar. It has the most playable neck I have ever owned and that bridge is just plain cool-looking. But, as anyone who owns one of these knows, the handwriting is on the wall. The time is coming when you arenуt going to be able to get strings for this guitar. Iуm working on a way to convert to standard strings. Tall order I know."""
Mark Tullo shared this 1996 USA Strat with carved tiger stripes.
"Kamil Tryzno sent us, ""a shot of my workhorseяmy favorite example of making a cheap guitar."" It's an Ibanez RG4EXFM1 with a DiMarzio Liquifire in the neck, DiMarzio Chopper in the middle, and an Ibanez INF4 in the bridge. He painted the pickup rings to match the middle pickup, added new speed knobs and a Shadow Kill Pot volume pot/killswitch."
"Rob Calsettaуs father bought this у89 Fender Japanese Toploader Telecaster brand new, but itуs been modded with a Pickguardian black marble pickguard, Sheptone alnico 2 Tele bridge pickups and alnico 5 neck pickups, 4-way Dark circuit switching with Mojotone PIO caps, Fender 75 amp knobs, an Electrosocket Tele jack, and Graphtech string trees."
"Roberto Riveraуs Jackson Dinky DKMG Custom has been upgraded with an original Floyd Rose with brass sustain block and stabilizer, DiMarzio John Petrucci LiquiFire and Crunch Lab pickups, EVH D-Tuna, master volume and tone controls, and 5-way Megaswitch."
"рI turned my 2010 Fender Blacktop Telecaster into a Black-Bottom,с says Tyler Gomo. He replaced the stock humbuckers with a DiMarzio Bluesbucker in the neck and a Bare Knuckle Warpig in the bridge, then added Sperzel locking tuners to what he calls рa vicious instrument."" "
"This is Mina, my semi-hollow jazz guitar,с says Dennis Estadilla. Mina is a Samick RL1 modified with a Seymour Duncan Alnico 2 Pro pickup for the neck and an Antiquity humbucker for the bridge.
"This Ibanez AG96 has a Gibson '57 in the neck (""usually rolled all the way back to 0.5"") and an after-market Gretsch bridge pickup (""rarely used, also rolled back). The middle pickup is wired out of phase. Facebook fan The Jin J. X Group says, ""Her name is Janessa."""
"This ""Pirate Guitar"" was built by Kirk Kralidis, who picked up the unfinished, Chinese-made, kit instrument for $80. ""I wanted to give it a rough look so I stained it with a bit of sanding, and decorated it with some stars and stuff,"" Kralidis says. ""Then I added a 1980 DiMarzio Super Distortion pickup with a quality volume pot, and that's it. After a good setup, it plays great and sounds fantastic!"""
"Chad Nulph's Godin SDXT now has DiMarzio Air Norton (neck), HS-2 (middle), and Tone Zone (bridge) pickups, and the tone control is a push-pull to add the bridge to 3-5 positions of the 5-way selector switch. Also, the humbuckers do not split, but the HS-2 is wired out-of-phase to achieve a more рstratс sound in the 2 and 4 positions. The volume pot and output jack have also been upgraded. Nulph says, ""Except for the pickup choices, all the electronic upgrades were performed by Kenny Rardin. He did an awesome job!"""
"Alex Easton combined traits of the Telecaster and Jazzmaster for his hot-rodded Telemaster. It has a Mighty Mite neck, Fender pickups, Wilkinson tuners, and an Allparts bridge with compensated saddles. рI love my Telecaster but it's like a brick strapped on, and I love offsets like the Jazzmaster,с he says. рPut those two together and you get this! It sounds and plays as well as any U.S. instrument.с"
"Frank Massucci did a lot of work on his 2011 Baja Tele. The neck was replaced with a Warmoth compound radius fat boy, and he upgraded with Lindy Fralin pickups, new pots, caps and 4-way switch, pickguard, and tuners. ""This was my 11th Tele,"" he says, ""and I finally got it right. All the others have been packed away since this was finished. Sounds and plays amazing."""
"Scott Bennett's Strat has a Fender Jimmie Vaughan Strat neck and a Mighty Mite ash body in surf green. As pictured here, it was loaded with Fender Hot Noiseless pickups, which have since been swapped with a Kinman Woodstock Plus set and K-9 wiring harness."
"Nathan Pearce calls this the ""Project Fernandenstein.с This custom paint job on this Fernandes Revolver X was done by Pearce and his brother, Van Halen-style, with a Seymour Duncan JB bridge pickup, Graphtech nut, Maverick neck humbucker, EMG PA2 preamp booster, coil-tap switch, a fully rewired CTS volume pot, and copper screen-taped cavities."
"This Ibanez S670FM is Nathan Pearceуs main ""metal"" gigging guitar. He chose an EMG 81 and 85 to replace stock INF pickups with dummy tone control to provide space for a battery, with the middle pickup disconnected and screwed down tight and a new 3-way blade switch. рItуs not as modded as some of my other instruments, but itуs such a great guitar to play,с Pearce says. рIt didn't need muchяjust strung her up with .013s, tuned to C sharp and it was sorted.с"
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