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Hot Rod Garage: Mods from Readers

An eye-popping gallery of radically reimagined guitars.

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.

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.

In line with the MOOER’s recent expansion on the MSC range, the company is excited to announce the new MSC50 Pro, an Alder-bodied electric guitar with gloss finish, available in the new Magic Crystal color.

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The Oceans Abyss expands on Electro-Harmonix’s highly acclaimed reverb technology to deliver a truly immersive effects workstation. The pedal is centered around dual reverb engines that are independently programmable with full-stereo algorithms including Hall, Spring, Shimmer and more. Place these reverbs into a customizable signal path with additional FX blocks like Delay, Chorus, Tremolo, or Bit Crusher for a completely unique soundscape building experience.

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Axe-wielders Jake Cinninger and Brendan Bayliss take us through their current gear garages.

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Guitarist William Tyler, a restless sonic explorer: “I would get bored staying in the same place.”

Photo by Angelina Castillo

The expansive instrumental guitarist/composer pushes himself out of his comfort zone, beyond the boundaries of his neo-Americana wheelhouse on Time Indefinite.

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