no brainer mods

How we turned three affordable Squier, Ibanez, and Yamaha axes into custom instruments like no other.

From YouTube to Instagram to myriad DIY forums, the internet is filled with modders showing off their latest projects. Name your flavor of guitar gluttony—from Gibsons to Fenders, offsets, and shred machines—and there's a virtual place you can go to both feed your craving and feel better about how much time you spend obsessing over how to make your axe sound and play more to your liking. "You think my tweaking tendencies are out of control? Check out this guy…."

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Mathesar the Thermian (center).

What we can learn from the woeful, adorable cluelessness of our intergalactic friends the Thermians.

Sappy, upbeat, feel-good drivel from yours truly used to be a lot more rare before all this pandemic lockdown bullshit. Much as I've tried to maintain a steady flow of the silly/snarky crap you're used to—and even though we seem to be seeing a little bit of light at the end of the COVID tunnel, at least in terms of vaccine availability (and summer being right around the corner—wuhoo!)—I am, unfortunately, falling into the saccharine word trap more than I can say I'm proud of. For that, I ask your forgiveness.

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