IMHO, theres nothing worse than seeing a great looking Strat or Tele that's been modded to the point of "ruining" the guitar. I've seen dozens of Strats that have been refinished, new and out of place hardware added, Jazzmasters with humbuckers, otherwise fine vintage axes repainted, cut up or modded in such a way they really can't be called a Strat or a Tele anymore. Once I even saw a Gibson Les Paul Custom that someone had cut the top half where the p/u selector switch is and made another cutaway there. There are countless vintage Fenders that are chopped up beyond belief and when the owner tries to sell it, they still want the high vintage dollar for it. When will it stop?-there ought to be a law.

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Life is like a sh*t sandwich. The more bread you have, the less sh*t you have to eat.

I hate seeing a good axe butchered or painted badly too bro. Pick-ups and things are a different story though. Live I like to have all I need from one guitar sound wise.

CC

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Fender Stratocaster (parts build)
Fender Telecaster 72 Custom RI
Fender Telecoustic Deluxe
Gretsch Electromatic Pro-Jet
Gibson Les Paul Standard Plus
Gibson ES-135
Zenith Type-17
Marshall 70's JMP Superbass 100w
Blackstar HT-5

I don't know. I upgrade hardware but never "mod" anything. Having said that i own a 1965 Univox HR-2 (lawsuit) 335 knock off. Original everything. Problem is, it was decked out with two single coils instead of humbuckers. I guess Gibson used to use Single Coils on their ES's.

Anywho, I'm thinking about ripping out the single coils and mod'ing it for humbuckers...i haven't reached a final decision yet, my tech is measuring everything first to see if it's possible. If not i'll have to get some P90's to replace the horrible pickups in it now.

This guitar also needs fretting, and new tuning machines.

Most would say "why bother" i'll tell you why. The HR-2 has the 2nd best neck i've played, the first being my strat of course. I'd hate to have a guitar that could do so much good just sit and collect dust.

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2007 Fender MIM Strat Midnight Wine
1965 Univox HR-2 "Lawsuit" ES-335 Knockoff
Ovation Celebrity Shallow Bowl

Why do we mod? Because we are all in pursuit of that perfect tone. I think that some of us are just wanting to make our guitar our own but mostly for that mythical perfect tone.

People mod their guitars for the same reasons they "mod" their cars, or paint their houses purple or get tattoos, or pierce their eyebrows.

Everyone wants their guitar to be "perfect" in their eyes, whether that requires new hardware or bizarre color schemes or stickers, whatever. My musicmaster was in terrible shape when I got it so a new paint job was a necessity, not an option. And the pickguard with my kids hands' and feet on it, I like it since it symbolizes some pretty important things to me, my family and my music. But it's not for everyone, I know that.

My uncle was a vintage car buff and it used to drive him nuts when he'd see a vintage Chevy with a chopped top, jacked up with flames painted on the side. Same as it bugs masterhacker to see an old guitar butchered.

If you have the $$ to own it than it's yours to do with as you will.

I'm gonna have to agree with you 100% on that! -N

I dont like guitars that are modded to the point that there not even there original brand, but I dont mind pick ups or tuners or whatever.

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riley

In 30 plus years I have only modded 3 guitars and everything else has been stock. Two that I modded turned out amazing one being my Tele that I put Dimarzios in and the other My Beck Strat that I modded last month and got rid of the volume knob and pot and rewiring it after watching a video of Danny Gatton playing a Strat like that that Miami Mike put up. I would not do it to another Strat but it is just so comfortable to play and I do not feel a bit cramped anymore. I guess anyone who played a Tele over a decade before going to a Strat would understand.

I do not like to see the kids on Harmony Central who buy a 3K guitar and have 3 mods waiting before it already arrived.But creative thinking is necessary or where would we be. When Leo Fender made the Tele and Strat they were looked at as a joke by other companies and Les Paul and his log which he kept being told we are not interested in it by Gibson did not get called till Fender took off. Eddie Vanhalen did okay with some seconds of a Strat type body, neck and a humbucker from a 335 plus a roll of tape, also a cool device called the D-Tuna and till this day is tweaking. The Parson B-Bender is another really cool diddy not to mention LSR Nuts, Floyd Rose trems,locking tuners. All these things were mods originally so I have nothing against creative minds. I just hate to see perfectly good guitars butchered.

I have never modded a guitar other than reversing a previous owners attempts at modding/refinishing to get the guitar back as close to original as I could.I would never buy a new Strat or Tele or whatever and mod it in any way,to do so would be saying that I wasn't satisfied with the guitar in the first place and why buy a guitar you're not happy with?If I wanted to have a guitar built to certain specs such as put in Dimarrzios ore Duncans or a Floyd Rose etc. I would buy one of the body and neck kits from Warmouth etc. and start from scratch.I guess I'm that way because i once had a restoration done that I've regretted since I had it done(1975) and I once knew a guy who cut the top horn off a near mint 62 Strat because it wouldn't fit the cheap old case that he had.I shutter at the thoughts of modding a perfectly good guitar that someone already worked hard at to make the perfect guitar for somebody.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Guitars are modded for the person who owns it and no one else. They don't care what anyone else thinks as long as the "modder" is happy. It's a personal thing. I've seen original 65 Strats modded with Humbuckers and vintage Teles with B Benders.

For me and my guitars, I do not mod them. I love them just as I buy them. In the past when I played professionally in Nashville I had a Fender P-bass that my tech modded by changing out the pups and putting in a Fender Silver Lace Sensor pup and a hughe Bad AssII bridge. Sweet sustain in tha baby. Other than that I won't mod. as for others who mod...well, they are looking for their elusive tone. I got mine so I am a happy man!
ABS

I like mods that enhance the versatility of my instrument, like coil tapping or wiring mods that give me new sounds without losing the great ones I already have. I never pursue the "perfect" tone, because in order to get that I would have to be perfect, and we all know that ain't happening.

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

I mod my guitars to make a guitar sound and/or look the way I want it to. I even modify guitars to make them more user friendly. However, it is nothing that I cannot reverse should I choose to do so. I might have gone a little overboard with my Highway 1, but it sounds awesome and I like the looks. The only mod to my CV60 Strat was purely cosmetic.

IMO, strap locks will always go onto my guitars since an unfortunate accident I had early in my guitar trek. You know, "an ounce of prevention..." I do not even veiw it as a modification, but others do.

I do know that I do not plan to modify anything on my next guitar except switching the strap buttons for strap locks.

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

I love modding guitars. I like little aesthetic changes like changing knobs and pick-guards, to make it a little more unique and "mine" than just stock. Any change I make is almost always easily reverse-able. I like parts that make small improvements to the guitar like locking tuners, if they didn't come stock.

I also like changing pickups if I'm not happy with the original. My Epiphone Les Paul is a good example, I was not happy with the stock pickup sound, but I gave it about a year and a half before I swapped them out for Duncans. It was still way less expensive than getting a Gibson and I think it rocks.

My strat has EMG SAs and I love 'em. I was not crazy about the stock 2001 MIM pickups. It also had the very thin stock tremolo block that I swapped out in favor of a callaham block. To my ears changing the block made a huge difference, but I admit the difference may be psychologically exaggerated. Either way it really seems to resonate and has more sustain than any other strat I've ever played with the pickup and trem block combination. By the way I also blocked the trem in this guitar with a piece of wood.

So short answer is to make it hold tune better, make it look different, and make it sound different are my reasons.

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for a Stratocaster, 2 words, Lace Sensor .

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.