I like to put extra screws in the pickguard for more sustain.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Dang it, that's what I was gonna say - really!

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

- Use stainless steel hardware to play more cleanly.
- Use lead hardware for heavy metal stylings.
- To play fast, avoid tortoise shell picks and pickguards for as we all know, turtles are slow.
- You'll never play out of key if you tell everyone your guitar is tuned to a diminished scale.
- To play Country and Western, only use humbuckeroo pickups.
- Be playing 25 years or more in order for your stylings to be considered classical.
- Put bumpers on your Fenders to protect them.
- Increase the value of your guitar by buying it in pieces and then see to it that it is totally assembled within the United States.
- If playing kiddie tunes is your thing, use Pearl's plastics instead of her mother's.
- Keep your output jack free of wiped boogers.
- Stand in the ocean with your guitar to best play surf music.

That's all for now.

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You dig?

I added a push-pull pot to my jazz bass about two months ago for series/parallel switching. I don't know how I ever did without it. Its also had a Badass II bridge for a few years, and had a black pickguard for a while to match the black finish, but I've gone back to white.
I almost feel bad for posting a serious reply.

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Rated "M" for meaty.

I wouldn't feel bad. I mod like crazy and don't feel bad about it one bit.

One mod I've been recently doing is adding a no-load tone pot to some of my humbucker equipped guitars. The sonic difference is definitely noticeable. You can hear the spike in volume, and the pickups sound more colorful to my ears. So far I've done this with Gibson, Dimarzio, and Fender Blacktop, and I can't revert back to having a regular tone knob after hearing the difference. It's a must for me with certain guitars.

Another cool one is, I like the sound of DiMarzio Tone Zones in the neck. But they are just a tad too powerful for that position. I could just as easily lower the pickup, but there comes a point to where it loses it's luster by doing so. Not to mention, you have to lower it quite a bit. I'm now working on putting an Alnico-2 magnet in my second Tone Zone for another guitar. Although DiMarzio makes an Air Zone, I just don't find it to sound the same as the magnet swap of a regular one. The pickup keeps it's colorful sound, doesn't overpower, becomes more articulate, and is easier to use with a wah pedal.

Some people like to take their Strats and add a switch to be able to have the neck and bridge pickup as an option. I personally haven't done this, but I can see why someone would want to have it as an option. Sound like a good idea to try to me.

I have other guitars that I liked well enough, but the Tune-O-Matic bridges were the ones with that damn wire running across the front of them, and they were hard to work with and intonate. I installed some Tonepros bridges in them, and they're great to work with.

If you have a pot go bad on you, Fender sells you new ones that come with a cap in the package. You COULD install that cap. But more often than not more advanced guitar players or techs opt for a different cap.

At the end of the day, if you like what you have, awesome. If you don't, change it. Who cares? Mod away.

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wire bridge pickup to tone knob.

- Wired bridge pickup to middle tone pot
- Added switch for bridge + neck pickups
- Graph Tech nut, saddles and string trees
- Added GFS steel trem block
- Installed Fender 57/62 pickups