Just Maintainin'!

[Boogie]

Me too. It helps keep the GAS at bay at times.



Believe me, I've flat out ruined guitars before on my journey to "kinda knowing what I'm doing".

Like my very first guitar, a Kawai Silvertone. I wanted a Les Paul, so I took it apart and tried to build a body for it outta scrap wood from the garage. I was 13 yrs old.

You beat me. I was 19 and bought a Strat knock-off. Then a Floyd knock off. Then a Dimarzio Super Distortion pickup. The poor thing never knew what hit it...24 hours after unboxing and unwrapping it, I was chopping at the trem cavity with my drill-turned-router. Did such a good job I had to reinforce the trem cavity wall with a thick yard stick. Two years later, I disassembled it and threw it in the trash. Yes, there, I said it...I threw away a guitar.

 

[The Fight]

You beat me. I was 19 and bought a Strat knock-off. Then a Floyd knock off. Then a Dimarzio Super Distortion pickup. The poor thing never knew what hit it...24 hours after unboxing and unwrapping it, I was chopping at the trem cavity with my drill-turned-router. Did such a good job I had to reinforce the trem cavity wall with a thick yard stick. Two years later, I disassembled it and threw it in the trash. Yes, there, I said it...I threw away a guitar.

Oh man, right! That's always the first thing you learn when installing a Floyd into a strat! The second one I was smarted with the cavity lay out. Haha so funny! I mean that sucks...

 

[bodia]

Me too. It helps keep the GAS at bay at times.



Believe me, I've flat out ruined guitars before on my journey to "kinda knowing what I'm doing".

Like my very first guitar, a Kawai Silvertone. I wanted a Les Paul, so I took it apart and tried to build a body for it outta scrap wood from the garage. I was 13 yrs old.

My first amp wasn't loud enough for band practice... So I took apart my bitchin' Gorilla amp and built a new cabinet for it and added two speakers from my parents Fisher home stereo. I had no clue about wattage or anything and thought that two speakers would be, you know, louder.

Then there was the time in high school where my freshly divorced mother bought me a Charvel Fusion with three single coils (two of 'em ganged together at the bridge) that I wanted based purely on looks. I took it to band practice, decided it needed a humbucker, came home hours later, and started carving it out with a flathead screwdriver. The look of terror on that poor woman face... I successfully completed the mod only to destroy the guitar a couple years later when I tried scalloping the fretboard (freehand) with a dremel and the sanding wheel attachment.

A couple of months ago I was drunkenly perusing Craigslist and saw an ESP M1 "Custom Build" for sale... My heart sank when I immediately recognized it as one of my old guitars that I had stripped, stained, and modded when I was like, 17 years old. Dude was asking $700 for a guitar I had essentially ruined with all the skill and materials of one of those 1980's A-Team montages.


It's not completely my fault though.. I wasn't raised poor, but I was left alone a lot and my parents didn't buy me everything I wanted. My first bike was my sisters hand-me-down girls bike with a piece of electrical conduit to turn it into a "boys" bike. Summers with my depression-era grandparents were spent alone in the basement with power tools and bandaids, and my mom refinished every piece of furniture and wood flooring in the house herself. Come to think of it, I never once saw a repairman come over to our house growing up either. I suppose it's a learned trait.

Dude, that's a lot 'o dimebags!

 

[veinbuster]

No way! that sounds ambitious. Any pics?

I was young and fearless, and I had access to all the wood I wanted from 1x2 to 2x10. I only had a polaroid camera in those days and have no idea if I took any photos - I'll take a browse when I get home.

 

[garrett]

Well I'm still hatin' on the SECU24, so nothings changed there...

But I split a knob on one of my favorite PRS of all time: My SE Orianthi. I must've used a plain ol' SE speed knob on the rotary shaft so it was sitting unplayed for a while. All that changed today when I checked the mail and saw that my new fancy-pants knobs had arrived. I lucked out and got 'em off of eBay for less than $15 used.



It's not a NGD or anything but, hey! Sometimes just maintainin' is exciting enough!

Nice. I sure got the warm-and-fuzzies when I put the new knobs and pickup rings on my HBII.

I guess I'm maintain'? I sold two guitars earlier this year, so I'm now happily down to four. Actually, I'm totally addicted to the S2 Singlecut Standard, so I'm really down to one plus three spares. I sold an amp too.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

The worst I did was take my prized Ibanez Artist (high school graduation present) and drill three small holes for phase and coil tap switches, while adding Carvin pickups. TO this day I consider taking it to a wood guy to have those filled and refinished.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

I was young and fearless, and I had access to all the wood I wanted from 1x2 to 2x10. I only had a polaroid camera in those days and have no idea if I took any photos - I'll take a browse when I get home.

I understand that. It wasn't until I joined here that I understood the importance of taking pictures of my stuff.

Nice. I sure got the warm-and-fuzzies when I put the new knobs and pickup rings on my HBII.

I guess I'm maintain'? I sold two guitars earlier this year, so I'm now happily down to four. Actually, I'm totally addicted to the S2 Singlecut Standard, so I'm really down to one plus three spares. I sold an amp too.

Being addicted to guitars you already own is a good sign. Sometimes when I look at the pile of guitars I presently own I get anxious about the amount of work it takes to keep 'em all shiny and working.

 

[bodia]

I understand that. It wasn't until I joined here that I understood the importance of taking pictures of my stuff.



Being addicted to guitars you already own is a good sign. Sometimes when I look at the pile of guitars I presently own I get anxious about the amount of work it takes to keep 'em all shiny and working.

Work, or Veuve?

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Work, or Veuve?

Same difference, really. Champagne doesn't grow on tre.... errr.. uhh..

 

[garrett]

Being addicted to guitars you already own is a good sign. Sometimes when I look at the pile of guitars I presently own I get anxious about the amount of work it takes to keep 'em all shiny and working.

I get it. One that I sold, I'd never gig. The other would always be choice number five, so I figured, what's the point in having them?

Beginning to feel very guilty about playing the HBII for two minutes and then grabbing the S2. Thinking of doing new pickups and dual splits to help it compete in versatility. Plus a soft shell case with backpack straps to encourage me to bring it to gigs...

 

[sergiodeblanc]

..Thinking of doing new pickups and dual splits to help it compete in versatility.

That's exactly what I'm going through with the guitar that inspired this thread. There are a few of my guitars that I have no problem with just letting them be their own "thing", and then others that I feel are in competition with each other... I don't know why I do that.

What's the point of having a bunch of guitars that do the same thing?

 

[guitarman001]

I think the Cu24 is the best guitar design ever.
I have two, practically the same! Satin maple neck is the selling point.
Only other electric I have is a Suhr strat-type which I'm always half-and-half on, but generally sounds alive and fantastic.
The Cu24 ergonomics are the best ever. Look at Suhr Moderns, or LPs... what's the point in having 22/24 frets if you can't get to them!?

That's my problem now... my two guitars are so good, not other PRS can match up, and I've tried most others now, including the new 594.

I'm happy to keep maintaining and bond even better with what I've got.

 

[bodia]

Since we're bearing our early attempts at modding things, I'll add the two I have. Both are from the 84-86 time period.

First:
My second guitar, an Arbor Explorer copy didn't come with a case. My old man was the manager at the local Tru-Value hardware store. We always had extra stuff in the garage and easy access to "hardware" stuff. I decided to make a case for that Arbor. Ply wood, and 2x4's, hinges, a handle and some carpet scraps for padding. Guitar fit in the finished product nicely. A couple of problems: the case weighed 147 lbs, and it didn't fit in the back of the '74 Chevy Vega. I used it once, and threw it in the scrap heap.

Second:
'86 B.C. Rich Eagle. I LOVE this guitar. Neck feels great, short scale, my fav guitar to that point. Huge Dokken/ George Lynch fan. I'm 19 and fear nothing. Drop in a set of Screaming Demons and a Wilkinson trem to replace the stop tail. No clue what I was doing, but it rocked afterwards! Three years later, I'm living in Chicago and decide it's time to grow up and give up the guitar. I take said BC Rich to GC to sell it and move on. The offer....$50.00......WTF!? Are you kidding me?! I gave the BC to a buddy that played it for years and gigged with it. As for me, I bought a Charvel 4 and have been a schlub ever since.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

This turned into the greatest thread evar!

 

[toothace]

My first mods were on my Memphis Les Paul copy. Pulled the neck pickup and put in a strobe light. The circuit board fit in the control cavity. used the other three control knob holes to hook up flashing LED lights that were turned off/on with the toggle with. Bridge pickup word directly to the jack. Needless to say there were shielding issues...each flash of the strobe made a very loud "kuh" sound.

 

[fender1punk]

My first attempt at modding a guitar. I was 14 and didn't have a lot of money. I bought a cheap Jackson for something like $120 with razor sharp fret ends. I think I wrapped it in yellow duct tape, filed the frets myself and cold soldered in a new humbucker. Somehow it worked, as long as I taped the guitar cable at just the right angle.

 

[Ovibos]

In middle school, I read in "Guitar for the Practicing Musician" mag (member that?) that Pete Townshend slashed his speaker cones to get distortion.

So I took a razor blade to the cone of my Gorilla bass amp (member those?)

It went from sounding like a dusty fart to sounding like a wet fart. Feel free to decide if you think that's an improvement.

 

[veinbuster]

This turned into the greatest thread evar!

It certainly is fun.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

A while back I bought some "transitional" winged tuners with square-backs that they used for the old Artist series of guitars. One of the tuners was messed up and slips so I put 'em off to the side until I could get a replacement..

So that isn't happening. What I got instead were two spare Schaller wings that I'm hoping to dismantle and swap worm-gears on, if I can.
Otherwise I may just have to go unmatched and use one of these Schallers instead.



I tell ya, it's getting harder to find wings in the wild. I have two guitars left (stop tails) without them and when I finish these (for the Gucci Top) all my spare parts will be (mostly) used up.

I'm getting to the point where I won't even be able to look at buying another PRS unless they come with wings already.. Call me a "flat-earther" or a caveman, whatever. I'm Just Maintain' in 1987 over here.

 

[veinbuster]

Otherwise I may just have to go unmatched and use one of these Schallers instead.

NO!

It's a bit sad that your horde has gotten so small. Just when I was thinking how cool they might be on a dark grey westie. I guess I could pillage my SAS.