When Is or What Makes The Term 'Upgraded' Justified.

OilCityPickups

An upgrade is something that increases the value of a cheaper instrument (while still allowing cork-sniffers to slyly look down on it) ... yet if it were done to a 'collectors/vintage' instrument, they would call a 'mod', and start bleating about you having  ruined it

Babones

Most people say 'upgraded' when really they mean 'modified'. eg "I upgraded the pickups to EMGs." 

chrisj1602

I think people can consider their own guitar upgraded (when they keep it) but when it's being put if for sale it's just plain old modified!

Some people on eBay etc make me laugh when they get an Epi Dot, spend £500 'upgrading' it then expect to get £800 for it. Crazy.

I think it's better to keep all original parts and revert to stock when selling on.

littlethoughts

I upgraded my car by getting the tires changed. Also I put in brand new rubber mats. Some of the cork sniffers say I should keep it stock, but now it's a real drivers' car.

mike_l

littlethoughts said:

I upgraded my car by getting the tires changed. Also I put in brand new rubber mats. Some of the cork sniffers say I should keep it stock, but now it's a real drivers' car.

I upgraded your car, by dousing it in petrol and setting it alight...... >:P

jaygtr

littlethoughts;173019" said:

I upgraded my car by getting the tires changed. Also I put in brand new rubber mats. Some of the cork sniffers say I should keep it stock, but now it's a real drivers' car.

Nah, you've wasted your money,
all you needed was some stripes.
#-o

octatonic

Breaking a Gibson's neck and then repairing it.

guitargeek62

octatonic said:

Breaking a Gibson's neck and then repairing it. Buying a Gibson copy instead of the real thing.

FTFY

impmann

If you have fitted something that has improved the guitar in your opinion, then that is an upgrade in your opinion. It could be that to someone else it is a retrograde step - eg: the number of strats fitted with Floyds and Kahlers in the 1980s... yes their return to pitch when using the tremolo (if you liked divebombing etc) was upgraded, but the guitar was ruined if that wasn't your thing.

I don't have a problem with folks using the term 'upgraded' in their adverts, as few would fit something that would be "less good" than the original! And often, although the replacement part isn't to my taste, the quality of the fitted part is higher than that of the original - for example a hand wound pickup replacing a machine wound ceramic magnet thing.

I think some folks get a little hung up on such things... :-)

OilCityPickups

The fact to face is that most upgrades don't really put any value on anything other than cheaper instruments ... even then you may be pushed to get your money back when selling.

blueskunk

I upgraded the pickups in my Riviera from standard epi buckers to Oil City Cowtrons.

That sort of thing in my humble is defo an "upgrade".

Dave_Mc

impmann said:

I don't have a problem with folks using the term 'upgraded' in their adverts, as few would fit something that would be "less good" than the original!

Me neither- however, there are certain things which I would say are objectively a downgrade. Sometimes if a floyd trem wears out, the original owner will fit a lower quality replacement to save money before selling the guitar on, or if someone loses the original pickups (after a pickup swap, say) again they might fit cheapo replacements before selling the guitar. In those cases I don't think you should be allowed to claim they're upgrades. But as long as it's at least a like-for-like swap or better, yeah, I have no problem with it.

TheGuitarWeasel said:

The fact to face is that most upgrades don't really put any value on anything other than cheaper instruments ... even then you may be pushed to get your money back when selling.

Yeah pretty much. If you're buying you pretty much pretend you don't want the upgrades, even if you do )

strtdv

When I'm looking at a used guitar there are a few things I'd consider "upgrades".

Lots of nice guitars come with crappy stock pickups, so I'd definitely consider something like Lollars or Bare Knuckle's an upgrade, even standard Seymour Duncans are nicer than a lit of stock pickups.

Having the guitar properly shielded and grounded I would consider an upgrade.

Changing out the stock electronics for CTS pots, paper in oil caps, etc is usually an upgrade.

Hardware changes like bridges and tuners is too much down to personal preference, I'd usually regard it as a change rather than an upgrade.

When you're selling a guitar though, they're all just changes, you never get the money out of upgrades. 

If you're looking to get the money out of the upgrades the best bet is to return it to stock and part out the "upgrades".

strtdv

(based on trying to sell a guitar with what I would consider some nice "upgrades")

ThePrettyDamned

strtdv said:

When I'm looking at a used guitar there are a few things I'd consider "upgrades".

Lots of nice guitars come with crappy stock pickups, so I'd definitely consider something like Lollars or Bare Knuckle's an upgrade, even standard Seymour Duncans are nicer than a lit of stock pickups.

Having the guitar properly shielded and grounded I would consider an upgrade.

Changing out the stock electronics for CTS pots, paper in oil caps, etc is usually an upgrade.

Hardware changes like bridges and tuners is too much down to personal preference, I'd usually regard it as a change rather than an upgrade.

When you're selling a guitar though, they're all just changes, you never get the money out of upgrades. 

If you're looking to get the money out of the upgrades the best bet is to return it to stock and part out the "upgrades".

Paper in oil caps definitely are not an upgrade in terms of sound or performance, but they look funky.

p90fool

Dave_Mc said:

If you're buying you pretty much pretend you don't want the upgrades, even if you do )

This is the truth and says everything we need to know about upgrades.

Dave_Mc

^ Yeah If you wouldn't pay extra for something when you were buying you can't expect anyone else to, either.

matone

`Altered` is probably more accurate in many cases.

juansolo

p90fool said:

Dave_Mc said:

If you're buying you pretty much pretend you don't want the upgrades, even if you do )

This is the truth and says everything we need to know about upgrades.

Same as modifying cars. In some (most) cases it can reduce the value to someone who just wants a stock guitar. Even if they plan on modifying it later.

As for me, upgrade or modified?

The above is not mine, but it's representative of what it looked like when I got it.

I'd like to think it's upgraded, but some may disagree.

imalone

If I do it it's upgraded, if you do it it's modded... (if there's no objective way of saying something is all round better then there isn't much difference).
Even adding a coil split, if you can do it with the existing pickup that's probably an upgrade, nothing else has changed (well, a pot might, unless you've drilled a hole to do it and struck out into mod territory, but we'll assume a pot of the same quality is achievable). But if you're adding a coil split then you may well have to change the pickup to do it.
Replacing something with a more valuable or better quality part that's appropriate is easier to view as an upgrade. A floyd on a tele instead of the standard bridge is more of a mod, a PIO instead of a proper capacitor is more of a downgrade