To mod or not to mod….

Blackjack

So, to mod or not to mod….that is the question!

I have got an Epiphone Les Paul Custom Pro (I know, don’t shoot me.. I don’t have the bank balance or the playing ability to justify a Gibson one!!).  Basically it is a very nice guitar and has been well received by others who have played it.  It’s got the Epiphone Probucker pickups that it was built with and the push/pull coil splitting speed knobs on it. However I do find sometimes that it sounds slightly muddy and I am therefore considering changing the pickups on it and also removing the coil splitting as I never use it.  If I did that I would probably change the speed knobs for the more traditional witches hat style ones. I have got a very good local guitar tech who would do the work for me for a very reasonable price. 

Basically, I am looking for views and opinions on modding my guitar like this.  I have never done anything like this before so any help and advice would be much appreciated.  I am not worried about the expense of doing it vs the value of the guitar as I have no plans to sell it.  It was my first reasonable guitar and I am emotionally connected to it.  I would just like it to be the best that it can be! 

Thanks very much! 

Whitecat

Worth it for your own sake then for sure. I’m a big fan of modding less expensive guitars to get them to be exactly what you want. 

stickyfiddle

I've modded almost every guitar I have* including pickups, wiring, knobs & hardware on everything from Squiers to CS Gibsons. They're only guitars - go for it! 

If they only sound muddy occasionally I'd probably suggest a loom swap first - that might well be enough to get you where you want to be. You can always keep the old parts to be refitted in case you ever do sell. 

*EDIT: thinking about it I have 1 out of 16 that is stock or complete custom built... 

fretmeister

MOD MOD MOD!

And now that I've read the post....


MOD!

I mod just about everything I've owned. 

english_bob

stickyfiddle said:

If they only sound muddy occasionally I'd probably suggest a loom swap first - that might well be enough to get you where you want to be. 

But before you even do that, adjust the pickup heights. Dropping the bass side down a (very) little might fix it.

fretmeister

stickyfiddle said:

I've modded almost every guitar I have* including pickups, wiring, knobs & hardware on everything from Squiers to CS Gibsons. They're only guitars - go for it! 

If they only sound muddy occasionally I'd probably suggest a loom swap first - that might well be enough to get you where you want to be. You can always keep the old parts to be refitted in case you ever do sell. 

*EDIT: thinking about it I have 1 out of 16 that is stock or complete custom built... 

I didn't mod my Zon Hyperbass because unless it was actually carving into the body and neck any change would have been a downgrade. And it was too damn expensive to risk.

I didn't mod my Marleaux either - it was perfect, other than the weight.

Everything else though - fair game. 

NCo

Mod, and don't look back.

With price inflation in general, and Epiphone in particular, modding a guitar you own and love beats buying a new guitar anyday, and you get to mod it to your taste. Properly cut nut and fretworks can also do wonders.

I have a modded Mexican stratocaster, and the only thing stock is the body, neck and tuners. It's my only guitar and the only guitar I will never sell. It cost me a total of £1250, but when the Mccready model goes for £1600 and regular road worns go for over £1k it's a non issue.

stickyfiddle

fretmeister said:

stickyfiddle said:

I've modded almost every guitar I have* including pickups, wiring, knobs & hardware on everything from Squiers to CS Gibsons. They're only guitars - go for it! 

If they only sound muddy occasionally I'd probably suggest a loom swap first - that might well be enough to get you where you want to be. You can always keep the old parts to be refitted in case you ever do sell. 

*EDIT: thinking about it I have 1 out of 16 that is stock or complete custom built... 

I didn't mod my Zon Hyperbass because unless it was actually carving into the body and neck any change would have been a downgrade. And it was too damn expensive to risk.

I didn't mod my Marleaux either - it was perfect, other than the weight.

Everything else though - fair game. 

That's how I am with my Danocaster. Everything is basically perfect, except the volume pot is knackered, which is annoying but could happen on anything. 

Sarge

1st thing I'd do is rewire it to a  "50s wiring"
it really can help with the muddy feel of stock pickups, coupled with adjusting the pickup heights (lower CAN be much better) 

only after these tweaks would I consider a pickup change

Philly_Q

All the mods you're contemplating are reversible, no holes drilled for switches or cavities for Floyd Roses... I'd go for it.

LionAquaLooper

Since you're gonna pay someone to do this, my first thought is save your money. Muddy pickups can be remedied various ways (first of which is playing around with the pickup heights).  

thermionic

Epiphone pickups are much better now than they were in the 90s and early 2000s seems to be the consensus, so I would replace the wiring, pots, switch, and socket - with 50s wiring as has been mentioned. And keep the speed knobs - anything else on a Custom would look wrong!

TheMarlin

Mod it, but keep all the original parts. 

If you ever want/need to sell it, return it to completely to stock, and sell the upgrades separately. 

Mods do nothing for the used price of a guitar. 

SPECTRUM001

My experience with Mods has been patchy.

I would much rather have a guitar sound right at the time of purchase - no speculative question marks on trying to get it right (it is very easy to sink £££ buying different pickups and tech time looking to achieve something that may be in your head and not actually exist).

Bit of a lame approach for a place such as this ! 

And I am talking rubbish, as I recently acquired a set of Seymour Duncan Antiquity Duosonics which I’m soon to install in my other Mustang - fingers crossed.

Most of the rest is fine - and unless irreversible can be seen as a longer game of tweaks. 

And second testament to my talking rubbish is my main Mustang has had new tuners, pickups, bridge and refinish - and is as near perfect as it could be. 

So if you are up for it - go for it !

monquixote

Go for it but be prepared for it to not be an improvement.

I've changed pickups a few times and it's been worse as much as it's been better.

maltingsaudio

What your going to do isn’t irreversible, so apart from a couple of quid lost or gained it’s a no brainer. IMHO you will only gain by the experience. But again do the mod yourself as opposed to getting someone to do it for you and then it will really mean something. Soldering isn’t hard! And it’s a good, skill to learn, the beauty of it is no one knows until you hear the results you wanted.

Funkfingers

Earlier today, I took the plunge and removed the stock Quantum HSH pickups from my Ibanez RG370AMHZ. Using a temporary Solderless™ wiring harness, I have been mostly testing active humbuckers. 

NECK POSITION
EMG-60X - nice range of Jazz, Blues and Rawk sounds. 

SD Blackouts N - fat 'n' creamy tone worthy of Robert Fripp. Also, effing high output.
EMG-H - Nice, clear Stratty sound, low output, would benefit from an -SPC midrange booster.

BRIDGE POSITION
EMG-81X - the clichéed Rawk lead guitarist sounds that you would expect.
EMG-85X - similar output but smoother overall tone.

YET TO BE TESTED
SD Blackouts For Metal - the neck position regular Blackouts model is plenty loud when adjusted such that it barely sits above the mounting surround. The BFM is going to be insane.


Compared to the stock pickups, any of those listed above sound indisputably professional.

The Ibanez Quantum pickups aren't actually bad. They are just in the wrong host guitar.

timmypix

Do it! It's your guitar so make it work for you. 

Roland

Like many people here I have modified my guitars, and learned a lot through doing it. So I’d encourage you to do the same, as long as you do it systematically, and avoid non-reversible changes. 

First step is to experiment with pickup heights. If that doesn’t give what you want then move on to replacing the pots, and changing the switching. Better quality pots can add clarity. Higher resistance volume pots can add treble. 

The third step is to change the pickups. This is a bit of a rabbit hole, and you may find yourself changing several times until you get close to what you’re after. Buying and selling secondhand pickups through our Classifieds is a way of minimising costs.

sweepy

 By the time you have finished you could pick up a Les Paul Studio for the same money, just a thought

BillDL

Blackjack said:

I have got an Epiphone Les Paul Custom Pro .... I don’t have the bank balance or the playing ability to justify a Gibson one!!

You need to stop being self-effacing.  There are plenty people that buy very expensive, or supposedly "pro level" guitars, and they (often by their own confession) aren't very proficient or experienced players.  There are also loads of highly experienced and tremendously good players that think absolutely nothing of using supposedly budget level guitars.

As mentioned earlier, experiment with pickup heights.  A pickup that's too close to the strings can sometimes be pulling the strings magnetically and actually damping the vibrations a bit.  Moving the pickup further away from the strings will reduce the output level a bit but the strings may well ring a lot more freely and sound better.  On a humbucker pickup the polepieces have a screw head so they can be adjusted in small increments up and down to help with the balance of particular strings, and it can make a slight difference if you introduce a slight radius to them so that the middle ones are moved up closer to the middle strings than they were just sitting at the same height all the way across under all the strings.

It could be that a change in the value of the volume and/or tone potentiometers and/or a change in the value of the tone capacitors can make certain pickups in certain guitars sound a lot better.  You would have to know what values of pots and capacitors were in the guitar though and be willing to have a technician swap them for other values as he or she might recommend.  If the pickup sounds muddy when the volume knob is reduced, then the guitar may benefit from having a treble bypass filter (just a small capacitor and usually a small resistor) soldered across terminals on the respective volume pot so that it retains more of the high frequencies that are often lost when turning down the volume.  A good technician should be able to suggest whether any of these changes would make a difference for whatever components are already in the guitar.

Funkfingers said:

Earlier today, I took the plunge and removed the stock Quantum HSH pickups from my Ibanez RG370AMHZ. Using a temporary Solderless™ wiring harness, I have been mostly testing active humbuckers  .......

Compared to the stock pickups, any of those listed above sound indisputably professional.
The Ibanez Quantum pickups aren't actually bad. They are just in the wrong host guitar.

This ^  Sometimes a cheap set of pickups can sound great in a budget guitar and not very good in an expensive one, and vice versa. The pickups usually need to be a good match for the guitar to sound good.  You can throw a lot of money down the drain by seeking the holy grail of pickups.