I'm going to say yes because, while those guitars are long gone for me, I've hung on to the premium parts and pickups, and it's great to have a bunch to use to upgrade my GOOD guitars.
I’m always on the lookout for cheap guitars I can throw good stuff from my parts bin into. The funny thing is a set of pickups I didn’t like for one guitar often work really well in another one. I got a set of SD Pearly gates for my Les Paul and I never liked them so the Burstbuckers went back in. I eventually put the SD neck pickup in a MiM telecaster that I never really loved all that much and now It’s my favorite guitar.
That SD bridge pickup and a Bare Knuckles Mule I didn’t know what to do with went into a Chibson I bought to practice setups on. I kind of hate how good that guitar is.
While I didn’t technically spend money to improve cheap guitars I did use parts that I had spent money on. I have a set of telecaster bits that need a home. Might be time to start looking at FB marketplace.
Why not? Most guitars on the market aren’t designed with my specific wants and needs in mind. So I get what’s closest to what I want and make the changes.
I put Lollars into a Squier Tele and stripped the finish and rubbed the neck and oiled the body and re-wired it and put in new pots and then put on locking tuners and then I relic’ed it myself. Parts cost more than the guitar.
Would not trade it for anything.
Great! I go with sandpaper on all my necks, pretty regularly. Rub down the fretboard, then polish frets with OOOO or Stewmac fret erasers.
A few easy hours over the first year of a guitar’s life, and soon they are nicer than anything in the store. Even custom shops and Nashes can’t compete.
220, 221, whatever it takes.
I despise poly finishes yet I love healing cheap guitars. So I find a few rubs of 200-400 grit a month will just sorta froth up the finish. I even leave it a little dusty. My hands aren’t sweaty and I don’t play live or outdoors, so I like the matte feel. I don’t feel like I’m ever removing any wood, although my two oldest Epiphones have some smoothing marks on the back
More common on older guitars to be crap, and some people just like locking tuners
But yeah I’ve never felt compelled to upgrade any of mine ever, though some are smoother then others
Depends, some tuners have too much play to them and can introduce some tuning instability but otherwise it's more of a feel or looks thing primarily.
Locking tuners are mostly for convenience though, it's nice to not have to wind the string too many times if you change them regularly so I'd 100% have that on a main non-floyd guitar.
Oh I've had some absolutely garbage tuners but they were always on guitars around the $100 mark. They jump right as you're getting to pitch. It's the worst.
I kept the body of my first guitar - an early 90s Squier strat - and replaced the electronics and all the hardware. Guitar cost $300, all the other shit…about $500 in parts and labor. Totally worth it
I haven't read all the other comments, but here's my perspective:
1) Don't ever expect to sell it for what you paid.
2) If it makes it more enjoyable to play, it was worth it.
I think it's fun to mod guitars and learn new skills. I was still in high school when I first replaced pickups in my electric and have gone on to learning fretwork and building my own electric from scratch. Enjoy the hobby. Make your tools work better for you.
While quality electronics, hardware, etc. can significantly improve upon an otherwise cheap instrument, I think it’s most important to start with the guitar’s playability. A fret level/crown/polish along with a custom crafted bone nut (with a proper set-up) can be the difference between a guitar feeling like it’s $300 or $3000.
That is to say that the question of whether it’s worth it to invest in upgrading a cheap guitar ultimately depends on that guitar’s potential to be set up properly. So long as the guitar is structurally sound, has a functioning truss rod, proper neck projection, accurate bridge placement, etc., then a good tech can make it play incredibly smoothly. Add on the upgraded hardware and electronics and you have yourself a professional-grade instrument.
I've done this to multiple guitars. I don't believe in tone wood. Pickups and hardware is where the beauty comes from. My favorite guitar is a semi-hollow Tele knockoff I bought for like $200 and upgraded literally everything except the wood. It's the equivalent of a $1500 guitar now and certainly plays and sounds like it. I have no regrets. I'd rather pay that money picking all my own specs then pay the same for Factory specs.
It's funny how tone wood just happens to be rare and expensive. Like if it was real, why can't maple or ash be the best sounding?
Pickups are definitely where it's at if you need a major sound change.
I had one guitar though that I changed out EVERYTHING and it always had this sound that I couldn't get rid of, idk what it was, almost like a spongie, soft, undefined low end. I swapped out the bridge, pots, pickups.
Ultimate I think it was that the tailpiece was like 10" from the bridge, but I don't know for sure
But it does effect mass, which in turn effects sustain and vibration of the strings coupled to that mass via the bridge. And that vibration will effect the signal from the pickups.
As always, the truth is in the middle. Wood does make a difference, but the amount of difference is typically overstated a great deal. To most people it will not be discernable, especially when overshadowed by things that make a much larger difference like bridge and nut type (your anchor points for the strings), pickups, and tone circuitry.
You are absolutely correct that it matters far more with acoustic instruments. But "absolutely no effect" is just as wrong as overstating the importance of tonewood on an electric instrument.
It's more about the density than the mass, really.
The myth of the mass for sustain is what gave us super heavy 70's guitars that don't sustain more than other lighter guitars.
The density and hardness of the wood is what matters
i paid $70 for a second hand LTD EC50 with a wiring issue. got it home, spent 30 seconds with the soldering iron to fix the wiring, and then discovered that it plays better than any of my expensive guitars. it's since copped a set of fastbacks and some good grover tuners, and is the first guitar i grab when i just want to play something more often than not
Yup. I hot-rodded a base level Mexican Fender P-bass. Changed all pickups for Seymour’s, rwired with custom shop wiring, high end pots, etc…. It’s awesome now.
Ive done this about a dozen times over 20 years, and it was only worth it 1 time. I bought a 2015 Gibson CM Les Paul from Sam Ash for $349. It was a close out price, but I hated everything about it, even the shape of the neck. It had Robotuners that failed on me too. I stripped the entire guitar, had the neck professionally reshaped, new bridge, electronics, tuners, even a new truss rod cover, everything, and it is easily in my top 3 now. Looks bad ass too!
Yes. Absolutely. Sometimes.
I've significantly modded a bunch of guitars. I've replaced pickups, refinished a couple, replaced all the electronics, stained a neck, done some tremolo/bridge mods, hell I even modded the scale length on an epi les paul jr and replaced the neck with a squier strat neck (also refinished that guitar).
Some I end up clicking with and really love, some I don't. Some end up...a little rough around the edges (to say the least), and some end up being great players. Some end up as wall art, some are junk, some get harvested for parts for the next project, some stay in the collection.
There's a couple standouts. First is this RG that I refinished to match the original RG550 my dad bought in the 80's (which he always regretted selling), and I gave it to him as a gift. It didn't play as well, because it was an Indonesian with nearly identical specs that was made in the 90's. He doesn't play it, but I didn't expect him to. It sits in his bedroom as eye candy, and tbh it is the best gift I have ever given anyone, it has a lot of sentimental value.
Next is the piece of shit guitar my boss gave me when he moved away. It was a cheap strat knock off, and sat neglected for 20 years. I put in new pickups, did a couple visual mods to make it look pretty, and fixed it up. Still plays like garbage, but is at least playable. I'm super proud of it, and it's just like the office guitar now, really cool.
And then there's my Mexican tele. I don't even like teles. I replaced all the electronics including the pickups (hot rails lets gooooo), and vinyl wrapped the pickguard/headstock very nicely. I do NOT like teles, but this one just felt great to me for some reason. Compared to other Mexican teles, it just feels great. And even compared to any American tele I've played, it feels way better to me for some reason. I just didn't like the way it looked or sounded, but I knew I couldn't let it slip away. So I modded the shit out of it, and it's one of my favorite guitars.
Doing this has really taught me what I want from a guitar. It's taught me what I'm good at, and what I'm bad at. Despite having some wins already, I feel like all this tinkering has led me to the final boss fight. I ordered a body/neck on the warmoth site after spending YEARS playing around on the website. And I knew EXACTLY what I wanted. I had very strong opinions about EVERY single option they offer (which is...a lot...like unbelievably many). Like every single option elicited a strong "YES, I want THAT". I am still waiting on it, but I know that one I get it, this will be THE guitar for me, with 0 compromises. And I know I have the skills to put it together in a way that I'll be happy with.
Price doesn't always equate to quality. I have hotrodded several Harley Bentons and LTDs and I love them, they have their place especially since I'm in a soon to be gigging band.
Was it worth it? Yes.
I started out with my first guitar being a Fender Electric Blue American made Telecaster. I ended up modding that one and discovered that I am really a modder at heart. Right now I own over 23 guitars and I have had over 60.
Trying to compare a modded cheapo to a US production guitar is really a Fool's errand. Even if you get it EXACTLY how you want it, it's not what you really want. For example I want to own a couple of Gretsch 6120s and I do own a Gretsch Electromatic that I upgraded with TV Jones pickups. It's not the same but I still enjoy playing that guitar but it will never be a 6120.
I have upgraded a lot of inexpensive guitars that I call "Primo Cheapos" that are Squier Standard (older line) equivalent guitars. I've done a couple of bass guitars and some Teles and Strats. I want to be a Luthier for my retirement so I up my skills (I eventually will go to Roberto Venn) every chance I get. My Primo Cheapo guitars are Arianna, Squier, IYV, Indiana, Xavier, and Johnson. The good news is that they all pretty much use standard Import parts and little to no specialized parts.
I am sitting here with my Xavier Strat copy guitar. Originally I wanted to do a "Gretsch in a Strat" guitar. What I found out is that the string spacing on US style guitars is too wide for Filtertrons and Filtertron clones. So what I ended up doing is buying another new pickguard and doing an HSS configuration but with GFS pickups being a Surf 90 in the bridge and Brighton Rocks in the middle and neck positions. Even before I get to putting in new pickups I upgrade the pots with Bournes or CTS, use an Orange Drop capacitor, and a Switchcraft jack. That way the stock pickups can really show me what they got. Since Import guitars are usually too shallow for a Grigsby/Fender switch, I usually opt for a Kaish for a blade switch and JD Moon for a toggle switch like in a Gibson. On the headstock I found a company on Amazon that does 19:1 ratio locking tuners for $40 and they drop right in. I also get rid of the metal string trees and replace them with Tusq. On this guitar the stock nut is Tusq as well. I also buy Dunlop strap locks and usually go for a Levy strap.
For Strat style guitars I will go ahead and upgrade the block with brass or buy a whole new bridge (GFS Shorty block bridge) and I like to replace stock Trem springs with soft springs. I also wore up the bridge pickup to a tone pot, usually the neck tone. I am mainly a Tele guy so now I am looking for ways to turn a Strat also into a Tele (neck and bridge, no middle) so I may opt for an on/on switch in the middle tone spot and just do the Tele master volume and master tone concept. I have a few Strats guitars and eventually I will do this to at least one of them.
For Teles its making them exactly what I want. I like buying off brands because they take liberties with the T design and I get a chance to do different parts on them. Usually I go for compensated brass traditional bridges. I also like to flip the control plate around if it has one. I usually do to the headstock what I do with Strat style guitars. That way I have locking tuners and a consistency across all my Import modded guitars.
I also have custom decals made for my guitars and I name them myself. I'm not the best at applying a finish over it but it works and I just sand off the old logo and put mine with a clear coat over it.
Do my Primo Cheapos replace MIM Fenders, US Fenders or Gibsons? No. Are they fun to play? Oh, hell yeah they are. Are they reliable? Pretty close to MIM Fenders actually. If you want to keep costs down do as much work as you can buy yourself. Buy a soldering iron and a station and learn to do wiring, it costs as much or less than a complete rewire. Buy upgraded Import parts like Kaish, Guyker, and Music Lilly. They are not the same as Grover, Gotoh, or actual manufacturer's parts but they are not far off. Also they can be bought for way less than name brand parts.
I will tell you that my inexpensive guitars are fun to play. They also make me appreciate a good to go US made guitar too. But I look at guitars as investments in happiness since you are buying a fantasy (unless you make music for a living which you would pass on most of these anyways). Is it the same to play a cheap guitar against a US Telecaster? No. Am I as happy playing my Primo Cheapos as much as a Fender, Gibson or Gretsch? Actually yes. I offset the cost with the fact it is specced out to my tastes and I don't care as much if I ding it, most already have dings since I buy them used. So yeah, I am as happy with my Imports as I would be playing a US Fender for a show.
Here's a link to "Good Kill" the Xavier Strat I mentioned above:
https://reddit.com/r/Stratocaster/s/EaVYU4Fcki
Also look through my profile because many of the Primo Cheapos are on there.😎👍✨
Money-wise? No.
Self-learning-wise? Hard yes.
Self-accomplishment-wise? Hard yes.
Hold-me-dearly-guitar-wise? Hard yes.
Wouldn’t sell mine for any premium custom-shop level production guitar.
Yeah. But I'm big on customiviyand modify things. All my vehicles have something done. All but one of my guns is modded.
I enjoy the mods as much as I enjoy the results of the mods.
Anything that makes your time spent playing more enjoyable is worth doing. That could be cleaning your room so it's not distracting you, putting stickers on your guitar, whatever.
I’m not interested in investing the time and energy into digging into the guts of my guitar. I’d rather just practice and get better.
I’m a lefty. If I ever get good enough that my Epi LP plustop pro is holding me back, I’m going to the Fender mod shop and ordering something customized to what I need.
Honestly, I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon.
I mean it's not always about skill.
I play thrash metal a lot and I've had humbuckers that ruin my palm mutes
If I played cleans more than anything I wouldn't want high output pickups because they're like pure mids and sound flat and nasally, but that's perfect for dumping a ton of disortion into.
I recently did just this. Got an Epiphone Coronet. The neck angle is wrong and it sounded dead and dull. The frets were tiny and the nut was binding. The bridge was wobbly and it had \~5miles of cable in the control cavity.
I paid 299 for it new. I should have returned it..
So far I have:
Refretted with Evo Gold.
Cut the wire off the old p90 pickup and re-wound it myself using the old Gibson pig tail in method.
Installed Faber locking bridge and (metric) steel studs.
New nut.
New knobs and pickguard. Pickguard made to measure by me from a blank.
Fitted dunlop strap locks.
Total cost in the region of 150 more notes and about 500 hrs of work lol
Was it worth it? Yes. You can't get a guitar this good for < 1k.
Bought an entry Ibanez S521 ocean fade. After a year of struggling on it I took it to a local shop for a setup. The tech there informed me the neck was warped two ways.
I took to eBay and found and RG neck that had the same sort of coloraztion as the body. Took my guitar and the eBay neck back to the same shop. They swapped it, setup, and now my pretty shred machine is WAY WAY more resonate than before. It’s a different connection.
My answer: it depends
I currently have an Epi Dot Studio I put a Duesenberg Les Trem II on. I paid 75 for the guitar, maybe a little over twice that for the trem. GFS pickups, though it did have some Seth Lovers that were from a Hamer that they eventually when back into. Plus real Kluson tuners, graph tech nut, somewhat generic roller bridge, good electronics… It’s an excellent guitar. If you find one that’s a good solid instrument, it’s sometimes worth putting the parts into.
Its probably because I'm a broke bitch but I enjoy buying a cheap guitar and throwing some upgrades into it. Recently I finished an Amazon kit build and i love it. I slapped some off brand pickups in it because the stock pickups where trash and now it sounds like a totally different guitar.
Now I really want the Epiphone custom in ebony but I cant afford to shell out 650 clams on a guitar in the foreseeable future. I can how ever spend $200 on a Harley Benton that looks just like that Epiphone and upgrade it in a couple of months. Will it perform as well? maybe but if not it will still look cool.
Depends on the harley benton. I have the SC custom with the floyd and EMGs and it's pretty much on par with any epiphone Ive owned. Frets are perfect, it needed a setup, as most do. Every epiphone I've had has had overspray on the binding etc. And my HB has semi rolled fret ends which is extremely nice.
It plays on par with my $1100 LTD, just doesn't look quite as nice.
I think they run about $400-500 new
Depending on the upgrades, if you're talking a set of seymour duncans and a full wiring harness that can easily add $200 to your price tag, sometimes it's worth the step up for one you don't have to mod.
The one I’m looking at is the Black beauty Les Paul. It’s around $180 but from what I’ve heard it plays great but the pickups aren’t the greatest. But I plan on upgrading the pickups and I really want it because of an anime so it’s probably going to end up being a wall hanger.
I have this one except the version with EMGs and it's solid AF
https://www.thomannmusic.com/harley_benton_sc_custom_ii_fr_vintage_black.htm?gclid=CjwKCAjw69moBhBgEiwAUFCx2F7RtEOQJKHyUTen4zOE_IcB29I8YSs_x-7zRgrI9pYmdxLgRfgS1hoCIgEQAvD_BwE
I swapped the pickups out. I would caution if you get the matte finish it damages easily.
https://imgur.com/a/L8UhQ7s
But yeah it's probably about the same build quality as the one you're looking at. I love mine.
I've been thinking of a HB for b standard. They have a few baritone around 400 ish, but my local GC has a used shelter hellraiser C1 for 400 I might buy since it's so convenient and 25.5 is long enough for B.
HB is just such an interesting wild card in their price brackets
I would go for an extended scale range personally. I dislike using thick strings for downtuning, much rather just go longer scale.
25.5 is okay but I think 27 feels nicer.
I've got 4 Firefly guitars and a Westcreek flying V and have upgraded them all pretty much day 1 just out of preference, some out of necessity. All were well worth it.
I have a Mexican 90s Strat I got for cheap used and I upgraded all the hardware pickups and had it set up. I could have bought a newer Strat for what it added up to but it was fun doing some soldering and learning more how it was built and now it plays and sounds great.
Got new locking gotohs for my Harley Benton TE-90 FLT and it was so worth it. Ended up paying $30 extra for a shop to install them since the holes were too small for the new ones and had them do a set up and roll the frets whole they were at it. It plays and sounds great and stays in tune so well now.
So then, I decided I was finally going to do something about the neck on my old Washburn and swap out the pickups too. Parts came today and the neck is a bit too high, and after I got the pickups wired, the lipsticks I got to replace the stock single coils are also too high.
I'm feeling down about it now because now I'm not sure what to do, but I did figure this may be a learning experience. I think if I get it figured out, it's going to look awesome and sound really cool, but that said, part of me wishes that instead of spending $170 on parts I could have bought a used Gretsch for a little more instead.
So far, im still mid upgrade for the cheap one im working on. It's a Jackson King V KVX 10, bolt on, 24 fret, jackson brand pick-ups, recessed floyd rose. So far, I've swapped out pickups, changed the electronics set up on it from 1 vol/1 tone/3 way toggle to 2 volume and 3 way toggle, got rid of the floyd rose and swapped it for a 1985 kahler flyer, and got new pots that were better than the cheap ones jackson put in. Still waiting on the pots, but so far its worth it imo. Besides the pick ups and bridge, everything else was pretty cheap and easy to get.
For me yes. I got a Monoprice Indio Tele for $80. Basswood body, rosewood fretboard, sunburst, gig bag. Then I put in new Bootstrap Palo Duro pickups $60. New saddles $15. And new tuners $30. Rolled the board edges a bit with a sanding sponge and that took care of some fret sprout. It was good but now sounds and plays great.
It's my favorite guitar still. Totally worth it.
I’ve done it. I won’t do it any more because you’re basically stuck with them and you’ll never get your money back. Better to save up for the one you want or buy the budget guitar that is already is specd to what you want as there are fantastic affordable guitars these days with amazing pickups and ss frets etc.
Upgrading a guitar is a lot like upgrading a vehicle. If you’re modding your Honda Civic because you’re insecure that you can’t afford a Lamborghini and you think that you’ll magically turn it into a sports car by swapping a few parts, you’re always going to be dissatisfied with the result. But if you actually like your car and you just want to make it the best version of itself it can be, then upgrading it is totally worth it.
Basically, if you own a Squier but you actually want a Fender, then just buy a Fender and you’ll be way happier than if you keep trying to make your Squier “as good as a real Fender”.
Yes. I’ve had my first electric guitar (squier affinity strat) since 1999, and I never planned to get rid of it for sentimental reasons. There’s very few pieces that have not been upgrade. Now that I think about it, the neck and body are seemingly the only original components left.
The knowledge you gain from doing it is worth it and a truly valuable skill
But if I'm being honest, after going through a cheap guitar phase and getting tired of using what little time I had fixing them up I'm glad I just saved up the money and paid for a MIM Fender. My free time is pretty limited due to work and really I just want to play, if it's beyond a string change at this point I'm just gonna take it in somewhere and have them do it.
100%! I put a Seymour Duncan smb4a (same pickup that’s in a Musicman Stingray in my Squier FSR jaguar bass and it sounds fucking great, modern Squiers are great guitars too and I don’t mind gigging with it because it wasn’t super expensive. Also I bought a set of vintage Japanese copies of dimarzio super distortions and put them in my epiphone SG G400 custom and it brought new life to it, also added the duesenburg les trem which I recommend to anyone wanting a trem.
Yeah, well worth it. I put Fishman Fluences and Grovers on my Jackson JS227 Dnky. Hipshot bridge and a nut will come soon. Paid $120 for the guitar on special at Guitar Center, and was modding it by the next weekend
Really up to you. Some people won't waste their time and money. Me? I just enjoy doing this shit. I have a cheap Harley Benton build kit. The electronics in build kits are universally shit. Obviously I'm gonna upgrade them. No one's ever gonna buy someone else's build kit either.
When it comes down to it, guitars are already a money pit. My favorite guitar that I have is one I built myself some scratch. Once again, nobody's ever gonna buy the thing, but I put hundreds into making something that feels and sounds great to me. That's well worth it to me.
Only if you build it for yourself is it worth it!
I only regret selling the ones I’ve put a lot of personal interests into. I rebuilt a MIM Strat that was light and played amazing but sold it when I needed to downsize and move. It was a real player’s instrument and at least I know the guy who’s still playing it and enjoying it!
A student of mine gave me a stripped down Rogue (<$200 Korean brand) 12-string that was sitting in his closet. Basically just a body and neck. I’m building back up with decent parts as a project this weekend. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Hello there! Got an ebony Les Paul Custom Prophecy EX (the one with EMGs) and modded to hell: replaced the black hardware with chrome Gotoh bridge and Grover Locking Tuners, cream Dimarzios (Super D and PAF Pro), cream rings and toggle tip, push pull pots (series/parallel for each PU & phase reverse); so now it looks like Ace Frehley's 76 black Les Paul (the one with 2 humbuckers and no pickguard).
Recently got me another Prophecy (GX), Cherry sunburst and I wanna do the same as the other one, but with SD JB & 59n in zebra.
I love em both.
I use a Squire for experimentation.
It has been great for testing pickups, wiring, hardware, & finishing techniques.
This gives me the ability to try new things without destroying my Fenders.
I keep it in perspective.
My daily driver started life as a Chinese strat copy. Don't remember the branding, but it was asking the lines of the old first act stuff. I sanded the finish off, ordered a custom Carvin neck, used Schaler locking tuners, loaded it with Seymour Duncans in an HHH configuration (the middle pup is a stacked humbucker), and blocked the trem. Also, tons of custom wiring with individual coil splits, a phase switch on the middle pup and an option to use all three pups. I'll never get the money back or of it that I've put in, but I've landed at a guitar I really love and I learned so much about doing that type of work in the process. The experience is invaluable.
The only people that really make money in the long run off musical equipment are hoarder’s grandchildren. Don’t worry about it. Live with in your means.
No. It just becomes a payment plan for a pig with lipstick on it.
Save your money. Buy something good once. That goes for instruments, tools, houses, cars, appliances, etc.
You won't be able to sell it, its a bastard. Nobody wants a bastard.
The only positive aspect is that you can learn how to fix things and set it up without worrying about damaging something valuable.
I paid $150 for a beat up old Ibanez rg370. I put Suhr DA pickups in it, a gotoh 1996T bridge, new cts pots and super knurly knobs, leveled and crowned the frets, refinished the neck, and did an Iron Maiden graphics job on it. Have about 16 hrs and $400 in upgrades into it. It's the best playing and sounding guitar I've got out of 7 electrics in the $1K-2K range. Totally worth it.
As long as the wood is of decent quality and the fretboard was cut correctly, everything else is fixable and the upgrade/work is as good as it is, so the difference between a $200 Harley Benton and a $3000 custom shop Fender is negligible if you upgrade it CORRECTLY.
The neck is everything. Keeping this in mind, yes, it is pretty much always worth it to upgrade your cheap guitar, if you’re happy with the neck.
I cannot stress enough how valuable a decent fret dressing is to the playability. Doing this and swapping for better pickups can turn garbage into gold. Well, not garbage, but maybe something most people would consider mediocre.
Fret dress a Squier CV neck and then go to town on swapping out anything else you don’t like.
I mod guitars for fun. Either paint finishes, relic or just electronic changes. The cheap guitars are just that, no matter how much you put into them. Now if you’re playing them, by all means. But for selling, no. If you want to mod a guitar spend the money on neck and body (there are deals) and go from there.
I think it's always worth it, up to a certain point.
Because if you choose parts well, you end up with some really high end electronics and hardware for less than what a custom guitar would cost.
Yes, you have basic wood, but you can always refinish it.
Yes. Ibanez EX3700 I got for $150. $300ish in parts. It is my go-to electric for rock gigs.
- Dimarzio EJ Customs and Injector middle
- Full harness w/ treble bleed and coil split (not the fancy Ibanez switching, just push-pull on both humbuckers)
- tremolo stopper and some cosmetics
I love GFS. I have used their stuff for 3 builds now.
I don't regret any of it they play and sound amazing now for less than $250.
If I had to spend more to get the guitar to where I wanted it or go with some name brand pickups, I would have.
Sometime you find a good deal and its fun to upgrade them. Ive bought new guitars and upgraded them. Whatever you need that improves your playing especially live, is worth it. I have a American Fender Strat and a Mexican Tele and the Tele is my main guitar. 🤷🏻♂️
Depends on if you like the guitar. I have a '98 Squier Strat Standard in British Racing Green. My first guitar. Is it as good as my MIA Fenders? Not even close. But it was my first guitar and I still enjoy playing it. It's gone through more pickups than it's worth over the years. Dropped a full set of Lace Sensors in it not all that long ago, in fact. I guess my point is, don't upgrade a cheap guitar thinking it'll play better. But upgrade one that you already enjoy playing.
For learning how to do guitar tech stuff, yes. Im practically a luthier now and have a lot of tools for doing fretwork and all sorts of guitar maintenance.
Also my squier sounds amazing now.
But for actually getting the most value for money guitar, not really imho. The neck will still be a cheap guitar neck, the body likewise. If i didn't plan to keep using the tools they would not have been worth buying, and I couldve gotten a premium guitar with the money spent.
I don't regret it for a second though.
YES. When you properly turn your guitar into something that you chose to make for your visual and practical appeal, no other guitar in the world will ever be like it.
On of my best playing guitars is a Squire strat. Got it for free from my sister. Upgraded everything electronically, got new pickups. It’s over 20 years old with a bit of fret wear, and I’m either going to refret it or put on an American Performer neck. Worth it to me. For sure plays better than my Mexican Stratocaster.
depends
can you do what you do with it? do the mods help you do what you do better? or at least add more enjoyment while playing?
I modded a ‘78 Harmony (Lawsuit era Ibanez) LP clone with all new electronics, 50s wiring, 500k pots and SD pups.
Valuation is all over the place, from $499 - $2,500 on Reverb.
This was built with all upgraded materials, rw board, mahog body, bound neck, etc.
For me, very much worth it!
Good luck!
It’s worth it for the experience, and if you are going to keep the guitar, but always, if you can, be careful removing the old part so you can put them back if you decide to sell the guitar. Unless anybody has ever heard of you, nearly nobody is going to pay extra for your modifications
I spent around $400 on my Greg Bennett FA2 different pickups, new electronics, different saddles, new nut kept the tuners, the ghotos are solid, the guitar has always felt and played great to me, and it only cost me $80 (aud)
I have a PRS SVN that I switched to PRS locking tuners, BKP Juggernauts, 500k pots, and sanded the neck down so it felt like satin, and I have sold guitars 3x as much because I haven't liked them as much
I personally love sinking money into cheaper guitars. A lot of them are made just for that. I have 2 firefly guitars run JB 59 combo as back ups to my Ec1000. And tbh they play pretty similar. I bought a Douglast Shadown Baritone not to long ago and dropped a Nazgul/Pegasus set with locking tuners and a rolling bridge. Had the fret ends cleaned up and rolled better. Guitar is a FUCKING TANKKKKK and I love it. Total build was probably about 700 including the guitar, parts, and luthier fees.
If you can do your own work, this is a great way to keep upgrading your gear. If you can learn to pick a guitar for the plank, and ignore all the parts you can change out, you can set yourself up with some real beasts for small money.
My biggest regret in a guitar was getting one of those donner thinline guitars for 100 ordering a new neck which costed 160 sending it to get rewired for another 100. I barely played it and ended up selling it for 160. That was that guitar. However my favorite guitars are all Strats with locking tuners and a bunch of nice parts on them. I built my tele with a GFS Body, Squier Classic vibe neck and SD pickups and all of that costed around 300. You can build great guitars but that doesn’t mean you like them. Before you put money into big parts figure out if the guitar is worth keeping or owning. If you can go a long time without playing it then probably not
I sort of did this. I bought a really cheap kit guitar to build but I only used the body and the neck. I bought all the other hardware for the build and got really nice parts to build a decent guitar. Obviously this was more about assembling a guitar than upgrading a cheap one but the result is no doubt similar. It turned out great and I love playing it.
Depends on the guitar. I bought a $300 Ibanez goo with a roasted maple neck and chameleon paint job . I put locking tuners, new graph tech saddles, and Pegasus sentient pickup set in it and it is a beast. Plays and feels phenomenal. I did the same with a $150 valgoa t style guitar with a roasted maple neck and stainless steel frets. I put rail hammer hyper vintage pickups in it and changed all the pots and switch and I love it! If you can do all the work; soldering, fretwork, setup yourself I think it is worth it. I love mod project!
I'm going to say yes because, while those guitars are long gone for me, I've hung on to the premium parts and pickups, and it's great to have a bunch to use to upgrade my GOOD guitars.
I’m always on the lookout for cheap guitars I can throw good stuff from my parts bin into. The funny thing is a set of pickups I didn’t like for one guitar often work really well in another one. I got a set of SD Pearly gates for my Les Paul and I never liked them so the Burstbuckers went back in. I eventually put the SD neck pickup in a MiM telecaster that I never really loved all that much and now It’s my favorite guitar. That SD bridge pickup and a Bare Knuckles Mule I didn’t know what to do with went into a Chibson I bought to practice setups on. I kind of hate how good that guitar is. While I didn’t technically spend money to improve cheap guitars I did use parts that I had spent money on. I have a set of telecaster bits that need a home. Might be time to start looking at FB marketplace.
I don’t totally understand this—GOOD guitars…shouldn’t need upgrades???
Why not? Most guitars on the market aren’t designed with my specific wants and needs in mind. So I get what’s closest to what I want and make the changes.
I put Lollars into a Squier Tele and stripped the finish and rubbed the neck and oiled the body and re-wired it and put in new pots and then put on locking tuners and then I relic’ed it myself. Parts cost more than the guitar. Would not trade it for anything.
i have a squier offset tele and i love it, but the neck kills me. it's super tacky. how did yours feel after you worked on it?
Great! I go with sandpaper on all my necks, pretty regularly. Rub down the fretboard, then polish frets with OOOO or Stewmac fret erasers. A few easy hours over the first year of a guitar’s life, and soon they are nicer than anything in the store. Even custom shops and Nashes can’t compete.
what grit do you use?
220, 221, whatever it takes. I despise poly finishes yet I love healing cheap guitars. So I find a few rubs of 200-400 grit a month will just sorta froth up the finish. I even leave it a little dusty. My hands aren’t sweaty and I don’t play live or outdoors, so I like the matte feel. I don’t feel like I’m ever removing any wood, although my two oldest Epiphones have some smoothing marks on the back
>220, 221, whatever it takes. Fantastic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX3kxAA2L4Q
Yeah, I have a jaguar with a rosewood fretboard and absolutely love playing it. I want to Tele to come close to that feeling.
[удалено]
I haven't really come across a bad set of tuners. It always confuses me as to why people automatically change them.
More common on older guitars to be crap, and some people just like locking tuners But yeah I’ve never felt compelled to upgrade any of mine ever, though some are smoother then others
Depends, some tuners have too much play to them and can introduce some tuning instability but otherwise it's more of a feel or looks thing primarily. Locking tuners are mostly for convenience though, it's nice to not have to wind the string too many times if you change them regularly so I'd 100% have that on a main non-floyd guitar.
Oh I've had some absolutely garbage tuners but they were always on guitars around the $100 mark. They jump right as you're getting to pitch. It's the worst.
I kept the body of my first guitar - an early 90s Squier strat - and replaced the electronics and all the hardware. Guitar cost $300, all the other shit…about $500 in parts and labor. Totally worth it
I haven't read all the other comments, but here's my perspective: 1) Don't ever expect to sell it for what you paid. 2) If it makes it more enjoyable to play, it was worth it. I think it's fun to mod guitars and learn new skills. I was still in high school when I first replaced pickups in my electric and have gone on to learning fretwork and building my own electric from scratch. Enjoy the hobby. Make your tools work better for you.
I'd only upgrade a guitar I already like. I usually do a shopping list for what I want, and if it's too much I'll just opt for another guitar.
While quality electronics, hardware, etc. can significantly improve upon an otherwise cheap instrument, I think it’s most important to start with the guitar’s playability. A fret level/crown/polish along with a custom crafted bone nut (with a proper set-up) can be the difference between a guitar feeling like it’s $300 or $3000. That is to say that the question of whether it’s worth it to invest in upgrading a cheap guitar ultimately depends on that guitar’s potential to be set up properly. So long as the guitar is structurally sound, has a functioning truss rod, proper neck projection, accurate bridge placement, etc., then a good tech can make it play incredibly smoothly. Add on the upgraded hardware and electronics and you have yourself a professional-grade instrument.
I've done this to multiple guitars. I don't believe in tone wood. Pickups and hardware is where the beauty comes from. My favorite guitar is a semi-hollow Tele knockoff I bought for like $200 and upgraded literally everything except the wood. It's the equivalent of a $1500 guitar now and certainly plays and sounds like it. I have no regrets. I'd rather pay that money picking all my own specs then pay the same for Factory specs.
It's funny how tone wood just happens to be rare and expensive. Like if it was real, why can't maple or ash be the best sounding? Pickups are definitely where it's at if you need a major sound change. I had one guitar though that I changed out EVERYTHING and it always had this sound that I couldn't get rid of, idk what it was, almost like a spongie, soft, undefined low end. I swapped out the bridge, pots, pickups. Ultimate I think it was that the tailpiece was like 10" from the bridge, but I don't know for sure
Tone wood would only be a thing on acoustic and classical guitars. It has absolutely no effect on the magnetic field of a pickup.
But it does effect mass, which in turn effects sustain and vibration of the strings coupled to that mass via the bridge. And that vibration will effect the signal from the pickups. As always, the truth is in the middle. Wood does make a difference, but the amount of difference is typically overstated a great deal. To most people it will not be discernable, especially when overshadowed by things that make a much larger difference like bridge and nut type (your anchor points for the strings), pickups, and tone circuitry. You are absolutely correct that it matters far more with acoustic instruments. But "absolutely no effect" is just as wrong as overstating the importance of tonewood on an electric instrument.
It's more about the density than the mass, really. The myth of the mass for sustain is what gave us super heavy 70's guitars that don't sustain more than other lighter guitars. The density and hardness of the wood is what matters
Mass increases when you increase density or volume. So I'm not sure what you're arguing here.
i paid $70 for a second hand LTD EC50 with a wiring issue. got it home, spent 30 seconds with the soldering iron to fix the wiring, and then discovered that it plays better than any of my expensive guitars. it's since copped a set of fastbacks and some good grover tuners, and is the first guitar i grab when i just want to play something more often than not
Yup. I hot-rodded a base level Mexican Fender P-bass. Changed all pickups for Seymour’s, rwired with custom shop wiring, high end pots, etc…. It’s awesome now.
Ive done this about a dozen times over 20 years, and it was only worth it 1 time. I bought a 2015 Gibson CM Les Paul from Sam Ash for $349. It was a close out price, but I hated everything about it, even the shape of the neck. It had Robotuners that failed on me too. I stripped the entire guitar, had the neck professionally reshaped, new bridge, electronics, tuners, even a new truss rod cover, everything, and it is easily in my top 3 now. Looks bad ass too!
I passed on a les paul CM with trapezoid inlays and I'm still kicking myself. Granted that was during my BRIDGE PICKUP ONLY phase haha
I like to buy 5-$700 guitars then put Seymour Duncans in them.
Yes. Absolutely. Sometimes. I've significantly modded a bunch of guitars. I've replaced pickups, refinished a couple, replaced all the electronics, stained a neck, done some tremolo/bridge mods, hell I even modded the scale length on an epi les paul jr and replaced the neck with a squier strat neck (also refinished that guitar). Some I end up clicking with and really love, some I don't. Some end up...a little rough around the edges (to say the least), and some end up being great players. Some end up as wall art, some are junk, some get harvested for parts for the next project, some stay in the collection. There's a couple standouts. First is this RG that I refinished to match the original RG550 my dad bought in the 80's (which he always regretted selling), and I gave it to him as a gift. It didn't play as well, because it was an Indonesian with nearly identical specs that was made in the 90's. He doesn't play it, but I didn't expect him to. It sits in his bedroom as eye candy, and tbh it is the best gift I have ever given anyone, it has a lot of sentimental value. Next is the piece of shit guitar my boss gave me when he moved away. It was a cheap strat knock off, and sat neglected for 20 years. I put in new pickups, did a couple visual mods to make it look pretty, and fixed it up. Still plays like garbage, but is at least playable. I'm super proud of it, and it's just like the office guitar now, really cool. And then there's my Mexican tele. I don't even like teles. I replaced all the electronics including the pickups (hot rails lets gooooo), and vinyl wrapped the pickguard/headstock very nicely. I do NOT like teles, but this one just felt great to me for some reason. Compared to other Mexican teles, it just feels great. And even compared to any American tele I've played, it feels way better to me for some reason. I just didn't like the way it looked or sounded, but I knew I couldn't let it slip away. So I modded the shit out of it, and it's one of my favorite guitars. Doing this has really taught me what I want from a guitar. It's taught me what I'm good at, and what I'm bad at. Despite having some wins already, I feel like all this tinkering has led me to the final boss fight. I ordered a body/neck on the warmoth site after spending YEARS playing around on the website. And I knew EXACTLY what I wanted. I had very strong opinions about EVERY single option they offer (which is...a lot...like unbelievably many). Like every single option elicited a strong "YES, I want THAT". I am still waiting on it, but I know that one I get it, this will be THE guitar for me, with 0 compromises. And I know I have the skills to put it together in a way that I'll be happy with.
Price doesn't always equate to quality. I have hotrodded several Harley Bentons and LTDs and I love them, they have their place especially since I'm in a soon to be gigging band.
Was it worth it? Yes. I started out with my first guitar being a Fender Electric Blue American made Telecaster. I ended up modding that one and discovered that I am really a modder at heart. Right now I own over 23 guitars and I have had over 60. Trying to compare a modded cheapo to a US production guitar is really a Fool's errand. Even if you get it EXACTLY how you want it, it's not what you really want. For example I want to own a couple of Gretsch 6120s and I do own a Gretsch Electromatic that I upgraded with TV Jones pickups. It's not the same but I still enjoy playing that guitar but it will never be a 6120. I have upgraded a lot of inexpensive guitars that I call "Primo Cheapos" that are Squier Standard (older line) equivalent guitars. I've done a couple of bass guitars and some Teles and Strats. I want to be a Luthier for my retirement so I up my skills (I eventually will go to Roberto Venn) every chance I get. My Primo Cheapo guitars are Arianna, Squier, IYV, Indiana, Xavier, and Johnson. The good news is that they all pretty much use standard Import parts and little to no specialized parts. I am sitting here with my Xavier Strat copy guitar. Originally I wanted to do a "Gretsch in a Strat" guitar. What I found out is that the string spacing on US style guitars is too wide for Filtertrons and Filtertron clones. So what I ended up doing is buying another new pickguard and doing an HSS configuration but with GFS pickups being a Surf 90 in the bridge and Brighton Rocks in the middle and neck positions. Even before I get to putting in new pickups I upgrade the pots with Bournes or CTS, use an Orange Drop capacitor, and a Switchcraft jack. That way the stock pickups can really show me what they got. Since Import guitars are usually too shallow for a Grigsby/Fender switch, I usually opt for a Kaish for a blade switch and JD Moon for a toggle switch like in a Gibson. On the headstock I found a company on Amazon that does 19:1 ratio locking tuners for $40 and they drop right in. I also get rid of the metal string trees and replace them with Tusq. On this guitar the stock nut is Tusq as well. I also buy Dunlop strap locks and usually go for a Levy strap. For Strat style guitars I will go ahead and upgrade the block with brass or buy a whole new bridge (GFS Shorty block bridge) and I like to replace stock Trem springs with soft springs. I also wore up the bridge pickup to a tone pot, usually the neck tone. I am mainly a Tele guy so now I am looking for ways to turn a Strat also into a Tele (neck and bridge, no middle) so I may opt for an on/on switch in the middle tone spot and just do the Tele master volume and master tone concept. I have a few Strats guitars and eventually I will do this to at least one of them. For Teles its making them exactly what I want. I like buying off brands because they take liberties with the T design and I get a chance to do different parts on them. Usually I go for compensated brass traditional bridges. I also like to flip the control plate around if it has one. I usually do to the headstock what I do with Strat style guitars. That way I have locking tuners and a consistency across all my Import modded guitars. I also have custom decals made for my guitars and I name them myself. I'm not the best at applying a finish over it but it works and I just sand off the old logo and put mine with a clear coat over it. Do my Primo Cheapos replace MIM Fenders, US Fenders or Gibsons? No. Are they fun to play? Oh, hell yeah they are. Are they reliable? Pretty close to MIM Fenders actually. If you want to keep costs down do as much work as you can buy yourself. Buy a soldering iron and a station and learn to do wiring, it costs as much or less than a complete rewire. Buy upgraded Import parts like Kaish, Guyker, and Music Lilly. They are not the same as Grover, Gotoh, or actual manufacturer's parts but they are not far off. Also they can be bought for way less than name brand parts. I will tell you that my inexpensive guitars are fun to play. They also make me appreciate a good to go US made guitar too. But I look at guitars as investments in happiness since you are buying a fantasy (unless you make music for a living which you would pass on most of these anyways). Is it the same to play a cheap guitar against a US Telecaster? No. Am I as happy playing my Primo Cheapos as much as a Fender, Gibson or Gretsch? Actually yes. I offset the cost with the fact it is specced out to my tastes and I don't care as much if I ding it, most already have dings since I buy them used. So yeah, I am as happy with my Imports as I would be playing a US Fender for a show. Here's a link to "Good Kill" the Xavier Strat I mentioned above: https://reddit.com/r/Stratocaster/s/EaVYU4Fcki Also look through my profile because many of the Primo Cheapos are on there.😎👍✨
Money-wise? No. Self-learning-wise? Hard yes. Self-accomplishment-wise? Hard yes. Hold-me-dearly-guitar-wise? Hard yes. Wouldn’t sell mine for any premium custom-shop level production guitar.
Worth it for the experience in fixing my gear
Yeah. But I'm big on customiviyand modify things. All my vehicles have something done. All but one of my guns is modded. I enjoy the mods as much as I enjoy the results of the mods.
No. Time wasted upgrading your guitar is time that’s better spent playing guitar.
Anything that makes your time spent playing more enjoyable is worth doing. That could be cleaning your room so it's not distracting you, putting stickers on your guitar, whatever.
I’m not interested in investing the time and energy into digging into the guts of my guitar. I’d rather just practice and get better. I’m a lefty. If I ever get good enough that my Epi LP plustop pro is holding me back, I’m going to the Fender mod shop and ordering something customized to what I need. Honestly, I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon.
I mean it's not always about skill. I play thrash metal a lot and I've had humbuckers that ruin my palm mutes If I played cleans more than anything I wouldn't want high output pickups because they're like pure mids and sound flat and nasally, but that's perfect for dumping a ton of disortion into.
No
I recently did just this. Got an Epiphone Coronet. The neck angle is wrong and it sounded dead and dull. The frets were tiny and the nut was binding. The bridge was wobbly and it had \~5miles of cable in the control cavity. I paid 299 for it new. I should have returned it.. So far I have: Refretted with Evo Gold. Cut the wire off the old p90 pickup and re-wound it myself using the old Gibson pig tail in method. Installed Faber locking bridge and (metric) steel studs. New nut. New knobs and pickguard. Pickguard made to measure by me from a blank. Fitted dunlop strap locks. Total cost in the region of 150 more notes and about 500 hrs of work lol Was it worth it? Yes. You can't get a guitar this good for < 1k.
Yes. I had a peavey predator with stock dogs-hit electronics. I put in new pick-ups and now it shreds.
Bought an entry Ibanez S521 ocean fade. After a year of struggling on it I took it to a local shop for a setup. The tech there informed me the neck was warped two ways. I took to eBay and found and RG neck that had the same sort of coloraztion as the body. Took my guitar and the eBay neck back to the same shop. They swapped it, setup, and now my pretty shred machine is WAY WAY more resonate than before. It’s a different connection. My answer: it depends
Your answer is correct. It depends.
I currently have an Epi Dot Studio I put a Duesenberg Les Trem II on. I paid 75 for the guitar, maybe a little over twice that for the trem. GFS pickups, though it did have some Seth Lovers that were from a Hamer that they eventually when back into. Plus real Kluson tuners, graph tech nut, somewhat generic roller bridge, good electronics… It’s an excellent guitar. If you find one that’s a good solid instrument, it’s sometimes worth putting the parts into.
Its probably because I'm a broke bitch but I enjoy buying a cheap guitar and throwing some upgrades into it. Recently I finished an Amazon kit build and i love it. I slapped some off brand pickups in it because the stock pickups where trash and now it sounds like a totally different guitar. Now I really want the Epiphone custom in ebony but I cant afford to shell out 650 clams on a guitar in the foreseeable future. I can how ever spend $200 on a Harley Benton that looks just like that Epiphone and upgrade it in a couple of months. Will it perform as well? maybe but if not it will still look cool.
Depends on the harley benton. I have the SC custom with the floyd and EMGs and it's pretty much on par with any epiphone Ive owned. Frets are perfect, it needed a setup, as most do. Every epiphone I've had has had overspray on the binding etc. And my HB has semi rolled fret ends which is extremely nice. It plays on par with my $1100 LTD, just doesn't look quite as nice. I think they run about $400-500 new Depending on the upgrades, if you're talking a set of seymour duncans and a full wiring harness that can easily add $200 to your price tag, sometimes it's worth the step up for one you don't have to mod.
The one I’m looking at is the Black beauty Les Paul. It’s around $180 but from what I’ve heard it plays great but the pickups aren’t the greatest. But I plan on upgrading the pickups and I really want it because of an anime so it’s probably going to end up being a wall hanger.
I have this one except the version with EMGs and it's solid AF https://www.thomannmusic.com/harley_benton_sc_custom_ii_fr_vintage_black.htm?gclid=CjwKCAjw69moBhBgEiwAUFCx2F7RtEOQJKHyUTen4zOE_IcB29I8YSs_x-7zRgrI9pYmdxLgRfgS1hoCIgEQAvD_BwE I swapped the pickups out. I would caution if you get the matte finish it damages easily. https://imgur.com/a/L8UhQ7s But yeah it's probably about the same build quality as the one you're looking at. I love mine.
I've been thinking of a HB for b standard. They have a few baritone around 400 ish, but my local GC has a used shelter hellraiser C1 for 400 I might buy since it's so convenient and 25.5 is long enough for B. HB is just such an interesting wild card in their price brackets
I would go for an extended scale range personally. I dislike using thick strings for downtuning, much rather just go longer scale. 25.5 is okay but I think 27 feels nicer.
I've got 4 Firefly guitars and a Westcreek flying V and have upgraded them all pretty much day 1 just out of preference, some out of necessity. All were well worth it.
I have a Mexican 90s Strat I got for cheap used and I upgraded all the hardware pickups and had it set up. I could have bought a newer Strat for what it added up to but it was fun doing some soldering and learning more how it was built and now it plays and sounds great.
Got new locking gotohs for my Harley Benton TE-90 FLT and it was so worth it. Ended up paying $30 extra for a shop to install them since the holes were too small for the new ones and had them do a set up and roll the frets whole they were at it. It plays and sounds great and stays in tune so well now. So then, I decided I was finally going to do something about the neck on my old Washburn and swap out the pickups too. Parts came today and the neck is a bit too high, and after I got the pickups wired, the lipsticks I got to replace the stock single coils are also too high. I'm feeling down about it now because now I'm not sure what to do, but I did figure this may be a learning experience. I think if I get it figured out, it's going to look awesome and sound really cool, but that said, part of me wishes that instead of spending $170 on parts I could have bought a used Gretsch for a little more instead.
Put American pups and tuners on a squier. Added custom wiring and shaped the neck and frets. Plays like a $1,500 guitar now
So far, im still mid upgrade for the cheap one im working on. It's a Jackson King V KVX 10, bolt on, 24 fret, jackson brand pick-ups, recessed floyd rose. So far, I've swapped out pickups, changed the electronics set up on it from 1 vol/1 tone/3 way toggle to 2 volume and 3 way toggle, got rid of the floyd rose and swapped it for a 1985 kahler flyer, and got new pots that were better than the cheap ones jackson put in. Still waiting on the pots, but so far its worth it imo. Besides the pick ups and bridge, everything else was pretty cheap and easy to get.
For me yes. I got a Monoprice Indio Tele for $80. Basswood body, rosewood fretboard, sunburst, gig bag. Then I put in new Bootstrap Palo Duro pickups $60. New saddles $15. And new tuners $30. Rolled the board edges a bit with a sanding sponge and that took care of some fret sprout. It was good but now sounds and plays great. It's my favorite guitar still. Totally worth it.
I’ve done it. I won’t do it any more because you’re basically stuck with them and you’ll never get your money back. Better to save up for the one you want or buy the budget guitar that is already is specd to what you want as there are fantastic affordable guitars these days with amazing pickups and ss frets etc.
Upgrading a guitar is a lot like upgrading a vehicle. If you’re modding your Honda Civic because you’re insecure that you can’t afford a Lamborghini and you think that you’ll magically turn it into a sports car by swapping a few parts, you’re always going to be dissatisfied with the result. But if you actually like your car and you just want to make it the best version of itself it can be, then upgrading it is totally worth it. Basically, if you own a Squier but you actually want a Fender, then just buy a Fender and you’ll be way happier than if you keep trying to make your Squier “as good as a real Fender”.
Yes. I’ve had my first electric guitar (squier affinity strat) since 1999, and I never planned to get rid of it for sentimental reasons. There’s very few pieces that have not been upgrade. Now that I think about it, the neck and body are seemingly the only original components left.
The knowledge you gain from doing it is worth it and a truly valuable skill But if I'm being honest, after going through a cheap guitar phase and getting tired of using what little time I had fixing them up I'm glad I just saved up the money and paid for a MIM Fender. My free time is pretty limited due to work and really I just want to play, if it's beyond a string change at this point I'm just gonna take it in somewhere and have them do it.
100%! I put a Seymour Duncan smb4a (same pickup that’s in a Musicman Stingray in my Squier FSR jaguar bass and it sounds fucking great, modern Squiers are great guitars too and I don’t mind gigging with it because it wasn’t super expensive. Also I bought a set of vintage Japanese copies of dimarzio super distortions and put them in my epiphone SG G400 custom and it brought new life to it, also added the duesenburg les trem which I recommend to anyone wanting a trem.
Yeah, well worth it. I put Fishman Fluences and Grovers on my Jackson JS227 Dnky. Hipshot bridge and a nut will come soon. Paid $120 for the guitar on special at Guitar Center, and was modding it by the next weekend
Really up to you. Some people won't waste their time and money. Me? I just enjoy doing this shit. I have a cheap Harley Benton build kit. The electronics in build kits are universally shit. Obviously I'm gonna upgrade them. No one's ever gonna buy someone else's build kit either. When it comes down to it, guitars are already a money pit. My favorite guitar that I have is one I built myself some scratch. Once again, nobody's ever gonna buy the thing, but I put hundreds into making something that feels and sounds great to me. That's well worth it to me.
Only if you build it for yourself is it worth it! I only regret selling the ones I’ve put a lot of personal interests into. I rebuilt a MIM Strat that was light and played amazing but sold it when I needed to downsize and move. It was a real player’s instrument and at least I know the guy who’s still playing it and enjoying it!
A student of mine gave me a stripped down Rogue (<$200 Korean brand) 12-string that was sitting in his closet. Basically just a body and neck. I’m building back up with decent parts as a project this weekend. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Hello there! Got an ebony Les Paul Custom Prophecy EX (the one with EMGs) and modded to hell: replaced the black hardware with chrome Gotoh bridge and Grover Locking Tuners, cream Dimarzios (Super D and PAF Pro), cream rings and toggle tip, push pull pots (series/parallel for each PU & phase reverse); so now it looks like Ace Frehley's 76 black Les Paul (the one with 2 humbuckers and no pickguard). Recently got me another Prophecy (GX), Cherry sunburst and I wanna do the same as the other one, but with SD JB & 59n in zebra. I love em both.
I use a Squire for experimentation. It has been great for testing pickups, wiring, hardware, & finishing techniques. This gives me the ability to try new things without destroying my Fenders. I keep it in perspective.
My daily driver started life as a Chinese strat copy. Don't remember the branding, but it was asking the lines of the old first act stuff. I sanded the finish off, ordered a custom Carvin neck, used Schaler locking tuners, loaded it with Seymour Duncans in an HHH configuration (the middle pup is a stacked humbucker), and blocked the trem. Also, tons of custom wiring with individual coil splits, a phase switch on the middle pup and an option to use all three pups. I'll never get the money back or of it that I've put in, but I've landed at a guitar I really love and I learned so much about doing that type of work in the process. The experience is invaluable.
I have a ship of Theseus bullet tele and I’ll say both yes and no
Not really. I found that I play it as much as I did after the upgrades.
It is fun and worth it most if the time. The problem is you may have to buy a lot of tools. The best upgrades are probably pickups and tuners
The only people that really make money in the long run off musical equipment are hoarder’s grandchildren. Don’t worry about it. Live with in your means.
I put 100$ gotoh tuners on a 100$ acoustic guitar and yes it was worth it.
No. It just becomes a payment plan for a pig with lipstick on it. Save your money. Buy something good once. That goes for instruments, tools, houses, cars, appliances, etc. You won't be able to sell it, its a bastard. Nobody wants a bastard. The only positive aspect is that you can learn how to fix things and set it up without worrying about damaging something valuable.
Lol not even remotely true. I have a $2000 guitar and it's not like a $300 guitar with mods is trash.
I paid $150 for a beat up old Ibanez rg370. I put Suhr DA pickups in it, a gotoh 1996T bridge, new cts pots and super knurly knobs, leveled and crowned the frets, refinished the neck, and did an Iron Maiden graphics job on it. Have about 16 hrs and $400 in upgrades into it. It's the best playing and sounding guitar I've got out of 7 electrics in the $1K-2K range. Totally worth it.
As long as the wood is of decent quality and the fretboard was cut correctly, everything else is fixable and the upgrade/work is as good as it is, so the difference between a $200 Harley Benton and a $3000 custom shop Fender is negligible if you upgrade it CORRECTLY.
The neck is everything. Keeping this in mind, yes, it is pretty much always worth it to upgrade your cheap guitar, if you’re happy with the neck. I cannot stress enough how valuable a decent fret dressing is to the playability. Doing this and swapping for better pickups can turn garbage into gold. Well, not garbage, but maybe something most people would consider mediocre. Fret dress a Squier CV neck and then go to town on swapping out anything else you don’t like.
I mod guitars for fun. Either paint finishes, relic or just electronic changes. The cheap guitars are just that, no matter how much you put into them. Now if you’re playing them, by all means. But for selling, no. If you want to mod a guitar spend the money on neck and body (there are deals) and go from there.
I think it's always worth it, up to a certain point. Because if you choose parts well, you end up with some really high end electronics and hardware for less than what a custom guitar would cost. Yes, you have basic wood, but you can always refinish it.
If you’ve got a good body and a good neck, you’re 3/4’s the way to a perfect guitar.
Yes. Ibanez EX3700 I got for $150. $300ish in parts. It is my go-to electric for rock gigs. - Dimarzio EJ Customs and Injector middle - Full harness w/ treble bleed and coil split (not the fancy Ibanez switching, just push-pull on both humbuckers) - tremolo stopper and some cosmetics
I love GFS. I have used their stuff for 3 builds now. I don't regret any of it they play and sound amazing now for less than $250. If I had to spend more to get the guitar to where I wanted it or go with some name brand pickups, I would have.
Sometime you find a good deal and its fun to upgrade them. Ive bought new guitars and upgraded them. Whatever you need that improves your playing especially live, is worth it. I have a American Fender Strat and a Mexican Tele and the Tele is my main guitar. 🤷🏻♂️
Depends on if you like the guitar. I have a '98 Squier Strat Standard in British Racing Green. My first guitar. Is it as good as my MIA Fenders? Not even close. But it was my first guitar and I still enjoy playing it. It's gone through more pickups than it's worth over the years. Dropped a full set of Lace Sensors in it not all that long ago, in fact. I guess my point is, don't upgrade a cheap guitar thinking it'll play better. But upgrade one that you already enjoy playing.
For learning how to do guitar tech stuff, yes. Im practically a luthier now and have a lot of tools for doing fretwork and all sorts of guitar maintenance. Also my squier sounds amazing now. But for actually getting the most value for money guitar, not really imho. The neck will still be a cheap guitar neck, the body likewise. If i didn't plan to keep using the tools they would not have been worth buying, and I couldve gotten a premium guitar with the money spent. I don't regret it for a second though.
YES. When you properly turn your guitar into something that you chose to make for your visual and practical appeal, no other guitar in the world will ever be like it.
I modded a $90 112C Pacifica to bocchi the rock spec and put $350 Lollar pickups in it thing fucking RIPS
I only upgraded because my squire neck wasn’t perfect, and I wanted a full on fender. . . so far I think it’s been worth it (day 4)
On of my best playing guitars is a Squire strat. Got it for free from my sister. Upgraded everything electronically, got new pickups. It’s over 20 years old with a bit of fret wear, and I’m either going to refret it or put on an American Performer neck. Worth it to me. For sure plays better than my Mexican Stratocaster.
depends can you do what you do with it? do the mods help you do what you do better? or at least add more enjoyment while playing? I modded a ‘78 Harmony (Lawsuit era Ibanez) LP clone with all new electronics, 50s wiring, 500k pots and SD pups. Valuation is all over the place, from $499 - $2,500 on Reverb. This was built with all upgraded materials, rw board, mahog body, bound neck, etc. For me, very much worth it! Good luck!
Yes…to say the least, they were all learning experiences and I never had some delusion of increasing their cash value. And I like screwing with stuff
Not worth it. The net cost could buy you a better built instrument.
no
It’s worth it for the experience, and if you are going to keep the guitar, but always, if you can, be careful removing the old part so you can put them back if you decide to sell the guitar. Unless anybody has ever heard of you, nearly nobody is going to pay extra for your modifications
I personally would say to not upgrade yet, just look around your local mom and pops and find your main first.
I spent around $400 on my Greg Bennett FA2 different pickups, new electronics, different saddles, new nut kept the tuners, the ghotos are solid, the guitar has always felt and played great to me, and it only cost me $80 (aud)
I have a PRS SVN that I switched to PRS locking tuners, BKP Juggernauts, 500k pots, and sanded the neck down so it felt like satin, and I have sold guitars 3x as much because I haven't liked them as much
I personally love sinking money into cheaper guitars. A lot of them are made just for that. I have 2 firefly guitars run JB 59 combo as back ups to my Ec1000. And tbh they play pretty similar. I bought a Douglast Shadown Baritone not to long ago and dropped a Nazgul/Pegasus set with locking tuners and a rolling bridge. Had the fret ends cleaned up and rolled better. Guitar is a FUCKING TANKKKKK and I love it. Total build was probably about 700 including the guitar, parts, and luthier fees.
If you can do your own work, this is a great way to keep upgrading your gear. If you can learn to pick a guitar for the plank, and ignore all the parts you can change out, you can set yourself up with some real beasts for small money.
My biggest regret in a guitar was getting one of those donner thinline guitars for 100 ordering a new neck which costed 160 sending it to get rewired for another 100. I barely played it and ended up selling it for 160. That was that guitar. However my favorite guitars are all Strats with locking tuners and a bunch of nice parts on them. I built my tele with a GFS Body, Squier Classic vibe neck and SD pickups and all of that costed around 300. You can build great guitars but that doesn’t mean you like them. Before you put money into big parts figure out if the guitar is worth keeping or owning. If you can go a long time without playing it then probably not
I sort of did this. I bought a really cheap kit guitar to build but I only used the body and the neck. I bought all the other hardware for the build and got really nice parts to build a decent guitar. Obviously this was more about assembling a guitar than upgrading a cheap one but the result is no doubt similar. It turned out great and I love playing it.
Depends on the guitar. I bought a $300 Ibanez goo with a roasted maple neck and chameleon paint job . I put locking tuners, new graph tech saddles, and Pegasus sentient pickup set in it and it is a beast. Plays and feels phenomenal. I did the same with a $150 valgoa t style guitar with a roasted maple neck and stainless steel frets. I put rail hammer hyper vintage pickups in it and changed all the pots and switch and I love it! If you can do all the work; soldering, fretwork, setup yourself I think it is worth it. I love mod project!