Help me pimp my guitar. *RESULTS*

[Gozu]

sticker the fuck out of it

[SPACERITUAL]

I have no idea about guitar pickups but you need reflector knobs. They make your playing faster and also give you DAMBL TOANS.

[mynar7]

Alright I ordered pickups and a bunch of electronics and what not. I went with GFS vintage extra hots for pickups, hopefully they don't suck. When it all comes in and I install it I'll post the results.

[Jero]

Alright I ordered pickups and a bunch of electronics and what not. I went with GFS vintage extra hots for pickups, hopefully they don't suck. When it all comes in and I install it I'll post the results.

Lol @ "vintage" and "extra hot" in the same sentence.
I bet they are pretty good though. All the gfs stuff I've had has been nice.

[Bassus Sanguinis]

Alright I ordered pickups and a bunch of electronics and what not. I went with GFS vintage extra hots for pickups, hopefully they don't suck. When it all comes in and I install it I'll post the results.

yeah, sure but what about setting it on fire

[midi_in]

if You don't mind a little rock 'n roll ruinage - the beat up old creamy white could really use the following finish:

1. strip the guitar from all metal and plastic
2. wipe all body or just highlight the face with acetone (the guitar, not You, You silly)
3. wait just a few seconds...
4. and set it on fire! FUCK YEAH!
5. ...okay, put the fire out with a nonflammable blanket, or bury it in sand for ûber doom mojo.
6. clean it with a cloth, spray it with lacquer if You feel like it.

DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT!!

[Heavy_Soul]

If you do not set that guitar on fire soon I will hunt you down and set YOU on fire

[mynar7]

Lol you guys don't really expect me to set it on fire do you? There's plastic binding all the way around the top that would probably melt. I am thinking about sanding the finish off and painting it though. Id have to sand it by hand though.



...no I won't burn the finish off either

[mathias]

Don't put any grain filler / bondo on it, leave it stripped and rough. Then spray a really thin layer of a bright solid color. This thing would look sweet with one of the old Cadillac colors. Then take a really find grade steel wool or similar and carefully buff through the rub points. Just keep repeating that you're not relicing, you're making art. Wherever you expose the wood underneath, get some dark stain and stain the wood there; try to find something that brings out some grain, though. Then put on pin-up stickers. Teal or pink + pin-up stickers = hot. Then spray the whole thing with enough clear to protect it and make it look nice.

Inspiration:

Thin finish with dark exposed wood grain:


Pin-ups:




Awesome color scheme, seafoam over a burst:

[phantasmagorovich]

yeah, sure but what about setting it on fire

Don't put any grain filler / bondo on it, leave it stripped and rough. Then spray a really thin layer of a bright solid color. This thing would look sweet with one of the old Cadillac colors. Then take a really find grade steel wool or similar and carefully buff through the rub points. Just keep repeating that you're not relicing, you're making art. Wherever you expose the wood underneath, get some dark stain and stain the wood there; try to find something that brings out some grain, though. Then put on pin-up stickers. Teal or pink + pin-up stickers = hot. Then spray the whole thing with enough clear to protect it and make it look nice.

Hey Guys, come on over. I might listen!
http://www.ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=151&t=16166

[mynar7]

Well, I started Paramedic school today, and to take my mind off that stress, I decided to stress myself out with wiring up my guitar with all new electronics all night (except the pickup selector switch, which I forgot to order).

Here's the Before:




Stock crappy epiphone everything.

Now it's like THIS:



Yay! Kudos to the peeps suggesting zebra pickups. That really made the yellowed white paint look better

Anyway, I put in:
New pickups (GFS VEH)
New Tone pots 500k
New DPDT push/pull Volume pots 500k
New Caps .22 MICROFARADS
New knobs (black tele style)
New Pickguard (the old one was 3-ply with shitty white stripes on the outside)
Again, I forgot the damn pickup switch though, so that's still stock. It works still though. So I guess I should just buy a new switch tip, which is of course the whole reason I started looking into parts in the first place

Anyway, I didn't even fuck it up! I mean, there's a bit of extra wire in the control cavity, but I grounded it right and everything. I followed this unholy mess of a confusing chart to wire up the coil-splitting: http://www.guitarelectronics.com/c=yRClhGQZJ2mJzM8jL0T5G89Xl/product/WD2HH3T22_02/Guitar-Diagram-Gibson-coil-tap-each-pickup-View-Download-Free Although I didn't hookup the caps to the tone pots like it shows. I did it the way it was wired originally because that's what I saw a guy on youtube do: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2T7crNnOA8. They work the same as before I modded it, so who knows.

Anyway, I didn't want to post any gut-shots because you would just see my crappy soldering job and lol-worthy amount of extra wiring in there. I do offer a photo of the mess I left on my bedroom floor.


Expense: about $150 on parts and crap. I used cheapo pickups because I was afraid of fucking up and wasting 200 bucks on pickups alone. Plus it's sort of a throwdown guitar, and Duncans would probably make me worry too much about it.

Injury: I accidentally stabbed myself in the big toe with a pocket knife I was stripping wire with (you can see my bandaid in the after-shots). I also sliced my finger a little bit while grinding the edge off the inside of the new pickguard to make it fit.

Curses while trying to use my feet as third and fourth hands while soldering and burning myself repeatedly: Over 9000.

I'm too tired to give a good review of the pickups, but messing with the coil-splitting options is super fun. I can get some strat tones out of my les paul, and sometimes les paul tones too!

What do you dudes think? I'm sort-of relic-ing it naturally by just playing it and leaving the chips and dings in. The paint will probably wear off eventually. (I know you guys still want me to light it up though )

[masked elwood]

dude that looks fine!
i thought the guitar looked good to begin with, love the black binding on the creme/wht finish. good move on swapping the triple layer pickguard for the single layer but why doesn't it fit better? (that's not a knock...just wondering why it looks that way, seems like it'd be a standard thing. that shite pisses me off when it happens).
i'd try taking off both the pickguard and the selector plastic and see how that looks.

either way....it looks fukking great.

[mynar7]

I don't know why it doesn't fit better. Apparently there's no standardized humbucker spacing/pickup placement for pickguards. I made sure to buy an epiphone-fitting pickguard too. I had to shave off the plastic that fits around the bottom of the neck humbucker in order to get it to fit, so the space between the guard and the bridge pickup is a little exaggerated. I have a feeling if I bought 10 different pickguards I'd get 10 different fits.

Also, because this was in a stand in front of a window for years the space under the switch plastic and the pickguard is whiter than the rest of the paint. Basically it has tan lines if you take the plastic pieces off. I might get a blacked out switch though.

[masked elwood]

ohhh...OK...makes sense.

I have a feeling if I bought 10 different pickguards I'd get 10 different fits.

yea....been there. it sucks.

[mathias]

Tan lines are COOL