Hopefully everyone has been diligently cleaning and checking their guitars and basses for the dry winter season that is almost upon us. I have pretty much used up my stock of strings and now I have to restock those, fretboard oil and a couple other things I didn’t realize I was almost out off. Off to Solo Guitars I go….yup, despite the blog, I have to shop there just the same as you 
(not like it’s torture and I hate doing that)
So someone just asked me an interesting question last week….we were talking about work and hobbies etc, and through describing my history of woodworking, guitar playing, building and repairing plus what I do now with Solo, he asked me why all these guitarists were so busy trying to ‘change’ their guitars? After all, 99% of us will buy a TV and never try to upgrade it, or a battery drill or a toaster. Of course these aren’t tools in the same way musical instruments are, so I compared the guitar upgrade thing to car enthusiasts who are constantly trying to improve the performance of their pet cars. I think most of us have the idea that we can improve the performance of our instruments.
I have found guitar players to fall into 3 or 4 categories. First there’s the player who buys his guitar and literally keeps it forever, not changing anything except strings or broken parts. Then there is the guitar player who buys a guitar, keeps it for a while and then tries to improve the parts of that guitar he thinks are troublesome….pickups perhaps or maybe tuners. The third type is the enthusiast who buys a guitar strips it and completely replaces all the hardware and electronics…not once but regularly until he/she buys another guitar and continues the same process. Finally the fourth type of guitar enthusiast is me……yup, I’m a combination of all three types.
I have a 1967 Harmony Rocket that is as original as it gets….I did exchange the neck with a duplicate neck from another Rocket because the headstock cracked on the old one, and in a fit of younger arrogance, I repaired it and painted it black. But the guitar is what it is and I won’t ever change anything else on it… I have a couple of my own hand-built guitars which have been testing grounds for various parts….my Tele for instance started out all vintage, but now has very modern tuners from Gotoh, a Full Contact Hardware bridge from Babicz and is on the third or fourth iteration of pickups (while I wait for Pad at Corrigan to build me my custom set). I don’t own any of the third type (changing everything) but in my repair career, I have completely stripped many guitars and replaced every mechanical and electronic part in an effort to improve the overall quality and sound of the instrument. Yup, guilty as charged!!!
So is there anything wrong with any of these types of enthusiast? Nope! 100% Nope.
If you have an instrument that you are happy with, that’s awesome. You will only ever have to change broken or malfunctioning parts. If you have an instrument that you aren’t happy with however, there is nothing wrong with exchanging some parts in the effort of making it better. This also gives you the experience to fix the first guitar with confidence. Obviously, we don’t want to be fooling around with expensive vintage guitars and basses which would negatively affect their value, but why not beef up that Solo kit or late model guitar with pickups or put tuners on with a more accurate ratio. Changing plastic nuts and saddles for bone or Tusq is always a good idea, or replacing cheap pots for CBS or something of higher quality should give you a positive result. The one caveat I will add is that some guitars are just so bad, that they are great. An amazing friend and player Teddy Leonard used to seek out old Silvertones or Danelectro’s to get that one really bad (read great) sound that he would use for one song, because it was unique. We are not all going to have that ability since Teddy could make a Kleenex box with strings sound good…but it does prove a point. Some guitars are just meant to be left alone….
Upgrading however, is great, it provides excellent experience for when you have to fix something on another guitar. Experimenting is great for the same reason and also for teaching us how different parts affect the sound of an instrument. This is one of the reasons that Solo Music Gear is such a great place to explore and shop. You can choose to search through www.sologuitars.com to find parts, or drop into the store to actually see them. Our sales people have really great knowledge as to what some of these parts will do to help your guitar or not.
In the next couple months, we are going to look at some simple changes you can make like pickups, switches and pots. Hopefully I can be dragged into this century and actually video some of these projects (which will look way better than the stickman I normally draw…and will likely have more detail). If there is a specific product or part you have interest in changing, let us know…maybe we can get that into one of our future blogs. In the meantime, take a long walk through the Solo Guitar website and start dreaming about what might be possible for your instruments!!!
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