Mod Ideas?

[Aster No.78761]

Calling all guitarists of /diy/!

So, here's the story. Got the news the other day that my band got into the campus Battle of the Bands event that's happening on the 13th of January. Last exam is on the 15th of December, which essentially gives me about a month of free time.

My guitar is an indonesian strat copy, (not the one pictured, but the same model and color) and after a few years of owning it, I feel it looks a bit plain.

Does anybody have any visual mod ideas? I'm all ears. The setbacks, however, are that I'm an unemployed university student, and therefore poor.

Cheers!

[TehLuthier No.78783]

Hot stuff, love strats. Fortunately, everyone makes strat parts, and for cheap.

Change the pickguard to black, keep the white pickup covers, or go with some solid ones, make it look like the Gilmour strat.

guitarfetish.com

[Anonymous No.78831]

If you want to bet the baddest motherfucker in the place, do some swirly paint. like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cY4LXZqX-w

There's a lot of different stuff you can do with it. Practice it on other stuff though, so that you can get it just right for your guitar.
It will be sick!

[Anonymous No.78894]

I swirled mine. And about a week ago i installed red leds under the pickups that are switched on by a micro detect swich on the output jack

[Anonymous No.78898]

>>78783

This. The all black body with the maple fretboard will look like sex.

[Anonymous No.78978]

I had my buddy in the arts department of my university draw up a badass sticker for my guitar. They have access to a wide range of supplies to make that shit last too. (he didn't really have the time to stip and paint it)

[Anonymous No.78988]

I suggest spending the month practicing your technique so you can win the competition and buy a decent guitar. I assume there is some prize money involved?

[Anonymous No.79002]

Wait, you call to arms your fellow guitarist to help you make your guitar look pretty? Fuck. No.

That is up to you. Hendrix and buddy holly didn't give a flying fuck how their guitars looked. Most of them were off the shelf. Some of hendrix's guitar were burnt. What makes you think "pimping" your guitar will have effect on the ladies panties? Why don't you spend that whole time practicing and building a stompbox or something.

If you want a different guitar. Then why don't you get the guitar in my picture.

Btw, fuck you. You can't have that guitar. It is my guitar.

[Anonymous No.79006]

>>79002
I distinctly remember Hendrix painting his V with a ton of nail polish, so yeah, he did care about how it looked. How it sounded and what he played on it was far more important, but he wasn't oblivious to appearances.

[Anonymous No.79025]

>>79002
Can you try a little harder next time?

[Nemesis No.79033]

Get some glow in the dark strings, Dr Neons are very good and fairly cheap.

[Anonymous No.79042]

[Anonymous No.79047]

Ohh boy... do I have a surprise for you OP.

[Anonymous No.79052]

>>79042
That thing must sound like ass.

[Anonymous No.79053]

The actual guitar is a first act that I got from a buddy. It is currently useless and just sits in my room. I sanded all of the original black pain off and put a base coat of black and used the evh method for the blue and pink lairs. The pick guard is painted lexan from the other side so it never scratches. I just reversed the process. Ive been wanting to turn it into a clock as I have much nicer guitars than this one now and all this guy does is just sit around. Ohh btw this is literally the shittiest pain money can buy. It is made for spraying on asphalt, but this paint job is more than 5 years old. I clear coated it with a semi gloss finish, so that is why it has stayed on so well through out the years.

[Aster No.79060]

>>78988

I quite honestly have no idea, but a competition is a competition, money or not. It's an alright guitar, humbucker sounds cool through any half decent amp, but yes, I'll be getting a better one sometime soon.

>>79002

I'm sorry that you think I'm shallow to the point of preferring appearance over sound. I just like to customize my things. I'm not asking "HEY, SHOULD I PUT A SKULL ON THE HEADSTOCK HURRDURR", but rather "Were I to do x, how would I do it? Did you do x? How? Hurr."

Nice guitar, regardless.

Fucks sake, I'm the frontman. If I win this, i'd like to do it in style.

[Aster No.79063]

>>79053
Is...is that a clock? A working one? On a working guitar? Christ.

>>79042
The paint job looks nice, especially with all the crisp lines. It'd make a Nice clock, I'm sure!

[Anonymous No.79066]

>>79063
I think you got those mixed up, but you get the point. Repainting a guitar is really easy. You only have to make it really cool looking for one night. If it starts to wear off, then its just character.

[Anonymous No.79068]

Paint the body fluorescent yellow, with a blacklight used on stage to fire it up. You could probably get some fluorescent yellow vinyl dots for the fret markers too - they won't stand up to a whole lot of abuse but they'll last the contest at least.

[Aster No.79071]

>>79066

DERPED.


Also, is it important to sand off the current finish before repainting?

[Supro No.79073]

>>79006
of course he did.

it was the sixities and drugs were huge! Ah. Dur.

>>79025
Sure, I can try harder! DERP DERP DERP DERP.

>>79060
Sure does look pretty but it is a piece of crap guitar honestly! The only worthy thing on the vintage fiberglass supros are the pickups!
The reissue fiberglass (not eastwood) are better quality and better built.

What pissed me off is HUR HURR GUYS HELP ME CUSTOMISE MY GUITAR.

Why don't you customise your own without help... The only help I can do is tell you how to wire your guitar and using different electronics help you achieve different tones.

[Anonymous No.79083]

>>79071
It is important to sand off the clear coat. As for the black paint. It really doesn't matter. Especially if you are just going to be painting it black again.

[Anonymous No.79087]

Sand off all the paint, make a nice design with a woodburning kit and oil pencils, put a clear acrylic coat back over the whole thing.

I've wanted to this for a while but I have to find someone to do the woodburning design for me as I'm good at /diy/ general but shit at visual arts.

[Anonymous No.79091]

>>79087
Stencils bro

[Anonymous No.79097]

>>79091
I phrased that badly it's the burning itself that I don't want to do. Controlling darkness & thickness of lines, etc... I don't have that kind of sure hand.

[Anonymous No.79102]

>>79097
Theres a picture on my captcha..... I dont know how I feel about this...... Anyway I know what you mean. There really isn't an erase function for one of those...

[Aster No.79104]

>>79073

Actually, while you bring it up, I've been meaning to do some electronic work on this thing. There was this neat little tutorial that I fond on how to make a booster, so I might try it sometime.

I've been meaning to ask about effects and how some people have them built in, rather than in pedal form. I always used to think that it was simply just a matter of gutting the pedal and housing the parts in the actual guitar, but I'm sure it's a tad more complicated than that.

Been meaning to try, but I figured that if I did put the time and effort into it, it'd be on a better guitar.

[Aster No.79105]

>>79104

found*, derp

[Supro No.79114]

>>79104
Housing pedals in guitar? Sounds easier than actually doing it.

It involves routing the guitar body to just fit in the stuff.

Have you looked at the red special built by brian mays? Check out in-phase out-phase wiring
or series vs parallel wiring.

Using different potentiometers gives you different "thickness"

250k is used for single coils to darken them because alone they are very bright

Fatter coils like P90's it is either 500k or 1meg

... er what do you actually want?

[Anonymous No.79125]

>>79104
>>79114

It's not really THAT different from replicating the pedal parts in the guitar, it's the same electronics, after all, but... it's also worth mentioning that
a)pedals can be easily rerouted/reordered/bypassed/used on another instrument
b)worked on or replaced without opening up your guitar

Not to say that you can't do it if you want to, just that most people wind up deciding it's not worth the disadvantages and hassle.

[TehLuthier No.79142]

>>79002

Airlines are boring, only cool because Jack White uses them. Boring.

OP, look on that site I posted earlier, they have built in effects that are pretty simple to put into your guitar. They're called "modboards" from that company.

There were many guitars that came with built in effects, The Gretsch Chet Atkins special had phasing a flanging, Electra made a guitar with interchangeable effects units, etc.

It isn't worth it to clone most pedals and put them ~in~ a guitar. If you were to do it, fuzzes would be your best option, tiny boards, very few components.

etc.

[Supro No.79155]

>>79142
by using that logic... I can claim gibson and fender are crap and boring because so-so uses them.

Anyways, jack isn't the only guy to use supro/airlines/national guitars...

Meet Dan. He's teh balls.

[TehLuthier No.79166]

>>79155

Ok, only ~WELL-KNOWN~ due to Jack White. I've seen a shitload of airlines at flea markets/pawn shops all over, once he showed up, they all disappeared. I wish I would have bought every one of them. I'd have made a killing.

[Anonymous No.79167]

Create a website with your band's songs if you do not have one already. Sand finish on guitar. Paint white basecoat. Print off a QR code that links to your website and either hand paint it on guitar in black, or go cheapo and tape the print to guitar body. Instant unique guitar idea.

[Anonymous No.79223]

Try browsing through this thread for some ideas:
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/showthread.php?t=132073

[Anonymous No.79231]

Dont do anything that change the sound, if you like how it sounds now.

the glow in the dark strings its an easy way of stepping out of a crowd.
Change the pickguard for other with some image you like, or maybe one made of shiny plastic- mirror-alike.

I woudnt recomend a paint job. it will require a lot of time and you need that time to PRACTICE.

Also, practice with the band in some place WITH MIRRORS, or film your band playing and see it later.
Its not only how your instrument looks like, but also your attitude while playing it (and still getting to sound right, if not is useless).

Dont copy moves from other players, or at least dont do it obvious.

Its not how it looks, ITS ATTITUDE.
thats part of the rock. without it, you are only another bedroomplayer.
(also, if you only have attitude but dont music skills.. you are a douche).


See this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxpZ_fb6B3I
for an exampe