Guitar Mods

My brother is a banjo player.  He frequently reminds me that banjos are the "hot-rods" of the bluegrass world.  While I personally try to take what banjo players say with a grain of salt, I guess I can say there is some truth in this statement.  Considering that 75% of a banjo is made of metal parts that screw together in some fashion, its only natural that these parts can be swapped out.  Guitars can be customized though!  There are several aftermarket parts that you can swap out on your guitar that can enhance its looks or sound.  Guitars primarily get their sound from their wood and construction though.  You have to have something good to work with before you can hope that mods will make an instrument sound better.  Keep that point in mind when considering modification.

Bridge Pins - Bridge pins are one of the easiest parts on a guitar to swap out.  You pretty much remove and install them every time you change your strings.  Most guitars (even high dollar ones) come with cheap plastic bridge pins, possibly with some pearl dot or mother of pearl inlay on them.  You are probably better off chucking these things when you buy your instrument.  For a relatively cheap investment you can buy a set of ebony, bone, or synthetic materials that will enhance the sound of your instrument.  I'm not going to sit here and say I've heard a substantial difference between plastic and fossil walrus ivory.  But there is a difference, and its worth noting that the denser material will mate the strings better to your bridge than the lightweight plastic materials will.  Bridge pins come in all sorts of material but are generally in three categories... bone (, wood and synthetic materials that try to act like bone.

Nuts - The nut is a very important part of your guitar.  If its slotted improperly strings can buzz or tuning can be difficult.  If its cut too deep or too shallow the action won't be easily playable.  Nut material possibly doesn't enhance sound as much as the wood in the instrument but it does contribute.  Materials can greatly enhance the looks of the instrument.  Some common materials are bone and synthetic material.

Bridges/Bridge Saddles - The bridge is what transfers the sound from your strings to the top of your guitar.  While luthiers will argue over what part of the sound producing woods of guitars are most important its pretty clear the top produces the most vibration (which is why the bracing is mounted underneath it) so the device that attaches the strings to it is very important.  Bridges are made out of many different types of materials but the most common is ebony.  I would say 95% of bridge swaps will be for aesthetic reasons.  As ebony seems to be the standard material they are made out of.

Tuners - While tuners don't effect toner they do have a lot to do with your sound in keeping you in tune.  Most well made guitars have high end tuners but they can be swapped for different gear ratios if you don't like the feel of them.  Also you can swap closed tuners for open geared tuners and ones with different knobs.  Some tuners allow knobs to be swapped out and knobs can be made out of a variety of materials from mother of pearl, to ivory to gold-plated or nickel-plated tuners.  Some well respected tuning machine manufacturers are Gotoh, Grover, Waverly and Schaller. 

Pickguards - Pickguards are made out of a variety of natural and synthetic materials.  They can usually be inlaid too. 

Custom Inlay - A guitar can have inlay just about anywhere.  Take a look at a no frills D-28 and then look at Martin's king of production inlay the D-45.  Usually people will inlay the headstock or the neck in a way different than the manufacturer inlaid it.  Frequently people will inlay their name or the loved ones names on the neck or headstock.  Instead of dot or bar inlay on the neck snowflakes, vines and other shapes have been used.  Inlay is about using your imagination.  Expect to pay well for things only true artists can do.  Check out Bryan England's custom inlay if you are interested in having this done to your instrument...  www.custominlay.com

Straps - a very simple modification.  Get a nice strap with your name or something stitched or printed on it.  Here's a good place to start for quality straps http://www.levysleathers.com/

Fretting - this is a job only a skilled luthier should perform.  If you have an instrument that doesn't play the way you want it to you can always have a fret job performed.  Frets can be filed down, swapped out, larger ones can be installed or smaller ones installed.  Usually only the most skilled players will even bother with this since a modification like this probably wouldn't be much help to less skilled musicians who haven't mastered the fretboard.

Well those are a couple of ideas on modifying your instrument.  If you are one of these folks who like to tweak things or just aren't satisfied with what you have but don't want to replace it...

- SD