Yeah, I was wondering if any of you have a solid guitar, but you have upgraded it in any sort of ways?

I have a Washburn WI64 idol series guitar, I've installed some EMG's (actives),and now I'm looking for ways to improve it...Any suggestions?

Dunno, how bout a new paintjob? or using it as firewood?

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decent guitar dude
theres nothing really else you could change to make a big difference, but if you really wanted to mod it, you could:

1. change the knobs
2. change the bridge to a better quality one or a different colour one
3. change the machineheads to another type or brand or colour
4. change the nut, but i think the one you have is fine
5. and the most obvious mod...change the pickguard!

but i think you've already eliminated the weakest link in your guitar, the pickups.



calm the fuck down n00b

I am calm dumbass i was just in a stupid mood just like the one im in right now

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the way i think of it. if the guitar isn't made out of ply wood, then it can be modded to be comparable to guitars 10x its value. my main guitar is a washburn wg-200 or something. it costed me about $200 originally. Its made out of alder and has a nice feeling neck. i've put new pickups, a real floyd, a better nut, new knobs and electronics and soon new tuning machines. IMO it plays and sounds as good if not better than the $2000 USA jacksons at guitar center.

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Yeah, I guess you're right...The thing that irritates me the most is that it has annoying fret buzz on some frets, so I suppose i would have to change them soon...It has grover tuners,they're ok...And I prefer not burning it, since that's the first valuable guitar I got(cost about 300 euros, and where I'm from (Serbia) that's not a small sum)...and all I had before washburn are some romanian copies of ibanez...so...I guess I'll stick with this one...

No, you could just have the frets leveled and crowned better if that is what is causing the buzz, but I don't believe that may be the problem. No need to replace frets unless you just want a different size.

I bet a professional setup job with some action adjustment would eliminate the buzz.

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Well, when I bought my BCR NJ Ironbird it was in a pretty shitty state. Dings everywhere, and the locking nut was fucked(mainly my fault, cause I couldn't remove the nuts). So I replaced whole locking nut piece, installed a new one, got a whammy bar, replaced straplocks for perfect balance, sanded the neck down a lot, and recently installed a dimarzio ToneZone in the bridge. I'm installing some new locking straplocks today too.

As for my beloved Jackson, I haven't done anything. I'm going to change the bridge and pickups to a X2n with a PAF Pro in red to match, and I guess I'll replace the 2 pots with a volume/tone push and pull pot.

I'm getting new machine heads too, locking ones. By the way, is there any size or type I should be worried about before buying the tuners? Or will any "6-in line" tuners work? I'm getting some Sperzel ones on ebay.

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Uh...I'm not really sure what you meant by "leveling and crowning"?

Sometimes the top of the frets will be a different hight then the rest, due to wear and other reasons. Leveling them means you have all frets filed to the same hight and crowning means you have the frets shaped all the same.

There is more to it but don't try to do it yourself until you know what to do. Have someone have a look at it first.

A good setup and action adjustment should fix the buzz though.

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Thanx man,

Get Duncans

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he already installed emgs

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?

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What have I done to upgrade my guitar? Hmmmm well

Johnson:
-Installed a new single-coil pickup
-Completely removed electronics and took it appart

Jackson (that was bought on ebay):
-Removed the shitty spray paint job to get to the nice stone color paint
-Cleaned fretboard + frets
-Upgraded the Humbucker to a Seymour Duncan JB
-Removed the two single-coils on it
-Removed the switch
-Installed a new input jack
-Completely rewired
-Then Installed new 500k pots (that is for humbuckers)
-Wired it
-Installed a new unrusted tremolo claw
-Installed new tremolo strings
-Installed padding for the bridge so it wouldn't damage paint job
-bought a whammy bar that fit into the bridge

things left to do with jackson:
-Buy new tuners

so yeah...i basically made my jackson a completely new guitar (minus the wood + bridge).

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wow! great job man! is it possible to fill the cavities caused by removing the single coils or not?

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Tehe change the volume/tone knobs to little skulls! Like the ones you can put on your door locks for cars.

yeah it is possible. I'm gonna attempt it this summer. I found a tutorial on how to convert a tremolo bridge to a fixed bridge on like guitar resource site or something like that. So hopefully it will work...will need repainting though

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Yeah, I tried those...Don't work for me...They're great pups, but I'll stick with these bastards

id love to mod my first guitar. as soon as i hide the money away from my girlfriend ill work on it. first thinks are pickups and new bridge. or i guess the real first thing would be to take the gloss off the neck. not change the shape or size. just get that lacker (sp?) off. as for the bridge. i have a crappy fender style old yamaha. should i just get a tune-o-matic or some kinf of tremelo. is a fender style trem good for hard bends or just slight vibrato? maybe i should move up to floatin bridge.

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I hate gloss on guitars...I never realised it until I got my jackson and noticed my arm didn't stick to it like fucking glue...god I hate that...matte all the way!

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Yup, I don't like gloss either. Satin bodies where a dream come true for me.

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ahh yeah that's it satin...man they rule

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My backup Jackson JS30RR I put seymour duncan invader's in. And I put a chip in the corner.

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How does the invader sound, I've heard great stuff abou this pickup?