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| Modifications
The possibilities for modifying and upgrading your guitar is endless! Upgrading the pickups, hardware, electrics, body and neck modifications. As an example of my work I will tell you about my Sunburst Strat and an upgrade on a Les Paul Copy.
Fender Stratocaster
This is the guitar that started it all! I picked it up as an attic find badly in need of some TLC and it turned into a labour of love taking, off and on, the better part of a year to complete. When I say complete . . . . I am still finding little jobs to do!
The guitar was basically sound, body and neck were OK but there was corrosion on the hardware and the electrics had seen better days as well. I planned to restore it as a cosmetic copy of Ritchie Blackmore's Sunburst from the late '70s however the project developed way beyond what was originally envisaged, rather took on a life of its own and I became a passenger! It took a lot of research, blood, sweat and tears but what I now have is closer to the original than any commercially produced "Signature" version has ever been.
By far the greatest work went into the neck. The scalloping on the necks of Blackmore's guitars is specific to him and the actual dimensions of it are a closely guarded secret. It took a lot of research and collecting photos before I could get an idea of what I wanted. The scalloping was such a big part of the overall project I have devoted a separate page to it.
Starting at the headstock, these are the main modifications. Standard tuners have been replaced with Sperzel locking tuners. The nut was replaced with a graphite one. The neck has the full "Blackmore" scallop. Seymour Duncan SSL-4 pickups, the original Schecter F500-T is no longer available, the SSL-4 is the closest modern equivalent. Occasionally an original F500-T will raise its head on Ebay and go for some ludicrous price. The middle pickup is a dummy, Blackmore only used the neck (bass) and bridge (treble) pickups, the middle was either a dummy or part of an anti-noise set up depending on which Strat it was, the set up of his Strats varied as different anti-noise and shielding set ups were tried. It has the same tone modifications as the original, a CRL 3-way switch wired neck-both-bridge. The control pots have been upgraded to CTS, best on the market. The pickup/control cavity is fully shielded. The backplate has the same modification as the original, cut down to make it easier to change strings.
Les Paul
I had a Les Paul copy by Westfield given to me by a friend and turned out to be the easiest refurbishment I have ever done! He had upgraded to an Epiphone Les Paul as he didn't really like the sound this one produced, mainly due to the budget electronic components used!
The neck and body were in great condition so all I did was upgrade the electrics to quality ones and it now sounds every bit as good as the genuine Gibson Les Paul, much to my friends annoyance!
It later went on to get the full "Jimmy Page" treatment with push/pull pots, split coils etc. I parted with it after being made a silly offer I couldn't refuse!
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