How to get expensive quality in a cheap guitar.

I’ve played a lot of different guitars at music stores, fixing the students’ guitars and all their assorted tuning issues. I’ve heard everything from the cheap Squiers to the $3000+ Les Pauls and Paul Reed Smiths. I mentioned in my ‘How to Buy a GOOD Guitar’ article that buying a guitar is somewhat like buying a car, a Honda and a Ferrari basically achieving the same purpose, though how they do it is very different. But what if you want a Ferrari and you can only afford a Honda? While you can’t actually turn a Honda into a Ferrari you can modify your cheapo Strat or Les Paul with the following improvements:

–Replace the strings! This goes in the “duh” file, but I’ve never had a shortage of students who keep playing their guitars with black, rusty strings. As I tell them regularly, playing with the same strings is like chewing the same piece of gum…at some point the flavor is lost and there’s no point in chewing it. So put a new pack on and remember what a fat, clean tone is supposed to sound like!

–Use good cables. The cables packaged with those jam packs might do the job, but they’re pretty flimsy, in my experience. Ten dollar cables are usually quick to go bad, the soldering connections cracking so you get that annoying crackling sound. Get a brand name cable in the $20-40 range (some would suggest going even more expensive for quality…I’m not so sure yet, but I’m curious) and chances are you won’t have to replace it for a long time.

–Does your volume knob crackle when you turn it? Then you gotta clean the gunk out from the volume pot. Get some electrical contact cleaner and spray it into the knob/pot (either removing the plastic knob and/or unscrewing the pot from the pickguard) and spray into the metal, twisting the stem to make sure the liquid gets deeper into the connecting points.

–Replace the pickups. The store I teach at, Marin Music, carries a great line of Schecter guitars. Some of them have Seymour Duncan pickups, some are Duncan Designed. Original Seymour Duncans always sound bigger and more beefy, but of course the guitar costs a bit more. And what if you’ve already bought a guitar with stock/unknown pickups? Replace them with custom ones! I’ve put quality picks into “junk” guitars and gotten great results. Many of my students have put, say, the Seymour Duncans or DiMarzios into their $200 strats or entry level Ibanez and gotten comparable sound to an $800+ guitar by the same company. Pickups are HUGE in defining your sound. Unless you’re good with a soldering iron you’ll need a repair shop to do this installation for you, but the results can be quite worthwhile.

How to know which pickup to buy? There are many articles on the subject, but most of the major manufacturers have audio files on their sites demonstrating what a particular guitar sounds like with each of their pickups installed in it.

–Add a tremolo spring for improved tuning stability. Some of these beginner guitars have whammy bars that knock the guitar so out of tune it’s almost a crime that they’re installed in first place. Remove the back plate and see how many springs are holding the bridge in place. If there’s only two you might see a tuning improvment by putting another spring or two back there. The bar will be a bit harder to use, but your guitar will STAY in tune better…worth it, ya?

–Locking tuners. Sperzel, Schaller and the like have cool locking tuners that not only improve tuning at the headstock they make string changing easier.

–Graphite bridge/bridge saddles. I used to break strings all the time on my Strat. Once I put these on the only time I break strings is if they’re defective, old, etc. And by the time that happens they’re due to be changed anyway. Some say they also improve the tuning. Can’t say I hear a difference, but I suppose every bit helps.

–Replace the nut. You can get these in graphite as well. I’ve read about other self lubricating string nuts that allow the strings to flow through the slots smoothly, eliminating that “ping” sound when tuning. I have an L.R. Baggs nut on my Strat, which has tiny ball bearings in each slot. Great tuning stability!

–A good setup (change strings, check intonation, truss rod, etc.) is essential in keeping your guitar happy. I thought my old Jem had a worn out part a few years back, as I couldn’t keep it in tune. I got it back after being professionally set up and it has stayed in tune ever since. There’s a book I like called “How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great” by Dan Erlewine that offers lots of cool tips on how to set up your guitar properly. Most music stores also have repair folks who can do the job as well.

Making all of these improvements might cost so much that you’re better off buying a new guitar. But you could also modify a $300 Strat with three hundred dollars worth of parts and you’ve got a $600 guitar with comparable quality to a $1200 higher end model–a subjective opinion, for sure, but one worth checking out.