5 Lessons I've Learned From Modding Guitars 

That’s a great tip! I’ve definitely been guitarless for a few days here and there due to my poor planning…

Omg, I am still picking up the pieces from my ugliness. Great tip! I wish I had this kind of foresight lol

Yep, made a big mistake changing the neck of my replica strat and had to borrow a guitar for more than a year before I could buy myself another one.

That goes for amps as well.

All I heard was an excuse for more guitars. My wife would like to speak with you a moment. lol

Good advice, because I have watched many videos about soldering and safety is sometimes given a short shrift, with a throwaway line like, "I know I shouldn't be doing this, but...(followed by lame excuse)". Soldering and the solder itself can do the kind of permanent damage that won't heal like a simple razor cut. But you don't want those either.

I've been doing something similar for about 40 years. I keep a small fan that I salvaged from an old IBM PC (the original model) but nowadays you can get a USB fan. (I have both.) But instead of blowing on my face, I have it blowing on the work so the fumes are driven away from me. BTW, entertaining video. Very enjoyable.

Surprising considering lead's boiling point is around 2023K, and the hottest soldering iron I've seen goes to about 753K. If you lick your fingers when you work it's probably really bad for you but I don't think anyone does that. It's probably the flux that's doing it, the MSDS says most brands of flux list eye irritation.

@@xx-----------xx873 Most of the smoke is from the flux, though it could probably have lead molecules in it. Solder is not pure lead, it's a 70-30 alloy intended to reduce its melting point. Even if the smoke has no lead, breathing flux fumes is not a good idea.

@@jeffbosch1697 Agree with the smoke being mostly flux, I try to use 60/40 solder for personal projects because it flows better which obviously isn't great for you. Anyway I will get a better fan now you mentioned it. Thanks!

Not had that problem myself. I wonder if it's because we have a different electrical system here in the UK? All plugs grounded and the 220-240v supply? Of course, burning myself with soldering irons is something everyone does, even after years of experience. It's a curse of the job lol

Fluorescent lights are also notorious for introducing hum and other noise. They're possibly the reason humbuckers were designed. When I was a video engineer many moons ago we used to have to have isolation transformers to block hum from coming through the ground plane.

I love that approach to both teaching and tone chasing!

Haha they are such destructive little things the second you stop paying attention. Thanks! One more day in Tokyo, then heading down to check out some other cities!

Wear eye protection when soldering! I nearly lost my right eye tinning the tip when hot solder splashed up into my eye. I was lucky that all the burns missed the lens. My eye itched for a few years, but it could have been a lot worse. And my eye would not have made a good guitar strap.

@Jeff Bosch Absolutely great advice! Thank you!

Thank you so much!

Haha you know it!

Thank you so much!

I once added a piezo pickup inside my mandolin- had to fish around inside it a lot with a carefully bent coat hanger just to get the jack mounted

Aquarium airpump tubing will usually work just fine; easier to find in most locales without having to go to a medical supply store. Dental floss also works fairly well for this purpose.

That is genius! I’m headed straight to the home aquarium store when I get home!

@@nisebelle , oh, If you'll forgive me for saying so, lesson number 6 should be, when you do a video keep the level of the background music way down, and make sure that it's not distorted.

The flat screens may be better but the fans in my computer are absolutely horrible.

@@leo._.vincent With laptops not much can be done for the fans, exept keeping them and the other parts of the cooling assembly absolutely clean. If it's a desktop (or floor standing tower), you can change parts to make it quiter. There are lot of options but you have to keep in mind that top gaming performance might not go together with quietness.

@@Elektronijaenis Ill have to see what i can find. my desktop computer creates horrible interference.

@@leo._.vincent The most important thing about the noise is to find out what part is loudest and do something about that one. Replacing other parts then the loudest will only make a barely noticeable difference if any at all. It's been a long time since I've researched this, but I'm pretty sure there are still many websites about making computers quiet.

Right?? It’s such a sneaky little noise maker! Thank you so much!

I’ve only worked on one HB so far but I was thoroughly impressed by the quality to cost ratio of those guitars. Hope the mod goes well!

Phones are a sneaky one! I remember having issues with a pickup install, because my phone would only interfere when I was getting a text. It was driving me crazy!

Thank you so much!

Any device that contains a pulse-mode switching supply, which is just about everything digital nowadays, is going to generate noise that ranges from audioble buzz and static (and noise so high that only a bat can hear it), to noise that a battery-powered radio can tune into, and sometimes right down to the 50 or 60 Hz frequency of the wall current. Cell phones and cell phone chargers, almost any separate charger voltage adapter these days, LED bulbs and LED lighting, as well as fluorescent lighting, all of these can generate significant amounts of noise that is both broadcast through the air like a radio transmission and also radiated back into the power lines so that your entire apartment or house becomes like an antenna for noise transmission. The 1st thing to do try is turn off (or better yet, *unplug*) any test equipment, computers, cell phones, chargers, and lighting and see if the hum or buzz you're getting is changed or eliminated; then plug in and turn on your other devices one at a time to see if the noise comes back, and this way you can isolate the specific device around you that's causing the problem. Sometimes you can minimize or cure the problem by running a long heavy extension cord into another room or elsewhere in the house or apartment that is on a different circuit from your circuit breaker panel electrical, and plug your amp into that. Anything with a transformer can also generate a hummy/buzzy magnetic field, and if you are sitting within a few feet of your amplifier your guitar will probably pick up some noise from the transformer of the amp (especially if the guitar has single coil pickups or isn't very well shielded), which might be minimized if you turn sideways with the guitar or move a few more feet away from the amp. One of my soldering irons is an older Weller unit that doesn't have a switching power supply and instead has a transformer in it, and if I get close to it with the guitar the pickups will grab some hum from the transformer. Most modern devices come however don't use an actual transformer anymore, because Transformers are expensive and heavy, and the parts used to make switching power supplies are smaller, lighter and cheaper. If you have a little "Wall-wart" power supply adapter or charger that weighs next to nothing, it's probably a switching supply. A switching power supply in a plastic case won't have any shielding capability whatsoever and can send that noise out through the air as well as back into the power lines and in the rest of the house becomes a noisy radio transmitter ! Sometimes you can lower the noise by getting a donut shaped Ferrite coil and running the power cord of the noise-generating device through it a couple of times.... You can also find ferrites in a plastic case that is designed to snap right over the power cord.

Thank you!

Thanks for the info! I had no idea that rayon and tencel reacted that way, I’ve always assumed they behaved similar to polyester or acrylic. Time to buy some new clothes!

@@nisebelle Like cotton, they're cellulose (rather than thermoplastics like nylon).

In other words, dress like you're going out to play a "Grunge" cover gig? Heavy long sleeve flannel and dark jeans....and attitude, bring plenty of that.

That sounds easy. I used fishing line when I rewired my D'Angelico EXS-1DH. Had problems with the pots so I figured I'd change all four to push-pulls and do the Page wiring. Strange, but cool... and with all four pushed in, it sounds stock. I made a template of the exact pot and pickup locations, did all my wiring with the pots on the template, then ran the fishing line through all four holes plus the jack. Pulled everything through at once... but I didn't use the "F" hole. I went through the pickup hole, it was easier. I had used four wire male and female connectors for the pickups so once the wiring was pulled through and the pots were placed, all I had to do was plug the two pickups in and install them.

Thank you so much!

Thank you so much!

Just as Niseblle said, try to do what you want and need to make your guitar more appealing for you to play. That means more playing and better playing and more "Satisfaction". (sorry for the pun, Keef)