A lot of people throw money into a guitar when realistically they need to invest in a better amp. I say this because I’ve chased that rabbit. You guys have a great thing going. I look forward to your videos every week. Great content. Great banter. Keep crushing it!
100% agree. People also constantly make "sideways" moves with amps. By the time they finally get what they know they actually need, they've wasted thousands of dollars on cheap amps. Do your research, and buy what you need. Even if it's expensive.
My favorite part about this ever-evolving intro music bit now is that, based on the conversation they have at the beginning here, it seems that Rhett and Zach haven't even discussed and come to agreement on the length or goal of the track or anything hahah! Makes thinking back to all the running intro banter bits even more comical to me. Great podcast fellas!!! Keep up the quality content, and make the intro track whenever you darn well please lol!
It would be nice to have a menu in the description of the video with the main topics discussed so that we could jump around in case time is short.... awesome job 👊
Agree with Rhett on those gibson 498T/490R pickups. My first ever pickup swap was putting those pups in my Epi LP Custom, what a disappointment that was...
Love the episode & the topic. Damn gear addiction plays into this. Been guilty mysef. When I decided to take 'signal path' approach, it all made sense. Started with acoustic side of guitar. Nut, bridge, saddles, break angles and such. Best thing I ever learned was fret finishing. Proper frets, polished with 1500/2000g, make a huge diff in the playing experience; which can improve tone. I then open up wiring and bypass the vol/tone. Then I know if I actually like the pups. Then, good pots and proper tone cap to suit the guitar. I even changed magnets in humbuckers. Cheap & can dial tone up/down; to individual taste. At end of the day, haven't spent much, got to REALLY know the instrument, and can be sold as unmolested.
Hot ridding my guitars has always been part of the hobby of playing for me. (Effects pedals and amps too). I love making things mine, something no one else has. Even if that’s just like putting different knobs on a pedal. But the guitars are the fun part. I’m building a Warmoth right now and have been designing it on paper for years. What I want doesn’t exist and I’m very happy to be getting exactly the guitar I want and doing the work of assembling and finishing. It’s a learning experience too. I recommend everyone getting to know the inner working of their instruments and being able to swap a pickup or tuners etc
thanks for mentioning Joe P. just like with video, so much good content you dont even know exists out in the world its hard to keep up with. and also: awesome show, great job!
Another great one. I agree with a parts caster. There is a fine line with them. You can make money on them IF the work is done by a professional, as Rhett mentioned. ESPECIALLY the finish work. I have several I have done though the years. All of them are something I couldn't buy without spend 2-3 times via Fender. But they all have or do a "thing".
Rhett, I completely agree about the 490/498 set. I replaced mine with SD Antiquities in my LP Tribute and couldn't be happier. Sold my 490/498s on Reverb, so someone must like em.
For me, the big takeaway is matching the pots to the pickups. I did a pickup and wiring swap, which overall turned out great, but I didn't know that a standard Les Paul wiring kit might not be the best match for the TV Jones humbucker-sized Classics I was putting in. The pickups sound great for the music I currently play, but the taper is not smooth.
Yes..... do the intro track!! ;) - about treble bleed - Philip McKnight has a great video about that - about upgrading your guitar - Philip talks about this in his podcasts often and it is in line with what Rhett mentioned. Make sure you keep your original parts and if you want to sell your modded guitar - put it back to stock and re-use the parts in another guitar or sell it seperately
I just recently upgraded a 90's Korea (Samick Factory) Fender Tele with new wiring (50's style), 4-way switch, CTS pots, pickups that suit my tastes better, output jack, output jack cover, locking tuners, and a Wilkinson/Gotoh compensated 3-brass saddle bridge and it has made my favorite guitar even better. It was my first time doing this and I'm really glad I did. Similarly (but different), Epiphone released the Epiphone Les Paul 1960's Tribute Plus with Classic '57s, locking tuners, and pro-grade wiring. It isn't a $3,000 LP but it sounds better and feels better than a lot of bottom of the line Gibsons. Really, it is an upgraded Epiphone Les Paul like I would want but from the factory. It was $575.
Love original fuzz straps. I end up buying a strap for every electric I buy then including with the sale if I do end up passing it on. People appreciate it.
A reality of string gauge which I know from playing classical guitar is that heavier gauge strings provide greater drive for the acoustic response of the instrument. When you're playing nylon string in a performance (not recording) setting you always feel like the sound just disappears and you want all the help you can get. Now volume is not an issue with an amplified guitar, obviously, but consider the acoustic contribution to feel and tone. You may not always want more of this response, but you can get it from a heavier gauge string. Different gauges will be more appropriate depending on the guitar. For instance, for a jazz hollow body I don't think I'd ever use 10's, always 11's. For my Ibanez 335-style I use 11's, for my Gibson ES-335 I use 10's. 10's on the Strat, 9's on a Tele, 11's on another Tele (just because, and it works), 9's on Ibanez RG. I use 14's on an Epiphone 17 " L-5 style which I use for Freddie Green comping with a big band. The point is, if you have a guitar that can "take it" and seems to need a heavier string to take full advantage of what the wood and design can do acoustically, then use a heavier string. I have also had guitars where I could hear that the lighter gauge sounded better, more complex, and had a better feel/response.
The Troy Van Leuwen Jazzmaster is my current dream guitar and I’ll get it one day. Love it. One of my favorite guitarists who is woefully underrated. It still has the Lead/Rhythm control he changed it to a toggle instead of a switch. Idk how no one thought of that before.
That deep breath that Rhett took at 6:30 when they were talking about the complexities of hiring people, payroll and social security taxes...I felt that.
I've got a 2013 Gibson LPJ, they use log pots and I found the are (for me) all on untill about 3, then it tapers off, and adding the treble-bleed circuit makes it more responsive to for rolling off the volume.
Mod for function and feel with well formed intentions. Fret and neck work can drastically improve playability. Control mods can add versatility. Both can be very rewarding when finished but they do require certain amounts of research, practice, and patience.
Modifying your guitar makes more sense than ever with the inflated prices of gear these days especially of used. The argument used to be that if you just saved your money instead of modding you could upgrade with a better used guitar. Not as easy to pull of these days. My Squier Affinity Tele was $180, put in new pots, caps, treble bleed, 4-way switch mod, and pickups to bring the total to $350. Now it’s an absolute killer and you can’t get even a beat Mexican Fender for that. Of course there is no resale value - but hell if I care…
Pot Shootout! I’ve been looking into it and there are some choices. Not only that, but companies like CTS not only make pots for other companies, but also have variations within the ones they have available. The last Blow Jobamassa video I saw, he said something along the lines of the the Centrallab pot being more imptortant that the pickups in one of his (many) bursts.
In my experience the smoothest transition from off to full volume is a 30% taper Log (audio) pot. The VIPots are supposed copies of the centralab taper but sonically I prefer the RS Guitarworks or Emerson pots.
When I was in high school I took a hammer and screwdriver and just yanked the frets out of this squier bass I had. Sanded the board a little and had a fret less bass. Best self “mod” ever. 😅
with setups, i do basic tweaking myself. any guitar i like gets a pro tech setup after i wear out the first set of strings, after this i adjust for preference. any major changes gets another pro setup
Speaking of modding a guitar into something it's not: I rescued and restored a double-cut Les Paul Junior-inspired build made by an excellent luthier (Jillard Guitars, he's awesome) that some knucklehead had the brilliant idea to replace the wrap-around tailpiece with a Tele bridge (he also swapped the original custom-wound P90 with a GFS soapbox humbucker, though that wasn't as debilitating as the Tele bridge)
❤️GFS Modded a Asian made LP style guitar. Put one of their humbuckers in the bridge and their P-90’s in the neck. Both faux gold & whie Perloid-Filtertron looking pickups. Ended up being a pretty sweet swap-out. 😁
I have three guitars that are heavily moded (compared to how I bought it) and I only send it to a proper guitar tech. I know I can do a lot of the cleaning and basic maintenance stuff but I will only have my guitar worked on by a tech when I bring it in annually (unless something breaks). Also, I am a big Jamerson fan so give me that funk ;) Now, my three guitars are all relatively cheap. My most expensive guitar is a PRS SE Standard 24. But all my guitars have locking machine heads and bone nuts. I have all non-stock pickups (Seymour Duncan P-Rails with the Triple Shot mounting ring; Fishman Fluence Abasi’s; and a vintage voiced Bare Knuckles set of single coils that I don’t remember the name of). I wish I had the time to learn how to mod guitars. I think it is sick what one can do to a guitar if you know what you are doing
Without a doubt. The Stomp has many of the sounds in an H9 only with a much better interface, which allows for playing 8 effects simultaneously. It also has amps, cabs, IRs, etc. With headphones, it is the perfect practice amp.
And my 60s hot rod tele has the compensated adjustable saddles mentioned and after 35 years of tele playing they are the best - no idea why Fender stopped making them ...
Treble Bleeds are evil. They just sound bad to me. Gibson style 50's wiring all the way to retain treble. I even use 50's wiring in Fender style guitars. It kills on a Tele. It is the only way to go. And Zach is way wrong when he said that a guitar cleaning up is a logarithmic thing -- it is actually a signal strength thing. Guitars with linear pots clean up too, you just have to turn them down a little more, which is the whole point of a linear pot - it has a more gradual taper. I use linear pots for volume controls with 50's wiring on all of my guitars. Try it sometime, you'll never go back :) or maybe you will - whatever. Rhett is spot on that tuning gears usually have little to do with tuning stability - 99% of the time it is the nut.
All the best volume pots I've used have been 30% Taper Log pots, they sound linear with an even rolloff but they are 100% logarithmic. Tried to buy a bunch from CTS but the buy in was too high sadly.
The Km6 mkii is great, I have the one with Seymour Duncans... the Schecter SLS neck is choice. Brandonwound pups are amazing! I acquired a pair of his humbuckers in a guitar and I was immediately hooked.
The one I have coming has the Fishman pickups. I'm really curious about them, I've played the Strat and Tele set and was very impressed. It's currently stuck on a FedEx truck somewhere due to the weather but I'll give a full report once it shows up and I can play it.
"Done right and done once." Fam, the most recommended guitar tech in my area butchered the neck route on my Coral Longhorn. Twice. I'm trying to build the courage to try and fix it myself, because Like hell I'm going to sink more money into people ruining my stuff.
Only pickups ive ever used for upgrades came from gfs. They sound great. For the money idk how to improve a tone quicker. Use your ear not your wallet to decide good tone
Actually, I suggest the intro track being a running gag. Invent more and more absurd explanations/excuses. I don't need an intro track, but hearing the two of you squirm is priceless.
You'll want to track the parts that you use. If you were large enough you would need to get the same parts from different factories, (bulk means savings) a "bad batch" could help you customer support staff keep tickets low as well as your suppliers make better quality components faster.
Hey Guys. Really enjoyed the beginning of this video. Coming from a finance background and being an advisor it has taught me a lot about being in business so when the time came that I wanted to open up my own custom guitar brand. @varrisguitars. It made sense to me. Not coming from that side makes it a huge learning curve and I appreciated you talking about this because it’s great information for people to think about and consider 👍🏻
.11 gauge strings are best for me. but only on my guitars with trapeze or trems. Otherwise its .10s. best tension for me, most comfortable and reliable note placement for bends etc.
Guys, its a pod cast. Were here to hear you talk, not listen to some intro song. Start the stream, question wether audio levels are right for 3 minutes like everyone else, and get into it.
Hey man. 498ts are not that bad. Better than a Duncan Custom. That said mine’s in a drawer. You might be thinking of the 500t, which might be the worst pickup though. Maybe that was the pickup you had
Most "signature guitars" are based on mod guitars (done initially by either the artist or their tech)... then there's the highest mod level of Brian May 🙌
I see a correlation between the score of a rig and how expensive it is. Would to see a modest rig get a good score. (That doesn’t have a Novo guitar in it)
Agree to disagree. I (Zach) think everything matters, I've played hundreds and hundreds of guitars over the years and personally modded guitars of my own within an inch of their life and while sometimes changes are small they are still changes (for good or bad). Just my opinion.
@@DippedInTone gotcha. I’m of the motto that if you want good tone, PRACTICE. So many players want new gear and their playing is what needs work. By the way, loved the show. I’ll be watching more.
Once you check out Graphtech Tusq Nuts Bridges Picks its hard to look back. There is a Tnality that is Undeniable. If you cant hear it you need to clean the shit out of your ears
First set of pickups I got for moding was Fender Gen 3 Noiseless for my Tele. I regretted that decision. Sure, there is no 60 cycle hum, but they are soooo boring. No character. Live and learn.
Comparing an Epiphone to a Gibson CS is kinda a strawman example (I know. Lots of people make it). I doubt anyone in the CS market is looking at the Epiphone going, "But I could just toss in a couple of pickups into the Epiphone, save $5k, and it's the same thing!" What likely happens more often is the person looking at the $2.5k 60's Standard or the $1.5k Special might be eyeing the Epiphone equivalent asking that question. We know, say, a Fender Player and a Squier CV aren't miles apart in quality, for example. It seems reasonable to move up the line and ask how the CV stacks against, say, an American Performer. The real interesting version of those questions comes at the closer edge cases, not the extremes of the scale.
