5 Lessons I've Learned From Modding Guitars

Hey everyone! No build today since I'm not even in the country at the moment. I wanted to talk a bit about my journey through this weird hobby of tearing apart a perfectly good instrument to make it something truly yours, and the pitfalls I ran into along the way. Hope this helps if you're just getting into guitar modding!

Instagram: @_nisebelle

00:00 What are we doing today?
01:05 Tip #1 Dress for the mod
02:20 Tip #2 Soldering irons are loud
03:15 Tip #3 parts that fit or make them fit
04:31 Tip #4 hollow bodies take extra work
05:52 Tip #5 Mod to solve a problem

Filmed, Edited, and scored by @nisebelle

Thanks for watching!

#diyguitar
#guitarbuilding
#guitar

[MarcusWerner]

One more tip from experience: always keep one guitar in playing condition while you work on the rest!

[landofahhs_]

You had a good list of suggestions. May I add one that my lifetime (73) in electronics taught me? Always have a small fan blowing across your face, this will keep the solder smoke away from your nose and eyes. The smoke contains lead. As we all know lead is bad for your brain, but what most don't know is lead can also cause retinal detachments. I've had two retinal detachments in my single primary eye. Believe me, you don't want to go through just one at any cost.😊

[roberttower]

The soldering iron creating interference tip is brilliant! Luckily it's never caused me to do any unnecessary work, but I've often noticed that my guitars seem to be noisy when I'm in my basement workshop. It never occurred to me that it was the soldering iron. Wow, thank you so much for this insight!

[reinhardbrodesser]

I "whittled" my first electric guitar back in 1968 (yes, I'm that old). I had a shop that built, repaired, and setup guitars from 1979 -1994. Played in bands and have a 100+ collection of guitars. This video is the first one I've come across that isn't full of "BS" or "voodoo". Great job! Excellent advice! I just subscribed.

[sarguitars]

Thanks for a great video. It's so cool when people are humble and honest enough to admit their mistakes, but even better when they share their mistakes to help others. I always tell my trainees " if I tell you to look out for this or that, it's not because I think you're stupid. It's because I don't want you repeating my mistakes. My goofs are copywrited, you have to come up with your own."
As far as chasing a particular tone, I mod to find new ones I have never heard before. I am at the point in my guitar journey ( 53 yrs ) where I no longer want to sound like anyone else. I want my own voice, and i want my axes to have theirs. Dewa, Stacy

[LaMusicade]

Girl with a soldering iron… I’m in love ❤

[AlbieTom]

As someone that is getting into guitar building, I'm very happy the algorithm recommended you. You explain things in a way that others just expect people to understand. That you are yourself not a professional luthier I think makes it feel more accessible. Thank you!

[IvaliceSmiles]

I've been working on instruments for 12 years and still found some great tips in here!!! Thank you so much <3

[enzoloveless]

Guitar tech here, got a couple tips :D
1. Surgical tubing to the pot shafts is the easiest way to get everything back in place in a semi-hollow
2. Guitar wireless systems, you got no idea how much interference dirty power or bad cables can pick up. Bypass them wirelessly
3. Small fume extractor on your table while soldering, so you can breathe with no issues.
4. After swapping pickups and before adding all screws back, TEST THEM by poking the polepieces with a metal object. Nothing worse than undoing 11 screws to realize you did something wrong or that ground killed your signal
5. Do not disregard string tension when changing gauges, it will throw off your relief if you go from 9s to 10s or the other way around

[Seika_Grey]

This video saved my ass, was working on my first electronical repair and forgot to turn off the soldering iron when I tested it, heard some really bad buzzing and thought of this exact video. Turned it off and it sounds pretty good for such an old squier! Thank you so much for making this

[INeverWanted]

Great content here. It's refreshing to see someone lay out their mistakes for us to learn from rather than pretending that they're perfect and know everything. This community could use more humility. Subscribed!

[raslolayton]

fell on this channel by accident. Can't fault the no bs presentation and the down-to-earth directness. Most excellent, thank you.

[TheMndawg]

If you're cutting a body and using a jigsaw. make sure you have enough slack on the cord. and don't nearly slice through it basically the day you bought the tool. Not that I've done that. nope.

[EchoToVoice]

I saw a video of a guy attaching oxygen tubing to the pots of his hollow body so that he could pull the pots back through the same hole when done. The endings fit right over the pots. You can buy that cheap from any medical supply store at different lengths. Haven't tried but looked like a great hack.

[malfunction]

I laughed so hard about the dress-turned-guitar strap. I've ruined my share of things with a wayward soldering iron 😄 Great video, and I hope the trip was excellent!

[anthonypanneton]

Love this video! I love to mod my guitars, and have been doing so for more years than I care to mention. The one piece of advice I would add is - its always good to know what the conventional wisdom is on this or that - THEN its usually a good idea to ignore that conventional wisdom and just try whatever you have in mind anyway, ESPECIALLY if it goes against what "everybody knows" to be true. Because often the conventional "wisdom" is really just not worth much. Also - when working with molten solder, be careful to protect your eyes. a blob of molten solder in your eye can ruin not just your day, but possibly the rest of your life.

[MichaelLagerstedt]

Well done - great video production… cuts and b-role keeps the pace just right… We need more of that in our youtube guitar building community 😃🎉👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[christianfoster]

Here's a fun tip. A Mic stand is a really handy soldering iron holder.

[mrasberry]

Great video and great advise. I've been building/repairing for a year now and just finished building a Jazzmaster. I love the offset guitars but they are a bit of a challenge. One thing I've learned about tone is that it's not just the pickups. It is also your amp and the speakers that make a difference.

[wsteele]

I almost went crazy after hours of troubleshooting on my 1st pickup swap because of the noise to only find out it was coming from my iron being on. I wish I had this video back then. Thank you, all great tips!