I Destroyed My VINTAGE Fender Guitar
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ย. 2023
- I destroyed my first guitar - a vintage Fender Mustang! What did you do with your first guitar? Buying from Sweetwater? Support me by using this affiliate link: sweetwater.sjv.io/KjXzQ7
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I'd say you got way more value out of it over the last 50 years than the $1500 difference in resale value at this point
Now the guitar has personality . I went past that " Warranty void " sign several times altering speakers , guitars , wires etc .
I'm in the EVH camp. If the guitar you want isn't out there, then create what you need with what you've got. For you, it was the early 70s & there wasn't Fenders with humbuckers. I'm glad you did it because it made you play it.
I bought a Squier Mustang HH a couple years ago. I did a proper setup and I love it. While I still use high end Ibanez & PRS for live shows, it's fun as hell to break out my Mustang occasionally.
Those old Mustang necks are some of Fender's best work ever.
True!
I think you really nailed what some of us are trying to do (some better than others, and most better than me). We aren't 'playing a guitar', we're trying to find out how to make the sounds that take us places, that resonate with what we're hearing in our heads. The guitar is just the medium by which we chase those tones. With the right instrument you can hear it in there somewhere, and sometimes you have to go that extra mile to let that sound out.
That Mustang, modded though it be, looks like something special. No regrets but those times when we weren't excellent to each other.
All of us who grew up playing in the 80s have modified (destroyed) a lot of guitars,and loved them to death
yep. I destroyed a few. We didn't think they would be worth anything.
I'm in the process of restoring a sister model to that guitar, a musicmaster bass. I got it from my school, after I more-or-less begged the band director to let me take it and give it a new life.
The previous owner tried to put a fullsize jazz bass pickup. None of the pole pieces aligned, the frets were a nightmare, and so on. But, it gave me all the more reason to redo this into something new!
I took my first REAL guitar (1981 Strat) and kept it stock for several years, but did eventually get into it and started changing things around. First was a Floyd Rose which I installed myself (poorly), which stayed for years, but also swapped out the bridge and neck pups for stacked humbuckers. Later, I added pull switches and a toggle switch that allows me to tap and split coils, etc. I've gone back to the original trem, but the electronics mod stayed the same, and I can get pretty much any tone I want.
I've modified my Hagström Swede quite a bit - added a Bigsby, made a pickup cavity deeper with chisel, drilled for mini switches. The electronics have been completely replaced several times and I've had somewhere between ten and fifteen sets of pickups installed. It's my baby and I love it!
best headstock in the known universe
Similar experiments on much cheaper guitars (as well as reel to reels and valve hifi) started my journey to becoming a luthier. Good vid Bill.
I have done exactly the same thing throughout
the years also! 1968 Yamaha, telecaster, my Spanish guitar among other vintage electronic equipment, talk about regrets. Also Among the other topics you spoke of. But we keep on chiseling away at our talents and what we lacked of in the past. Art is like love it keeps on giving. Its forever.Your a breath of fresh air we are lucky to have someone like you, stay humble and be humbled!...Hats off chords of Orion.
Better to destroy your guitar than someone else’s guitar. That’s how you learn how to repair and setup your guitar, by getting in there and ripping it apart. Every guitar player should have basic setup skills. You said “ don’t be afraid to experiment on your gear” great advice, just do it on your own guitar!
oh yes - only the ones you own!!
Cool guitar.
I’ve learned to save the original parts when they are still functional. Then I can always put it back pretty much how it was.
Ooh, I love modding guitars! All of mine have modded electronics (coil splitting, Gilmour mod, active/passive, series/parallel/split for humbuckers), and now I started a mod project that will require woodwork. Unfortunately my woodwork skills are really poor, so I will bring those guitar to professional to route a cavity. =)
But I want to solder everything by myself, that's a pleasure! Also my understandig of how guitar works grew up really high while modding instruments.
Bought my first electric (Mexican Strat) in April '94, when I was 13. Didn't take 18 months before I'd completely dismantled it, just to paint it a different color. Strats are very easy to take apart and put back together again, as I'm sure most people know. Time went on, guitars were bought and taken apart... I learned more with hands on work than any high school class could ever teach me. Cut to the 21st century - I now own my own guitar repair business. Dream come true before my 40th birthday: I'm my own boss and people love the work that I do. So I fully endorse the message here: Don't be afraid to experiment with your gear. Especially if you're a kinesthetic learner as I am. Love this channel; thank you, Bill. (P.S. Very important to learn safety measures [especially how to drain caps] if you're gonna mess around with amps!)
It's so nice to watch your videos and hear how chilled and kind you are. It's honestly like therapy for me in the mornings
I agree totally with what you are saying ! I have an old Hofner hollow body and swapped the Hofner mini humbuckers with DiMarzio/Gibson PU's , but recently changed those for nice DeArmond humbuckers.Fitted a wonderful Duesenberg vibrato (so much better than Bigsby)and Schaller roller bridge. Last but not least, rewired the original switches, so that the PU's can be parallel/series+in/out phase. Now I got a guitar that I won't swap for an expensive Gretsch, hahaha !
Amen Brother. I have experiment with guitars time and time again. Then got serious about learning to build so started with kits and such. I build, try different stuff finishes etc. then donate them to music schools and ministries. Very gratifying and great learning. Next, I'm thinking an Epiphone Les Paul SL. I have never had P90's and just bought an Ibanez Hollow Body that I want a P90 in the neck position and will use the Epiphone as a test run to see if I like the P90's in general. I think it will sound great and in turn amazing in the hollow body. I see it as a 2 for 1. I am primarily a Bass player and have done most every mod I can think of with them. I would post some pic's, but we are moving to Utah, and I shipped most of my instruments to my brother in-laws there. Just a Sting Ray Bass and the mentioned Ibanez will be traveling with me. I had to pack the baby's myself to curb the anxiety of moving them with a separate entity and all reports are that they were unharmed upon arrival. It's an OCD thing. I'm the guy who straightens out crooked pictures wherever I go.
A Few years ago I bought a mid 80's BC Rich Warlock from a guy in a abandoned grocery store parking lot. I figured if I ruin it its fine. 60$. I put in Lace Deathbuckers, new pots and switches. It turned out fun! With a almost 1mf cap the tone goes very dark. It had a bad paint job. I figured I could do better, and put a even worse one on it. Currently trying again... I am a better engineer than painter.
you made it yours my friend....and playable to your own specs...so many folks have these wonderful collectable guitars and are afraid to mod it and bring parts up to date, for fear of losing the collectable value....maybe with a piece of furniture or something, but instruments need to be played, and if they're vintage, they sometimes need a tuneup like us!😉
Bill, I did the exact same thing to the exact same guitar around 1974/75! I was 14, and the one I bought (used of course) had already been stripped down to its natural wood finish. For the pickups, I saved up for a set of actual Fender humbuckers. They were the standard set that came in the Telecaster Deluxe at the time. (The silver ones with Fender engraved on them) I played it for a while, like you said, "I learned to play" on that guitar. Someone eventually saw it and made an offer on it. I took that money and bought a used Gibson SG. The one with the black soap bar P.U.'s alla Zappa Roxy And Elsewhere. THAT'S the guitar I wish I still owned! But, being a Fripp freak myself, I traded it for my first "New" guitar. A 1977 Gibson L6S. It’s black with a black neck and a black fretboard. It had a 6 position switch BUILT IN! And yet I felt the need to mod it. I had a professional install super hot DiMarzio's, 2 phase switches and a power booster.
I still own that guitar today! It’s actually not worth that much even though it’s 45 years old, about a grand, but I’ll never sell it. Through the years I’ve owned/ sold /and modded many guitars but that Black L6S will never leave me. I may be buried with it!😂 who knows…?
Great music Bill! Keep the dream alive!
65 year old here... as a teenager I had a Burns Nu-Sonic ... I took it apart to 'improve it' (as you do) ... then I went away to college and put all the parts in a bag for eventual rebuilding... anyway, two years later I went back home and decided to rebuild that guitar ... my Mum had chucked it in the trash whilst 'tidying up' my old room. Heavens... can't find one the same spec now and the price is astronomical for anything similar. Mum's long passed, but what on earth Mother? LOL. She did the same with my Meccano no10 set too, as well as all the other sets and extensions. Now worth thousands. :/ Oh, and my Levi 'originals' and Afgan coat :)
What I'm taking away from this is that our current guitar market is amazing. I was able to scratch this itch with a $165 Squier Mustang and after an hour with a little sandpaper and fret end dressing I'm really enjoying it.
I did a similar thing on my '83 JV Squier Tele when it was a few years old. At the time it was of no concern, it was 'only just a japanese copy'.
David Gilmour's Black Strat wouldn't be as famous if it was just a stock 1970 Strat. "Vintage value" is just a collectors' thing. That guitar is way cool.
Sound advice Bill..... Got a cheap, 2008 used Squier Strat I'm going to experiment with and modify. It'll be a great lesson for me !
I’ve had my eye on the newish squire baritone telecasters. Have you thought of picking one up for a “experiment guitar”?
great approach , thanks for voicing it out.
You truly have your values in the right place. Good for you and good for everyone for you sharing them. Thank you for all your wonderful content.
Great advice, Bill. The key element for guitarists and musicians in general: experiment. Looking forward to the video to hear it.
My second electric guitar was a cheap Cort Effector LP. The neck was loose, so I tried tightening up the bolts. It was still loose. So, I took the neck off, put some wood glue in the neck socket, and screwed the neck back on. I tried it the next day. I was "less" loose... so I just used it like a faux wammy bar.
I have greatly disliked everything about a "T-Style" guitar....except for the sounds they can produce. I decided to do something about that! Bought a body, neck & the parts that I thought necessary & designed my Double Cut Teleblaster! Besides the D.C. style, I gave it comfort carves...& a Humbucker in the middle position! A 5 way Monster switch made the pickup combos that I had in mind a reality! A personally designed headstock instead of (what I feel is) the "ugly" design given to those T-Style guitars. Now I have those T-Style sounds in a package that I love! With so many extras! Yay!
I got a mint '80s Kramer flying v aluminum neck bass from a girl when I was 12. I decided I didn't want to play bass guitar, so I scrapped the neck and used a dremel to route out a neck pocket. I still have the body, currently looking for another neck to put on it, as the current one has snapped, but when I see the prices of those on reverb, it really makes me wish I would have just left it alone.
Use the right tools for the right job. That's the real lesson.
My now only remaining guitar is my 1993 Washburn KC-40V, the only “modifications” that have been made are replacing the wiring harness and installing a new Floyd Rose tremolo unit.
Nothing like Wendy O'Williams of the Plasmatics taking a chainsaw to a Strat during Butcher Baby
😂😂😂 classic!
I have an Olympic white pretty much stock that I bought about the same time. I still record with it. The 24” scale has a sound all its own. Another Day In The Jungle.
So you built a hot rod - just not out of a car.
Awesome!
This was just the video I needed to see. I’ve been mulling over routing out space to swap the humbuckers in my Gibson SG for some P90s. I’m gonna do it! ✌️😌🎸
Just don't use a dull wood chisel! :-)
@@chordsoforion HA!
This makes me feel way less bad about by Ibanez SR3006 - the first high quality bass I bought. I played that thing so hard, which caused the independent bridge saddles to fall apart (an overly complex bridge design, if I'm being honest). In frustration, I threw away all the bridge parts and filled all 6 routes with epoxy to put a standard bridge on it instead. Years later, it's still waiting to be put back together. It will be playable again eventually, but it'll never hold the $ value that it could have if I'd played and maintained it in the manner it was meant to be. But I also wouldn't be the person I am today without the life experiences I had while playing that bass during those years. We all have to decide what's more valuable 🙂
😊The guitar sounds fantastic, excellent modification. You are a great musician and also a great innovator. Congratulations
Ah... but have you really destroyed the vintage value? It's now a unique piece with verified Bill Vencil provenance!
Oh yes. I also went to town on my first guitar with a chisel in the early 80s. It was a cheap Ibanez knockoff of a Gibson LP Jr. (TV yellow with one P-90). Not sure if it would have had any value other than the claim to fame of being part of the lawsuit Gibson filed against Ibanez during that time for using Gibson's aesthetics. I carved a hole under the pickguard to accommodate 2ea. 9-volt batteries and a treble/bass +/-15 db preamp circuit in the existing cavity. Why I thought that this somehow was a good idea might explain why I also chiseled off the nice paint job and spray painted it candy apple red. I do regret it a little, but I know that it was a great learning experience.
I destroyed a 66 telecaster. I don't regret it. The vintage issue is ridiculous in my opinion. Vintage is only important to a collector. Good topic, thanks. 😎🤓
I regret having to sell the 1972 P Bass that I modified and revived, it was a "basket case," and I made it sound as much like Squire's Rickenbacker as I could, for $75 gas money so I could get to work 😢 I wish I still had it, oh well.
A guitar is a tool. I applaud your pluck as a teen. I've modded every guitar I own.
When you say " blunt chisel ", was it a screwdriver 😂
No, I remember what the chisel looked like - but I would not have put it past my teenage self to have tried it!
There's a great article in Popular Mechanics that Eddie Van Halen wrote (October 6, 2020, it's on the Popular Mechanics website) where he talks about all the various ways he would modify his gear, guitars, amps, etc. Very interesting.
Zappa was the king at modding. Such an inspiration.
@@westleywest7259 Yes, his guitars always had all kinds of extra switches and controls for coil-taps, phase-switching, etc.
My first electric was an old mustang I bought from my cousin. At some point he put a humbucker in the neck. Also hacked out, I think he did it with a drill. Lol I no longer have it but it was a great guitar.
I’m about to do the opposite, replacing humbuckers with single coils!
Sounds killer! Love that tone
I mean, you would never see Eddie Van Halen modify his guitars.... oh, wait... haha Good for you. My "hack job" was a red stratocaster. I learned so much by nearly ruining that guitar. I encourage everyone to buy an inexpensive guitar, take it apart a few times, and see how stuff works. You will learn that your expensive stuff is far less fragile than you think it is.
You should absolutely make your guitars your own. Super cool.
Cool guitar bill!
It's destroyed because you're a Gigachad and an actual guitar player, nothing but respect for those moves. :)
The intro sounded a lot like Edge from U2 🙂
I have to say, I have always fallen on the side of doing whatever you want with your gear. Yes, there is some vintage gear that may be valuable in being kept stock, but I personally never buy gear to resell. If I buy something, it will never leave me, so I wouldn't think twice about hacking up any of my guitars if I felt like it. I got my guitar selector rewired to be dead in the top position. I no longer have a neck position. If I sell the guitar, that mod alone will make it lose value. But I never use the neck pickup, so I don't care. As I said, I am not going to sell it anyway.
Resale value shouldn’t stop you enjoying the guitar your way
I love the look of that guitar with humbuckers. So cool!
I definitely am guilty of some horrific dull chisel and hammer routing and whilst I don't regret doing the mods on what would have been a some what valuable instrument in stock form (early 80's SQ squier strat), what I learned in chasing that sound in my mind I think I value that more. I wish I'd been more careful, yes but I still have and use this guitar, even if the only thing left of it is the body. Actually whilst recalling all this I remember originally getting the local repair shop to route the bridge area and pickguard for a humbucker and I wanted to retain the angled position, and asked them to do that and they didn't and cut it straight, correctly assuming I was just an ignorant kid. I was terribly disappointed
I can relate! You gotta watch‘em! 😉
Maybe you desrtoyed the vintage look of this guitar but you make it Unique Giutar that serve your need in that time.
I destroyed mine several years ago. I wanted to customize the shape, and immediately regretted it 😬 RIP to my yamaha pacifica. I've been considering stripping the paint off my schecter for a long time now, I'm sure it will happen eventually.
I don't hold it against you... it was the thing to do then... Happened alot. You can still (and will) enjoy it... By the same token, I am glad I only made a few "bolt on" (reversible) changes to my 4001 bass.
We must always remember, things are here to serve us, not the other way around.
That's OK, I still "destroy" things (and guitars) to make them fit for my purposes and work as I need. They are just instruments, to be honest. No need to idolize them.
Absolutely. Just wood, metal and wires.
that pickup placement is odd though
Yes it is - I tried to fit the pickups in around the existing holes in the pick guard. The thing is that I kind of like the tone because of it.
Looks like something Holdsworth would have played!
This inspired me to take a wood chisel to my Matsumuko Les Paul. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Just Kidding :)
I did the exact same thing to a Stratocaster in 1982😂. I still own the guitar but have since put it back to single coils but the routing job was about as pretty as yours. No regrets either
You could die modding a tube amp. Only for the professional technician. There is enough stored energy to kill in a tube amp even after unplugging Modding a pedal or a guitar is NOT the same as Modding an Amp (Valve / Tube). Don’t just try stuff with an Amp
About 15 years ago I had a wah pedal that was not working. I took it apart and could not put it back together. Like a friggin' transmission it is complex. That and my crappy soldering skills made me seek out others to work on my equipment. However, I recently acquired this crappy old Fender Squire Strat that I might start taking liberties with in the Chords of Orion manner.