An audio taper over a linear taper tone pot controls the 'variance' far better than a cap. A cap generally moves the Q value up or down, and not the curve of the tone pot. The rest of your video, I entirely agree with, and very much enjoy. Thanks for all the GREAT content.
@@kennethc2466 Changing the cap can affect the resonant frequency which can give give an appearance of changing the Q of the circuit. But, tone controls are generally simple low-pass filters (i.e. high-cut). Depending on how the volume and tone pots are wired, changing the pot values can substantially change the tone of the guitar, sometimes for the worse.
Speaker swaps are such an underrated move. I have always loved messaging around with speakers, if you take the time, the tones some speakers make can be awesome!
but speaker swapping is super easy if you're using a modeler like the Line 6 Helix and Styrmon Iridium. It may not be EXACLTY like the real thing, so you have to treat it like something else, so take the names of the IR's as a guide only
My inexpensive G&L S-500 made in Indonesia came with MFDs and it competes with all my USA/MIJ Strats. My USA G&L tele has them also....great sounding....not as 'tele' sounding...but a great tone none the less. MFDs...so underrated!
My Indonesian G&L (can't think of model right now) is a S-style body w/2 HB's and Les Paul style neck (3+3, 24 3/4"). I can't keep it in tune to save my life and want to mod but can't figure out what will fit. I think the bridge was drilled improperly as the saddles are maxed out on the 2 high strings, e, B. I really want to like this guitar, it's beautiful. Guess I need a luthier.
My local music store doesn’t carry Fender, only GandL. Honestly, after playing a handful I’m not complaining. More modern, generally “better” for a lower price. Yes please
Great video, thanks for some good advices. Especially about strings and picks. They make so much difference. Even Kirk Hammet said that changing the pick has made so much impact on his playing, even after 40 years as a pro. That's really amazing.
Mod #6 - try different length guitar cords. Short cords sound bright, longer cords sound darker and really long cords sound outright muddy. I used to use a very long cord (a carryover from years past where I used it with a large amp) but couldn't get the tone I wanted from my small amp, no matter what I did. Turns out I had 2 problems - a tone-sucking pedal combined with a long cord killed the highs.
Great suggestions! Here's a bonus mod. Experiment with a different type of string. Bronze, Cobalt, Stainless, Coated, Nickle, rollerwound, flatwound and in different brands. They all have their own character.
The G&L MFD pickups are some of the highest fidelity pups on the market. They sound like a produced guitar sound just plugged straight into the amp. The tone may not be everyone's favorite, but they are so clear and versatile.
Great tips DB! A good, thorough set up (including fret leveling, edge rounding, and polishing, replace low quality nut, string height, etc.), by a guitar tech, luthier or anyone with knowledge and tools to do one, for any/all guitars (including higher cost, high-end guitars). Many people new to guitar/bass, do not know about the importance of a good setup.
My favorite underrated mods to guitar rigging/ guitar mods 1. Upgrading guitar cables, completely overlooked factor that dramatically changes the tone of guitar. 2. Finding the right picks to strum 3. Using 6550 or KT88 power tubes to tube amps rather than EL34 or 6L6 4. Using a good buffer in your rig to prevent tone suck from your pedalboard. 5. Changing the guitar speaker, such an overlooked aspect of guitar rig mods..
cables don't do squat unless you're going from very poor or damaged cables. Past a very basic threshold (like, the second-cheapest cable in a store), the capacitance per foot difference isn't going to be large enough. Even with specific low-capacitance cables differences aren't going to be "dramatic" if you're already using a regular cable that isn't trash-tier. I do like the Sommer The Spirit LLX, which boasts the lowest capacitance on market and is NOT an expensive cable, or Winspear Crystal, which are in the same ballpark but pretty and have a lifetime warranty and that's what you pay a bit of a premium on. But the tone is not day-or-night. Saying this because there are people out there marketing and people out there buying $200 techno-babble snake oil cables and then listening with their wallet and making silly claims about "string definition" and whatnot. And if you're using a buffer or active pickups, you can use poor cables down the chain from there, because the cable capacitance won't be a factor.
@@martinkrauser4029 Cables don’t do squat, yeah use a live wire cable compared to a Mogami gold cable and let me know how that works. Also certain cables have more capabilities of sucking tone out from your rig.
@@emoboi311 yes, that's exactly right, and sensible people WILL NOT use MOGAMI gold. "Tone-sucking", ie. low-pass filtering, depends on one thing and one thing only and that's capacitance per meter. Mogami sell snake oil and are exactly what I'm talking about. They measure out to have an average capacitance in the market and come out worse than many much cheaper brands. You're listening with your wallet. We don't have livewire cable's where I live, but I can find measurements online. You go do a blind test and maybe look at your signals in a spectrograph and see how that goes. If you don't feel like doing that, feel free to explain in electrical engineering terms how and why Mogami gold cables are better. Ought to be fun for all involved.
I agree 100% on the strings & picks. I spent about $40 buying every pick out there from cheap cellulose to $5 gravity picks and found that the Dava picks with the rubber grip worked best for me. Same thing with strings and landed on a 9~46 hybrid set from D'Adarrio to be best overall.
One of my favourite mods is to add Graph Tech saddles. I've never broken a string since I started using them, and feel much more confident when doing bends. They help to keep a standard tremolo in tune better, and also eliminate that dull tone you get from steel saddles when they get worn. Plus they're a Canadian company, Darrell!
For anyone curious, the guitar in the beginning is a Valenti carved Nebula, they’re a handmade custom guitar company based in Italy. Apparently they only make 50 guitars a year, 30 for distributors and only 20 can be ordered by individual customers with custom requests
Started with simple capacitor changes, then looked up different resistor/capacitor setups. One advantage of using more than a simple capacitor is that it can save you money. I had a tele that was not chimey. Tried different pickups at my expense. But did not solve the problem. Added a resistor/capacitor mod for literally pennies and solved the problem. So, I have cap only mods, parallel mods, and kinman mods in different guitars. Old price was for about $30 you could get enough cheap capacitors and resistors to do about 300 different combos and values to test. Also, don't just consider an expensive speaker change. If you can get a good cheap one that has its resonance frequency at the high end or low end frequencies of a guitar, a cheap equalizer with approximately that frequency can make it sound like a much more expensive speaker. In fact, it may be that all the present speaker you have needs is some tweeking with a dedicated cheap equalizer. Don't forget that new speakers may need to be broken in, especially if you get inexpensive ones.
I had 2 Santana acoustics, back in 1994, just a couple of years ago, I bought a Fender CD60 and had adjusted the neck, new and somewhat better nut, and the expensive Gold Martin Strings. It sounded like $450-$500 acoustic instead of a $170 cheap acoustic. Those strings did SO much for that guitar. rounded the sound and at the same time MUCH more sustain. and made the sound a whole lot broader, wider and much fuller. THAT I would recommend for a good beginner guitar for a talented new beginner.
wiring - phase switches, series/parallel switches, coil taps - you can get a huge spectrum of sounds with existing pickups just by exploiting all the possibilities. Maybe tricky to do yourself, but it's a learning experience. I love the smell of melting rosin in the morning ....
Instead of clipping on a string dampener, I use a rubber band just below the nut. It doesn't block access to any frets and does a decent job of keeping the open strings from ringing out. Only downside is, it'll mute harmonics on open strings.
I build a guitar from a diy kit. I messed up the nut and bought an aftermarket graphit one. I was happy that it fits well. But the most important thing I recognized was the boost in sustain the nut gives. A mod that I absolutely recommend.
On a budget guitar or intermediate, then check the quality of the output jack. I have a G&L Tribute Series Legacy and my luthier told me it had a cheap output jack and an upgrade to a US one would be worth the investment, so I said go ahead. The jack was 10GBP and 20GBP for him to fit it and it has livened the guitar up no end. It is now a beaut, and I will never part with it until I pass on. I agree completely about the MFD option, but like my Legacy now as it is, but have been torn for months now between a Legacy Comanche (I'd love to get into the Z-coil pups), and a Legacy ASAT to get the MFDs, but can't make my mind up. G&L guitars are just killer imho.
I can mod a guitar just fine! All I have to do is replace the neck, the body, the tuners, the pickups, the bridge, the tone control knobs and pickup layout, just the basics.
I reckon your comment about strings and picks is spot on. I also think just the ability to adjust the action on your gat is such another great "mod" to help you figure out what action suits you best, much like the right string gauge.
This video shared a lot of great advice and I think your inclusion of string's and picks was some of the best advice. Everyone's hand's are different so we need to find what works for us. I have been playing a long time now and honestly, I prefer lighter gauge set's. Most of my Strats are set up with 9-42 D'addario NYXL string's but I prefer a 9-46 on something like a Les Paul. As for picks, going online is a great value for buying them. I used the same picks for year's and a couple year's ago, I decided to experiment so i bought many different gauges and brand's for testing purposes. I used to use 1.14 mm picks for year's but i tend to favor 1.5 mm D' andrea pro plecs these day's. They have many great choices so i would recommend them to anyone. Here's some guitar history: D'andrea are credited with producing the very first flat picks for guitar's back in 1923. Almost 100 year's ago! They are still making them in New York today.
A switch on a push-pull pot or toggle switch can let you choose between tone capacitors as you play. For more tonal versatility on Strats, run a wire from where the bridge pickup is soldered to the five-way switch. Run the wire through a switch and then to the first lug on the volume pot. This would let you use the bridge and neck pickups together, or all three at one time.
I re wired my strat to the G&L PTB tone circuit. It does require some knowledge but it’s a fairly easy mod. I’ve always played strats but never really cared for the traditional tone circuit. G&L’s PTB offers much more tonal options and is very intuitive. I also swapped my my Yosemite pickups for a set of fat 50’s and that really brought the guitar to life. I was always afraid to mod a guitar- thinking I would alter its purity but I’ve learned that it’s a lot of fun and the results are well worth doing.
I did an C-switch from early on and love it. In my last Warmoth superstrat built I canged the mid tone knob for a 5-way C-switch with capacitors from 680pF to 10nF the result will surprise you
As a player who always thought of the tone knob being just absolutely useless, the C-Switch actually has been my to go solution for my first partscaster build 😂 I remember I had to search for a specially slim rotary switch that fit in that Tele electronics cavity... 🙈
So true about the speaker! Also sealing the cabinet or opening up the back will change things dramatically. (Don't do this on a combo amp that has tubes in that area that might overheat.) For advanced modders, changing up the tone stack can really affect voicing of the amp. Changing the phase inverter tube also has a dramatic effect.
One thing I’ve noticed is players that mostly do lead work prefer thick picks, but mixed players or rhythm players tend to prefer medium thickness. Thicker strings are better for heavy choking/strumming, thinner gauges are better for lead work. I’ve settled in on 10s prety much, but sometimes if I’m doing more lead lines, I might wish I had 9s on it. I can’t see myself ever wanting 8s or 7s. There are a bunch of different pickup options. Some are noisy like single coils and P90s. There are noiseless versions, but their tone isn’t quite the same. Humbuckers aren’t as bright but tend to drive more and so provide better crunch/distortion. You’ll likely want alt he options you can get, but start with the sound you like most and learn to live with it. Noisy pickups can be mitigated with shorter cables and the direction you face. Experiment with it and you can find something that works.
Regarding tone controls: the taper is the pot, not the cap. Try a different taper pot; log (audio), or linear taper. Change the pot value to a larger pot for a brighter tone. And the cap only affects the tone when you turn the tone control down. On 10 it does nothing. Stay away from “boutique” tome caps like paper in oil. They don’t sound any different. Not one tiny bit. Even an $4 orange drop is over kill. Any signal flowing through the cap is shunted to ground. You never hear it. The tone control just removes high frequencies. Just stick with a film cap. They cost under a dollar. Don’t waste money on expensive caps. What’s more important is the value of the cap. 0.022 microfarads is common for humbuckers. But you can go smaller, like a .01 uF or even .005 if you want to just remove the very top end while retaining the upper mids. It sounds like a cocked wah. Same deal with single coils. .047 is typical for Strats and basses. That cuts at a lower frequency. Some vintage tone controls used 0.1. That’s mud city! Try a .022 in your Strat if the tone control is too dark when turned down. Also the higher the impedance of the pickup the more effect the tone control will have. A hot 16k humbucker will get darker sounding with a .022 cap than a 4k filter’tron. This is because it forms an LCR network. So pick your cap value to match your pickups and the tone you want. Have I tried mods? Yes, since 1970. 😃 Now I build guitars and make pickups.
@@shawnawesome7770 usually the capacitors are what turns a regular pot into a tone pot. so if there’s multiple ones with caps on it there’s multiple tone controls. and they can be wired to a separate pickups for example
@@shawnawesome7770 ohh okay i think i just read your question wrong, i think i understand better now what you’re asking. i don’t see it happen much but imo it’s probably not good to do that because if one of the screws on a pot loosens and it twists twists the connection can break the all together. not sure why someone would do it to be honest
@@chris.rcavazos if you ever watch trogly's channel you'll see it alot. When he reviews the mike ness replica lp it's definitely on there. I dunno. Just weird.
Can't agree more with the comments about strings and picks. I love how brands are doing value packs where they pile a bunch of different picks into a pack at discount prices. I highly recommend Dunlop's Jazz III variety pack. After decades of playing, when my 9 yr old and I were at a music store, he found a Jazz III and thought it was great because it was "his size" lol. The guy at a music store gave it to him. I thought I'd give it a go and after trying it once I ran out to buy a 6 pack. Now it's an integral part of my tone. No other pick sounds the same so far. I was dumbfounded at how much it improves the tone.
Great video! Just modded my Player strat with the Clapton mid-boost kit which gives a very Les Paulesque vibe when in use. Fantastic mod for not much money but you need to be ok with wiring or get a guitar tech to install for you.
I put a Weber Blue Dog and a Silver Bell in my 2x12 cab. Both alnico and sound great. I also have a Tone Tubby low watt alnico hemp cone in a 1x12 cab and it’s also great just different. Both cabs are open backs I built myself. Plugged my friends Fender twin into my 2x12 and it sounds a lot different to the Twins speakers so yes speakers make a big difference.
adjusting pole pieces and pickup heights can change a PAF style humbucker into a very convincing Filtertron tone. A more complicated mod I like is a rotary switch with several different capacitors tied to the tone pot. Also a Bass roll-off is a pretty cool mod.
I'll try not to be too long on this. If you are primarily a sitdown player with electric guitar, try moving the guitar to center rather than saddled on your right knee. It requires a strap for me, but being left handed playing righty, it frees up my right hand immensely dexterity wise. I actually discovered this by venturing into banjo, where you have no choice but to play from center; but it has improved my guitar playing 10 fold.
Good tip for sure ! It also means it less different feeling when you DO play standing up. Guitar will be in almost the same position. I used to play on my right leg when sitting down. If you go to play standing up then, it feels wildly different. Not as much so when you play, like you say, from center.
In line with changing strings, look into upgrading everything that comes in contact with the string (nut, frets & saddles). The different materials used for these parts can add to possibly improving your tone. Also, Fast Fret + washing your hands before playing will help extend the lifespan & quality of your strings. Cheers..
My Ibanez Jet King I, sounded great in humbucker mode, but single coil was weaker and not as good. Pulled off the pickguard and saw it had 500k pots. 500k is fine for humbuckers, but most single coils are better with 250k. Most complaints about this model were “the pickups are bad, replace them.” I thought, “is there another way?” Looked around and found the odd 300k pot. So much better balance between single and humbucker! Also added in the Rothstein guitars push-pull tone control with an inductor for mid-cut (set it for a “cocked” wah tone, or roll it up and down for a hand powered wah.)
After years of tone chasing with Alnico magnet pickups, I recently discovered that I really prefer some ceramic magnet pickups. Definitely worth a try to get the right sound you’re looking for.
@@clarkburrSame in my experience, those friends in my case claim ceramic p/u's have qualities tonally that alnico actually have, Darrell proves it in a "vs" video. They knock ceramic because they're the cheapest pickups to make for introductory priced guitars, doesn't mean there aren't high quality ones too, you get what you pay for.
I took my Squier Affinity Strat apart to paint it (Maui Blue), and I figured while I had it apart I could do some upgrades. So I dropped in a white pearl loaded pickguard with 3 single hot-rail pickups. It still has that classic Strat sound, but with so much more depth and soul. I took the old Affinity loaded pickguard and dropped it in my Glarry GST because it has alnico pickups, which sound much better than Glarry's cheap fridge-magnet pickups.
If you buy an off brand strat with solid saddles and wonder why it doesn't have the dynamics and snap of a Real Fender. It's the bent steel saddles. Found that out when I finally bought a Fender Player and wanted to have "nicer" saddles. Completely transformed the tone to every other strat I had owned before. Changed them right back. So get some bent steels for another and get that sound.
Funny you bring up the string guage thing. I just discovered this year that I prefer to have 10 gauge stings on my 24.75 scale guitars, and 9 gauge on my other guitars (which are all 25.5 scale I believe). I don;t notice any real change on tone either, just better playability.
Choose your strings FIRST, then refine your tone in other ways. Also, frreway switch, coil split, coil parallel, blender, pencil graphite in the nut slots, move your volume pot to where you actually want it (some folk like it within easy reach, others out of the way) at a tremolo system, float your bridge. There are so many ways to distract yourself from actually practising 😂
No5 is the most important. For the newbie on an acoustic, improper action and string gauge are by far the worst obstacles to learning, to the point of discouraging a player to give up totally. Electrics aren't really the answer because strumming and finger picking really teach best on an acoustic. Classical guitars with nylon strings could be an answer but the fretboard is often too wide for young players. A good luthier/tech is as important as a good teacher for newbies (or anyone).
I use threaded inserts on my bolt neck guitars. I've done this on my Pacifica and a couple of partscasters. The tightening of the neck/body connection feels much more resonant and "alive" Also not really a mod per se but most inexpensive guitars will be more gig ready if you replace the tuners and pots.
Great video! Lots of good points. I would not spend much money playing around with changing the amp tubes, though. Changing tubes mainly affects the volume of the signal, but it doesn't affect the signal frequencies as much as people like to think.
One my PRS I did not like the sound of the humbuckers. Not muddy, but they sounded too warm for my taste. I tried to wire them in parallel before I changed them for something else... Love them now. Best free mod I could have done.
I don't if this would be considered a mod, but I play all my guitars in D Standard. It's a good feel for me, the strings still have good tension, basically 11 gauge strings, and it's just fun. The only guitars that differ are my 7 string, also tuned down 1 whole step with the low A string, and my Schecter with Ernie Ball Mammoth Slinkys (Ryan "Fluff" Bruce) tuned to C Standard. That guitar plays so good!
good info here been playing since i was 12 now i am 50 this year music tastes can affect your sound and playing... i started playing old skater music like misfits ...gen-x. circle jerks and so forth.... the went to the hair metal phase.. then grunge .. the pop rock ..then blues.. and or blues rock.. this is called eveolution of your guitar playing that to me is best... keep playing do not be afraid to change your style. ty
I had some picks that I liked better than others, but I never thought too much about it until I got a Gravity pick with a JHS pedal. The way that the unpolished edge of that pick interacts with the strings sent me down a pick rabbit hole. Some of my favorites are ones that I've made myself. I've started scouring the recycling bin to see what I can use.
Mod the V1 preamp tube is the most easy, fast and effective tone modification to do on a tube amp, strings brand and gage too. Don’t know MFD pickups, i read informations on it, i wajt to change pickup on one’s of my Jackson. Another informative and cool video. Thanks Darrell.
After somes researchs I just understood that the MFD pickups were developed by Leo and are exclusive to G&L. So i learn a lot every day 😄. In my defense I know very little about G&L, never tried one even if they seem very good. A hole to fill in my culture as soon as possible.
One thing about tone capacitors. It's not so much the style of capacitor that will make a difference in the tone, but rather the capacitance value. The quality will impact the stated value. A cheap cap rated at .022 could vary as much as 20% -/+. You can ignore the voltage rating as in a guitar circuit were talking millivolt range really. So have fun with that!
It is so nice today that inexpensive guitars are so good. It used to be they were very unpleasant to play and fell apart pretty quickly. So today, you should pay for that set up and new strings with all the money you save. Like Darrell says, don't get frustrated. You don't have too. Guitar is totally fun. Just get over those first few weeks when it seems like your fingers don't work and then one day you have a power cord. And then you rock forever
My tele deluxe wide range neck pickup was too dark for me, so I swapped the volume pot from 500k to 1 Meg and added a no-load tone pot to it. Huge improvement for less than $10.
The reason people don't upgrade speakers as much as even entire cabinets let alone pickups and such in because too many people listen with their eyes and not their ears. You can't see speakers behind the grill cloth unless it's open back or there is no cloth but there are some awesome looking cabinets and pickups for example.
Yes a different material in your pick, from jazz 3 to gravity pick, thicker, harder, pretty amazing Tone difference…..worth $5 bucks each! but they wear out quicker
Add a small jumper wire between the neck tone tab and the unused bridge tone tab.... and you have a forward tone pot for neck AND bridge pickups and they are never on at the same time! Fender has no bridge pickup tone pot after 50 plus years!
Well, I can't change the speakers of my cabinet bc i only have a couple of combo cheapo amps, but what I do is play around changing and testing different IR. Is quite fun and changes the tone a lot.
I have a squier class vibes mustang that gets quite a bit of buzz with the tone past 50%. After shielding the pickups and electronics I discovered it was the tone capacitor causing the buzz. I've decided that when I get upgraded pickups I'm going to replace the electronics. I wish I knew that was the issue before doing the shielding.
For number 2, an important thing to remember is cheap ceramic pickups aren't bad because they're ceramic, they're bad because they're cheap. A quality ceramic pickup can be just as good as a quality alnico, it just depends on the tone you're looking for.
How bout changing the guitar. My firsts were Jacksons with the Floyd rose floating bridge, which I discovered I hated over time. Ended up blocking it in place so I could change tuning and bend notes without everything changing pitch too. The cool components didn't make me a better player and actually fought against my natural playing style. I learned that a standard fixed bridge was best for me and I actually don't mind a beefier neck. If the guitar is simply all wrong, trade it up for what suits you.
I started 3d printing pics........ picks? anyway, it was a fun experiment and let me make a huge variety of strengths and thicknesses. I found a few that I love, but couldn't buy anywhere, and was able to build in some grippy on just portions of the pick and not the entire thing (where the pick strikes the strings). Great cheap mod!
You hit the most important thing...as a beginner or intermediate player, experiment with strings and picks to find the mix that makes you want to keep playing more!
you touch upon this with the pickup bit about the G&L pickups, but I always fumble with my pole pieces after a month or 2 of having to gotten to know a guitar and it's pickup set. You can easily bring a bit more high end to big chords or a bit more warmth to your solo's by accentuating certain strings. Now you don't need to turn the pole so that itnearly touches the string, but just a turn maybe 2 so that it sticks out above the others. Subtle differences, but can't not. (Also some strings I turn the polepiece into the pickup for a quarter to a half turn from stock)
Type of capacitor has zero impact on tone in guitar electronics, but the value of the capacitor has a huge impact on the frequency range of the low-pass filtration.
When i played guitari have an acoustic too with heavy string and high action what i did back then is i pit super glue on my finger tips because I haven’t developed the calluses so i put super glue and it help with how my fingers hurt and i can spend more time on guitar
Have you guys tried any of these mods? Are there any other mods outside the norm that you've done? let me know!
Hi darrel can you review the xavier pro 900 semi hollowbody thanks
@@roshaymoenne3439 I'll see what I can do :)
An audio taper over a linear taper tone pot controls the 'variance' far better than a cap. A cap generally moves the Q value up or down, and not the curve of the tone pot.
The rest of your video, I entirely agree with, and very much enjoy. Thanks for all the GREAT content.
@@kennethc2466 Changing the cap can affect the resonant frequency which can give give an appearance of changing the Q of the circuit. But, tone controls are generally simple low-pass filters (i.e. high-cut). Depending on how the volume and tone pots are wired, changing the pot values can substantially change the tone of the guitar, sometimes for the worse.
Ordered a Qdd2. Gonna see how it goes. Guitarheads has a lot of cool on guitar things I want to try. All analog, so that is cool.
Speaker swaps are such an underrated move. I have always loved messaging around with speakers, if you take the time, the tones some speakers make can be awesome!
WGS are the best
Also with PA systems, go for large (12 inch plus) speakers. They widen and enrich the sound massively over 8/10 inch.
but speaker swapping is super easy if you're using a modeler like the Line 6 Helix and Styrmon Iridium. It may not be EXACLTY like the real thing, so you have to treat it like something else, so take the names of the IR's as a guide only
Good tips. One additional tip for switching tone caps is to get some alligator clips and try a whole set of caps before you hardwire your favorite in.
I've noticed that the tone circuit on some melody makers seems to have a wider range of effect. That was on an '03 MM with the TOM bridge.
My inexpensive G&L S-500 made in Indonesia came with MFDs and it competes with all my USA/MIJ Strats. My USA G&L tele has them also....great sounding....not as 'tele' sounding...but a great tone none the less. MFDs...so underrated!
Agreed…those MFD’s are incredible pickups!!!!
My Indonesian G&L (can't think of model right now) is a S-style body w/2 HB's and Les Paul style neck (3+3, 24 3/4"). I can't keep it in tune to save my life and want to mod but can't figure out what will fit. I think the bridge was drilled improperly as the saddles are maxed out on the 2 high strings, e, B. I really want to like this guitar, it's beautiful. Guess I need a luthier.
@@robertcalvin2643 Mine was a B-Stock/Demo lefty...from Sweetwater...lefty, last year...$535, minty.
My local music store doesn’t carry Fender, only GandL. Honestly, after playing a handful I’m not complaining. More modern, generally “better” for a lower price. Yes please
I have an old Korean G&L Tele and I love mine too. Especially the bridge
Great video, thanks for some good advices. Especially about strings and picks. They make so much difference. Even Kirk Hammet said that changing the pick has made so much impact on his playing, even after 40 years as a pro. That's really amazing.
Mod #6 - try different length guitar cords. Short cords sound bright, longer cords sound darker and really long cords sound outright muddy. I used to use a very long cord (a carryover from years past where I used it with a large amp) but couldn't get the tone I wanted from my small amp, no matter what I did. Turns out I had 2 problems - a tone-sucking pedal combined with a long cord killed the highs.
Yes! It was one of jimi's tools, the long coiled cord. Also check out low-capacitance cords.
Great suggestions!
Here's a bonus mod. Experiment with a different type of string. Bronze, Cobalt, Stainless, Coated, Nickle, rollerwound, flatwound and in different brands. They all have their own character.
The G&L MFD pickups are some of the highest fidelity pups on the market. They sound like a produced guitar sound just plugged straight into the amp. The tone may not be everyone's favorite, but they are so clear and versatile.
Great tips DB! A good, thorough set up (including fret leveling, edge rounding, and polishing, replace low quality nut, string height, etc.), by a guitar tech, luthier or anyone with knowledge and tools to do one, for any/all guitars (including higher cost, high-end guitars). Many people new to guitar/bass, do not know about the importance of a good setup.
It’s so funny cuz when I was a kid just starting out, I didn’t even know a “set-up” was a thing…I just played the guitars how they were!!!!
That guitar looks wild
One of my favourites for sure!
@@DarrellBraunGuitar what brand is it? Or is it a custom? It’s gorgeous and I am infatuated with it
@@jeekyboi9564 thank you I couldn’t tell what it was. But now I need one.
@@PapaShasta_ it's a kiesel not a suhr.
@@matthewearl9824 Pretty sure Kiesel guitars are always headless and if not, they definitely put their logo in one their frets
My favorite underrated mods to guitar rigging/ guitar mods
1. Upgrading guitar cables, completely overlooked factor that dramatically changes the tone of guitar.
2. Finding the right picks to strum
3. Using 6550 or KT88 power tubes to tube amps rather than EL34 or 6L6
4. Using a good buffer in your rig to prevent tone suck from your pedalboard.
5. Changing the guitar speaker, such an overlooked aspect of guitar rig mods..
cables don't do squat unless you're going from very poor or damaged cables. Past a very basic threshold (like, the second-cheapest cable in a store), the capacitance per foot difference isn't going to be large enough. Even with specific low-capacitance cables differences aren't going to be "dramatic" if you're already using a regular cable that isn't trash-tier. I do like the Sommer The Spirit LLX, which boasts the lowest capacitance on market and is NOT an expensive cable, or Winspear Crystal, which are in the same ballpark but pretty and have a lifetime warranty and that's what you pay a bit of a premium on. But the tone is not day-or-night.
Saying this because there are people out there marketing and people out there buying $200 techno-babble snake oil cables and then listening with their wallet and making silly claims about "string definition" and whatnot.
And if you're using a buffer or active pickups, you can use poor cables down the chain from there, because the cable capacitance won't be a factor.
@@martinkrauser4029 Cables don’t do squat, yeah use a live wire cable compared to a Mogami gold cable and let me know how that works. Also certain cables have more capabilities of sucking tone out from your rig.
@@emoboi311 yes, that's exactly right, and sensible people WILL NOT use MOGAMI gold. "Tone-sucking", ie. low-pass filtering, depends on one thing and one thing only and that's capacitance per meter.
Mogami sell snake oil and are exactly what I'm talking about. They measure out to have an average capacitance in the market and come out worse than many much cheaper brands.
You're listening with your wallet. We don't have livewire cable's where I live, but I can find measurements online. You go do a blind test and maybe look at your signals in a spectrograph and see how that goes.
If you don't feel like doing that, feel free to explain in electrical engineering terms how and why Mogami gold cables are better. Ought to be fun for all involved.
Really thought this was a troll post at first…
@@AAllinsonNN really thought you were a mark post at first
I agree 100% on the strings & picks. I spent about $40 buying every pick out there from cheap cellulose to $5 gravity picks and found that the Dava picks with the rubber grip worked best for me. Same thing with strings and landed on a 9~46 hybrid set from D'Adarrio to be best overall.
I love the original green Davas, I have the rubber ones too but the originals are great for shred and even strumming acoustic
Number 4 , not just the cap but also a high quality pot will make a huge difference to the tone control 😊 actually probably more than the cap !
aaahh no
@@BigEdWo why do you say no ? Genuine question
One of my favourite mods is to add Graph Tech saddles. I've never broken a string since I started using them, and feel much more confident when doing bends. They help to keep a standard tremolo in tune better, and also eliminate that dull tone you get from steel saddles when they get worn. Plus they're a Canadian company, Darrell!
For anyone curious, the guitar in the beginning is a Valenti carved Nebula, they’re a handmade custom guitar company based in Italy. Apparently they only make 50 guitars a year, 30 for distributors and only 20 can be ordered by individual customers with custom requests
ty
Started with simple capacitor changes, then looked up different resistor/capacitor setups. One advantage of using more than a simple capacitor is that it can save you money. I had a tele that was not chimey. Tried different pickups at my expense. But did not solve the problem. Added a resistor/capacitor mod for literally pennies and solved the problem. So, I have cap only mods, parallel mods, and kinman mods in different guitars. Old price was for about $30 you could get enough cheap capacitors and resistors to do about 300 different combos and values to test. Also, don't just consider an expensive speaker change. If you can get a good cheap one that has its resonance frequency at the high end or low end frequencies of a guitar, a cheap equalizer with approximately that frequency can make it sound like a much more expensive speaker. In fact, it may be that all the present speaker you have needs is some tweeking with a dedicated cheap equalizer. Don't forget that new speakers may need to be broken in, especially if you get inexpensive ones.
I had 2 Santana acoustics, back in 1994, just a couple of years ago, I bought a Fender CD60 and had adjusted the neck, new and somewhat better nut, and the expensive Gold Martin Strings. It sounded like $450-$500 acoustic instead of a $170 cheap acoustic. Those strings did SO much for that guitar. rounded the sound and at the same time MUCH more sustain. and made the sound a whole lot broader, wider and much fuller. THAT I would recommend for a good beginner guitar for a talented new beginner.
0:52 huh, I never thought to do this! This is definitely something to consider on the future. Thanks Darrell!
wiring - phase switches, series/parallel switches, coil taps - you can get a huge spectrum of sounds with existing pickups just by exploiting all the possibilities. Maybe tricky to do yourself, but it's a learning experience. I love the smell of melting rosin in the morning ....
Changed out the speaker in an old squier champ 15 for an Eminence speaker. Worlds of difference!
Instead of clipping on a string dampener, I use a rubber band just below the nut. It doesn't block access to any frets and does a decent job of keeping the open strings from ringing out. Only downside is, it'll mute harmonics on open strings.
I build a guitar from a diy kit. I messed up the nut and bought an aftermarket graphit one. I was happy that it fits well.
But the most important thing I recognized was the boost in sustain the nut gives. A mod that I absolutely recommend.
The best mod I ever did came from your channel. I added the 4 way switch to my Tele. When in position 4, it’s like having a new guitar.
On a budget guitar or intermediate, then check the quality of the output jack. I have a G&L Tribute Series Legacy and my luthier told me it had a cheap output jack and an upgrade to a US one would be worth the investment, so I said go ahead. The jack was 10GBP and 20GBP for him to fit it and it has livened the guitar up no end. It is now a beaut, and I will never part with it until I pass on. I agree completely about the MFD option, but like my Legacy now as it is, but have been torn for months now between a Legacy Comanche (I'd love to get into the Z-coil pups), and a Legacy ASAT to get the MFDs, but can't make my mind up. G&L guitars are just killer imho.
I can mod a guitar just fine!
All I have to do is replace the neck, the body, the tuners, the pickups, the bridge, the tone control knobs and pickup layout, just the basics.
Uh Oh…we got a scammer here!!!!
I reckon your comment about strings and picks is spot on. I also think just the ability to adjust the action on your gat is such another great "mod" to help you figure out what action suits you best, much like the right string gauge.
Oh man, I started on my dad's acoustic Yamaha 12 string that had only the normal 6 on it. Talk about a hand cramp!!
This video shared a lot of great advice and I think your inclusion of string's and picks was some of the best advice. Everyone's hand's are different so we need to find what works for us. I have been playing a long time now and honestly, I prefer lighter gauge set's. Most of my Strats are set up with 9-42 D'addario NYXL string's but I prefer a 9-46 on something like a Les Paul. As for picks, going online is a great value for buying them. I used the same picks for year's and a couple year's ago, I decided to experiment so i bought many different gauges and brand's for testing purposes. I used to use 1.14 mm picks for year's but i tend to favor 1.5 mm D' andrea pro plecs these day's. They have many great choices so i would recommend them to anyone. Here's some guitar history: D'andrea are credited with producing the very first flat picks for guitar's back in 1923. Almost 100 year's ago! They are still making them in New York today.
A switch on a push-pull pot or toggle switch can let you choose between tone capacitors as you play. For more tonal versatility on Strats, run a wire from where the bridge pickup is soldered to the five-way switch. Run the wire through a switch and then to the first lug on the volume pot. This would let you use the bridge and neck pickups together, or all three at one time.
I re wired my strat to the G&L PTB tone circuit. It does require some knowledge but it’s a fairly easy mod. I’ve always played strats but never really cared for the traditional tone circuit. G&L’s PTB offers much more tonal options and is very intuitive. I also swapped my my Yosemite pickups for a set of fat 50’s and that really brought the guitar to life. I was always afraid to mod a guitar- thinking I would alter its purity but I’ve learned that it’s a lot of fun and the results are well worth doing.
I did an C-switch from early on and love it. In my last Warmoth superstrat built I canged the mid tone knob for a 5-way C-switch with capacitors from 680pF to 10nF the result will surprise you
As a player who always thought of the tone knob being just absolutely useless, the C-Switch actually has been my to go solution for my first partscaster build 😂 I remember I had to search for a specially slim rotary switch that fit in that Tele electronics cavity... 🙈
Swapped the 12” in my Blues Jr with an Eminence Texas Heat. Wow what a difference.
Cool!
So true about the speaker! Also sealing the cabinet or opening up the back will change things dramatically. (Don't do this on a combo amp that has tubes in that area that might overheat.)
For advanced modders, changing up the tone stack can really affect voicing of the amp.
Changing the phase inverter tube also has a dramatic effect.
One thing I’ve noticed is players that mostly do lead work prefer thick picks, but mixed players or rhythm players tend to prefer medium thickness.
Thicker strings are better for heavy choking/strumming, thinner gauges are better for lead work. I’ve settled in on 10s prety much, but sometimes if I’m doing more lead lines, I might wish I had 9s on it. I can’t see myself ever wanting 8s or 7s.
There are a bunch of different pickup options. Some are noisy like single coils and P90s. There are noiseless versions, but their tone isn’t quite the same. Humbuckers aren’t as bright but tend to drive more and so provide better crunch/distortion. You’ll likely want alt he options you can get, but start with the sound you like most and learn to live with it. Noisy pickups can be mitigated with shorter cables and the direction you face. Experiment with it and you can find something that works.
Regarding tone controls: the taper is the pot, not the cap. Try a different taper pot; log (audio), or linear taper. Change the pot value to a larger pot for a brighter tone. And the cap only affects the tone when you turn the tone control down. On 10 it does nothing.
Stay away from “boutique” tome caps like paper in oil. They don’t sound any different. Not one tiny bit. Even an $4 orange drop is over kill. Any signal flowing through the cap is shunted to ground. You never hear it. The tone control just removes high frequencies.
Just stick with a film cap. They cost under a dollar. Don’t waste money on expensive caps.
What’s more important is the value of the cap. 0.022 microfarads is common for humbuckers. But you can go smaller, like a .01 uF or even .005 if you want to just remove the very top end while retaining the upper mids. It sounds like a cocked wah.
Same deal with single coils. .047 is typical for Strats and basses. That cuts at a lower frequency. Some vintage tone controls used 0.1. That’s mud city! Try a .022 in your Strat if the tone control is too dark when turned down.
Also the higher the impedance of the pickup the more effect the tone control will have. A hot 16k humbucker will get darker sounding with a .022 cap than a 4k filter’tron. This is because it forms an LCR network. So pick your cap value to match your pickups and the tone you want.
Have I tried mods? Yes, since 1970. 😃 Now I build guitars and make pickups.
Talking about taper, let's not forget treble bleeds!!
before changing pickups i will always change the pots/capacitors first. 9/10 times it really opens up the pickups and it sounds great
Hey I have a question, why are some capacitors soldered to the one pot alone and in other guitars they connect the 2 pots?
@@shawnawesome7770 usually the capacitors are what turns a regular pot into a tone pot. so if there’s multiple ones with caps on it there’s multiple tone controls. and they can be wired to a separate pickups for example
@@chris.rcavazos hmm ok. I've seen them wired from Tone knob the the joining volume knob. But good to know.
@@shawnawesome7770 ohh okay i think i just read your question wrong, i think i understand better now what you’re asking. i don’t see it happen much but imo it’s probably not good to do that because if one of the screws on a pot loosens and it twists twists the connection can break the all together. not sure why someone would do it to be honest
@@chris.rcavazos if you ever watch trogly's channel you'll see it alot. When he reviews the mike ness replica lp it's definitely on there. I dunno. Just weird.
If you wanna change your tone with optimal price/performance ratio.. just get bias fx 2 or Amplitube 🤟🏻
Can't agree more with the comments about strings and picks. I love how brands are doing value packs where they pile a bunch of different picks into a pack at discount prices.
I highly recommend Dunlop's Jazz III variety pack. After decades of playing, when my 9 yr old and I were at a music store, he found a Jazz III and thought it was great because it was "his size" lol. The guy at a music store gave it to him. I thought I'd give it a go and after trying it once I ran out to buy a 6 pack. Now it's an integral part of my tone. No other pick sounds the same so far. I was dumbfounded at how much it improves the tone.
Great video! Just modded my Player strat with the Clapton mid-boost kit which gives a very Les Paulesque vibe when in use. Fantastic mod for not much money but you need to be ok with wiring or get a guitar tech to install for you.
I put a Weber Blue Dog and a Silver Bell in my 2x12 cab. Both alnico and sound great. I also have a Tone Tubby low watt alnico hemp cone in a 1x12 cab and it’s also great just different. Both cabs are open backs I built myself. Plugged my friends Fender twin into my 2x12 and it sounds a lot different to the Twins speakers so yes speakers make a big difference.
adjusting pole pieces and pickup heights can change a PAF style humbucker into a very convincing Filtertron tone.
A more complicated mod I like is a rotary switch with several different capacitors tied to the tone pot.
Also a Bass roll-off is a pretty cool mod.
I'll try not to be too long on this. If you are primarily a sitdown player with electric guitar, try moving the guitar to center rather than saddled on your right knee. It requires a strap for me, but being left handed playing righty, it frees up my right hand immensely dexterity wise. I actually discovered this by venturing into banjo, where you have no choice but to play from center; but it has improved my guitar playing 10 fold.
Good tip for sure ! It also means it less different feeling when you DO play standing up.
Guitar will be in almost the same position.
I used to play on my right leg when sitting down. If you go to play standing up then, it feels wildly different.
Not as much so when you play, like you say, from center.
@@raytorvalds3699 it's called the classical position having the guitar between your legs and it makes it so much easier on your fretting hand.
@@tobystrickland5986 I know this and I agree 100%. Cheers.
In line with changing strings, look into upgrading everything that comes in contact with the string (nut, frets & saddles). The different materials used for these parts can add to possibly improving your tone. Also, Fast Fret + washing your hands before playing will help extend the lifespan & quality of your strings.
Cheers..
My Ibanez Jet King I, sounded great in humbucker mode, but single coil was weaker and not as good. Pulled off the pickguard and saw it had 500k pots. 500k is fine for humbuckers, but most single coils are better with 250k. Most complaints about this model were “the pickups are bad, replace them.” I thought, “is there another way?” Looked around and found the odd 300k pot. So much better balance between single and humbucker! Also added in the Rothstein guitars push-pull tone control with an inductor for mid-cut (set it for a “cocked” wah tone, or roll it up and down for a hand powered wah.)
After years of tone chasing with Alnico magnet pickups, I recently discovered that I really prefer some ceramic magnet pickups. Definitely worth a try to get the right sound you’re looking for.
I always liked the warmer tone of ceramic pick ups ,I have friends that looked at me funny when I told them that .
@@clarkburrSame in my experience, those friends in my case claim ceramic p/u's have qualities tonally that alnico actually have, Darrell proves it in a "vs" video. They knock ceramic because they're the cheapest pickups to make for introductory priced guitars, doesn't mean there aren't high quality ones too, you get what you pay for.
I switched from 9s to 10s and I like the tightness and feel of the 10s since then I never looked back
I took my Squier Affinity Strat apart to paint it (Maui Blue), and I figured while I had it apart I could do some upgrades. So I dropped in a white pearl loaded pickguard with 3 single hot-rail pickups. It still has that classic Strat sound, but with so much more depth and soul. I took the old Affinity loaded pickguard and dropped it in my Glarry GST because it has alnico pickups, which sound much better than Glarry's cheap fridge-magnet pickups.
If you buy an off brand strat with solid saddles and wonder why it doesn't have the dynamics and snap of a Real Fender. It's the bent steel saddles. Found that out when I finally bought a Fender Player and wanted to have "nicer" saddles. Completely transformed the tone to every other strat I had owned before. Changed them right back. So get some bent steels for another and get that sound.
Funny you bring up the string guage thing. I just discovered this year that I prefer to have 10 gauge stings on my 24.75 scale guitars, and 9 gauge on my other guitars (which are all 25.5 scale I believe). I don;t notice any real change on tone either, just better playability.
Choose your strings FIRST, then refine your tone in other ways. Also, frreway switch, coil split, coil parallel, blender, pencil graphite in the nut slots, move your volume pot to where you actually want it (some folk like it within easy reach, others out of the way) at a tremolo system, float your bridge. There are so many ways to distract yourself from actually practising 😂
No5 is the most important. For the newbie on an acoustic, improper action and string gauge are by far the worst obstacles to learning, to the point of discouraging a player to give up totally. Electrics aren't really the answer because strumming and finger picking really teach best on an acoustic. Classical guitars with nylon strings could be an answer but the fretboard is often too wide for young players. A good luthier/tech is as important as a good teacher for newbies (or anyone).
I use threaded inserts on my bolt neck guitars. I've done this on my Pacifica and a couple of partscasters. The tightening of the neck/body connection feels much more resonant and "alive" Also not really a mod per se but most inexpensive guitars will be more gig ready if you replace the tuners and pots.
Great video! Lots of good points. I would not spend much money playing around with changing the amp tubes, though. Changing tubes mainly affects the volume of the signal, but it doesn't affect the signal frequencies as much as people like to think.
One my PRS I did not like the sound of the humbuckers. Not muddy, but they sounded too warm for my taste. I tried to wire them in parallel before I changed them for something else...
Love them now. Best free mod I could have done.
I don't if this would be considered a mod, but I play all my guitars in D Standard. It's a good feel for me, the strings still have good tension, basically 11 gauge strings, and it's just fun. The only guitars that differ are my 7 string, also tuned down 1 whole step with the low A string, and my Schecter with Ernie Ball Mammoth Slinkys (Ryan "Fluff" Bruce) tuned to C Standard. That guitar plays so good!
I play all my acoustics D standard, gives a lot of warmth
Tubes really are an amazing yesteryear technology. Some of that old analog technology never ceases to amaze me.
Darrell…you are 100% correct about speaker cabs…they will change your tone more drastically than any other mod!!!!👍
good info here been playing since i was 12 now i am 50 this year music tastes can affect your sound and playing... i started playing old skater music like misfits ...gen-x. circle jerks and so forth.... the went to the hair metal phase.. then grunge .. the pop rock ..then blues.. and or blues rock.. this is called eveolution of your guitar playing that to me is best... keep playing do not be afraid to change your style. ty
I had some picks that I liked better than others, but I never thought too much about it until I got a Gravity pick with a JHS pedal. The way that the unpolished edge of that pick interacts with the strings sent me down a pick rabbit hole. Some of my favorites are ones that I've made myself. I've started scouring the recycling bin to see what I can use.
The V1 tube idea is something I hadn't thought of. Cool idea!
Speaker modding is the only way I'll ever afford that hiwatt cab I've always wanted. Great call on that
Mod the V1 preamp tube is the most easy, fast and effective tone modification to do on a tube amp, strings brand and gage too. Don’t know MFD pickups, i read informations on it, i wajt to change pickup on one’s of my Jackson. Another informative and cool video. Thanks Darrell.
After somes researchs I just understood that the MFD pickups were developed by Leo and are exclusive to G&L. So i learn a lot every day 😄. In my defense I know very little about G&L, never tried one even if they seem very good. A hole to fill in my culture as soon as possible.
One thing about tone capacitors. It's not so much the style of capacitor that will make a difference in the tone, but rather the capacitance value. The quality will impact the stated value. A cheap cap rated at .022 could vary as much as 20% -/+. You can ignore the voltage rating as in a guitar circuit were talking millivolt range really. So have fun with that!
Or in other words, you'll never damage your tone capacitor in the guitar because of voltage. 👍
Hi Darrell, I loved your review, it made great sense. You have opened up my mind with these small tweaks. Cheers ✌️🎸
Totally agree about changing speakers.
Yup. Mega different mod. New jam for days.
I love the pole lamp in the room. Where do I buy one? Cool video, as always. Thanks.
@Hit me on Telegram 👉👉DarrellBraunGuitar11 I dont know how. Help?
I think a lot of the mods mentioned come in time as a player matures if they get more accomplished and really start to refine their gear.
It is so nice today that inexpensive guitars are so good. It used to be they were very unpleasant to play and fell apart pretty quickly. So today, you should pay for that set up and new strings with all the money you save. Like Darrell says, don't get frustrated. You don't have too. Guitar is totally fun. Just get over those first few weeks when it seems like your fingers don't work and then one day you have a power cord. And then you rock forever
My tele deluxe wide range neck pickup was too dark for me, so I swapped the volume pot from 500k to 1 Meg and added a no-load tone pot to it. Huge improvement for less than $10.
The reason people don't upgrade speakers as much as even entire cabinets let alone pickups and such in because too many people listen with their eyes and not their ears. You can't see speakers behind the grill cloth unless it's open back or there is no cloth but there are some awesome looking cabinets and pickups for example.
gr8 mods Darrell. and on Electric guitars change the bridge block to a brass one..really helps improve tone and sustain..thanks for all you do...
Yes a different material in your pick, from jazz 3 to gravity pick, thicker, harder, pretty amazing Tone difference…..worth $5 bucks each!
but they wear out quicker
Excellent video. I was taught these mods awhile back. They are great suggestions.
Add a small jumper wire between the neck tone tab and the unused bridge tone tab.... and you have a forward tone pot for neck AND bridge pickups and they are never on at the same time! Fender has no bridge pickup tone pot after 50 plus years!
Want ceramic sounds on a humbucker? get the emg 57/66 tw dual modes. That neck pickup is alnico and ceramic with push pull. sounds so f'ing great.
Great tips except for the tube suggestion since they're kind of made out of unobtainium right now.
LOL.
Well, I can't change the speakers of my cabinet bc i only have a couple of combo cheapo amps, but what I do is play around changing and testing different IR. Is quite fun and changes the tone a lot.
I upgraded my LP to Emerson paper-in-oil caps and holy it made QUITE the difference!
I bought chicken picks (badazz 111, 2mm) after you reviewed the brand and have really been enjoying them.
#6 - Tone POT. A 1meg pot can go from dark to super bright. Low cost ez mod.
I have a squier class vibes mustang that gets quite a bit of buzz with the tone past 50%. After shielding the pickups and electronics I discovered it was the tone capacitor causing the buzz.
I've decided that when I get upgraded pickups I'm going to replace the electronics. I wish I knew that was the issue before doing the shielding.
For number 2, an important thing to remember is cheap ceramic pickups aren't bad because they're ceramic, they're bad because they're cheap. A quality ceramic pickup can be just as good as a quality alnico, it just depends on the tone you're looking for.
How bout changing the guitar. My firsts were Jacksons with the Floyd rose floating bridge, which I discovered I hated over time. Ended up blocking it in place so I could change tuning and bend notes without everything changing pitch too. The cool components didn't make me a better player and actually fought against my natural playing style. I learned that a standard fixed bridge was best for me and I actually don't mind a beefier neck.
If the guitar is simply all wrong, trade it up for what suits you.
I absolutely agree with your mods. I tried already some of them by myself.
Learn guitar maintenance. Put your guitar where you can see and grab and play it quickly. These simple things helped me greatly.
I like heavy strings, high action, & 1mm picks
I started 3d printing pics........ picks? anyway, it was a fun experiment and let me make a huge variety of strengths and thicknesses. I found a few that I love, but couldn't buy anywhere, and was able to build in some grippy on just portions of the pick and not the entire thing (where the pick strikes the strings). Great cheap mod!
I found that changing the trem block made major differences in tuning stability and sustain. But that's assuming the stock block was junk.
You hit the most important thing...as a beginner or intermediate player, experiment with strings and picks to find the mix that makes you want to keep playing more!
I can identify with the strings story when first learning! Did the same thing. 😅
Now it depends on what I'm going for and which guitar I'm playing. 😁
Magnetics are super important. Ive always said good pickups and good speakers can make a bad guitar and amp sound good
I agree picks matter. I changed brands and my tone is way better and playing has improved and they last longer too. Win Win 😊
The guitar string tip is important. Took me a long time to figure out Ernie ball beefy slinky where the best for me
Steve Vai: Add a flux capaci..."
Me (slaps Steve): "Not today Satan"
Always liked the attack of a thicker pick, but couldn't find one I liked until I tried the 1mm Flow tortex. Wish they make a grip version.
you touch upon this with the pickup bit about the G&L pickups, but I always fumble with my pole pieces after a month or 2 of having to gotten to know a guitar and it's pickup set. You can easily bring a bit more high end to big chords or a bit more warmth to your solo's by accentuating certain strings. Now you don't need to turn the pole so that itnearly touches the string, but just a turn maybe 2 so that it sticks out above the others. Subtle differences, but can't not. (Also some strings I turn the polepiece into the pickup for a quarter to a half turn from stock)
I actually replaced expensive texas special pickup to ceramic MIM for more dirt :) (but must have is good tube amp for nice tone)
Type of capacitor has zero impact on tone in guitar electronics, but the value of the capacitor has a huge impact on the frequency range of the low-pass filtration.
When i played guitari have an acoustic too with heavy string and high action what i did back then is i pit super glue on my finger tips because I haven’t developed the calluses so i put super glue and it help with how my fingers hurt and i can spend more time on guitar