We’ve all heard it before: Buy a cheap guitar and upgrade it, and you’ll hack the system. Yes, there’s a lot being said about guitar upgrades and guitar overhauling; but how do you upgrade a guitar?
Well, in this piece, we’ll talk about how to upgrade an electric guitar but also when it is time to upgrade your guitar. Moreover, we will talk about the crucial aspects of the guitar you can upgrade to make it your dream axe.
Are you ready to start the guitar overhauling journey?
Fasten your seatbelt, it’s upgrading time!
Why Do Guitar Overhauling?
Every guitar upgrade, regardless of whether it’s an acoustic guitar upgrade or an electric guitar upgrade needs to have a purpose. For this, you need to start with a problem; something you want to fix.
For example, a common question is if you should upgrade your guitar or amp first. Well, my answer to that is to always keep things in the same league. So, for example, if you’re plugging a $150 guitar into a $1,500 amp, you’re wasting tone. The same thing happens and vice versa.
Amp upgrading will be for a different piece; we’ll focus on guitars for now.
So, we’re going to divide this into two different goals.
• Overhauling to improve the sound.
• Overhauling to make it more useful for your playing.
Improve Sound & Playability
“Improving” the sound of a guitar usually means making it sound more expensive.
For example, you bought a Telecaster, and you like the guitar model appointments. The string-through-body construction, the dual pickups, and the ease of use are perfect for you. You love your guitar.
Then, your friend calls you up because he bought one too. You play it and it sounds better than yours. It’s more defined, twangier, and stays in tune better.
Now, you don’t like your guitar as much. You wish it sounded and played more like your friend’s. So, you wonder if you should upgrade your guitar or buy a new one.
You look for the price of your friend’s guitar and it’s out of your budget. Bummer, right?
Well, not so much, because that’s exactly when it’s time to upgrade accessories and take your beginner guitar to the next level.
Read on, because we’ll talk about what’s worth upgrading first in a few paragraphs.
Make It More Useful for Your Playing
You can upgrade a cheap guitar to make it sound, play, and feel like a more expensive one. But what happens if you need your guitar to cover more sonic ground. In this case, it’s a different scenario; you want to upgrade it to have more options.
So, the question here is, can you upgrade a guitar to make it “more like you”? Well, we’ve seen it a million times, from Alex Lifeson’s Floyd-Rose-equipped Les Paul to Jack White’s Triplecaster.
If you’ve been playing your guitar live and thinking “I just wish I could do … with my guitar”, then you want to overhaul it to make it more useful to your playing.
In other words, read on because we’re about to answer the question “How can I upgrade my guitar to make it more useful for my playing style?”
Crucial Overhauling Guitar Parts
We already answered the question “When should I upgrade my guitar?” With two possible scenarios. Now, it’s time to address how to upgrade an electric guitar.
Let’s go straight into it.
The Tuners
My guitar teacher used to tell me, “No matter how you play, if you’re out of tune, nobody wants to hear you.” He was right about that.
If your guitar won’t stay in tune or won’t tune perfectly, chances are it features cheap or faulty tuners. So, to improve guitar accuracy and to make it stay in tune for longer, get a new set of quality tuners to replace the ones it came with.
Many entry-level guitars feature the cheapest tuners in the market. Changing them makes a big difference.
In this scenario, I suggest:
• Installing high-quality tuners with a better ratio or locking tuners
Another scenario could be that you want to drop your 6th string in the middle of the song, or you want to use your whammy bar more while playing. Well, getting locking or special tuners is exactly how to upgrade your electric guitar to make it more suitable for your playing style.
In that scenario, I suggest:
• Installing tuners with a built-in drop-tuning mechanism
• Installing locking tuners
The Nut
One of the best upgrades you can perform on your electric guitar is changing the nut. Although it’s frequently overlooked, the nut has a huge impact on your guitar’s tone and tuning stability.
Often, inexpensive guitars come equipped with plastic nuts which affect the guitar tone. These nuts are usually not cut to perfection, generating more unnecessary friction with the guitar strings. Have you ever tuned your guitar and heard a loud “ping” noise that moved the tuning drastically? That’s a faulty nut.
In this scenario, I suggest:
• Installing a better-quality nut (it can be made of bone or Tusq, for example)
• Having an experienced technician cut the nut perfectly for your guitar
If you want to use your whammy bar more and notice your guitar goes out of tune a lot. Or, if you need thicker strings because you want to tune down a whole step, you need an electric guitar nut upgrade.
In these scenarios, I suggest:
• Installing a roller nut so you can abuse the whammy bar freely
• Having an experienced technician make new, bigger slots for the new string gauge.
Bear in mind that a new nut is one of the cheapest guitar upgrades you can perform on your instrument.
The Pickups
Pickups are the heart and soul of an electric guitar.
So, the best guitar upgrade you can do on your axe is to get a new set of pickups. Furthermore, they make such a difference that you can get the best cheap guitar to upgrade, swap the pickups, and gig with it.
But how do you upgrade guitar pickups? Well, the first thing you need to do is to decide if you want the same sound but in HD or a different sound.
For example, do you feel the pickups on your Stratocaster sound thin and wimpy with no bottom end or are too noisy? Do you wish your guitar sounded more like an expensive Strat?
In this scenario, I suggest:
• Doing some research and installing a replacement set with the EQ you want
• Installing a set of noiseless pickups
Sometimes, you like the guitar’s neck, the playability, and how it feels but don’t like the sound entirely. Perhaps, what you want is more power rather than more definition.
For example, if you’re like Ritchie Kotzen who loves the Telecaster but happens to be a rocking virtuoso, you need hotter pickups. In that case, you need pickups to change the guitar’s sound.
In this scenario, I suggest:
• Installing single-coil-sized humbuckers
• Experimenting with not-so-common pickups like P-90s and mini humbuckers
• Installing active pickups
The Electronics
This is another often overlooked part of the electric guitar. Yet, every chain is as strong as its weakest link.
When do you need a guitar electronics upgrade? Well, your electronics can be faulty. Yes, low-quality pots tend to have a shorter lifespan than good-quality pots. The same can apply to the pickup selector or any other electronic feature your guitar might have.
In this scenario, I suggest:
• Installing high-quality pots
• Installing high-quality wiring
• Installing a high-quality pickup selector
If your guitar’s electronics work great, but want to have more treble, more bass, or more dynamics, you can change your pots for different-value ones. Likewise, if you want to have a purer sound with nothing between the pickups and the pedalboard amp you can change the volume pot for a no-load one.
In this scenario, I suggest:
• Installing a no-load volume pot
• Installing a higher-value pot for a brighter sound
• Installing a lower-value pot for a warmer sound
The Triplecaster Example
Jack White and the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation just announced their collaboration on a new signature guitar called the Triplecaster.
This guitar is, essentially, a Telecaster.
That said, the only thing left from the original design is the guitar’s shape. Other than that, the guitar is an instrument that can cover a vast sonic territory. I’m not talking about just an electric guitar pickup upgrade, it has three different pickups, a tremolo system, a kill switch, and a D-tuner.
But why is it important to talk about it? Well, it’s the perfect example of overhauling a guitar to make it more suitable for the player. Jack White isn’t, by any means, a conventional player. He plays the guitar like nobody else, and for his unique style, he needs a unique instrument.
In that vein, the Triplecaster is not an overnight phenomenon, in Jack’s words “It’s the result of years and years of road-testing guitars and changing and tone-chasing.”
Some Appointments Worth Noting
• Three different pickups, a CuNiFe Wide Range, a P-90 in the middle, and a humbucker in the bridge.
• Three knobs. A master volume and a master knob, and a third knob that acts like a switch. The switch allows you to use a fixed tone setting or to go straight from the pickups to the jack for maximum output and power.
• Kill switch to mute the sound temporarily and do the “stutter effect”.
• Tuners with a drop tuner for the 6th string. This allows you to drop the string one whole step by just flicking a lever.
• A contoured neck heel for better access to the upper frets.
What Guyker Can Offer
If you’re looking for the best-quality guitar upgrade parts, Guyker offers them. Moreover, a third reason to upgrade your guitar’s parts can be the looks, and in that department, Guyker offers mesmerizing options.
Check out our online shop for the best pickups, tuners, nuts, electronics, knobs, bridges and tailpieces, and luthier tools in the market.
The Bottom End, Is It Worth It to Upgrade a Cheap Guitar?
Above, you found the best cheap guitar upgrades to make your guitar a better instrument. This is either to improve everything you like about it or change what you don’t.
Furthermore, in my opinion, the more you fine-tune your instrument to play and sound exactly as you want, the more you’ll fall in love with it.
So, to the question “Should I upgrade my guitar or buy a new one?” I would say upgrade it until it sounds exactly as you want it to.
Let me finish this piece off with an example. The holy grail of Stratocasters is the one Fender made in 1962. John Frusciante, the Red Hot Chili Peppers guitar hero owns one and plays it live a lot. Although he loves it, it’s not stock. He swapped the pickups for some modern Seymour Duncan SSL-1s because, to his ears, they just sound better and are more suitable for modern-age music.
Yes, even a holy grail can get some guitar overhaul and turn into a better axe for playing live.
Remember, there’s no right or wrong for guitar overhauling or guitar upgrades. Your ears and hands rule; nobody else.
Experiment until you find the perfect combination, it’s worth the time and money.
Happy (overhauled) playing!
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