Last year I bought an Harley Benton Telecaster and I loved it right away. Today I’m going to make it even better by upgrading its weak spots like the tuners, the electronics and the plastic nut. I’m also going to mod the wiring with a 4-way switch and adding a “pickup in series” mode.
Wish me luck.
Have fun! My first big upgrade were lace sensor gold pickups on my strat. Those went in fine but then I added a blend circuit which would allow you to blend the coils together in a bunch of new combinations. I thought that went well but when I plugged it in the tone was really thin. I spent days troubleshooting it but was a rookie. Finally took it into the shop and I swapped the ground and lead on the output jack. Oops. Moral of the story is check your ground.
You can actually add two HOOP(Half Out of Phase) wiring setups to double single coil guitars, and get some extra tone options and utilize a 5 way switch.
Nice! Love to see this! I’m rereupgrading my first electric guitar. It’s a budget strat. I redid a bunch of things on it in 2020 but I miss the stock pickups. They had a tone quality I haven’t been able to replicate on any other guitar. I’m also returning it to mostly its original look with a new pick guard that has the same style. And I really wanted locking tuners like my Charvel has. Also thinking of sanding down the back of the neck to remove the glossy finish. I’ll keep the 2020 upgrades attached to the old pick guard and do hot swaps when I get bored with the new setup. Excited to see stuff like this, maybe I’ll share my rebuild with this group!
Are you sure that’s the right type though? I’d expect hb, like most modern strat/tele necks to use a flat bottom nut.
Tusq is a great choice in any case. I have those in a few different guitars and they’ve been brilliant. Not even a huge cost since it will probably last ages.
Good luck and have some fun! I have to say that upgrading a guitar is somehow more rewarding than using it after the upgrade; though I have to admit that I’m using my upgraded Mex-Strat more often than my American Strat.
Right? I got a PRS in 2020 and a few months later decided to redo my first strat. I’ve barely touched the PRS and the reborn budget strat gets all the attention!
A little bit of luck is needed. I’ve upgraded the tuners for two of my guitars without problem. Then I wanted to upgrade the tuners on my Squier Telecaster: The small holes for the pins on the underside were in the wrong place. I thought, ok, let’s drill new holes. Unfortunately I needed to drill the new holes right beside the old holes; which meant that my drill kept slipping into the old hole and I don’t have the necessary equipment to fix everything, so those shiny expensive tuners are still waiting for their day.
Add comment