what you have and buy something new, rather than change your existing instrument. Also, it’s a good idea to talk to a skilled repair technician before you start any mod you’re not sure about. Because they are experienced, they may be able to perform the job for less money than you expected.
The Hot-Mod lab
Have you ever downloaded a wiring schematic and found out that not only it doesn’t work but that it could NEVER have worked? We’ve downloaded plenty of them over the years! Whoever put them on their web site probably thought they were being helpful but they didn’t test the circuits before they posted them. We promise we won’t be doing that. We’ll only be showing you mods that work, that we’ve tested ourselves and that you can check out before you get started.
The image above depicts our very own little Playmusic Hot-Mod lab. You can probably set up something similar at home. The most important starting point is a table or desk. You can also use a kitchen worktop but if you can’t get your legs underneath, your back could start to ache because some of the mods will make hours, not minutes! Some of the tools and materials we’ll be using can cost you literally nothing. Others cost you just pounds in high street discount shops and other non-specialist outlets.
~NECK REST (fig. 3) When you’re working on your guitar or bass, there
are two things you don’t want to happen. First Fig. 3
off, you don’t want to damage the instrument but secondly, you don’t want to damage the tabletop with drops of hot solder, or sharp tools. Our work bench is covered in an old wool blanket and the guitar necks are supported by a rest we made out of the polystyrene packing that came with a guitar shipping box, covered in bubble wrap. All of these materials were free. If you ask your local music shop ever-so nicely, you might get a free neck rest too! It’s always handy to keep an amp nearby. For one thing, it helps you to check if your new wiring is good-to-go before you re-assemble your guitar. Just as importantly for the Hot-Mod lab, it means we can let you hear what different wiring and pickup options can deliver under a variety of typical amp settings. We’re using a Vox Valvetronix VT15 because it’s affordable, compact enough to sit at the end of the desk and gives realistic amp simulations. Most of what we’ll be showing you in the online videos is simply shot from a camcorder on a tripod. But – when it really matters – we’re also recording to Logic Audio using a high quality studio microphone, to give you a proper chance to compare different guitar sounds.
~SEYMOUR DUNCAN LIBERATOR (fig. 4) We’ll be using these guys a lot. They’re the new
Seymour Duncan Liberator volume potentiometers (pots to you and me). Not only are they a brilliant idea for you hot-modders who don’t want to solder, they’re great for us when we’ve got a whole bunch of pickups to test!
~HOME MADE FRET GAUGE (fig. 5) When the pros measure if the string heights at the
nut about right, they use ‘feeler gauges’. We’ve found you can get the same result using a folded page from an exercise book or notepad. Want a thicker gauge? Keep folding, keep folding…
~NUT FILES HOT-MOD (fig. 6) A set of ‘nut files’ that can cut slots to
accurate string gauges and leave the bottom of the cut nice and round is really expensive if it’s not your day job. These mini-files are
Fig. 5
YOUR ON-LINE LIBRARY
This is only month one and we’ve already put a reference library on-line for you. Go to www.
playmusicpickup.co.uk and you can download these illustrated mini-books for free today: • THE HOT-MOD PICKUP PRIMER Learn how the magnetic pickups on guitars and basses work, the key pioneers in the history of the pickup and the factors that make one pickup sound different to another. • THE HOT-MOD SETUP PRIMER What to look for when ‘sighting’ a guitar neck and what you need to do to make any guitar play faster and sound more in tune than it did before.
• THE HOT-MOD GUITAR TOOL GUIDE We never want you to start a mod without knowing exactly how to finish it, so this is our comprehensive guide to tools and materials, with pictures.
actually for cleaning out welding equipment but they’ll adjust a nut pretty well too. They can be found on Ebay for a few quid.
~SPANNERS - Spanners are a safer way to remove the nuts from pots (volume and tone
controls) than using pliers, which can slip off and cause damage. We a complete set of three for £1.00 from the pound shop in our high local street.
~SCREWDRIVERS - Screwdrivers are vital for most maintainence jobs.We paid £1.00 for a set of
four in, you guessed… a pound shop!
~SHARPENING - Sharpening stones are slightly rougher than we’d normally use for fret
dressing but they work fine as long as you don’t mind rubbing the scratches out with wet & dry paper. They’re also great for taking off the rough ends that you often find on budget guitars’ frets. Yep, another one of our £1.00 bargains!
~KNIFE&FORK - No, we’re not kidding! Old fashioned forks have a rounded, curved top to the
handle that makes a safer tool for gently prizing off control knobs than a screwdriver. Likewise, those nice old dining knives are ideal for applying filler to chips and cracks. Cost? Zero if they’re in the kitchen drawer, or pennies from a car boot.
~NAIL VARNISH HOT-MOD - If you’re any good at colour matching, nail varnishes
Fig. 6
are a great way of repairing small finish chips (unless you prefer the relic look, of course). They cost a few pounds each and can make the difference between an instrument that looks ‘tidy’ and one that looks ‘immaculate’.
Show us your Hot-Mods too! Is there a guitar mod you’ve done that you’d like to share with other Playmusic readers? Or maybe there’s a mod you’ve got in your head but you’re not sure how to go about it. Either way, we’d like to hear about it.
Fig. 4
~Email us:
tim@standfirst-media.com PM pickup441
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