Modding 2: Vandy No.1

This, for quite a long time, has been my main guitar, until I started using others. This guitar is slowly but surely getting out of pasture and as of now, is semi-retired. I am sure that a good tech/luthier could fix it, but then again, I am quite superstitious about changing it too much.

Here are some things done to this guitar:

- Paint taken off. The finish was quite thick, and actually it was supposed to be refinished. However, I really like the sound of this guitar without the paint (I like thin finishes), and even though the body lacks the protection of a thick layer of finish, I keep it this way for sound-reasons.

- Pickups:

I have tried many different pickup-combinations in this guitar. My favorite for a long time has been a Tone Zone in the bridge and a Fast Track II (actually a bridge pickup) in the neck-position. However, right now I am trying out a DiMarzio T-1 (Andy Timmons model), and as far as I can tell, I´ll keep that one in the bridge-position now, even though the TZ prolly still is my favorite DiMarzio pickup.

- Wang bar

The vibrato-system is blocked. It wouldnt stay in tune anymore, and I did it temporarily, planning to get it fixed. Then I noticed how much the sound changed with the bridge being blocked with a good piece of wood (believe me, the type of wood DOES make a difference. I am using maple). So I kept it that way. Since I don´t close the locking nut anymore, I removed the fine-tuners too, as they were getting a bit into the way when I was picking (mainly the fine-tuner of the low E-String).

- Switches

We changed the positions of the switches. The 3 way-toggle now sits where the neck-volume-know used to be. This was done when I was still using the bar on this guitar, as it sometimes was a bit difficult to use the switch, with the bar getting into the way. However, I liked this setup so much that I kept it that way.
Of course, the pots are 500K, and I use a gold-contact-switch. Both the pots and the switch had to be replaced several times due to wear and tear.

In the pic below, you can see how I string the guitar, with the ballends at the tuners. I would have to cut them off anyway, as the bridge still is a locking one, but I prefer to string all guitars with locking systems that way. It´s almost like locking tuners, I can severely cut back on string windings around the tuning posts.

The frets amazingly still never needed a fret-job. There of course is some wear n’ tear, but I don´t get excessive buzz, and it still plays like a charm. The frets were like hyper-jumbo, so even if they have worn down a bit, they´re still perfect for legato and bends.

The backside of the neck is sandpapered a bit on a regular base. I like the feel of satin-finish or unfinished necks (Not a fan of higloss, thickly finished necks, even though there are exceptions), that´s why.

OK, last pic. You can see that this guitar looks a lot like it´s gone through hell a couple of times… it kinda has. It kinda breaks my heart to notice that the guitar is kinda falling apart, even though I am doing my best to fix what needs to be fixed, but I don´t think I would use it on stage a lot anymore.
It still sounds amazing though, with a very punchy, “breathing” sound, and due to the fact I have played it for such a long time makes me feel like it´s an extension of my body…

 

Of course, to quote “you can´t polish a turd”, so you need a base to get started on modding… a guitar that looks or feels alright to you. But if that guitar lacks something you desire, like a certain sound different pickups could give it, or a shave-down on the neck, a different switching-setup etc, then go ahead.

I always loved what Eddie Van Halen did to his guitars, building the perfect guitars for him, instruments that would do what he needed them to do, and would work just for him. Same goes for the old Tele-mongrel Steve Morse used to use. And this guitar is something like that for me, modded to work perfectly for me.