How to Improve a Cheap Guitar

Small changes can make a cheap guitar play like a more expensive one.

You can make small and drastic changes to a cheap guitar to make it look and play like a more expensive version. Aftermarket changes can be simple and might take more money than you would expect, but they are often well worth the money. By changing something as minor as the strings, you can drastically improve the sound and playability of a cheap guitar. Often, neck changes and pickup changes are unnecessary but are the most drastic changes you can make and will have a large impact.

Things You'll Need

• Pickups
• Strings
• Knobs
• Neck
• Preamp
• Tuners
• Screwdriver
• Soldering iron

Instructions

1. Change the pickups to drastically improve the sound of a cheap guitar. Remove the strings so that you have full access to the pickups. Disconnect the pickup wires from the pots in the control cavity and unscrew them from the body. Slide the new wires into the existing holes and screw the new pickups into place. Solder the wires to their respective pots in the control cavity.

2. Change the bridge by removing the old one. Unscrew the bridge from its position and throw it away. Screw the new bridge into position if you were able to find one that fit using the existing holes. If not, route a spot for the bridge using a plunge router or screw new holes into the body for the new screw pattern. Make sure that the nut and bridge are truly parallel.

3. Add a preamp to the guitar. Unsolder the existing pickups from the pots in the control cavity and slide the preamp into an open area so that the control cavity plate will still go into place. Solder the preamp in before the pots as stated in the instructions. EMG and Dimarzio make preamps that work as an aftermarket improvement on many types of passive pickups.

4. Replace the neck with an improved aftermarket model. If your guitar is a common shape, like a Fender Stratocaster, you can get a much better replacement neck that will improve the playability of it and also the tone. Fender Stratocasters have a standard bolt pattern, so aftermarket models can simply be screwed in without any modifications. If necessary, you can increase the heck joint or use a shim to reduce side-to-side movement of a thinner neck.

5. Change the tuners, strings and knobs on the guitar. Although these seem like small changes that will have little impact, changing the strings and tuners will make tuning the guitar much easier and new knobs will often make a cheap guitar feel much better and seem more expensive that it really is as manufacturers often skimp in these areas.

References

• Shred Knowledge: Tone-Finding Ways to Improve it Cheap