Welcome back, my friends.  This next post will finally get to the tinkering and tone part of the blog name.  Most of these posts will be framed around whatever crackpot guitar project I have going on for the foreseeable future.   Why? Well, because I don’t have time to get into tearing apart and learning how to wind pick-ups in the near future.  I promise I will get there.

Anyway, aside from changing pick-ups, what are some quick, relatively easy, and affordable ways to make that off the rack guitar your own?  Your controls, many times, especially with cheaper mass-produced guitars, manufacturers cut corners and go with inexpensive controls to save some money.  That does not mean the $100 guitar from guitar center sounds bad; to me, it means the potential is limited.  I say limited because even some of the cheapest guitars have great tonewoods and are incredibly comfortable to play.  Making simple control upgrades, you can make noticeable improvements.

Tone is subjective; I want to empower you to tinker with your guitars.  I leaped and started doing it myself. If you’re not comfortable doing this work,  then talk to your local luthier or guitar tech.  These folks will be more than happy to help you improve your tone and provide some guidance and what is best.  The most important thing to understand with guitars is this; they are tools, just bits of wood and metal, they can be changed to fit you.

Rather than explain all the nuances between volume or control potentiometers or pots myself, I suggest you check out the content below.  The author Lindy Fralin is an excellent luthier and pick-up builder.   In his article, HOW DO VOLUME AND TONE POTS WORK FOR GUITAR?, he explains with great detail the nuance of tone controls.  It is a great read; I suggest you check out his website for more great content and high-quality pick-ups.

Now for the brass tacks of what my plan is, well, I am going to rewire up the Gracie Special, pictured below, because well, I built the guitar and why not.

I’ve wired this guitar a few times, mostly because I like to change things up from time to time or added the tone control about two years after the initial build.  I realized that one control, volume, wasn’t enough to dial in the sound I’ve been chasing. Anyway, after upgrading the pick-up rings to Seymour Duncan Triple Shot mounting rings and changing to controls, I got some decent results.  However, I quickly discovered that using quick connects with screw-type clamps to be less than ideal.  The wires always wriggled themselves loose, and I got tired of constantly fixing the loose connections.  I’m rough and don’t gig, so not sure if I over-torqued the connectors, and they failed, or what, either way, soldered connections tend to be better.

This post will focus on wiring up Gracie with a Fender audio taper volume pot and a Fender TBX tone control as a master tone control.  Hopefully, I’ll like it on this guitar.  The set-up works great on my Strat, and I thought why not try it out somewhere else.   The mod I plan on using as my starting point can be found as a two-part article on premier guitar.  Check it out, Dirk Wacker gives and overview in part 1 and some wiring mod ideas in part 2.

The parts for the current wiring scheme are:

• Fender 500K Volume control
• Fender TBX tone control
• Switchcraft 3-way toggle
• Seymour Duncan Triple Shot pick-up rings

Anyway if you have a soldering iron and are comfortable soldering/de-soldering, this a fairly easy mod.  If not, here is a video to help with soldering basics.  I also want to share another tip I learned from Mad Hatter Guitar Products.

The necessary steps are outlined for you.

• Step 1: Take out the controls.
• Step 2: Place a piece of cardboard on the outside of the guitar.
• Step 3: Lay the guitar on its front surface with the cardboard still in place.
• Step 4: From the inside of the control cavity, trace the openings onto the cardboard.
• Step 5: Cut out the holes and secure your control layout.

By doing this added step, you can work outside of the guitar and not risk hurting the finish.   This tip is helpful if you have a tight control cavity.

Here is an obligatory disclaimer: when working with heat or any tools near your guitar finish, please put something down to protect the finish.  I don’t care what you use an old towel, rag, scrap carpet, blanket or rags,  please use something that won’t damage the surface.  I don’t want angry emails if you break your stuff.

After laying out your controls and soldering them together, test out the connections before closing everything up.  This way, you know if something is wrong.  Fixing mistakes is easier to do with the parts outside the guitar.

The final step is to put it all back together and rock out.  If you don’t like something, you can change it out or adjust the values of any capacitors you have in the circuit.

#MattFail – I didn’t check the diameter of potentiometer posts, I need to make a few slight modifications.  Updates to come.  Protip? Check the width of your new components to the already drilled holes, if they don’t match, use a reamer to enlarge the holes.  Like this one