I started modding guitars around 14-15 years old, to get the kind of sounds and abilities I wanted that a stock instrument in that time could not provide. This is a listing of those various "projects" and what they entailed.
1985 Kramer Focus 3000
| My first electric guitar, bought at the Auburn Guitar Shoppe in 1995, and was my primary workhorse between 1995-2000, and then became a backup for awhile until the Jaguar joined the fold, where it was retired merely to studio use (mostly, with a few local live shows here and there). This was the guitar I cut my teeth on modification and customization on, and yes, I know it looks pretty beat, but you got to start somewhere.
Work includes, pickup replacements, wiring modifications (massive), Floyd Rose and Kahler experiments, attaching weird shit to the guitar for cosmetic and occasionally functional reasons, D-Tuna installation, floating trem experiments, and a lot of really really shady woodworking.
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1995 Fender Jag-Stang
| Nikki is my first Fender, procured from the Auburn Guitar Shoppe on February 9th 2000 - my 17th birthday, with a set of 1998 IJC date-code EMG pickups installed by the previous owner. Nikki is mostly just wiring mods and experiments with the Dynamic Fender Vibrato - which I'm basically a skilled technologist at keeping that vibrato unit in perfect tune even though I wail on it like a Floyd Rose double locking tremolo most of the itme - disspelling all the Kurt Cobain misquotes being perpetuated for the last thirty years in the process.
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1998 Fender Jaguar
| In 2005 I got my biggest bucketlist guitar - a 1998 Fender 62' Reissue Jaguar (Dyna Gakki, Crafted in Japan - late 97' and early 98' body and neck date codes). I bought it with the plans to return it to stock as the previous owner installed a set of Seymour Duncan SCR1B "Cool Rails" in both pickup positions and a Gibson ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic. Watch as I fine tune pre-existing mods, experiment with the ill-fated Jaguar flip-up mute, and show that these Jaguars are not delicate wussies incapable of high gain attitude and shred mayhem. Honestly, I think Betti may be the first true "Super Jaguar" in these respects - beefed up pickups, tricks to the whammy to stop it buzzing and keep it in perfect tune, on light strings (yes, I run .009s on a Jaguar), and not lose what made the Jaguar special to begin with.
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2008 Dean ML-X
| I bought this Dean ML-X guitar in 2008 to reverse Guitar Center fucking me over by double-charging my credit card on an EHX Stereo PolyChorus pedal. I spent $245 on it, and would up pawning it for the first month that I "had" it. It got use a little bit but was mostly a minor "character" in the collection until it got badly damaged. Then for my wedding in 2013 when I repainted it gold and did the "Viking Scottsman" photos at my wedding with it. Then it got used briefly with ZJ, before being rebuilt again in 2023 with my first attempt at a "GoldLeaf" top - and the result is in-freakin-credible.
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2008 Epiphone Special II (Les Paul)
| I found this poor Epiphone Special II orphaned in a dumpster while moving my future wife into my studio Apartment at the time. It had a hole in the top covered by a rock glued onto it, and looked like someone's angry girlfriend poured beer down the front. So I took it in, cleaned it up, used it as a sticker guitar for awhile, and over the course of the first 2 years of the 2020's, did a full blown overhaul on it, including fixing that hole in the electronics cavity!
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1987 Memphis 302HB "Fat Strat"
| My wife gifted me this for our 2013 wedding, and I later wound up replacing the neck, installing a import 2-point vibrfato in it, doing a couple wiring mods, and there may be more coming in the future such as a matching headstock repaint (based on an Ibanez in the same color we saw in Portland), and maybe even a Sustainer system if I feel like going through that rigamarole again.
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