Well I wanted to start a thread for people to ask about general guitar mods. Wiring, neck profiles, frets and fretboards, trems, body profiles, pickups, active vs passive, strings and the mods you need to carry heavier strings in cheap guitars, bridges (for instance tely vs, tunomatic + tail piece vs, roller bridges. Seriously let's try to concentrate mods in a single thread. I've got years of experience, I know there are a few other members who know there way around building and modding guitars. Lets talk about them (It's the only place on this forum I'm useful :-p

Nice idea for a thread.  I should get into modding more, but often when I decide to mod a guitar, I decide to just get a new one. :) And, usually when I do actually decide to do a mod, I'm talking to a guitar tech for advice and I just end up paying him to do it. Still toying with the idea of putting a partscaster together from various parts, and I'd really like to start painting bodies, too.

 

I've wondering if I should upgrade my Gibson Les Paul Standard (with 60's neck) with locking tuners (for convenience sake) or a new volume pots, but unsure if it's worth the effort. But, I do love those locking tuners on my Music Man Luke.

 

Or install a kill switch on one of my Strats but I often get talked out of this from friends because they are now vintage Strats (80s USA strat, and MIJ early 90s strat). Maybe I'll get a project guitar and go crazy with mods.

 

i"d like to try this 6-way switch:

 

 

Or install a Kaoss pad:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wDntYJFFRc

I was thinking of making myself a Telecaster Deluxe from a DIY-kit. Thought i could swap the electrics to active pickup set, probably something like EMG's 81 on neck and 60 on bridge. What pickup set would you recommend?

Nice, those EMG81/60 pickups would make a mean metal machine out of a Telecaster.  Pretty cool idea. What DIY kit are you looking at?

 

Regarding the pickups, if you wanted something more traditional, but still active, EMG makes a Telecaster set of active pickups:

http://www.emgpickups.com/guitar/single-coil/tele/tset.html

 

EMGs single coils sound pretty good, IMO. That set should still preserve that classic Telecaster twang and sparkle, and still be able to rock out. 

 

Here the EMG-T sounding like a traditional Tele

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XntlIDOy3mg

 

But take a look at this guy who is demoing the EMG-T with more metal sounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfFaywMX1Qg

 

If you wanted to look at EMG humbuckers, the EMG 85 is another alternative to the 81.  I've liked the EMG 85 paired with EMG SAV (or SLV) single coils.  Can get your a wide variety of sounds. Steve Lukathers rocks that combo. Here is doing a classic Jimi Hendrix tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOmgg-1B85A

 

Lastly, if you wanted a similar pickup to the EMG 81 for really high gain stuff, you can try Seymour Duncan's Blackout humbuckers, which is a direct competitor to the EMG 81:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/humbucker/high-output/blackouts/

I want to do something like the Jim Root Tele, but with full tone and volume control. Found a pretty affordable Tele Deluxe DIY kit from a finnish guitar store. Maple neck and alder body. Here's a link to the actual kit (in finnish though, but you can get the idea from the picture)

http://www.uraltone.com/soitinrakennus/kitara-rakennussarjat/tele-deluxe-tyylinen-rakennussarja-3-leppa-vaahtera.html