GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome) isn't easy to overcome, but over the years, I think I've gotten through the worst of this affliction. I've found guitars I love, and use on a regular basis. No wall/case queens at this point.
It does rear it's ugly head from time to time, and in the past few years I've beaten it down in an interesting way. I've made the conscious decision to make the guitars I use more use able, modifying them to my current needs. I'm not making irreversible structural changes. Thankfully I don't own any vintage or rare instruments that I wouldn't be de-valueing. Here's the rundown on my "to-do" list to my current stable of guitars:
A little research proved successful in finding a bridge that would fit on my Tele without alot of mods. I just purchased it, but I'll have to wait, I do have an appointment with Mouradian Guitars in December. I hope tone christmas comes early. The only thing I really wish i could change is the color, it's a great looking guitar, but needs a bit more "patina" or relicing. Making it a more playable guitar means it'll get played more, wearing in, getting some scratches and dings to add to it's presence.
50's Reissue strat. This one got a TON of mods done last year. Soon I'll have some in depth details on this one in an upcoming issue of performermag.com. But to make a long story short, I now have 3 Seymour Duncan Stacked single coils in it, a pickguard that has a reverse angle on the bridge pickup. The wiring's ben tweaked a bit too. After doing all this work, it's become alot more useful to me, and I recently did a gig with it, and played for all 3 sets!
I still have alot to do on this one though. As I mentioned above, I realized that changing the bridge can make a big difference in tone. I did need to change the pickups on this, especially for the hum cancelling properties. I'm eyeballing a John Mann PRS Style Tremolo bridge for this one. I love the trem on my CE24, and bringing this element to my strat would make the tremolo (and the overall guitar) more useful. I'm also trying to find a locking tuner that will work nicely, as well as possibly a new bone nut on it. I do have some adjustments to the wiring to make too.
PRS CE. This is a tough one, It's been my main guitar since 1995, it's gotten TONS of use, from so many bands and projects throughout the years. After playing my Mira with the newer tuning pegs, I've decided to swap out the old ones with the winged locking collet. John Mann said he can re-use the casings, and re-do the innards with the new ones.
I always toyed with swapping pickups, but I have kind of filed that under "tinkering for tinkering's sake". I knew alot of PRS Guys that were swapping pickups out on a regular basis, I never had a problem with the stock ones, but it might be time for a slight change. It came with black pickups and black pickup rings. I swapped the rings out for chrome ones a long time ago to give it some "bling". While it does make things pop a bit more visually, I think the black rings with some chrome or nickle covered pickups might give it a more of a classic look. So i'm on the hunt for an interesting set of modernish pickups. I've thought of a Duncan Custom in the bridge, and a 59 in the neck. I've been hearing alot of good things about Barekunckle pickups, and I've been checking them out. Choosing pickups can really be one of those "down the rabbit hole" scenarios. So I'm trying to be reasonable, and taking my time on this.
Will all these mods keep the GAS gremlins at bay? Kinda. I have less urges to seek out other guitars that kind of do alot of the same things I can get out of the guitars I already have. It keeps things simple. and as I already like the way these guitars already play. However It doesn't solve the urge for things like a baritone or a short scale Fender Mustang/Jaguar/Jazzmaster. But I can deal with that urge after all these other guitars are already sorted out!
