Removing Wood From Body

[hessodreamy]

I've got a strat and I've never been happy with the sound of it - it sounds very thin.

But thinking about it, I chiselled out a little wood under the scratchplate to fit in some oversized humbuckers. How much would the loss of this wood affect the tone of the guitar?

I'm thinking of getting a tele now, and if I get a standard body, I'd definitely have to remove some of the body to get a normal sized humbucker in there.

So how much of an effect does/would this have?

[Stickmangumby]

Tone shmone. I doubt you can recognise any difference based on the removal of enough wood to install a single-coil rather than a humbucker... the guitar will sound pretty different due to the new pickups, but you won't be able to tell which part of that is being affected by the removal of wood.

[hessodreamy]

ok cheers. Just wanted to check that before I get my chisel out...

[Tjensen]

Yikes.....

Chisel? Thats scarry. You want to use a router and a template.

Also is this an american strat? Your going to kill the value of the guitar. You might want to try some stacked humbucker or higher output singles first. Stomp boxes go along way towards fat single coil sound too.

If you dont dig SC sound, you might just need a hum equiped guitar?

Edited March 24, 2006 by Tjensen

[redwhiteandthemaple]

You wont hear any difference at ALL.

Let's just put it that even Eric Johnson wouldn't be able to hear the difference.

-IR

[Guitarfrenzy]

We'll never hear the difference if you don't do before and after audio clips for us..

[Mickguard]

I'm wondering why you don't put a stacked humbucker in there? Seems like it'd be easier to do than tear the crap out of the thing with a chisel.