First Project Guitar...questions

[yagmaster]

So I bought an old DeArmond M55 cheaply on ebay (it's in pretty good condition) and I would like to get my feet wet in the whole project guitar scene. I have two goals for this project: making it look better and making it sound better. I'm not too worried about the first goal; I have an artistically talented friend who is going to help me repaint and refinish it. But I am not quite sure what are the important steps to accomplishing the second goal. In terms of the actual soldering, wiring, circuitry, etc., I am an engineering student with many friends who are engineers: no problem. But I don't really know the general strategy.

Currently, in terms of electronics, the guitar has a single humbucker, a volume knob, and a tone knob. I was thinking about adding another humbucker with a 3 way pickup switch (like Les Pauls have). What else should I do? Should I replace the all of the current electronics, fit it with two brand new humbuckers and redo all of the wiring? Should I put on a new bridge and new tuners (the guitar does seem to lose its tune fairly quickly, even with good strings)? Any other tricks for improving the quality of the guitar, both in terms of its sound and, I guess, longevity? I appreciate any help I can get and apologize if this stuff has been already covered...I just wanted to get it all out in one post.

Thanks again,

-Dave

Edited October 26, 2006 by yagmaster

[KnuckleSammich]

you dont shouldnt worry about switching the electronics unless of course you have poor/sloppy solder connections, or if you want to switch ratings (replacing a 250k pot for a 500k pot). If you do get new pickups, check the Ohms and if you gots hot pickups, you will need to get higher rated pots.