aongodavo Posted January 14, 2004 Report Share Posted January 14, 2004 i have a very cheap aria legend guitar-is there any general modifications i can do to improve its sound? preferably cheap! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canuckguitarist Posted January 14, 2004 Report Share Posted January 14, 2004 ...nice pickups? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aongodavo Posted January 14, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2004 what ones would you advise-is it difficult to install them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbkim Posted January 14, 2004 Report Share Posted January 14, 2004 I don't seem to remeber the legend line. Do you have a picture of yours so we can assess the condition, etc to make suggestions on what can be improved? What part of it do you find lacking? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbkim Posted January 14, 2004 Report Share Posted January 14, 2004 Yeah, pickups are one of the easiest, most efficacious mods you can do to a guitar, short of major surgery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canuckguitarist Posted January 14, 2004 Report Share Posted January 14, 2004 what ones would you advise-is it difficult to install them? what type of music are you interested in playing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbkim Posted January 14, 2004 Report Share Posted January 14, 2004 In addition to the pickups you might want to upgrade the other electronics, i.e., volume/tone pots. If you have or have access to a multimeter, test them to see if they're ok. One guitar I have just sounded like crap. I swapped the pickups, putting a couple of Seymour Duncans (Distortion and a 59N) in it. It STILL sounded like garbage! I later took out the pots and measured them on the meter. They were supposed to be 500k but measured around 350k. Ah, now it sounds great! . Very nice sound for such a cheap guitar! So... since pickups can be pretty expensive, measure the resistence on your pots... you might be able to improve the sound with just a swap of the pots. If your stock pots are good, then maybe invest in new pickups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StreamLine Posted January 14, 2004 Report Share Posted January 14, 2004 talkign of pots, anyone changed their pots to megapots? (ie 1000k)..... does that make the sound super-bright and trebly? Roman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StreamLine Posted January 14, 2004 Report Share Posted January 14, 2004 Yeah, pickups are one of the easiest, most efficacious mods you can do to a guitar, short of major surgery. well new pickups are almost equivalent on giving the patient a new heart and lungs, so pretty major..... pickups are about 2/9 of your tone, if we take the amp and stompboxes as the other 6/9......... so that is major, isnt it? not too difficult a mod though, which is cool Roman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbkim Posted January 14, 2004 Report Share Posted January 14, 2004 By major surgery, I was thinking more of routing, refretting or replacing the neck/body . But I see your analogy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Rosenberger Posted January 14, 2004 Report Share Posted January 14, 2004 talkign of pots, anyone changed their pots to megapots? (ie 1000k)..... does that make the sound super-bright and trebly? Roman I have an 6 of my guitars. I absolutely love them. they just shove the tone over the edge if you know what I mean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gw_guitars Posted January 14, 2004 Report Share Posted January 14, 2004 When youre changing pickups you should also take a look at the wiring and shielding. Cheap guitars have often cheap wiring and bad shielding. Further you can also take a look at your output connector. These things can also have a high resitance due to poor (cheap) quality. Gerard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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