Tanglewood Strat

I have a (first guitar) cheap Tanglewood "Nevada" in a natural finish with rosewood 'board. Unplugged this thing is unbeleivably loud. And the general feel of the neck and fingerboard is kinda nice. I was considering:

Gold hardware
Shield Cavity
Disconnect tone ctrls
"Sought Out" the wiring in general
New pot for master volume
New scratchplate so no holes from removed tone stuff.

BUT

I quite literally have no modifying knowledge. This will be my first project.

Help me out? Advice? Websites?

Thanks a lot.

Listen mate dont!.......ok?
You will read a load of old tosh on this and other sites about fitting new pick-ups and changing this and changing that.
IT IS ALL COMPLETELY UNECESSARY!
What matters is that you play (what is a perfectly good......very good.....tanglewoods are good guitars...
I know for a fact that each one is set up by an English luthier before they go to the shops) to the best of your ability.
Your guitar doesnt NEED any changes to it.
All that "after-fit" stuff is complete bullsh*t.

Ok? :wink:

Listen mate dont!


But what he wanted was advice on how to do it, not our opinions on whether he should.

If you want schematics, go to the Seymour Duncan website; he has tons of them. You want a five-way switch and no tones? Just disconnect the leads from the switch to the tone controls.

Gold hardware? Be careful there. There are tons of different string spacings on strats and strat copies. Some are metric, some are English, and this will affect mounting hole locations, as well as string spacing at the pickup poles. If you switch hardware, you have to be absolutely sure that it's a direct bolt-on replacement, or you may find yourself in a world of hurt as you plug old holes and drill new ones.

For that reason alone, I'd recommend that you have a competent tech do the hardware replacement for you. You could do the wiring mods with a pair of nail clippers, and switch everything to a new guard. Speaking of new guards, though, be careful there, as most replacement guards are made to vintage Fender screw locations, and a lot of copy guitars (and MIM & MIJ Fenders) don't have the screws in the same location. WD will make a pickguard with the screws exactly where you want them, but you'll have to send a tracing to them....

Oh, and MHO is that you can make a good guitar into a great guitar by adding the hardware and electronics of your choice. You can also turn a good guitar into a piece of crap, though, if you don't know what you're doing. My advice to anyone working on a guitar is that you don't start messing with anything that you are afraid of ruining.

It's an interesting point... But surely a new pot for volume swelling chords would make sense... And shielding the cavity would reduce the humming/feedback?

See what I mean?

Hilarious. :lol:

What's that supposed to mean? What's hilarious about trying to answer someone's question?

If you'll read my message, you'll actually see that I didn't encourage him to do anything to his guitar, at all. I just warned him to be careful when buying parts to ensure their compatibility with his guitar.

I also noted that you can either improve or harm a guitar with aftermarket parts.

I personally could care less whether he alters his guitar; I do like to help people make informed decisions on their own, rather than just beat them over the head with my own, unsubstantiated opinion.

I mean, really: if the man wants gold hardware, or wants to rewire his guitar, who are we to tell him yea or nay? A good guitar to me might well be unplayable for you.

Oh, I forgot: it's all complete bullsh*t...

Thanks for the help, Sorry to throw those questions in, they were meant for the other guy.

You'll learn.......20 years down the line.

When youve spent a fortune pointlessly "improving" guitars...........
And you'll look back and think; "Why did I do that?".

Believe me.

I was puting Gibson PAF's and fat frets on late sixties Telecasters in the early seventies, because it was....
"the fashion".

Come back and see me in 20 years time and tell me I was wrong.

C'est la vie. :roll:

You'll learn.......20 years down the line.

When youve spent a fortune pointlessly "improving" guitars...........
And you'll look back and think; "Why did I do that?".

Believe me.

I was puting Gibson PAF's and fat frets on late sixties Telecasters in the early seventies, because it was....
"the fashion".

Come back and see me in 20 years time and tell me I was wrong.

C'est la vie. :roll:

Reducing Hum and Replacing a pot is not trying to be in fashion!