These are really decent upgrades as other YT "experts" tend to swap too much or the wrong things. Well done! Please allow me to add my personal tips: 1. Clean up neck pocket from shavings and sand the contact areas flat. 2. Install a retainer bar or string trees (imho) 3. Graphite on the nut. 4. Boiled linseed oil instead of "lemon".
@@rasmuslaurberghansen8484 This might be referring to cheaper guitars usually made in Indo or else. In the factory they drill the screw holes holding the neck when the neck is in the pocket. So they drill both parts simultaneously and then they often don't clean up the pocket but put the screws in. So you have a lot of chips in there. Not only the contact between neck and body is not as tight as it should be, but also a unwanted neck angle. In some cases the highest frets are not playable.
another unpopular upgrade is stainless steel frets. I can't stress enough how much they improve how bends feel. I personally would do a stainless steel refret instead of a pickup swap (provided that the pickup installed is functioning like a pickup would)
Maybe on a 500 - 1000$ guitar a stainless steel fret upgrade make sense, but never on a 250$ guitar, that is just insane. I imagine the stainless steel install will cost you more than the guitar is worth to begin with, and then you still have to upgrade tuners, pickups etc before you have anything resembling a good guitar. If you must have stainless steel frets I would suggest you save up the 1000 - 1500 bucks to get a guitar that was born with them.
Very nice video, hope more new guitar player can see it. Upgrade cheap guitar won't make it feels like a expensive one. If you really want to change some thing, just swap a pickup, that brings the most difference. If you want squezz more from it, consider get some picks with specific shapes, it also affect the attack of your note
Exactly! Putting in a bit of work and actually having a good setup can do a lot of good for any guitar (I have also seen a lot of expensive guitars with terrible setups). Upgrading the pickups and doing a small fix to the bridge is really all you should do. I think when you are getting into the 800 - 1000 $ new price and up then it can start to make sense to replace tuners and both pickups, and likely it will already have either good tuners or good pickups. And yes the correct pick, and one that isn't completely worn down also makes a big difference both in the easy of playing and the tone - you get a lot more attack with a new sharp pick, and a pick cost like 1$, but again lots of people use the same picks for years.
Nice! I have the js227 special version with maple fretboard. I'm torn between putting a JB or sh5 custom 7 string versions. I feel like with My version, The maple neck and stock pick ups give it a very snappy bright sound. So i'm thinking to counter that I should go with a alnico jb but not sure.
The SH5 custom will probably sound the most aggresive of the two, with the JB being a bit more 'classic' so I guess it depends on what you are going for?
Right, but for a guitar that cost 200 - 300 bucks, I just don't think it makes sense to upgrade both a pickup and the tuners, because then you have already spend 200 - 300 bucks on upgrading the guitar, but I do understood the urge to replace the stock tuners.
These are really decent upgrades as other YT "experts" tend to swap too much or the wrong things. Well done!
Please allow me to add my personal tips:
1. Clean up neck pocket from shavings and sand the contact areas flat.
2. Install a retainer bar or string trees (imho)
3. Graphite on the nut.
4. Boiled linseed oil instead of "lemon".
Thank you! What would be the benefit of cleaning up the neck pocket in your experience? I have never heard of people doing that before.
@@rasmuslaurberghansen8484
This might be referring to cheaper guitars usually made in Indo or else. In the factory they drill the screw holes holding the neck when the neck is in the pocket. So they drill both parts simultaneously and then they often don't clean up the pocket but put the screws in. So you have a lot of chips in there. Not only the contact between neck and body is not as tight as it should be, but also a unwanted neck angle. In some cases the highest frets are not playable.
another unpopular upgrade is stainless steel frets. I can't stress enough how much they improve how bends feel. I personally would do a stainless steel refret instead of a pickup swap (provided that the pickup installed is functioning like a pickup would)
Maybe on a 500 - 1000$ guitar a stainless steel fret upgrade make sense, but never on a 250$ guitar, that is just insane. I imagine the stainless steel install will cost you more than the guitar is worth to begin with, and then you still have to upgrade tuners, pickups etc before you have anything resembling a good guitar. If you must have stainless steel frets I would suggest you save up the 1000 - 1500 bucks to get a guitar that was born with them.
Very nice video, hope more new guitar player can see it. Upgrade cheap guitar won't make it feels like a expensive one. If you really want to change some thing, just swap a pickup, that brings the most difference. If you want squezz more from it, consider get some picks with specific shapes, it also affect the attack of your note
Exactly! Putting in a bit of work and actually having a good setup can do a lot of good for any guitar (I have also seen a lot of expensive guitars with terrible setups). Upgrading the pickups and doing a small fix to the bridge is really all you should do.
I think when you are getting into the 800 - 1000 $ new price and up then it can start to make sense to replace tuners and both pickups, and likely it will already have either good tuners or good pickups.
And yes the correct pick, and one that isn't completely worn down also makes a big difference both in the easy of playing and the tone - you get a lot more attack with a new sharp pick, and a pick cost like 1$, but again lots of people use the same picks for years.
Great video. Lovely tone and playing Sir
Thank you!
Nice! I have the js227 special version with maple fretboard. I'm torn between putting a JB or sh5 custom 7 string versions. I feel like with My version, The maple neck and stock pick ups give it a very snappy bright sound. So i'm thinking to counter that I should go with a alnico jb but not sure.
The SH5 custom will probably sound the most aggresive of the two, with the JB being a bit more 'classic' so I guess it depends on what you are going for?
nice video and i think youre right in everything but.... i always need to replace tuners for locking ones
true... moreso with the JS Jacksons. The stock tuners are not that good... I changed the tuners for my JS32 and JS24
Right, but for a guitar that cost 200 - 300 bucks, I just don't think it makes sense to upgrade both a pickup and the tuners, because then you have already spend 200 - 300 bucks on upgrading the guitar, but I do understood the urge to replace the stock tuners.
Great job! These are really great instruments and this is a great way to build them up.
@@rasmuslaurberghansen8484 my laziness. I'm very bad at wiring anything. 😁
Maybe I'm the only one that spends 85% of my time on the bridge pickup😂.
Great video though ❤