GTL Mods & Upgrades: Making A $95 Guitar Play Like A Dream Guitar!

1. Upgrade Strings

Benefit: Better Tone, Stay In Intonation

The easiest and most obvious thing to do to your guitar is to give it a fresh set of high quality strings. Because the age and quality of the strings of your guitar play an instrumental role in its performance. As strings age and begin to oxidize, the ability to faithfully reproduce a note and its natural harmonics diminishes drastically. This leaves your guitar out of tune and sounds dull or dead.

2. Upgrade Tuners

Benefit: Better Tuning Stability

A good set of tuners can keep you in tune and they can even improve the sustain of your guitar. You can also buy some locking tuners in order to improve your tuning stability. Tuner heads are also good for the looks, you can buy fancy ones if you will. But remember that, unless you are getting the exact same type of tuner with the exact same specifications and measurements, some adjustments will be required.

3. Upgrade Nut

Benefit: Tone Improvement, Better Tuning Stability

The nut affects the tone and tunability of the guitar in a profound way. The quick fix here is to use a pencil to add graphite to the string slots of the nut. Graphite decreases friction. It makes guitar sound better and tune sharper. If you’re willing to buy a new nut, upgrading from plastic to an ivory or bone will actually improve the sound of the instrument.

4. Upgrade Saddle

Benefit: Smoother Action, Tone Improvement

Don't ever underestimate the importance of a guitar saddle! It helps determine the action(string height) and affects the tone and intonation. If the strings are too high or too low, you can raise or lower the saddle to adjust the action. If the strings are fretting sharp or flat, you can correct the intonation by moving the saddle away or toward the nut. If the saddle is corroded over time, better quality replacements will make tuning and playing much better.

5. Upgrade Pickups

Benefit: Timbre Improvement

Pickup height is a critical element of your guitar’s tone. Set to the correct height, your pickup’s magnets create a strong magnetic field that gives your guitar the tone that you love. You can also choose to upgrade or modify the pickups, which is one of the most popular upgrades for electric guitars. Picking a quality pickup right for your taste will definitely take your tone to the next level.