A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

I was narrowing the candidate guitars for the cool set of humbuckers I bought from @Buddha Pickups and this Liquid I bought brand new for a whopping $139.95 back in 2014 was in the lead. So I took it out to further my analysis.

It doesn't get much play, and in the past I have attributed that to the pickups being clear, but lacking character. But playing for a while, what stuck out to me was that the action was higher than I remembered - ok, but not amazing.

I sighted down the neck and it was perfectly straight (with barely any relief at all), just what I hoped. So I lowered the bridge to lower than I like, and started looking for high frets. Little did I know I was going to spend all morning at that... Taking turns between plucking, fret rocker, leveling, and crowning high spots I swear I found maybe 20. Ok, not 20, but it seemed like it. A little game of whack-a-mole. But after all that, every note up and down sounded perfect. Then I raised the action back up a bit to where I like (to play harder).

Suddenly, this guitar is far better than I ever remembered! I tweaked the pickup heights and angles, and spent a couple hours playing, just amazed by the transformation a bit more attention can make! It even seems to sound better (more than my pickup adjustments would account for).

I already have too many great guitars, but I still spend time watching the market for a few. Today I finally realized obsessing on tweaks can be at least as rewarding as finding a great new guitar. And it was quicker and cheaper. I'll probably still swap the pickups and upgrade the pots, but honestly that's just icing at this point.

Good for you if that works! All I have learned is that, if a guitar is solid and can hold tune, a good setup (to include fret leveling if necessary) can make even value (the term I prefer instead of "cheap") guitars play like a thousand bucks!

But a strat is not a tele is not a 335, well you get the idea and I happen to like variety. It is the spice of life after all!

Aaaaand it makes me gather variations like this:

BatUtilityBelt wrote: ↑Wed Sep 21, 2022 2:59 pm Body Front.jpg
Today I finally realized obsessing on tweaks can be at least as rewarding as finding a great new guitar.

I agree. little upgrades, maybe swap a few necks around based on ideas for one reason or another, Maybe new tuners where needed, etc.
Makes for great sense of time well spent, and playing quality improvements.

Great lesson here @BatUtilityBelt!

I'm in a similar situation as yourself, owning way too many guitars, yet always still GASing for something intangible.

Quite often I'll pull one "out of the pile." It's usually an instrument I got a great deal on years ago, had a hot honeymoon with for a few days, come to the conclusion that I was not entirely satisfied with the tone and playability, spent a frantic few hours tweaking, and then hastily cast aside for the next acquisition.

More often than not I say to myself upon revisiting these instruments, "Who is the idiot that set this thing up?"

9 out of 10 times I'm able to make such instruments sound and play much better when they're revisited in this manner. Somehow I have a much more sober and objective perspective long after the time of the original purchase. The other day I had exactly this experience with my Sterling by Ernie Ball Sub Silo 3, turning what seemed like a lump of coal into a diamond with a couple patient hours of adjustments and careful listening.

Every time I feel the need for a cure for gas, I pull out something from my collection that says "Gretsch" on the headstock and after playing that one for a time, the gas pains go away.

A diamond in the rough.
Congrats on polishing it up!

dabbler wrote: ↑Wed Sep 21, 2022 7:40 pm All I have learned is that, if a guitar is solid and can hold tune, a good setup (to include fret leveling if necessary) can make even value (the term I prefer instead of "cheap") guitars play like a thousand bucks!

This.

Once I learned how to do set-ups and fret-work, it was a game-changer. I can make pretty much any modern-made guitar into a player.

Looks like a winner to me, and yes my acquisition GAS can usually be easily filed by cracking open the case of something I haven't played in a while. Even just a good cleanup of the fretboard/new strings makes a big difference.