Top 10 Crazy Guitar Mods & Hacks

Guitar players have been known to go through lots of different gear. Acquiring lots of guitars, pedals, amps and accessories can be the norm for many guitarists. Ever heard a guitarist talking about having GAS? This is simply someone who has “Gear Aquisition Syndrome”.

Rather than buying another guitar, have you ever wanted to modify your guitar in some way or another with the purpose of creating a unique instrument of which there is no other in the world?

If you have even a slight interest in this area, you might enjoy the following post. I have attempted to sort through a tons of crazy mods to share with you the top 10 crazy guitar mods & hacks

1. Fretboard Touch-Sensitive LED’s

When the creator was asked how he made this, he answered, “The whole thing is pretty simple: A channel underneath the fretboard, a few holes with leds poking through, and the negative led lead poking through a small hole in the corresponding fret slot. It makes a connection as soon as the fret gets tapped.”

Simple, right? Either way, it looks great when finished. You can view another video of the guitar with the pickups and neck all finished here.

2. Pickup Touch-Sensitive LED’s

This guitar is fitted with a twinkler LED system that reacts to picking.

3. The Misa Digital Guitar

This is a digital music controller like you haven’t seen before. The player puts theirs hands in the same places you would on a guitar but the lack of strings make it something different.

4. Motion Controlled + XBee Guitar

JP Carrascal hacked his guitar by adding motion control via a gutted Wii remote accelerometer. He also added a potentiometer-based control to adjust the pitch of a note.

Check out what you can do with this..

5. Milwaukee Guitar

Keith Baxter has undertaken something of a ‘Mount Everest’ of guitar modifications. It is still a guitar in the sense that it has a body, strings, and pickups to sense the strings vibrations and pass them to an amplifier. The left hand, which traditionally would shorten the strings as needed by pressing them against a fret, now changes string pitch using a keypad. This is an interesting fusion between traditional guitar and 80′s phenomenon, the keytar.

Each string is connected to a different servo motor. When a key on the keypad is pressed, the corresponding servo adjusts the tension of that string, bringing it in tune at the new pitch.

6. Guitar + Keyboard = Awesomeness!

When you can’t decide whether to play keyboard or guitar, this may well be a solution to your problem. Take a guitar and small keyboard, and blend it together in the following fashion..

7. Internal Wah, Kaoss, Fuzz, Sustainer, and Killswitch

Epiphone Les Paul Special modified with internal proximity wah, internal kaoss, internal fuzz, fsk401 sustainer kit, and pushbutton killswitch. Sound like overkill? Not a chance, this guitar is awesome!

8. The iPad Guitar Mod

This cool iPad Guitar Mod doesn’t just install an application that makes the sound of a guitar, but it is installed in a geeky/cool frame, so even Geeks can be like real rock stars.

9. LCD Screen Guitar

The LCD Guitar still has its six strings to play and rock but also includes a large LCD Screen for some cool visualizations while you play. This would definitely look awesome live on stage.

10. Josh Pyke’s Giant Guitar Boat

The Australian singer-songwriter rode this giant guitar boat into Australia’s Sydney Harbor as part of a shoot for his single, “Make You Happy”. The giant-sized floating six-string is a replica of the musician’s actual Maton  acoustic.

Your Say

Have you ever tried to modify a guitar? Feel free to share some examples in the comments below..