Equipment Modifications (Mods)
Some equipment mods that may be of interest are below.
JVM410H mod by Voodoo amps
On first playing my JVM410H I was surprised how noisy it was,
after playing a Mesa Boogie Roadster for a while. I had Voodoo
amps make their
platinum mod and it became a lot quieter.
I also had multi tap power transformer installed so I can rewire for
240V, if I return to UK.
Parker Fly Radial GK3
I installed a Roland GK-3 on my Parker 522FR, after trying
Graphtech Floyd Rose system and being disappointed with spurious triggers
and tuning stability;
ended up just using the S1/S2 toggle switch.
I had installed a GK3 on a Parker Fly previously, with routing
through back, but here routed cable through bridge pickup cavity,
which was tidier.
Woodwork was non-trivial, especially since I had to move bridge
pickup forward.
I also added some white plastic fret markers to avoid fretboard confusion up high.
PRS 305 N3 and GK3 pickups
Although I liked sound of PRS 305 pickups at low/medium gain, they are not hum cancelling and a problem at high gain. I replaced with Fender N3's from eBay and also installed a GK3 for MIDI.
I have now changed to black DiMarzio Injector pickups which are a bit hotter and have less hum than N3's, although sound is less Fender-like.
DOD FX25 Volume mod
I liked sound of DOD FX5, but volume change made it pretty unusable. I modified for very similar volume active and 'bypass'.
Schematic mod and photos are below.
Crybaby Wha Hum mod
After changing my pedal board power supply to Voodoo Lab ones to get rid of hum at high gain, I noticed Wha pedal hummed when switched on - just due to power-supply proximity pickup into Wha inductor. I fitted Mu-metal foil (from Ebay) to base of pedal which got rid of most of hum.
I also tried shield around inductor, but that altered sound and so left it off.
Carvin HH2 mods
I am something of an Allan Holdsworth fan and saw him play a few times in San Diego - never had such a disconnect between what I was hearing and what a guitarist's fingers appeared to be doing.
I ordered an HH2 from Carvin, then added a Fishman Tripleplay to it, by sliding bridge pickup as far forward as possible then re-screwing in place to make enough room for Tripleplay pickup.
Main tripleplay unit is mounted on rear and is fine for MIDI home recording; it does not disrupt look of guitar. Pichup and main unit are removeable from moutings.
Also I changed main pickups to smoother sounding Gibson ones and replaced volume pot.
I noticed a hum with high gain amp settings, that appeared to change if I put hand on strings or control knobs - indicating a GND problem. Checking with DVM Ohm meter I found that strings (metal bridge) had no connection to cable GND.
Unscrewing bridge showed that wire that should have grounded bridge was sitting under black insulating anodization. I scraped some off to bare metal, then put bridge back in pace and hum was gone.
Carvin V3MC mod
Not really a mod, I just replaced 9.9lb Carvin speaker with Celestion G12 Century (3.7lb) to save over 6lbs in weight, to make even more portable - under 30lbs.