Chords for Spending $100 To Upgrade A $75 Guitar

Today in Riff Spirits and Gear we upgrade the cheapest guitar on Amazon. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [F] _ [Bb] _ _ _ _
_ [F] _ _ Back in November of last year, I did a video about the cheapest guitar on Amazon and for $75
_ I [A] purchased this guitar, this Viper by BG Guitars off of amazon.com and
overall, I was impressed with how much guitar I got for $75 and
you guys have continually asked me to
see how much better of a guitar it could become if [Gm] I upgraded a few things.
[C] So that is what we are going to do today.
Now there are two main [G] things that we're going to upgrade.
There are only two things that I feel that need [F] to be [E] upgraded and there are more of a functionality
_ [D] _ thing versus some kind of aesthetic thing that doesn't really need to be [F] done.
The [C] first thing are
the tuning machines.
The tuning machines are
not really stable and they're kind of junk if I'm being [Fm] honest.
But the most important thing that needs to be upgraded or addressed really with this guitar is the setup and _
the saddles on the bridge are just about as low as they can go and the action is still very high [Ab] and this is because
the pocket _ that is routed in the body is crooked, [Eb] meaning the guitar's neck actually goes
upward at a very slight angle making [C] the action of the guitar
_ [Em]
very very poor.
It's very very high down here the further you get down [G] the neck and we can solve this very easily.
So [D] for the cost of $30 off of Amazon, I ordered three wooden neck shims
_ from Stumac and while I was at it, I also bought a set of Gotoh locking tuners.
Now I bought the Gotoh specifically because that is the style of the [D] stock tuner and the mounting holes are a drop-in replacement.
So it should just be an unbolt, throw away the old ones and bolt up the new ones and off we go.
So the total cost of these parts is $100.
Well, technically it's like a $102.50
but we're gonna round down and we're gonna say [G] this is $100 in parts for a
$75 guitar.
Now I do not need to upgrade the pickup.
I actually like the sound of this guitar and I don't feel the need to upgrade this pickup.
Although I do have a Seymour Duncan Custom 5 in the back that I could put in but I'm not going to.
I'm not going to do anything else but install the neck shims [Am]
and change out [D] the guitar tuning machines.
Let's get to [Am] it. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ Now when you are shimming a bolt-on neck, you are dealing in degrees.
So with this set [Eb] it came with a quarter of a degree, [Ab] came with half a degree and it came with [Fm] one degree.
Now that may not sound like a [F] lot but it's a lot.
One degree is quite a bit of
additional tilt [Bm] to add for a bolt-on neck.
I am not really sure which one to use.
_ [A] Considering that it's actually going the other way.
I'm probably gonna [C] start with
the half a degree right in the middle and see where we land after we bolt the neck back up with it. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ [C] All you do with the neck shim is make sure _ [G] it's going [Gm] the right direction.
Meaning this end is
thicker [Bm] than this end which is going to tilt the [F] neck this way [E] which is what we [F] want.
So I'm going to make sure it fits _ and [C] it does _ _ and we simply put the neck back on and bolt it up.
_ [F] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Now that I have the neck bolted back on I can [Em] see a very very slight tilt with the neck which is okay.
I mean Gibson Les [G] Pauls are tilted quite a bit although this wasn't intended to tilt at all.
It's ideally supposed to be flat but I think we're okay.
That half a [C] degree made a huge difference
which means when I put the strings back [G] on the saddles will still be low and the strings will
probably lay on the neck itself since it's tilted up and we will obviously have to do
a [A] complete setup [E] to the guitar but [Dm] for now we're going to move on to the [F] tuning keys.
_ [D] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Bbm] _ _ _ _
_ _ [Eb] _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
Okay so just as I suspected the [Gb] strings are touching the end of the neck [Eb] meaning
the saddles are still too low from [Ab] the old setup when the neck was a little wonky.
So I'm just going to go through the normal [Bb] setup _ and [Eb] adjust the string height, check the neck relief,
etc.
etc.
and [F] see just where we're at with [C] this neck shim.
[G] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [G] All right so I have the guitar tuned up.
I [D] have everything set up the action right where I wanted
it.
[G] On the action I have about 40 thousandths from the top of the fret to the bottom of each string
and that is in resting position.
So about 40 thou_
I don't know what the normal spec is like
fenders or something like that.
I just did it by feel.
That feels pretty good.
It sounds pretty good
and the last thing I need to do is adjust the pickup height [Bbm] and then we're going to plug this
thing in and see how it sounds. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Db] _ _ _ _ _ [Gb] _
_ _ [Db] _ _ [Gb] _ _ [Db] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Gb] _
_ _ [Db] _ _ _ [Gb] _ _ [Db] _
_ _ [Ab] _ _ _ [E] _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ [Gb] _ _ _ [Em] _ So what have we learned?
We have learned that even though [E] you do
get what you pay for if you put just [D] a little bit more money in it sometimes you can get a whole lot
of awesome.
I [G] bought this guitar for $75 off of Amazon.
I put another $100 into it and this is a
great guitar now.
Shim the neck, change the tuners, a simple setup went a long way and I'm really
happy with how this guitar has turned out and how it sounds and yeah it'll be kicking around here
for years to come I am sure. _
All applicable links down below in the description.
You've
been wonderful.
I've been Fluff.
Thank you so much for watching and I will see you next time. _
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