Special II mods - is it worth it?

[thorjansen]

My nephew just loves to play around, modding electric guitars. He's got four of his own that he's been fiddling with for a year, and he's played around with his friends' as well. And he's modded amps too. He's done pretty well with the mods, even winding his own humbuckers.

Now that I bought a Special II, he wants to dig into it and mod it for me (but I have to buy the parts, of course). He wants to put a Gibson 500T in the bridge and a Gibson 496R in the neck, replacing the stock ceramic pickups. Plus he wants to replace the switch and volume and tone controls, and check the setup.

I did a quick pricing on parts, and it looks like it will all run about something like $180 for all that, more than the price of the guitar itself.

Now, is it worth doing this to the Special II? I guess I can always move the pickups into a new Epi when I upgrade, so it won't be a total loss. I'm just not sure what I'm going to gain doing this to the Special II now. Will I get that much of a difference, especially since I'm only using a practice amp (Line 6 Spider 15 amp)?

[sandman]

if you make the mods and you like the sound....and it feels good...then why change it any more....
doesn't matter what the guitar cost....if you can change it how you like it and it sounds good. then keep it that way.....unless your thinking of selling it and want to use those pickups and such in something else.

its easy to get caught up in changing things just to be changing.....but if it ain't broke and you like the sound...why fix

[JoMan]

well it certainly would make a difference soundwise. you can expect the gibson pickups to be more defined and clear, more rounded and probably fatter.
the question is, do you need it? them gibson parts are quite expensive. since you are playing with headphones mostly, through a little Line6 amp, I don't think it will give you too much. It certainly will sound different, but I couldn't promise you that it will sound "better". The best way to really hear the quality of a guitar is to plug in a good valve amp and crank the power amp section. that's where you really hear what your guitar is made of. Of course this is only my modest opinion.
but I don't wish to ruin your nephew's day, you know?

[thorjansen]

joman said:

but I don't wish to ruin your nephew's day, you know?

You got that right! He's got itchy fingers right now. And I won't be playing through a little Line 6 forever. Well, I guess I'll think about this for a bit more. In the meantime, I'll really mess with my head and pop down to GC to play a Les Paul Custom or Standard just to feel the difference fretboard wise. If I don't feel that much difference, maybe I will pop the Gibby pickups into the Special II and make my nephew's day.

[goldtopsnopp]

And like you say, if you buy another guitar in the future, your nephew can just move the parts to the new guitar. And that would make his day again.