What we love about Fenders.

On this site it becomes painfully obvious that Fender guitars are a favorite of at least half of us at Guitar-DNA and we feel compelled to go into the reasons why.

First off, Fenders are kind of like Harleys. They come in standard colors usually in a red, white, black, or sunburst, and they don't shock anyone unless you go with a slightly different finish. Seafoam (or Surf) green for example. Also like Harleys you can leave them stock and just go with what the average other Fender owner goes with, or you can mod them which we'll get into later on. We essentially look at most Fenders as a body and neck and everything else is interchangeable.

Second, there's a reason there are so many vintage (or at least older) Fenders around; they're built well. The bodies are solid and the necks are one piece thus not prone to breakage like other laminated necks.

Third, the interchangeability. The neck pocket with the bolt-on neck means you can swap necks rather easily on most Fenders, and there's a slew of aftermarket companies making every kind of part to interchange.

Here's some mods we recommend.

Stat mods: Strat mods have been done almost as long as the Strat's have been around. Early mods includes taking the original 3-way switch and filing them down to make the switch 5-way. This was done before 5-way switches. Pickup mods can also customize your sound. A reverse wound pickup in the middle position makes for an out-of-phase sound, where as a standard wound sounds more like the happy medium between the 2 pickups. Some have replaced 5-way with 7-way switches to add the effect of all 3 pickups on as well as just neck and bridge positions (known as the seven sounds). The idea of swapping the bridge pickup (or any pickup) with a humbucker isn't new either, but this use to require some routering. Fender's been wise to this idea for a few years and now offers models with humbuckers. The downside to replacing pickups is you pretty much have to install pickups to hear what they sound like. We've found Seymour Duncan pickups deliver what they describe in their pickups, EMG's are good if you want to go active. Some have added switches (we recommend push-pull pots) to change phase, or series/parallel. Another idea is to block the trem so it bottoms out to keep in tune better. We also tend to like Schaller locking tuners, and Graph Teck saddles and string retainers. Dunlop straplocks are nice too, but American Standard Fenders come standard with strapbuttons for Schallers, and are supposed to come with the locks as well. Some have added piezo bridges to get an acoustic sound out of their Strats. Another little trick we like is changing stock pots to Fender No-Load Tone controls, as these controls bypass when turned up all the way (they come with the resistor for tone control, but without the resistor you can use them for volume).

Tele mods: By Fender's definition, Tele's have (at least) two pickups, a Tele with one pickup is an Esquire. Tele's have had all sorts of crazy mods, but we feel they start loosing that Tele sound without Tele style pickups. Duncan makes some nice Tele pickups, and Lindy Fralin seems to be the way to go if you're looking for a total vintage vibe. We tend to like the American Standard six saddle bridges as opposed to the vintage 3 saddle design. Straplocks and locking tuners are a good mod as well.

Mustangs, Jaguars, and Jazzmasters: These are quirky guitars and we don't recommend changing them electronically, as the pickups and controls are rather guitar-specific. Straplocks are recommended, but locking tuners can be tricky as they have vintage style tuners stock.

Precision Bass mods: With all Fender basses, we recommend Leo Quan Badass Bass bridges. Primarily their Bass II for Fenders with vintage style bridges with 5 mounting holes and recently added, the Bass III for newer American Standards with string-thru-bodies. These bridges are great for adding resonance to your bass. Also we've become fans of Seymour Duncan's Basslines Quarterpound P Pickup (SPB-3). This pickup has quarter inch pole pieces giving it a higher output with more punch while still keeping somewhat of a vintage P-Bass sound. There have been many players that have rewired the pickups straight to the output, which we find a bit drastic, and we recommend Fender No-Load pots to get the same effect while still having some control available. Some have also swapped P-bass necks for Jazz Bass necks due to the thickness of the P-Bass neck. Straplocks are also recommended.

Jazz Bass Mods: We recommend the Leo Quan Badass bridges for J-Basses as well. As far as pickups, there's a lot more options. Seymour Duncan makes Quarter Pound J-pickups which go under the theory of increased output and more punch. We've also become rather attached to the EMG J pickup replacement kit which comes with prewired volume and tone controls and 2 J-pickups, and is active. The EMG's work great if you like to play one pickup soloed or dominant as they don't buzz like passive J-pickups. Another popular mod involves changing the controls from standard volume-volume-tone to volume-tone-blend which seems like a better layout on active setups rather then passive due to buzzing. Some have swapped the neck J-pickup with a P-pickup to give their Jazz Bass more versatility (also called a "P-J bass"), which sounds great, but requires some routering which can drop the value of your bass. Again straplocks are highly recommended.

Another possibility is checking with aftermarket companies like Allparts or Warmouth. There are all sorts of kits available plus everything you need to piece together your own guitar including finished and unfinished bodies and necks; in fact, many of the parts they have are the very same parts the bigger companies (like Fender) use on their instruments, and in some cases are even better then a lot of stock parts. Even if you want to keep the same stock sounds, it might be wise to consider changing pots and what not to higher quality parts such as Switchcraft. With Fenders, the possibilities seem endless, and just when you think you've seen everything that can be done to a Fender, someone comes up with something totally different (but not always good).