Ibanez AF75T mods?

Creed_Clicks

Hi all

I recently acquired a lovely white Ibanez AF75T, my first full hollow body guitar after years of playing. So far so good. I haven’t gigged it yet, but getting used to using a full hollow with overdrive and effects etc.

I'm not using it for Jazz, mainly alt rock, indie, shoegaze(ish).... not anything heavily overdriven though..

Any little tweaks I could or should do? 

One thing I notice is with the volume and tone pots is that they’re not even when you’re rolling back the dial, so potentially could upgrade the pots here. (I usually have every knob turned to 10, so might not be worth doing)

I don’t have any issues with the bigsby style trem, but should/could I upgrade the spring?

Perhaps a nut upgrade too?

I’m using Ernie Ball regular slinky 10s and not sure whether I should be using flatwounds and possibly a higher gauge to get the best out of a full hollow?

I suppose in this case, it’s all down to personal feel, but am open to trying different string types as full hollow guitars are a new thing to me.

I’d potentially upgrade pickups, but wouldn’t be a priority right now.

Other than that, it’s a lovely guitar for what I paid.

stimpsonslostson

If you're doing the pots I'd do the pickups at the same time- rather than pulling the guts out of it twice. The pickups were quite bland on mine. 
So long as it's holding tune I'd avoid tinkering with the bigsby, the nut on mine was a bit "sticky" I got it looked at & tuning was rock solid from then on. 

They're lovely guitars. I only did mine because the arm got in the way of the pickup selector & it annoyed me once too often! 

TheMarlin

@dazzajl has one. It’s a fab little guitar. To the best of my knowledge, his one hasn’t been modded, but it stays in tune well, Bigsby is great, pickups sound great. Nut is good, just keep it lubed, tuners work well. Nothing wrong with it. 
You could spend a lot modding it further, but should you come to sell it, you’ll never get that money back. It’s honestly a fine guitar as it stands. 

I’m on the lookout for one at an attractive price. I like Filtertrons in a hollow body, so would get some Mojo Filtertrons in HB mount, and fit those.

Would also get a Compton bridge or Tru Arc to replace the rattle-o-matic, and some strap locks.  But, should I need to sell, I can strip these off, return it to stock, and liquidate the parts.

In all honestjy, you don’t need to do anything to it. Just lube the friction points, slap some good 11’s on it (DR Pure Blues are great), adjust the pickups until you’re happy, and rock on! 
 

Creed_Clicks

Ah yes, the rattle on the bridge. I notice this, but not really off putting as of yet. I was away the last few weeks and noticed I needed to tweak tuning when I came back. Holds tune fairly well. I'll start with trying different strings.
Bridge upgrade seems like it could be interesting.

dazzajl

It’s should start by saying I have no idea how much of mine is original, so some mods might be a good idea. 

I can can say when I play mine, I’ve never felt it’s lacking anywhere and I enjoy it as much as any exotica. The pickups are articulate, with crisp and crunch at the bridge and smoothness at the neck that’s never muddy, even with heaps of drive. 

The tuners work, the nut is well so intonation is perfect across fretted and open strings. The roller bridge works and never rattles and the ‘Ibsby’ returns to tune nicely after even quite rude dives. 

By far my favourite thing about this guitar though is the amazing, controllable and beyond soulful feedback you get when it’s nicely cranked and driven. 

Corvus

My boy had one. The trem was stiff as anything but a genuine Bigsby spring fitted right in and sorted that. I did put a stainless Compton on it, drilled out to 6mm to fit the std base studs, the original one rattled. Pickups were very bassy and pretty generic sounding we thought but sold it without swapping. All that was minor stuff, was a fine guitar for notalot of wallet damage.

OilCityPickups

If anyone is interested in a pretty well sorted one ... my black sparkle beastie with Filtertron type pickups will probably be in the classifieds shortly.

Creed_Clicks

I stuck a set of 11s on it last night, and might try a set of 12s down the line. 11s definitely better than the last lighter gauge I had on. I'd be interested in trying 12s. I get the feeling it might feel more like playing an acoustic....

Creed_Clicks

Thinking of now looking at locking tuners perhaps, and maybe some other small mods. Maybe pickups...