Buela

To start things off here is my first electric guitar, and my first customized guitar, Buela. Buela started off life as an Epiphone Les Paul Special II GT. This specifc model comes with all of the things you'd expect from a budget model Les Paul Special; the dual humbucking pickups, the two master controls and three way toggle switch. All the basic stuff you'd expect from a cheap Les Paul.

Stock photo of an Epiphone Les Paul Special II-GT

Where the GT differs from the typical Les Paul Special is by having a little bit of Fender DNA thrown in, with a Strat style tremolo bridge. This is one of the weirdest and most random additions I can think of for a budget model guitar; I say one of the weirdest because this guitar also comes loaded with a killpot in the tone knob. I really have no idea why Epiphone would think to add these two features to a 200$ Les Paul Special, but they are certainly interesting.

My GT was a graduation present that I had begged my brother to get me. He relented when I found a Les Paul shaped guitar for 90 bucks used on GuitarCenter.com.When I got the guitar I understood why it was only 90$; it was missing the tremolo arm, the bridge had rusted out saddles, it was missing screws on the pickup rings and tremolo cavity cover.

So my first "customization" was simply switching out the bridge for a new one and replacing all the missing screws. A few weeks later I decided to "relic" Buela with a blowtorch and throw away the cheap glued on pickguard that comes with the Epi Les Paul Specials.


Buela after her first encounter with a blowtorch

A short time later I saw a video by Scott Grove stating that removing the pole pieces from one coil of a humbucker would make it sound twangier and more Telecaster-like. As a poor guitar player who really wanted a Telecaster I did just that, and removed the screw pole pieces from the bridge pickup (a Gibson 700T, the stock pickup). Surprisingly it actually sounded really good, and even sounded a bit twangier when I was done.
Pretty soon I decided to change the neck pickup that I hated and had found to be fairly pointless. I was looking for something that would sound "different", being the hipster with "unique and individual snowflake disease" that I am. I finally settled  on an Artec Filtertron copy in order to get a similar sound to one of my favorite guitarists, Jack White.

The Jack White hero worship ran into a love for downtuned metal and collided in the form of Buela's next incarnation.


Jack White's Tele (left) and Buela (right)


This version sported an overwound Telecaster style pickup from GFS, done as homage to the pickup configuration of Jack White's Telecaster. By this time I had obtained my Telecaster as well as a Danelectro 12 string, and so I was comfortable experimenting with Buela.
I eventually settled on a set of 79-18 gauge La Belle Black Nylon Tapewound strings, so I could put her down in "Slipknot tuning", or Drop A.

After a while I had moved on to other guitars, finding I preferred standard tuning and somewhat brighter guitars. During this time Buela sat disassembled on a chair while I thought of ways to bring her back to life.

Finally I rebuilt her with my new personal favorite pickup, the Entwistle Nemesis AFG.

I chose the Nemesis AFG because it has a very similar construction to the Bareknuckle Juggernauts, which I had decided were great pickups after watching a lot of YouTube demos.

For around 50$ US I figured it was a worth a try, so I bought the lower output Neck pickup and put that into the bridge position on Buela.
One day I'd like to get my hands on a Juggernaut and compare the two, but the Nemesis AFG is a great pickup on it's own.I've come to prefer simplicity in my guitars, and as such I built a plywood Les Paul Jr. style pickguard to cover the neck pickup rout and turned Buela into the unholy child of a 80s Superstrat and a classic Les Paul Jr.

As far as the actual feel of the original GT, it was great. The only thing I've changed about how the guitar feels is sanding down the neck to make it a little faster. While the quality varies greatly from guitar to guitar on a mass produced budget guitar I've found most of the issues with these guitars tend to be in the electronics.
I highly recommend these as modding platforms as they are absolutely amazing with a new set of pickups.