Cheap guitar. What's the best customisation. You've done

[Mick]

So you bought a really cheap electric guitar.  What did you do to improve the tone or playability?

1: Change the strings.
2: Change the pickups.
3: Change the electronics, or wiring.
4: Change the bridge.
5: Any other stuff, please explain.

Did you get the sound you wanted, or at least very close to it, and how much did it cost you to do this.  Was it worth the effort? 

[paulnoise]

the wifes uncle has an old black squire strat (the one which just said STRAT, not stratocaster) he was gifted; it squealed like hell when it was plugged in (not from string feedback, but the hum on the pickups) anyway, today we ripped out the now almost yellow (once white) scratch plate and wiring and soldered on a new electrics setup: all black scratch plate, controls & pups (from an old columbus strat) which we picked up for £15 in a local 2nd hand guitar shop.  added to that the full £1.50 for a trem arm and £5 for a set of strings (not to mention £3 for the solder to fix it).  he now has a rather swanky looking black on black strat for a mere £24.50.  I'll post a pic of once i get one.
it would have been cheaper as we found some solder in the house once we got back.  the all black looks fantastic.

[paulnoise]

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[Mick]

the all black looks fantastic.

Sure does, that's really nice.  And what a bargain that was. I'm never that lucky. 

[paulnoise]

I've found charity shops are the place to look, I saw a sunn mustang in one a few months back for £40 it had good action, didn't plug it in, but pups are cheap so even if the whole lot needed 're wiring, 60-80 quid for a solid guitar ain't bad

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[Mick]

I've found charity shops are the place to look, I saw a sunn mustang in one a few months back for £40 it had good action, didn't plug it in, but pups are cheap so even if the whole lot needed 're wiring, 60-80 quid for a solid guitar ain't bad

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Great tip.  The charity shops around my area seem to be a bit sparse.  Might be worth a look when visiting one of the bigger towns though. 

[Hinfrance]

There aren't any charity shops to speak of hereabouts. The local equivalent of cash converters has some guitars from time to time, but they are not usually nice examples. I tend to buy cheap guitars new - I am very happy with my Squier Affinity Strat and my Harley Benton 450 Custom 450 HB (from Thomann). The latter was only just over £100, has Wilkinson pickups and after basic set up sounds and plays astonishingly well. Not only that but the honey burst finish is just so pretty I don't think I could ever part with it. And I like it more and more as I  play it.

What did I do to my guitars? Just spend a bit of time setting them up to suit my preferences and sorting out the intonation.

But you know, I still just love playing my basses - years of performance and familiarity make using them so RIGHT!