Hey everybody, I posted originally in the home depot guitar forum, things have happened and changed the situation. I am now part of the non working america but my creativity is still brewing. So until I can make the baritone explorer a reality im going to mod the **** out of the dean explorer I have, which was originally a donor guitar. So I thought i'd run down the project and before I completely got started hear some idea's that are feasible because this is one giant experiment. The goal is to turn this guitar into a progressive metal shred machine. My first idea was to take out the screw's for the bolt on neck, and instead use stud's for a better surface clamp. After which I would recess the stud's deeper into the neck pocket sanding down the pocket for better access and contouring the neck to follow. 2nd idea Im going to completely strip the finish get it down to as much bare wood as possible and use a very very thin coat of lacquer to open up the tone as much as possible. 3rd idea the next step is to shield all the guitar cavity's and rewire the electronics I.E. proper grounding, bolting the pickups to the body etc. 
The main goals here are to increase the tone and the playability, Aesthetics are always second to functionality with me so if the guitar looks like hell and sounds great I can live with myself 
. If anybody has any idea's at all comments maybe a thought to tweak one of my idea's please PLEASE comment I would love the discussion. And like I said this is a giant experiment so If you have a good idea that's relatively feasible (doesn't cost alot of money 
) present it to me i'll be more then happy to preform it on the guitar, i'd almost like to consider it a forum project 
. One thing I would like help with is the tuning I love chuggy prog. meshuggah style rhythms but I hate the way that down tuning loses that brightness in it's tone if you have any suggestions for a good compromise please share. Future idea's (when I get a job) set of chunky metal APC pickups big severed savior fan, and a kahler tremolo.
. If anybody has any idea's at all comments maybe a thought to tweak one of my idea's please PLEASE comment I would love the discussion. And like I said this is a giant experiment so If you have a good idea that's relatively feasible (doesn't cost alot of money ) present it to me i'll be more then happy to preform it on the guitar, i'd almost like to consider it a forum project . One thing I would like help with is the tuning I love chuggy prog. meshuggah style rhythms but I hate the way that down tuning loses that brightness in it's tone if you have any suggestions for a good compromise please share. Future idea's (when I get a job) set of chunky metal APC pickups big severed savior fan, and a kahler tremolo.
