I want to upgrade my Sterling AX3, please help a first time upgrader!

[Gomnana]

Like the title suggests, I've never upgraded a guitar before, aside from changing the pickups in one of my strats. Anyway, I love my ax3, it sounds great. But I was to improve the tuning stability. I don't expect to be able to dive bomb right, left and center, but being able to use the whammy a little without my guitar going out of tune would be awesome.

So, I've read that a graphite nut, locking tuners, and possible even a new bridge could really improve things.

But I have NO idea what to buy. When I search for "graphite nut", there are so many differnet sizes/styles etc. Same goes for locking tuners and bridges. Any advice would be really great.

Apologies if such a thread already exists. I didn't get any joy from the search engine.

 

[canuck6string]

Welcome to the forums. I'm sure you will get quite a bit of encouragement to upgrade your AX3 as well as advise. Let me be the voice of caution.

If you do the work yourself (set up, nut filing, alignments etc), then it'll be worth the upgrades. If you have to farm it out then your total costs may double especially if you are retrofitting a bridge.

Is the guitar worth anything to trade up to a new or used Axis with tremolo?

 

[ksandvik]

I've seen used Axis for under $1k recently, they sound as good as brand new ones. Sometimes selling a guitar and upgrading via a used one is a more practical approach.

 

[Tollywood]

Welcome to the forum.

If I were you, I would upgrade the tuners and refinish the neck. That would get you to a point where the guitar is solid and feels like it's big brother. Anything more than that will be expensive and I would probably save up for a used Axis instead of further upgrades on the Ax3. For example, new pickups could be around $300 with installation.

Good luck!

 

[Gomnana]

Welcome to the forum.

If I were you, I would upgrade the tuners and refinish the neck. That would get you to a point where the guitar is solid and feels like it's big brother. Anything more than that will be expensive and I would probably save up for a used Axis instead of further upgrades on the Ax3. For example, new pickups could be around $300 with installation.

Good luck!

I quite like the pickups actually, I wasn't considering changing them. Tuners and nut are my priority. The problem is that I have no idea what tuners are going to fit onto this specific guitar. Like I said in my original post, I'm a total noob at this stuff haha. So any help on that front would be amazing. Recommendations on decent locking tuners which will fit the ax3. Likewise for the nut. I'm unsure of all the specs.

Thanks for all the replies so far guys! I'd definitely love a second hand axis, but I actually live in Korea. I haven't seen any decently priced second hands around! This country is a rip off when it comes to foreign made products.

 

[canuck6string]

You could contact Customer Service with the guitar's serial number and ask for the tuner hole dimensions. That'll allow you to research options for replacements. Same goes for the nut size/dimensions.

 

[Lou]

Before swapping out parts you should try lubing up the nut slots with some Big Bends Nut sauce. Or on the cheap, some Chapstick. Little goes a long way.

 

[Gomnana]

I lubed the nut slots up with some chapstick actually, and it holds in tune pretty well even with dive bombs...EXCEPT for the g and low e strings...Any ideas why those two strings would be causing problems?

 

[bvdrummer]

The nut slots might need to be filed if you're only having problems with specific strings. Actually a properly cut and filed nut is more important than the material it's made of IMO. Also, just buying a nut off the shelf and putting it on your guitar isn't enough. You'll still need to set it up properly. It might be worth $50 to have a luthier install and setup a new nut for you, or you can learn how to do it yourself. I learned it last year and got pretty good after about the 3rd attempt

EDIT -

Also, stewmac.com sells a bunch of different tuners and they have dimensions for all of them, so you could measure yours and see if there are any that fit without drilling new holes.

But, as others have said these mods can get a little expensive, and if you ever sell the guitar you're not likely to recoup the cost of these upgrades. So if you're not really attached to the guitar then it might make more sense to get a higher-end used guitar. I've had to learn this lesson too many times

 

[ozzyrules]

Axis. nuff said.......