[sklarsa]

Can you recommend any resources for learning the basics about guitar setups and repairs? I’ve done some basic setup and soldering work in the past, but recently have been getting into modding guitars and don’t want to butcher anything too badly…

[ofalkaed]

The Guitar Player Repair Guide by Erlewine is pretty good and goes over a great deal of information, probably would cover most if not all of your needs and will cover most of the information required to fix your mistakes when you make them. I generally recommend avoiding the internet since it tends to provide a multitude of solutions for any given task which is not great if you don't already have the knowledge required to pick the best solution or ask a question in a way which will provide the ideal solution.

Best thing you can do is just get a few cheap beatup guitars and have fun with them, make mistakes and make those cheap guitars into something more than cheap guitars.

Regarding that sitar work in thread link, it is not that bad and probably a common way to work on sitars since they lack holes and the soundboards are often heavily ornamented which makes removal risky. What makes me cringe about it is that in his case it was not needed, he could have easily done all that work through the hole he made for the jack plate and I would say he did not think through the project and just went at it, which is not a bad thing and he did accomplish his goal. But those of us who primarily work on western instruments are used to working through sound holes and f-holes and pickup mounting holes, it is second nature to us just as sawing off the back of a sitar is probably second nature to those who work on sitars.