TE-20HH mod journey
Hi! Last time, I posted my Tele with a swapped black pickguard (laser-cut from plexiglass). Today, I'd like to share a few thoughts on my latest modifications.
I've read that the grounding on this guitar is usually pretty bad, partly because the bridge isn't sanded underneath, which stops the ground wire from making a good connection. However, on my guitar (bought in December 2025), this sanding was already done from the factory! Even so, I went ahead and shielded the entire guitar with copper tape, and the result is amazing!
Under my last post, some people also advised swapping the factory 250k pots for 500k ones. Surprisingly, my guitar already came with 500k pots! I decided to replace them anyway so I could wire up a coil split. The pickups you can see on the guitar are ceramic Fleors from AliExpress, and honestly, I feel like they sound almost exactly like the stock ones.
Overall, doing all these modifications was a ton of fun and a great learning experience. It didn't cost much at all, and it's definitely worth tinkering a bit with your cheap guitars!
I get the feeling that at some point during the production of the TE-20HH, they started introducing these upgrades like sanding the bridge for better grounding, upgrading to 500k pots, and changing the pickguard mounting holes.