Best bang for the buck Tribute Comanche upgrades?

[Horseflesh]

My limited edition 2021 Tribute Comanche arrives soon so of course I am doing a lot of research. I'm curious what modestly priced upgrades are likely to pay off. I'm not going to tear it down as soon as I get it, I'm just going to play it ... but I'd like to know what's good to address in time.

The USA-grade saddles are $40 at G&L and I guess lots of other options will fit the Tribute vibrato bridge, too. But, I don't understand if better saddles are a no-brainer upgrade, or if their benefit is more subtle.

BTW, my limited edition already has locking tuners, though per other posts here they are nameless, and it is unclear how good they are. I have also already ordered the Will Ray special edition pickup.

What else should I consider?

[bigjim711]

I would not plan any upgrades at all. You might be surprised how well everything is out-of-box. I recently sold a Tribute S-500 that was a little nicer than the USA made S-500 I kept. I originally was thinking about perhaps locking tuners or upgrading the electronics but the thing kept tune very well and I had zero issues with the electronics in the year or two that I had it. I only got the US S-500 because it was a great price and I definitely have that old mentality that US made is better. In some ways they are better, mostly aesthetically, but that Tribute was very nice. Play it a while before you go upgrading things that may not need upgraded. I probably wouldn't even swap out that pickup until you get a lot of playing in on it as it is so you can better see the difference.

[Tooslowhand]

I wouldn't recommend you do anything to the guitar other than correcting any setup or manufacturing issues that might be present when you get it. G&L basically achieved the Tribute price point via manufacturing the guitar in Indonesia. For the most part, the parts they used are very good. I have a Tribute ASAT Jr. II that I got for a ridiculously low price. It had a buzzing at the first fret that I my luthier took care of. I also had him put on a bone nut. This wasn't necessary, but I had him do it while he had the guitar. On my Chinese and Korean made Epiphone guitars I have changed all the electronics and pickups. I considered doing this on my Tribute but decided it just wasn't necessary. The pickups sound excellent and the passive electronics and wiring are reasonable quality. I left it alone.

[Horseflesh]

Thanks guys!

It is definitely my hope to not make any changes other than basic setup for a while. And if the G&L forum experts say there may not be anything that really needs changing, that's great news. That kind of quality is one of the reasons I picked this guitar after a ton of research. I'll just keep my fingers crossed I didn't get a guitar built on a Friday.

I don't even have a specific plan for the Will Ray pickup. Honestly I am so inexperienced that I probably couldn't tell the difference if I tried it today... I just wanted to have the option down the road, when I am more experienced. Better to buy it now for $70 than roll the dice later.

I wish I could find more owners talking about these limited edition Comanches. I think I saw one other poster here who said they had one on the way, and that's it. It's fun to have something a little unusual.

[cminor7b5]

I don't even have a specific plan for the Will Ray pickup. Honestly I am so inexperienced that I probably couldn't tell the difference if I tried it today... I just wanted to have the option down the road, when I am more experienced. Better to buy it now for $70 than roll the dice later.

It sounds like you're pretty excited about getting your new Commanche Tribute? I have a 2020 Tribute S500 and I like it a lot. It's not a strat, it's an S500.

I don't think you should do any mods to your Commanche until you understand it. Otherwise you have no reference.

I think your situation is similar to learning to drive in a Ferrari. The Commanche will be high-performance right out of the box.

[Horseflesh]

It's not a bad analogy. I got my learner's permit on a Squier Affinity tele, now I have a license and an driving the Comanche, and it is way more car than I need.

I just unboxed it and played with it a while, I'll post pics and impressions later today.

[NewEngland45]

I’ve had 9 G&L tributes over the past few years. I currently own 4. In my experience, none of the hardware needs to be upgraded. The only hardware I upgrade are the tuners. The stock tuners are excellent and work perfectly, I just highly prefer locking tuners. Since your guitar comes with locking tuners, I’d say you’re all set. IMO, the only thing that may be worth upgrading is the 5 way switch. That’s really the only cheap part of the guitar. It will work fine though, I just prefer a more sturdy switch.

Another upgrade that I’d prefer but probably would never attempt involves the push pull for the extra pickup configurations. I liked it better when they had an extra toggle switch instead of push pull on the pot. I also liked when they had the metal knobs on on the pots instead of the traditional strat style plastic knobs.

You’re basically getting a complete guitar with no upgrades required. The Comanche is one of the few G&L tributes I’ve never owned. I’ve actually been thinking of trying to trade my Doheny for one, but we will see. Congrats on the new ax!

[Horseflesh]

That's great info, thank you.

Now that I have spent some time with the Comanche, your notes make a lot of sense.

These locking tuners are awesome, so smooth!

[tamaynard]

Hi - I recently procured a 2021 special edition Tribute Comanche like yours. I bought it because I bought a CLF Research Doheny v12 a few months ago, fell in love with the MFD pickups, and really wanted to try the z-coils. Like the Doheny MFD pickups, the Z-coils are amazing, but in their own way. As many others have noted, there is a myriad of tonal options with MFD pickups when you factor in the five-way switch, bass and treble tone controls, the expander switch, and amp settings.

My Comanche came very badly setup, and I wanted to share what I've done so far: After adjusting the tremolo spring to achieve the proper clearance (the specs are published elsewhere on this site), all of the saddles had to be tweaked for height and intonation. Then the nut had to be lowered, because the action and intonation were badly affected. It was relatively easy to pop the nut out and sand it to a decent height. To keep the bottom of the nut flat and square while sanding I used a trick that I had seen somewhere else about using a 2-foot level to slide the nut against. A bit more tweaking of the intonation at the saddles was then needed. Of course one can take the guitar to a luthier for all the above - it's absolutely worth it - My guitar was unplayable without the adjustments... I then replaced the string tree with a Graphtech tree - the strings were binding on the original metal tree when using the tremolo. Lastly, I replaced the top hat knobs with chrome knurled knobs which made pulling up on the expander switch knob incredibly easy...

The guitar is dream after making the improvements. My only other issue is an intermittent problem with the 5-way switch. It's not terrible, but it could be better. I'll probably replace it at some point...

Peace...

[Horseflesh]

In a strange way I am glad to hear yours wasn't set up well too. I'm a perpetual beginner and was starting to wonder if I was the problem!

I'm not so skilled yet so I decided to take mine in for a setup. That actually won't happen for a couple more weeks... My shop (which is epic, nationally known) had a 6 week wait for setups!!

Could you drop in links to the string tree and knobs you picked? And, is the string tree a simple screw-in installation? If so I may ask them to pop it on while it is on the bench.

[tamaynard]

knobs: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01MF5AW3J? ... ct_details

string tree: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0051SJ5PM? ... tails&th=1

also - I forgot to mention that the tremolo bridge was missing the nylon insert for the tremolo arm, so that the set screw was hitting the metal tremolo arm directly. It's critical that the nylon insert is in place. I almost ordered a whole to bridge just to get the insert, but I found a site that sells 1/8" nylon rod. With shipping and handling I had to pay 13 dollars for a single 12" x 1/8" rod, but I cut off a 2 millimeter piece and it worked perfectly. And now I have a multiple-lifetimes supply of nylon rod for both my Comanche and my Doheny. Here's the link if anyone is interested: https://www.wicksaircraft.com/shop/nylon-rod-bar/ The 0.125 rod is the correct size. With the nylon insert in place and tightened accordingly, you can pull the tremolo arm and re-insert it without fussing with the set screw each time. I suppose it will need to be re-tightened occasionally...

[tamaynard]

oops - I forgot to mention that the knobs have set screws which should be loosened before sliding them on. Because the pots have split-shafts, you need to line up the set screw so that it misses the slot. Some folks fill the slots with something like a piece of credit card or the like to keep the slot from collapsing when you tighten the set screw. I just lined up the set screw so that it hit the shaft near the edge of the slot and had more metal to support it... (if that makes sense...)

I think that's it...!

Such a great guitar...!

[Horseflesh]

Thanks a bunch @tamaynard! Your note on the split shafts makes sense.

Glad you mentioned the trem arm insert, I would not have thought to check. Fortunately, mine is not missing.

[Rodney Hamblen]

Horseflesh
I bought a 2007 S-500 Tribute and turned it into a Comanche 6+. Take a look at my Gallery. Each pickup coil (there are 2 per pickup) can be turned on in or out of phase with any other coil. The guitar is switchable from Mono Operation to Stereo Operation - stereo allows you to run the EAD and GBE strings to separate amps and effects. In stereo there are separate volume controls for the EAD and GBE strings. You can also run this in stereo with a stereo/mono adapter to make it function similar to a Comanche 6. Lastly I got rid of the overpowered bar magnets in each pickup, removed the pole pieces, and installed smaller Neodium 42 magnets to get rid of wolf tones and out of phase tones.

Pickguard $45
Switches $60
Volume controls $20
Knobs $6

And lots and lots of manual labor and soldering. But you will end up with something unique that sounds like every other Comanche ever made as well as like no other Comanche ever made.

Check the Project Page and My Gallery.

I'd rather spend my $$$ on something that really makes a change in sound vs. some small incremental change like bridge piece changes which you may never hear.

[BrotherCharles]

My new Tribute Comanche (2021 model, but purchased in the Fall of 2022) was pretty ‘meh’ out of the box. I replaced the standard no-name tuners with Graph Tech Ratio tuners (direct drop in replacement, btw). I also replaced the horrible cheapie string tree with a Tusq XL string retainer. I had to putz around with neck relief, string height and intonation a lot to make it play properly.

My Comanche has Alpha (full-sized) pots in it. I was considering replacing the pots with some brass shaft CTS pots, but these Alphas actually seem to be surprisingly good. Plus the fact that the bass tone pot is an unusual ‘reversed’ 1 meg pot, I’d probably need to order a USA (Mighty Mite?) replacement directly from the G&L online store. The Volume and Bass pots are fine, but the Treble “push-pull” pot feels like cheap, loose, bottom-of-the-barrel junk. I ordered a $15 Bournes (a500k) push-pull to replace it.

The switch is absolute garbage. I was going to replace it with a CRL switch, but unfortunately, the CRL was a bit too large. I suspect the shallowness of the control cavity is owing to the Indonesian guitars probably being a tad thinner than their USA Fullerton Deluxe big brothers. However . . . I did find this little beauty on Amazon by Kaish (Korean made) that is a major improvement.
KAISH Heavy Duty 5 Way Guitar Pickup Lever Switch Selector Switch for Strat Tele with 3 Plastic Tips

I also ordered a Switchcraft output jack. The stock jack is acceptable, but I want the strength, durability and ruggedness of a genuine USA Switchcraft output jack.

The last thing I am planning to replace on my Tribute Comanche is the nut. In all fairness, the stock nut seems to be half decent - made of some sort plastic I presume. It’s not the cheapest kind of plastic nut, but I would much prefer to replace it with a Graph Tech Tusq XL nut.
Looks like I’ll need one of these 42mm Tusq nuts - the common Fender-scaled nuts would be too wide.
TUSQ 42mm NUT

[Horseflesh]

@Rodney -- that is a really interesting project. You did so much surgery on the pickups though, seems like you may as well have started with a different guitar!

@Brother Charles -- Those sound like righteous changes and thanks for the switch link. I should order one and stash it in the parts bin.

I got my Comanche set up and modified before I had really given it a solid run so I don't have much of a "before" reference. But being the special edition, it did at least come with locking tuners which do feel pretty nice.

I opted for a new nut as well and my shop strongly preferred bone to Tusq, so I went with that. Not being so experienced I'm trusting their reputation. (It's a nationally known custom shop so I hope they know what they are doing!)

[patricks]

Congrats on the Comanche!
As others have said, a decent setup and good quality strings will give you the best results by far. Attention to really dialling in neck relief, action, and pickup height will definitely pay off.
I've got a Tribute Comanche as well, and I've made a few changes:
Bone nut - an improvement for me cos I like it, not sure there's an enormous tonal difference
Will Ray bridge pickup - like you, I got it cos it was on special, I didn't have a particular plan for it. I like it, but I don't know that it's a necessity to change it, adjust the pickup height well and then see what you feel like. I didn't pay enough attention before and after to really comment with authority on the difference, but it did get me a Z-coil that I've used in another project, so that's a win

I'm considering electronics upgrades (caps, maybe pots and switch, but expecting minimal effect), maybe tweaking the circuit to try a switching option to give me bridge and middle pickups in series, and thinking about upgrading tuners. One of my other guitars has Schaller open tuners on it and they're lovely. The Graph Tech Ratio tuners appeal too cos I've always found the tuners on the low A and E on electric guitars a complete pain in the backside

[Rodney Hamblen]

Patricks
The Z Coil pickup is the only currently manufactured pickup that gets close to my idea of what a pickup can be. Being able to buy one cheaply off the shelf and then modify it is much more $$$ efficient than getting a custom pickup wound.

I'm currently modding 6 S-500 pickups with Neodyium magnets and putting those into a Sunburst Tribute S-500 body. I got held up modifying a Comanche 6 pickguard I bought from Chandler.

I don't know of another guitar/pickup system that gets me this close.