Mod or Rocker

What I meant was... when you buy a new guitar, should you 'Modify' or keep it as it 'Rockin' Is'? This is a touch choice... considering Charvel or Fender is not making a guitar that comes with a John Birch humbucking pickup and eye-bolt fasteners for your strap hooks and a large "XXX" sticker on the front. If you are Nikki Sixx... he says in his book that he had an image of his future band in his head, right down to the smallest detail... long before he had even met his future band mates. This probably also included what bass he had pictured, and what it had in it for pickups. If you were SRV... you had your girl buy you an an old '65Fender Stratthat was already just the way you wanted it, (including 'arty' inlay behind the bridge) for a present. In any case... most musicians are hard pressed to stick with a stock guitar.., even though it might SOUND different to another that looks exactly the same...er... it STILL LOOKS THE SAME, as 10,000 other's guitars that came off the Fender assembly line that year. Of course, when your house is in jeopardy...and you need to sell the guitar (temporarily) to buy back the house, you would get a lot more for an 'uncustomised" guitar... than the one you now call 'Ethyl'. My main idea is this... find a guitar that SOUNDS amazing, then put up with how it looks... if you can... and understand, that it no longer needs that John Birch pickup...because it already sounds great... and you can still call her 'Ethyl'.