So, maybe you bought yourself an Epiphone Dot. You love the guitar’s feel and it plays brilliantly for the money, but you’re considering upgrading the pickups to improve the amplified sound.

You replaced a pickup in your Mexican Strat last year, which was the first time you’ve tried any guitar mods, and it turned out well - it hasn’t stopped working yet! However, the Dot is a more intimidating beast entirely, with no easy access control plate to get at the wiring.

You’ve chosen your pickups, you have the iron hot - what do you do next?

Every month, Guitarist magazine's Q&A section answers an awful lot of these kind of questions. When it comes to the complicated task of rewiring a Gibson ES-335 style semi or hollowbody guitar, here’s an answer Guitarist made earlier, using a Korean-made Epiphone Casino.

We should probably start by pointing out that this is an immensely fiddly job which you need to chuck a good few hours at if it’s the first time you’ve done it.The easiest solution would be to just have it done professionally, but if you really want to have a go - or indeed repair your semi’s electronics without changing the pickups - here's a step-by-step guide.

Now, this isn’t the only way to do it, but it’s the approach we’d take. Most important: read this all the way through before you even think about starting. And good luck…

First up: the tools you need and the first step