Tollenaar

If you can find trashed gear for next to nothing and have the abilities to spruce it back up to a shine, then maybe that could work. The problem is finding something for cheap enough that, when restored, can be sold for much more than that, but slightly less than the average market price. And you really have to put in the effort to bring stuff like that back to life. It's all a game of math and probability. I wouldn't bother trying to flip gear that isn't worth something in pristine condition, though. My advice is that if you come across something wrecked and can get it for a few bones, give it a shot. Otherwise just stick to set-ups and pup-swaps like suggested. I've actually been redoing a few of my guitars out of boredom and have taken some really interesting approaches to doing so - it's caught quite a bit of attention from a lot of my friends and I've actually gotten some inquiries about doing some oddball refinishes for cash. Any little thing you can do helps, but I wouldn't jump head first in to projects that require you to front all the cash in 'hopes' that someone is going to be interested. Customers first, work second. Not the other way around.

I have an ancient Crate TD50C and I personally love it. For practices and shows I still use my Classic 50, but a lot of the time when I'm just sitting at home I'll plug into the Crate. It's got great cleans, surprisingly. Really, really great.