I had Greasy Grooves make some neck plates for my Strat and Tele--they put my band's logo and the nickname of the guitar below the logo. I'd put a pic of the plates on here but Photobucket is hard to deal with on a mobile phone...just look at the Stratocaster and Telecaster albums on my Photobucket page, and you'll see the results. I also had one made as a gift to my drummer's Epiphone Junior, with the band's logo and his nickname below it.

Either way, Greasy Grooves was easy to work with, fast and inexpensive, especially considering it a custom design.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

Hi Bluer Monkey-What an uncanny coincidence,I just posted a thread about Greasy Grove Inc. I ordered 2 pickguards from them and the were very reasonably priced. I paid only $23 for a snake skin Strat guard and $34 for an op-art Psychedelic guard for my Tele. The cost of mailing was under $10 so I think that I got a gret bargain.

I did have trouble ordering on-line but when I phoned the company to tell them about it they were very apologetic and took my order over the phone.It should be here by Friday at the latest.Cheers

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I had this done recently by a local custom shop artist. I did have some concern since I basically gave him free reign with very limited instruction, but I am really happy with the results and have no regrets.

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“All music is folk music, I ain't never heard no horse sing a song.” Louis Armstrong

I would be too, strato. This is absolutely beautiful work However I'm looking for a customization with the option to undo.

Thanks, MacGyvercaster. Let's check with guitslinger for the bevel.

Hi guitslinger. Just finished reading your other post. MacGyvercaster brings up a good point about the bevel. I didn't see any mention of a bevel on their website. Perhaps you would be good enough to post back and let us know when your PG arrives.

Good to know about Greasy Grooves.

Cheers!
BM

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This is the Blues. Are you listening?

Update: I got a reply from Greasy Groove regarding their pickguards. I was asking specifically about the Strat SSS "graphical" pickguards.

Q1: What is the thickness?
A1: The thickness is 0.1"

Q2: How many plys?
A2: Our graphical pickguards are made from a special type of plastic which
holds the image in place underneath the surface so it cannot scratch or
wear, this plastic has a single ply white edge, however it's the same
thickness as a 3-ply.

Q3: Are the edges bevelled?
A3: Yes, the edges are bevelled.

I believe the stock 3-ply pickguard on a Strat is 0.088" thick.

Cheers!
BM

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This is the Blues. Are you listening?

Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see where you said which Stratocaster you have...

Personally, I would never mod a Re-Issue, FSR or Signature Stratocaster (even aesthetically), these Guitars are distinctive in their own right.

But a run-of-the-mill Strat, I say have at it !

My Arctic White MIM Tele was born as a Deluxe Series 'Nashville'. Along the way, it was modded back to standard Tele config removing the middle pup and 5-way switch, and Brown Tortoise scratchguard for standard Tele pups, 3-way switch and a single-ply Black scratchguard. I replaced the pickguard w/ a Red Tortoise one and it totally changed the look... in a good way.



In my mind, I am toying with the idea of restoring it back 100% to 'Nashville' spec., but I like the standard Tele config so much, I would only do that if I acquired a Standard Tele so I'd still have a Standard too.

Unfortunately, I have a Hollowbody Gibson on the Wish List ahead of it, besides which, if I come home with another guitar in the next 12 months (after picking up 3 in the past 3 months), I'm likely to find myself lying next to it at night instead of my wife...

cheers!

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'11 FSR Am. Vtg. Ltd. Ed. CAR '57 Stratocaster (SN# LE02639)
'14 American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster
'12 Telebration Empress Telecaster
'99 Deluxe Nashville Telecaster
'12 FSR Telecaster HH
'10 Heritage H-535
'99 Martin DC-1E
'13 Lanikai Tenor Ukulele

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a bit of DIY is always fun

I'm sure you know about the pickups .
You can customize it with rare color. It all depends on the budget

Since you have a Fender, my internal mods won't apply, since I replace the stock 500k mini pots in my Affinities with 250k CTS pots and a better tone cap. A mainline Fender should already have the better components by default.

But I did replace the cheaper Squier bridge saddles with steel block saddles similar to older strat plus bridges I've seen, and really like the result, both in appearance and function.

The possibilities are endless. Just do some research, explore your options, and decide what pleases you.

If you fancy tinkering with the sound as well as the look, an easy change is a 'bridge on' or 'neck on' mod. It can give you two extra pickup combinations in addition to the 5 a strat usually has - all three pickups on (which has lots of 'quack'), and neck/bridge together (which is tele-esque, but not quite a true tele sound).

You just use a push/pull switch instead of whichever pot you choose to replace - I prefer to replace the volume pot, but only to ensure my tone pots still feel the same. The volume pot will still work as a volume pot, whether the switch is in or out, after the mod. If you don't want to also affect how the volume pot operates, buy an audio taper push/pull of the same value as the pot you're replacing (likely to be 250k). Buy the best you can afford, even the good ones are not that pricey. One of these would do:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Potentiometers/Push-pull_Pots.html

I prefer to wire it to add bridge to the neck/neck and middle (positions 1 & 2 on a standard 5 way) and retain tone control, but there are a few different ways to do this and I'm sure other folk here will have different preference to my own. It should be easy to find tutorials for each though.

This shows how to add the neck pickup to the middle/middle+bridge signal when you pull the switch out:



However you slice it, it is a pretty cool mod and gives some useful sounds for minimal outlay.

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Mater tua criceta fuit, et pater tuo redoluit bacarum sambucus