Hi,

I've a Strat HW1 HSS and I very happy, it really sound great. But some times I think to have a SSS could be a good option (I't just a question of personal preference).

Because i'm not rich (what a piti) and cannot afford two Strats (gifts are accepted ), I think a choice could be to buy a loaded SSS pickguad and change it when I want.

In this context, could you suggest me some loaded pickguards?
I've some basic electronic knowledge and I'm able to asemble one if you could suggest me a combination of parts, and info enougth to wire it.

Thanks a lot in advance.

I purchased my American Standard with the HSS configuration and wasn't happy with the sound. I went to Musicians Friend and purchased the Fender Hot Noiseless pups and a genuine Fender black pickguard. The whole thing cost me $169 and I assembled and installed it in about 45 minutes.

_________________
September 18th, 1970
There were none better before him.
There have been none better since.

Thanks both. I've some review and I found the Stratosphere shop in eBay (http://stores.ebay.com/thestratosphere) with looks like sells Officials Fender loaded pickguards. Do you have some opinion about them?

I like blues sound, Marc Knofler, Dave Gilmour. I guess is not possible to have all the sounds in a guitar but, because I have a Line 6 POD X3 Live, I guess based in a standard SSS strat sound I'll be able to modelate it. Do you agree?

NOTE about Stratosphere: Because I live in Spain, I should take into account the delivery costs (near 40$) when buying in USA stores so that the buy make sense. Maybe it worth buying in Stratosphere an American deluxe loaded pickguard but, I'm wondering if some one knows an European shop.

Thanks for your advice BigJay. I'm an "expert" in study the market (I've spent more than a year before choice my HW1 and the same to buy my POD X3 Live). This case I'll do the same.

I'm thinking about the choice of get an empty pickguard and the 3rd pup, and reuse the pot circuity and both single coils pups. I think at the begining the both single coil pups that comes in my HW1 could work fine (maybe in a future I could play changing it to get some specific sound). What do you thing about this option?

I don't know, but reading a bit I've seen some Fender Custom strat for David Gilmour that uses a Seymour Duncan SSL-5 as the bridge pup, and looks like it's not quite expensive (about 50$). Maybe one option.

Navigating, I've seen calibrated set of SD SSL-5... Do you know what does this means? A pack of three DS SSL-5 calibrated? A pack of a SSL-5 and two of other? A pups that fits perfect in a calibrated set?