I am thinking about doing some mods on one of my strats..I was thinking of setting it up as
(HUM / single/ Hum)….I’m looking for some advise here… Am I going to have to route out the body some to accommodate the hum buckers in the neck and bridge positions or will they fit in there the way they are.. I have not removed the pick guard yet to look at it but was hoping for that answer form you Fender gurus before I start tearing apart. (ya know make sure I got everything I need)…I still have not ordered the new pickups yet as I am still considering what I want and the difficulty of the conversion…any help would be greatly appreciated…. Also will I need to modify the pick guard my self or can I get a new one cut for the configuration already…….thanx

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(80’s Hair Metal) = A snapshot in time before Grunge ruined Rock & Roll forever!!!!

Hi wtcumm00: almost any pickguard you want is available from sources such as this:

http://www.wdmusic.com/pickguards.html

Far as the timber is concerned: lacking long distance x-ray vision none of us is able to tell you what configuration of cavities you might have beneath your pickguard at present. You are just going to have to take it off and have a look.

If the cavities you find don't allow for full sized humbuckers you could route them out to make them larger. But perhaps a simpler way forward is to get yourself humbuckers built to be the same size as single coil pickups, so's you can just swap them straight in. Then you don't even need a new pickguard.

I just posted this link yesterday for someone else. On this page you will find some examples of single coil sized humbuckers - fourth, fifth and eighth pickups down. That's just for tasters, there's many more out there:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/e ... atocaster/

Good luck - C

Thanks Ceri
…yeah I guess I need to put an eye ball on it to see first I suppose.//I have looked into the Hot rails and the chopper hum bucker in a single coil size. I just don’t know if those have the output I am really wanting. I really like the Seymou Duncan Invader sh8 / and the SH6 distortion as I want to turn one of the strats into a metal machine.. I guess the Hot rails work well for Dave Murray for that kind of sound. On the other hand I don’t really know what else he is using in the rig for the kind of distortion…I guess maybe I’ll go try to find a guitar with that style of pickups and test drive them to see..they sure would be an easier install like you said….Also thanks for the sight for the pick guard covers. I have been trying to find a replacement for my pink paisley for ever with no luck (and they have one) 50 bucks though is kind of spendy but the only one I have seen……..may you guitar always stay in tune and your fingers never tire…..Bill

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(80’s Hair Metal) = A snapshot in time before Grunge ruined Rock & Roll forever!!!!

Hi again wtcumm00: but you know, just take a look under your pickguard. A large proportion of modern Strats, both MIA and MIM, are routed to take full size humbuckers, so then all you need is an HSH pickguard.

On the other hand, if your pickup cavities are SSS, well these days some would think that a desirable feature all by itself!

Good luck with it - C