Anyone here ever upgraded their Strat electronics (pots, wire, capacitors. switch, jack)? Wife want's to know what to get me for Xmas, and this: http://www.specialtyguitars.com/kits/strat.html looks a bit interesting, and not TOO expensive. Would it be worth it for a '99 Am Dlx Fat Strat? Thanks.

With the exception of the "boutique" capacitor, you already have all of that in your guitar.

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Thanks Martain! I've hear lots of theories on caps and whether or not they make any difference. Do you have a preference?

I would very much have to agree with Martian here...except for the cap, there's nothing really special about those kits at all and certainly nothing to really justify the $50 price tag on the "premium" kit (look up those same parts on Ebay). I can see upgrading pickups and such but for things like tone pots, switches and output jacks, I really have to go with the old adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". In other words, unless you're having a specific problem with a tone control or your switch, this kit isn't really going to do much of anything to improve your sound.

For the $50 of the premium kit, there's -a lot- of other things your wife could get you for the holidays...decent chromatic tuner, new strap, bargain hardshell case, books, videos (especially instructional vids), a $50 Guitar Center gift card, etc.. Then there's stuff that every guitarist can always use...strings, cables, picks.....

Just my $.02 worth,
Jim

All my Strats have their OEM caps and I'm perfectly content with them.

There is a school of thought which maintains that the composition of a guitar's capacitor is of a significant importance when considering how it interplays with the amp's circuit. The claim is that certain composition caps are better than others in terms of not altering or distorting the 'purity' of the entire guitar's circuit where it is more faithfully transmitted and amplified. I do not accept this as for there to be any meaningful significance, the cap itself would have to be actively in a MUCH higher voltage environment which is obviously not the case in a guitar's circuit where the voltage is EXTREMELY low.

As you might expect, for my own edification and with an open mind, I've A/Bd many different composition (and brand) caps in many different model guitars with many different circuit configurations. My results: With SOME, there was a tonal difference but with MOST, NO difference.

Why any at all?

It was the allowable tolerances of the individual brand capacitors.

With many of the teeny, tiny imported caps, the allowable tolerance (meaning, the variation of by how many microfarads the individual cap could be off either way in spite of what the actual value was supposed to be) would be huge whereas in the case of many others and of course, the overpriced, "boutique" ones, the tolerances were tight (small).

My conclusions: Certain brands were unreliable (per the above) but the capacitors' various compositions were irrelevant.

Never underestimate the value of hype, peer pressure, "Placebo" and "Hawthorne Effects". There will always be those who will be absorbed into such things and feel compelled to adamantly defend them (usually in a vain attempt to justify the money they've wasted). Yet, in spite of it all, the laws of physics continue to remain constant and unchangeable.

FWIW, I have a real, perfectly functional 1956 (or older) Sprague, what is now known as, "Bumble Bee" capacitor. I removed it OEM out of a 1956 Gibson LP Junior back in 1974. Do I use it? No. I kept it all these years because I know that eventually, someone who subscribes to all the hype, etc. is going to come along and offer me a nice piece of change for it because they are from yet a whole other 'school' who proclaim that not only is a, "paper and oil" capacitor the 'best', but to have a 'naturally aged' one, well over 50 years and still counting is the pinnacle of, "capacitordom"!

And of course, this is merely IMO where YMMV.

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