Seeking advice on whether it is wise to spend money to improve my Korean made strat.

Am thinking about the following replacements:
1. Fender Custom Shop Texas Special Strat Pickups (@$190.00)
2. Fender Schaller Locking Tuners (@$80.00)

Any thoughts, tips and/or suggestions?

Thanks!

These are, as always, just my own personal opinions...please take them as such.

It's been my experience that MIK's went 1 of two ways; they were either pretty decent or they were really crappy...the '91 MIK I had fell in to the later category. I think that most of them had pretty decent necks as mine did but some of them had -very- cheap laminate bodies (aka plywood). If yours has a real wood body, then yes...I'd say go for it. If it's a laminate/plywood body however, then no...I really don't think it's worth it at all.

Now that said, a decent set of pickups will certainly help -any- guitar and what's more is that should you decide to go with them, you can always swap them out should you get a better guitar later.

As far as the locking tuners go, while I know that some folks do swear by them, I really don't care for them myself and have NEVER needed them on any of my Strats (including my "cheap" Squiers). It's been my experience that most folks will put locking tuners on a Strat because of issues with tuning stability but the truth is that most tuning issues with a Strat really don't have too much to do with the tuners. There are a great many Strats out there (vintage and otherwise) that are stable even with traditional or vintage tuners. I'm actually fairly aggressive with the trem on both of my MIM's which both have typical Fender sealed tuners and I really don't have too many problems at all. Seriously, before I invested in something like locking tuners, I'd make sure the guitar is properly set up first and I'd probably upgrade the bridge too (especially if it's got the cheap potted saddles and the half-sized trem block). I would really address any other issues that may be causing any tuning problems before I replaced the tuners themselves.

Again, just my $.02 worth,
Jim

I would not put $270 worth of parts on my $100 MIK Strat. You might consider putting that cash towards a better guitar.

meh idk.....unless it's a Lite Ash Strat. mine is killer.

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Do you love the body and feel of the neck? Not just like, love. If your answer is yes, then I would say go for it.

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Live guitars: 2009 LTD Truckster, 1989 Strat Plus, 2001 Am Standard Strat, 1996 MIJ Jaguar, 2007 Gibson Explorer 76 reissue, 1999 Ibanez RG7621, LTD MH-301, LTD FM400, 1999 Jackson Kelly, Mystery Les Paul, Hamer Chaparel, Fender FM 62SCE A/E Mandolin

Agreed. Just know it is money you will never see back. I do recommend to keep the orginal parts, just in case you decide to sell it later down the road. Slap them back in so you can keep the up graded parts for another project.

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

if it is one of these, then go for it, if not you might want to invest in a better guitar. though i really like the pickups in the lite ash anyway.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

It all depends on a few things. Like people have posted already it will not be worth it if you're selling it but if you love that guitar then give it a go. You could find out what a trade in would get you along with your planned spending on upgrades and see what guitars fit in that range if you're not in love with what you have. Look into your options and see what fits you best. Good luck!

Welcome to the forum..!

Just wanted to add my two cents: Personally, I wouldn't bother with the locking tuners... I have some on an ultra, and while they're nice to have if that's the way the guitar was built they add nothing to the playing experience when compared with my other (vintage-style tuners) Strat. Maybe if you use the tremolo arm a lot, or plan to be changing strings all the time just for fun...

I'd feel a bit strange with a guitar that was essentially a frame for some nice pickups, but as others have said... if it's a nice instrument (and they're to be found at all levels of production, just with greater regularity in the more expensive lines) it's worth doing whatever you want as long as it genuinely improves your playing experience. Make sure you're honest with yourself, though!

I was kind of thinking of doing something similar sometime. (hows that for positive decision making)

I have a mia dlx and a Korean strat with the basswood body with koa
veneer which looks nice.

Needless to say the Korean guitar hardly gets picked up!

The neck also seems pretty good to me compared to a few other MIK strats ive tried which played lousy for whatever reason. ........

so might turn it into a partsocaster. Wont bother with locking tuners but different pups etc could be fun. Just have no idea what to go for?

Any ideas welcome....

Alan

Are you going to do the owrk yourself or have someone else do it? If you plan on trying, best to practice on a cheap guitar first.

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Live guitars: 2009 LTD Truckster, 1989 Strat Plus, 2001 Am Standard Strat, 1996 MIJ Jaguar, 2007 Gibson Explorer 76 reissue, 1999 Ibanez RG7621, LTD MH-301, LTD FM400, 1999 Jackson Kelly, Mystery Les Paul, Hamer Chaparel, Fender FM 62SCE A/E Mandolin

This is a -very- good point! For a person who has little or no experience with doing mods and such, an inexpensive guitar really is the best place to start! In my own case, I've been modding my own guitars nearly as long as I've been playing them and here after close to 30 years I feel "comfortable" doing such things...I (mostly) feel as though I can do what I want/need to do to a guitar to make it the way I want without fear of doing any kind of serious damage. That said however, it didn't happen over night...I made -a lot- of screw ups on my early days (particularly when it came to learning how to refinish a guitar)...but I learned from them.

Now since a few comments were made there, I would also like to add an extra $.02 worth in regards to "cost". Ok...there are a few people around who look at a guitar and honestly never see past "the dollar signs". It costs X so much to buy it, it's going to cost X so much to modify it and it's going to be worth X so much when I sell it.

Generally speaking, I'm -not- one of those people. I simply don't buy a guitar with the intentions of selling it (although I have sold/traded a couple in the past year or so...mostly cheap to make room for nicer). When I buy a guitar, I don't do it because it's "an investment" that I'm looking to get some kind of return on...to me, the return comes from playing the instrument. When I buy a guitar, I buy it because -it's a guitar-. If I really wanted to invest my money (assuming I had the money to invest), there are MUCH more lucrative ways of doing so. As such, if I think one of my guitars will benefit from a such and such upgrade, I don't really think about the value of the guitar in "fiscal terms"...I simply think about the guitar and whether the upgrade is going to benefit me and my playing. In the case of my old Kramer for example...ok...yea...it's got a laminate body (although a fairly decent one...it's held up well over the past 20 years). Now a lot of folks never would have bothered with such a guitar, but for me, it was worth doing some work...I added a second pickup to it (it only had the one bridge pickup originally) and I tore that damned Floyd Rose trem off and replaced it with a Kahler...and I have absolutely no regrets about having done so! She plays and sounds very good for what she is and I'm VERY happy with her.

So with that as a few others have already said, it's -your- guitar...if you think you would benefit from putting new pickups in it or any other mod, then don't worry so much about "what it's going to sell for later". In the case of dizi's comment above about putting $270 worth of parts on a $100 guitar, I really have to disagree with that for the most part. If it's an otherwise decent guitar...or if you simply do like it that much, who really give's a rat's a@@ about the cost of the parts versus the "value" of the instrument there...the -real- value of a guitar is in what it means to you and not what others may think it's worth dollar-wise. Again you can always take those expensive parts back off and put them on a different guitar later if you choose to do so (one of the lovely things about a Strat).

Now I would also like to reiterate that personally I don't think the locking tuners are really worth it. That said though it's not because of the guitar, I just tend to feel that locking tuners are more of a gimmick than anything else (as are the LSR roller nuts). However, decent new pickups are certainly a "worthwhile investment". Either way though, it's -your- guitar...if you feel that you would benefit from either or both, I'd pretty much have to say that only you can decide if it's "worth it".

Peace,
Jim