Hi,

This is my first post here and I'm hoping to get some advice about fixing up my old guitar. I have a Fender USA Strat Ultra at my parent's house from the early 1990's (maybe 1991-1992) that I haven't touched in like a decade or so. It's the one with the four lace sensor pickups (splittable humbucker).

I'm living over in Japan these days, and I've recently started playing guitar again after a LONG period off and I'm thinking of bringing it over.

From what I remember, at least one of the pickups is shot, and I'll definitely need a good setup, but other than that it should be in decent shape. It's been in the original hardcase in a climate controlled environment.

What I'd like to know is what you guys recommend in terms of pickups. These days I play a Les Paul with P90's, and I don't know anything about Strat pickup options. Do you guys think it would be best to just replace the one lace sensor pickup that's blown, or are there better options than those? I don't remember being a huge fan of the pickups, but that was a long time ago, and my tastes have changed.

These days I'm mostly interested in funk/soul/jazz/reggae sounds, but also enjoy a bit of rockabilly, and even some surf stuff.

Also, the pick guard is pretty beat up from my crazy teenage days, and I'm wondering how hard it is to find a replacement as I imagine that pickup combination (with the mini toggle) is not a regular stock replacement. The guitar is the blue burst, and I never liked the white pickguard. I was thinking a tortoise pickguard might look nice.

I think in a sense, the ultra is one of those strats that if modified, will loose its superficial character. You can allways tell an ultra over a regular strat from its dually's and the flame veneer & dark fretboard

I say- perhaps change your guard to what you want (google will be the best bet), but look into getting that pickup replaced or fixed

An Ultra-It's like a very mature cognac. you will spoil it if you drink it with coke best in its true form.

Forum user Xhefri might perhaps point you in the right direction regarding that pickguard if he chimes in

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Hey there Skjold. The Ultra setup is very versatile and you can get a load of tones from it. Witht he Blue, Silver and Red Dually you can go from Tele to Strat to even some Gibsonish sounds. I was playing one tonight with a keyboard player and drums and we were doing funk, fusion, jazz and some funky country. Sounded good clean or with some dirt through my Fender Amp. If you are going to have someone replace the pickup you could run into problems as I have seen many a "guitar tech" who did not understand how the switching on these worked and messed up the set-up so it did not work properly afterward.

What pickup is bad? I would suggest just fixing it first and then giving it a try before changing over to some other pickups.

Also if you change pickguards, it involved drilling a new holes for the Dually in the bridge and the mini-switch. You can use your old pick guard for a template. Check out: http://www.warmoth.com/Pickguard/StratPickguard.aspx and order the rounded humbucker hole for the rear so it will fit the more rounded Lace Sensors.

If you need help at all just email me and I will see what I can do: xhefri@gmail.com

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

Thanks for the help! I agree. I will just get the bad pickup fixed or replaced. I can't remember off hand which one it is, and the guitar is sitting on the other side of the earth, so I can't check until I pick it up in June. Also, I will drop you an email about the pickguard, I have a couple of questions for you.

Thanks again!