Hello and I need some help with how to go about doing something the best way. I dont have any experience with this as other here do.

I will be receiving a American Strat in a few days, its a black one......
and I dont like the white pick guard. I would very much like to replace
it with a all black one, not the fender B/W/B that I see online.

I was going to go with the Warmoth PG and for 15 dollars more, have
them change the position of the volume knob closer to the 5 way
switch so that I can rest my hand closer to the bridge and play over
the Humbucker.

I dont know what the odds are of it not fitting, but I want to be very careful as I dont want to drill any new holes in my new guitar. The wonderful people at Warmoth suggested I contact another company, Terrapinguitars...

They accept tracings or will take the original ( tracing will be fine) so as to
totally insure a good fit the first time out.

Many of you may have bought just a fender in the bag PG, and im curious
about how your holes aligned up for you ?

I bought a SSS and am going to change it to a HSS as well, thats another story. It was 100 dollar off day last Sunday, and they had no HSS in stock
and I really liked the one I got to see in person. I just dont like the
idea of buying a guitar I cant have in my hands and see in person.

Thanks for your advice, if enough of you say I should have no problems with holes, I can go so many different ways.

30 or 45 percent bevel on the edge? ( I think I would like 30?)
Should I have all the holes counter sunk ?????

So many decisions, but at least Im halfway there once the guitar arrives
this weekend !!!!!!!

If both the body and the pickguard are genuine Fender, and you've bought the correct pickguard for the particular series of body, then yes -- there shouldn't be problems with alignment. The only issues I've ever witnessed were when somebody tried to fit a Fender-US pickguard to a Fender-Japan body (especially so with the basses).

Keep in mind that any genuine Fender pickguards marked as "vintage 57" or "vintage 62" require countersunk pickup and switch screws and neither pickguard will directly fit an American "Standard" or "Special" without some work with drill and bit. It sounds as if you need a black single-ply pickguard for an American Standard screw configuration.

Best of luck, HTH

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY