I've decided to upgrade the stock pickups in my midnight blue '99 MIM strat. I'm going to be getting the Dimarzio Areas ('61/'67/'58) but now I'm trying to decide on what color combo to go with (white, aged white, or black). The question is:
1. Should I go with white pups and keep pickguard, knobs, etc. stock white which actually look aged (see photo of my current setup)?;
2. Should I go with aged white pups and keep everything else stock white?
3. Should I go with aged white pups and change the rest to aged white?
4. Should I go with black pups and keep all else stock white? OR (finally)
5. Go with black pups, knobs, pickguard, etc. etc.....? (see second picture of what somebody else did with theirs.)

Thanks for your opinions!

Here's my current setup:


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Found this shot of one with the all black combo (thought it looks like this owner might have blacked out the chrome too):


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The black appointments (with the black pickguard) give the guitar a certain air of elegance.

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

It looks good but personally I think it's too much black.
I'd do the pick guard in black for sure with the pick ups and knobs an aged white.

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He who dies with the most Strats wins.

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2005 MIA Strat HH Hardtail
Modified 2000 MIM Strat HSS

Holy smokes! - This is almost like Barbie for guitar!

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2005 MIA Strat HH Hardtail
Modified 2000 MIM Strat HSS

Option 1 looks really different and cool in my opinion.

With a maple neck, my choice would be everything in aged white. The black is nice but the lighter colored pick guard would stand out nicely against the lighter colored neck.
Here are pics of my MIM in midnight wine done in black pearl and aged white

How it started its life:


Black pearl:


aged white:


Keep us posted on your decision

_________________
"I like the way he puts Yngwie J. Malmsteen on his album covers. You know,....so you don't confuse him with all the other Yngwie Malmsteens in the business"


2008 Fender MIM Stratocaster
2010 Epiphone Masterbilt
2009 Fender Super Champ XD

Thanks....very helpful to see that too.

This is such a personal thing for sure. I actually like the way the black pearl looks in your case...thinking it might look good on mine as well. I have a white music man with a pearl white pickguard and rosewood neck so I'm not sure I'd go with another pearl white pickguard for the midnight blue strat. With all of these other combos, I'm beginning to see how truly sterile my plain ol' white pickguard, pups, and knobs are.

I found a close example of what a "midnight-ish blue" with maple neck looks like with black pups and a white pickguard..I'd go ahead and change the switch color too I think.


And a better example of all black

This one's absolutely gorgeous!

Arjay

_________________
"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

http://www.fender.com/community/guitarbuilder/

Use this.

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[08 MIM Standard Arctic White] > [Danelectro Fish n Chips EQ > Radial Texas Bones OD > Tonerider British Distortion > Electroharmonix Russian Big Muff Pi > Vox V847 Wah] > FM65R

This one is the BOMB .....beautiful headturner combination

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1986 Fender Sidekick Reverb 35
1990 Fender Red Knob - "The Twin"
1992 Fender Newporter - Acoustic
2000 Fender American Series Strat - Natural ash
2010 Fender Mustang 1
2011 Fender Blacktop Jazzmaster -Sunburst
2012 Fender Champion

Like others have said, it's a personal choice.

Fnder puts white pickguards, covers and knobs on everything from the cat to the canary. I guess white goes with everything so it works. Personally, I like to go a different route and personalize mine just a little bit. On my purple with rosewood neck guitar, I have a rosewood pick guard with aged white knobs and covers. Looks good to me. On my black, I replaced the white guard with black guard, black knobs and covers.

Here's my take on covers. Aged white covers and knobs look good on light and dark color pickguards but black/dark covers and knobs only look good on dark color pickguards.

I'm not a big fan of black covers and knobs on white or light pickguards. Don't know why but for some reason, it draws the eye too much to the center.

Of course, others may like it and that's what makes us all different. Key is if YOU like it, then it is good.

Jeff

Thought I was helping, but I do see your point... sorry!

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2005 MIA Strat HH Hardtail
Modified 2000 MIM Strat HSS