I have embarked on a project to make some (minor) visual alterations to my Strat.

Specifically, I want to change the pickguard and the pickup covers. I have not done this before, so just looking for some pointers in how to do this job correctly. It does not look too complicated, but I want to make sure I will not do something stupid.

Thanks for your pointers

It's very easy to do:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du4P7-H19sM

But don't remove the knobs using a screwdriver, do it like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTMg3meCCTY

Good luck!


Cheers


David

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"Humans think they are smarter than dolphins because we build cars and buildings and start wars etc...and all that dolphins do is swim in the water, eat fish and play around. Dolphins believe that they are smarter for exactly the same reasons."

Thanks! It does look fairly straightforward... Even I should be able to do it...
Same for the pickup covers?

Usually they easily come off, they are just put over the pickup.

Cheers

David

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"Humans think they are smarter than dolphins because we build cars and buildings and start wars etc...and all that dolphins do is swim in the water, eat fish and play around. Dolphins believe that they are smarter for exactly the same reasons."

+1

Exercise extreme caution and do not disturb the filament wire wrapped around the coils. Avoid touching it at all, in fact.

Best of luck.

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

If you have overwound pickups, be EXTREMELY careful when removing the cover. Had to swap out a Texas Special with another at the getting place because of this. As far as changing out one pickguard for another, if I was going that far I would swap pickups as well. You can keep the original equipment on the original pickguard that way, and if you ever wish to swap back, it's as simple as soldering one wire.

Good idea if you're ever in the market for new p/ups as well.

It's actually 3 wires surely? 2 on the input jack and the ground wire to the trem claw..

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

It's been nearly 12 years since I set up a pearloid pickguard with Texas Specials and put it on a 97 American Standard. I've probably left out a couple of steps. It's not hard at all to solder up the pots, switch, and jack though. I've seen much more complicated soldering on military hardware.

Well, I've done it! All swapped over! And it looks great.

And there was a little nice surprise too... when I got to the pickups. I expected a Custom Shop sticker (the guitar is a 69 Custom Shop), but instead of the stickers, I found the handwritten A Y, followed by the the date. So it turns out I've got Abigail Ybarra pickups... .I wondered why the Strat sounded so wonderfully... Happy days!

Happy to hear. I hope you took pics when you had the pickguard off?

Cheers

David

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"Humans think they are smarter than dolphins because we build cars and buildings and start wars etc...and all that dolphins do is swim in the water, eat fish and play around. Dolphins believe that they are smarter for exactly the same reasons."

Pics? That's just rude not to supply. We need a fix here.

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'01 American Deluxe HSS Strat.
'87 Japan HSS Strat.
'11 Custom Shop FMT HSS Strat.

"Without music, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines and dates by which bills must be paid."

Those are just standard CS69 pups. Custom Shop pickups that are factory installed do not have a CS sticker. A set of pickups that were wound by Abigail would her full name signed. CS69 pups that were not wound by Abigail have her initials and date like yours.

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

I don't get it. Why would her initials be written under a pickup if she was not involved in making it? Why not just write Custom Shop or put a sticker (and by the way - I have seen pickups with the CS stickers under them). I am no expert but to me it makes little sense to use her initials and then not be involved...

As far as I understood, she *is* involved by supervising the process of winding the pickup. If she does it by herself, she writes "Abby". If her team does it, it's "AY".

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. This is just what Aunty Google told me.

BTW: we love pics.

Cheers

David

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"Humans think they are smarter than dolphins because we build cars and buildings and start wars etc...and all that dolphins do is swim in the water, eat fish and play around. Dolphins believe that they are smarter for exactly the same reasons."

Pickguards and covers swaps are the simpliest modifications with the biggest impact on the visual aspect of a strat. Hardware is a close 2nd....

go from this:



to this:

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"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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