Prewired Pickguards

[just strum]

I was thinking of dropping one in my inexpensive Squier Strat. The guitar feels nice and plays nice, but I would like to get some better tone out of it. I was kicking the idea of changing out the pups and leaving everything else, but then I started thinking about these pickguards

http://store.guitarfetish.com/prthsicopith.html

Has anyone ever purchased one? I'm not sure if this is what will improve the guitar, but I want to keep it fairly low cost. Since I never did any soldering, I figure this would reduce the "first time" learning curve.

The only problem I have with this, the description of the pups isn't very detailed and I am wondering if I am really upgrading the existing pups?

[snarph]

I was thinking of dropping one in my inexpensive Squier Strat. The guitar feels nice and plays nice, but I would like to get some better tone out of it. I was kicking the idea of changing out the pups and leaving everything else, but then I started thinking about these pickguards

http://store.guitarfetish.com/prthsicopith.html

Has anyone ever purchased one? I'm not sure if this is what will improve the guitar, but I want to keep it fairly low cost. Since I never did any soldering, I figure this would reduce the "first time" learning curve.

The only problem I have with this, the description of the pups isn't very detailed and I am wondering if I am really upgrading the existing pups?

They are not the bargain they seem to be

They have basic stuff (components ) and are very generic if your looking for some good stuff either buy the hand wired gaurds or order your own stuff and assemble it your self

GFS makes some really good stuff but they dont make that setup they buy them so your relly getting what you pay for IMHO

[marnold]

I guess I'd ask first: what change are you looking for in tone?

I'd also guess that the chance of that pickguard fitting your existing guitar without modifications is about zlich. If the hardware in your guitar is fine, I'd suggest just looking at some of their replacement pickups and installing them yourself. Replacing Strat single coils is pretty easy if you have any basic soldering knowledge.

Also that pickguard is out of stock, so you couldn't get it now anyway.

[Bilsdragon]

They are not the bargain they seem to be

They have basic stuff (components ) and are very generic if your looking for some good stuff either buy the hand wired gaurds or order your own stuff and assemble it your self

GFS makes some really good stuff but they dont make that setup they buy them so your relly getting what you pay for IMHO


I agree on the pre-wired set-ups. Has anyone gone the hand wired route? That's what I'm considering for my mim strat.
http://store.guitarfetish.com/hawipi.html

[ted s]

I thought about that route before upgrading the pups in my cheapo Strat, I emailed Jay at GFS, he suggested that there may not be much of an improvement.

[Ro3b]

A couple of years ago I got a GFS one-pickup pickguard to go in an affinity strat, and I was very happy with it. It fit perfectly -- had to drill a couple of holes, but the body routing lined up just fine. The bucker sounded pretty good, if a bit on the hot side. For $35-odd it was a great deal.

http://www.thefret.net/imagehosting/27048ea65ae6a465.jpg

[snarph]

I can only give my opinion of there over wound premium set it was very good tons of power with tone for days

[TS808]

What kind of budget are you looking at for a pre-wired pickguard??

These don't seem too bad. I've never played these pups, but the price is pretty good.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Pickguards/Components:_Pre-wired_pickguards/Golden_Age_Hotwired_Pickguards.html

[Bloozcat]

If wiring/soldering isn't a problem, you could do it for <$90.00 using your own pickguard. And this estimate is with a proper Switchcraft 5-way switch, CTS pots, and a CRL input jack. And that's even if you bought one of the Orange Drop caps from Jay at his inflated price ($3.95 each/GFS - approx. $.60/Mouser).

Same GFS Premium Alnico pickups too, which are good PU's.

Edit:

[hagarfreak33]

I used the Tuxedo pre wired pickguard set on my old strat copy.It was ok nothing special.And to be honest i never heard the difference it made.It was very easy to install though.

[just strum]

I think if I do it I will go the "DIY" route and use the Squier as my learning guitar. I will check out the soldering post and look at the suggested equipment to buy.

[Bloozcat]

I think if I do it I will go the "DIY" route and use the Squier as my learning guitar. I will check out the soldering post and look at the suggested equipment to buy.

Strum,

If you're just starting out in the guitar modding area, you don't have to run out and buy the best soldering station on the market. A 25-30 watt Weber iron that you can pick up at Home Depot will work just fine...and they're pretty cheap too. It'll get you through a lot of soldering before it quits on you. I still have the two cheap irons I bought years ago, and they still work fine today. I've gone through many a new tip on them, but they're cheap too. You can buy solder and flux at Radio Shack that will work well and won't break the bank either.

Should you find yourself modding many guitars and delving into amp building/repair, then it'll be time to consider a good soldering station.

I just received an order this week, and in it were many of the parts you'd need for your project. Here's what the parts cost:

CRL 5-Way switch for Strat (USA) $8.59
3-CTS 300k-ohm audio taper pots (250k-ohm cost the same) $11.79
Switchcraft 1/4" input jack $2.00
Vishay/Sprague Orange Drop 715P 200v .022uf capacitor $.88
2- Ft. Wire, Vintage cloth covered, white @ $.30ft $.60 *
2- Ft. Wire, Vintage cloth covered, black @ $.30ft $.60 *
1-Ft Shielded single conductor wire $.32 *
GFS Premium II Alnico II Strat pickup set $69.95
Total $94.73


*The wire price is broken down from 25' lengths. You'll pay way too much if you buy it in 1-2ft lengths. Same goes for the OD caps. They're only $.88 ea. from Mouser, but if you're going to pay 3-4 times that for shipping, you might as well buy a few more in various mf values.

If you were to go with the GFS Std. Premium Alnico pickup set, or the 60's Repro Alnico pickup set, the total would be -$10.00.

[bigoldron]

3-CTS 300k-ohm audio taper pots (250k-ohm cost the same) $11.79



Where did you find a 300 ohm CTS audio taper pot?

[Bloozcat]

Where did you find a 300 ohm CTS audio taper pot?

AllParts has them...

I order them from http://www.internetmusicsupply.com They are not listed on IMS's online site, but since they're located in Houston near AllParts, they get them for me when I ask. IMS's website is outdated (including the prices), but they seel AllParts stuff at 28.5% off the AllParts retail.

I like the CTS 300k pots because they can run from about 270k to about 330k with more being a little under spec than over. I rather order them than 250k pots and get a bunch that are under 250k in value.

[Duff]

Strum,

Soldering is very easy, just dont get a gun type soldering tool. Get an iron. I use a small tip type one. About an eigth inch one or a little bigger in diameter.

It's easy and fun.

Get some "paste flux" from Lowe's or Radio Shack and get the solder from Radio Shack very easily.

Important: use the RS solder that CONTAINS lead. Make sure it has lead in it. Radio Shack is the only place I've found that still sells it and they sell it in thin gauges, like what I use is about one millimeter thick, about one sixteenth of an inch maybe. This thin stuff works great on guitars.

You put the flux on the part with the included brush or ask for one.

You heat the fluxed part first then put the solder on the part near the tip and it will flow toward the heat source which will be on top of the wire on top of the pot for instance. You don't have to wait long to heat the part once you put the iron on it as long as the iron is already fully hot and fluxed.

Use only enough solder to do the job and don't let the solder flow to another wire or contact point with something connected to it, unless they are all grounds. Grounds are usually on top of the pots.

Be careful not to burn the insulation off of wires around the area that you are working on but are in the way of the iron shaft. Move them around, tape them off and if they break off at their contact points make sure to figure out which contact point they broke off from and the resolder them after finishing the first solder joint.

It's fun and you'll be able to fix simple solder joints that break on all your guitars: jack plugs, cracked solder points, wires that break off their contact points, all sorts of things.

Do not get lead free solder. It requires way too much heat and is for water pipes not electrical use.

Get rosin core solder with lead in it in a thin gauge from RS. Don't get the thick solder, you don't need it. I will never buy another RS soldering iron. My last one cost seven dollars and was worth all of it: now junk and junked. I have an old, old weller pencil type that works super great. Probably 15 to 20 watts. Gets into tight areas with no problem.

Make sure your guitar is on a soft blanket or something when you are working on it so you don't scratch it. Have a flashlight handy to really see things well.

You will burn yourself. Be careful. But it's inevitable. Watch for dripping solder. That will get you good.

Needle nose pliers and an exacto knife are always handy. I use my exacto knife blade tip to hold the wire against the pot or things like that when I can't fit the needle nose in there.

Have some courage! You can do it. It is actually fun. Practice on some old wire for a few minutes. Use enough flux on the wires and contact points and the iron tip and it will work like a gem.

Scrape off the tip when black slag builds up on it.

Hope this encourages you.

I put in some really expensive pups and it is a sense of accomplishment and some of my soldering jobs are not all that hot and I touch them up when I have to work on guitars that I did when I wasn't as skilled.

Almost every week I have to solder something. I just recently did some fairly technical soldering on my DA5 Vox because the solder joints on the internal power jack were cracked. Works like the pro it is now.

I do pickups one at a time and copy the wiring of the original pickup then go to the next one and tape the wires together when I'm done so they fit in the body route when you put the pickguard back on. No hassle.

Duffy

[mrmudcat]

Hollar at me if ya need strat parts.Strum (email or pm):beer:

[just strum]

Hollar at me if ya need strat parts.Strum (email or pm):beer:

Thanks Mud, I will let you know.

In typical fashion I am undecided on what to mod. Sort of senseless to mod a $90 Squier, except for the practice.

I am now thinking of upgrading the Dot. Been reading about some nice upgrades (although messing with a semi-HB is not the best "first time out" mod to do. I think if I get the right pick-ups, pots, and switch, I will be happy with the investment.

My daughter just informed me she needs $750 for Disney World, so that may put a bit of a hold on things.

Duff, I may be posting questions if I proceed with this. One may be "What is the best way to treat a burn?"

[Duff]

Lol. True, Strum, true. No big deal though.

Doing the DOT would be hard. I had my Schecter C1 E/A done. Had SD '59 in neck and JB in bridge, plus new tone pot. I had an expert, expert do the job down in Harrisburg at Downtown Sound, a pro amp and guitar repair shop certified by lots of companies. These dudes can do really hard jobs. The Schecter has the hybrid acoustic moddelling circuits in it and you don't want to mess with them. The ONLY access points were thru the f holes and the pickup cut outs.It didn't cost much. The DOT would be about the same. Very glad I had them do the job.

Which pickups are you thinking about?

Duffy

[just strum]

Which pickups are you thinking about?

Duffy

Not sure yet, I've read reviews from people that have done the mods and it's tough to decide. If I post a "recommendation" thread, I will have 20 to 25 more to choose from.

What is the approximate cost to have someone do it, not counting the hardware? Talking pups, pots and switch.

[Duff]

Strum,

I saved a lot of money by taking out all of the pickguard screws and putting them in a baggie and bringing the baggie along. This was just to have a tone pot put in and have a SEVERELY miswired strat electronic wiring job rewired correctly. I loosened up the strings so the tech could turn the pickguard over with no problem. It cost 14 dollars including the parts. I buy a lot of stuff at this place and they have some fairly good techs.

Loosening up the strings and leaving them on allows the tech to test out the job without charging you for new strings when he thinks he has it fixed.

He can do this without screwing the pickguard down. You screw the pickguard back down when you get home.

To install the pickups would not be a big deal. I'd leave them in and then they can just follow the old original wiring if it is a good set up. This will take them more time maybe. But if you take them out and clip the wires they will have to figure out what goes where. Should be easy for them but you don't know. Plus they know how to remove big piles of solder that you don't want and resolder with the right amount of solder for the job.

I don't know if it would be 20 dollars per pickup. Maybe less.

I bought real nice pickups and got a HOT strat, my "Black Pearl" affinity strat: gloss black, black pearl new pickguard, Seymour Duncan "hot rail" in the neck, " 'lil '59" in the mid, and JB Jr in the bridge. The pickups totalled 167 purchased separately and recommended for my desired sound by a Seymour Duncan tech over the phone. He said this is a common set up a lot of people like. It is hot and humbucking. It sounds incredible.

For a DIY I would suggest doing the inexpensive 99 dollar guitar and it will probably come out sounding super great if you do it right. Then you will want to add some other upgrade parts and maybe end up with a neat guitar that you hot rodded yourself. I would not do the DOT at my level of expertise and wouldn't suggest that you try it. Have a pro do it and do the easy strat job yourself, if you want to. You'll save money but spend time and either have fun or have a miserable time. Give yourself more time to do each part than you think you need, like three times as much time. If you get angry or too tired, stop and come back later; keeping track of all small screws, etc.

If you want hot but want to go less expensive you can get GFS hot rails calibrated set (59 dollars) which is:

Neck Pickup is 6 K
Middle Pickup is 10 K
Bridge Pickup is 15 K for the 'lil killers by GFS, noisless with more of a Les Paul sound than a strat sound.

My SD's are way hotter with a real hot pup in the neck and middle and a Jeff Beck Jr hot pup in the bridge. It is real neat to play and noisless. Not a Les Paul sound, kind of stratlike with bite and clean but not like a regular strat even with hot single coils. It is neat though.

I did this to a 25 dollar guitar, but a very nice affinity with an incredible flammed maple neck.

At this point I am adept enough to swap in expensive pups with confidence that I'll be able to do a good job.

For you to DIY I would get the GFS probably and still get some great pups.

I would make sure not to get pickups that are going to sound just like the ones you took out or worse. The higher number the "K" is as in 16K means higher output, louder sound from amp at same vol, than for instance vintage 5K pickups. Other factors also come into play.

GFS has a "Hot Lead" pup called the "Premium Texas Strat Set" (62 dollars) that has a hot bridge pup for SRV sounds and vintage mid and neck pups for real bell like clean vintage tones. These are supposed to be neat. One Seymour Duncan pup costs at least 62 dollars, more like 100.

The "K" values for output on that set are:

Bridge Pickup HOT 9.4K
Middle Pickup 5.5K
Neck Pickup 5.35K

This would give you chime and shimmer with the mid and neck and high output with the bridge for great leads or whatever you want to do with a hot pickup.

This set is NOT noise cancelling except in switch positions 2 and 4, like a regular strat because they are single coils, not humbuckers like the 'lil killers. Humbuckers that fit single coil pickguard openings with a minor amount of exacto knife work or chain saw file work, a very slight amount of squaring off the edges of the openings then they fit good but make sure they are not tight and binding when you slide them in because you want to be able to adjust them up and down easily without binding.

That's about it.

If you like this type of thing you will learn something and have a lot of fun and a sense of accomplishment and be able to fix LOTS of future minor guitar equipment problems and even some minor amp problems like jacks and so forth.

DIY will be time consuming and you will probably make mistakes, and the guy writing the instructions over in China in good "Engrish" will be a real challenge. And then the wiring diagram might not even look like your wiring set up; in which case you just do one pup at a time and copy what the guy before you did, one wire at a time after you take the pup out of the pickguard, one at a time. Watch the way the springs go and exactly where for adjusting the height. You might have to use your old pup springs or things like that.

Long post. Sorry. Just trying to encourage you if you are interested in trying it.

[wingsdad]

What is the approximate cost to have someone do it, not counting the hardware? Talking pups, pots and switch.

That may depend on whether you buy the hardware from the same store as the tech and your relationship with the store/tech, Strum. As you know, I've got a 'preferred customer' realtionship with my Local GAS Station. When I had the pots replaced on my ARC300, the DiMarzio Custom Taper Audio 500K's cost me $15 and labor was $5. I've asked them about changing the P90's, pots and switch on my Casino, and I got quoted $25 for the labor....assuming I buy the hardware there, which would all be at about 40% off list.