Should I do it?

[sunvalleylaw]

Change it and see how you like it. You can always put the original back on.
At Christmas you can flip flop some new bright green or red ones on there.
That'll look festive with the silver.

That is what I am deciding to do. I got this thing thinking I might like it. Might as well try it out. Helps me to get to know my guitar better too, as I measure pickup height, etc., and it will make me change my old strings.

Does it ultimately really matter what any one of us thinks? Change it to YOUR taste. It's your guitar.

It's fun just to bat it about and see what people think. I will make the choice though.

[stingx]

Yes man. You have to rock it. Rock it proudly!

[Algonquin]

I like the contrast that the Tort guard gives to both body and neck, so I'd give it a go.

[duhvoodooman***]

....and it will make me change my old strings.

Not necessarily. Of course, if they've been on the guitar for a while, you're going to want to change them while swapping the p/g, but it's certainly possible to change the p/g on a Strat without removing the strings. I know because I've done it, and will be doing it again with this new-to-me CV Strat. I restrung it immediately when I received it because the old strings were rusty & dead, plus the high E was missing. Ordered the new p/g the next day after receiving it, so I most definitely don't want to change the strings again a week or so later when I install it. But you can loosen the strings enough to provide sufficient clearance to pull up the pickguard assembly and slide it out from under them, as long as the pickup wires are long enough (they generally are). Then just lay a towel over the body and place the p/g on it to remove the p'ups and controls. Install them in the new p/g the same way, slide the new assembly under the strings and back into the cavity, screw it down, re-tighten the strings, and you're ready to set your pickup heights and get playing again. One additional tip: wrap a rubber band around the neck and strings up at the nut to keep the strings fairly snug against the neck. This minimizes the chance of the loosened strings popping out of the tuners, esp. the vintage slotted type.

[sunvalleylaw]

They've been on the guitar for a while.

[cebreez]

One additional tip: wrap a rubber band around the neck and strings up at the nut to keep the strings fairly snug against the neck. This minimizes the chance of the loosened strings popping out of the tuners, esp. the vintage slotted type.

Or just do what I do and stick a capo on the first fret.....

[sunvalleylaw]

Well, I did it. Not without adventures. Bottom line, I think it looks and sounds great! Glad I did it. Now for the full story. Captions below each pic.



Set up my really professional work bench, using my case from MF to hold everything, on the couch. Here she is in original condition ready to go. Set up a halogen work light hanging on a music stand for light.



Got it all pulled apart and the original pickguard removed. Put all the screws and little rubber bumpers in sorted piles on the coffee table next to the couch were the guitar and case are sitting. Kept thinking DVM would think I was a total hack due to my clumsiness. But manage to get it all apart without yanking on anything too badly or scratching anything up.



Realized that since I had the guitar apart, maybe I should have thought of shielding the cavity. This guitar is not that noisy, but still. So, googled and a thread on TDPRI said you could use regular kitchen foil. So I did. It was much more cleaned up than this pic, and I got some up on top of the body to connect to the shielding on the Fender guard I was using. Seemed ok. More on that later.



All back together for the "after" shot. I cleaned things up on the guitar, wiped down the neck and body, polished up the guard I got from Tone2theBone in very good condition. I changed out the strings using the method in Blaze's thread and felt it was my best re-stringing job yet. Set my pickup heights to the measurements I took as I took things apart. Looks good! Ready to test. But . . .


OOPS!! What the heck??!! No sound!!!, on any switch setting. Dang it!!

Pulled the input jack. Looks ok. Called Spud to talk it out, and no short cuts. Gotta take it apart. Loosened my fresh strings back up, and used cebreez's method above to secure things. Thinking I was going to have to do some soldering. Got the PG out without scratching everything up and everything seems secure. The ground seems tight, input jack wires seem intact, switch seems otherwise good, etc. So I pulled out the foil, then took the guitar over to the amp, plugged it in, urned the volume up and lo and behold, I get noise! Not sure what it could have been other than somehow the foil interfering with something. So, put it all back together, pulled the slack out of the strings around the tuning pegs and carefully tightened and tuned, checked my pickup heights again, and plugged her in. Sounds great! Hopefully that was it. I will wait until some other time and get some foil tape to properly line the cavity at some point in the future. For now, I will just enjoy!

[Brian Krashpad]

That's exactly the color pickguard I'd've done too. Looks much better imnsho, less "vanilla!"

[riverrick]

Looks great!!!

[sunvalleylaw]

That's exactly the color pickguard I'd've done too. Looks much better imnsho, less "vanilla!"

Thanks guys. I thought so too. After it was all back together and working, I played for a while, and it just "feels" more like my guitar now. i put the back cover (white) back on, but may take that off for a while too, just because. It was fun to do this little project!

[duhvoodooman***]

Looks great, Steve--much spiffier! 'Course, we all know that I like loud pickguards almost as much as I like loud music!