I love my MIM Fender Player series HSS Strat and I’d like to get another Strat but with SSS pickups. I’ve been thinking of getting a “cheap” but good Strat and swapping the whole pickguard with one of the Fender preloaded ones. Classic Fender pickguards come with:
Tex Mex
Fat 50
Texas Special
Custom 69
Noiseless
Having read about these and heard tone samples, I think I’d probably go for Fat 50s or Texas Special.
Has anyone else done something similar?
Which guitar would you start from? (Fender Player, Squire, Sire, other)
Which pickups would you choose?
(Trying to keep the budget under ÂŁ800)
I have the Texas Specials on mine. Loaded pick guard swap. Super easy. They are suposed to be hot. I totally dig them. I could tell a difference right away between them and my old EMGs. SVR helped design the Texas specials is what I read.
Sounds like a fun project, and maybe something I should try with my beginner Squier! Does the use of a pick guard with pickups mean “no soldering needed”? It’s decades since I did that in shop class and its kept me from trying anything on my electrics.
You just need to solder 1 single wire, the grounding for the pickups at the back. Very basic. You do need a soldering iron. There are plenty of YouTube videos about this.
Very nice!
I’d love to do something like that but I don’t have a proper workshop (yet). So my project is a lot simpler. It does feel good to build it yourself.
I’ll post pictures when I’m done. I just got the neck.
Neck and tuners are here. I got them from Guitar Anatomy.
The neck is a 12" radius roasted flame maple grade B (I find the AAA a bit over the top) with medium stainless steel frets and a bone nut. It’s very nicely finished in satin.
I think that neck looks fantastic ! Love it. I think the wood grain pattern on the fretboard is really nice. With my flame maple AAA on my Strat build, I just love looking down at the top of the neck and seeing those beautiful patterns.
Also, the headstock grain pattern looks lovely on yours.
Was that already finished with lacquer on the neck when you bought it or did you finish it?
Thanks Ian. I like how it looks and feels.
Yes, it came fully finished, ready to fit.
I’ve been looking for a customised logo for the headstock.
Also, when you put the neck in, did you have any gap in the neck slot on the sides? I have a tiny gap, probably less than 1mm. I’m wondering whether I should do anything about it
I didn’t put a logo on mine. Basically because I’m not very imaginative with thinking up logo designs.
So about the neck slot: This was my biggest stress / worry in the whole build, especially as the body and neck were from 2 different manufacturers. I bought those 2 parts from one shop and the owner of the shop builds his own guitars. I checked with him first and he told me that he normally used those bodies and necks for his builds and that he rarely had a problem. I was lucky. Mine fitted nicely with a little bit of a gap. I didn’t measure the gap but I placed the neck into the slot so that the end of the neck pushed flat against the body of the guitar.
So what I did was to mount the neck temporarily using a clamp how I thought it should be, but you have to be very careful with clamps on the fretboard (use some towel material or foam). I had already mounted the tuners on the neck. I then measured where the mounting holes on the body should go for the tremolo as it did not have pre-drilled holes in the correct place. Then I removed the neck again, and mounted the tremolo. Then I clamped the neck again how thought it should be and put on a 1st and 6th string not tight but at least so the strings were straight. Then I checked to see if the whole thing lined up nicely. Luckily mine did so I then drilled the neck holes and mounted the neck. There is a tiny gap between the neck and the body but only on the lower side of the guitar if you are holding it on your knee in a playing position.
So on mine the final result was one small gap but a good join on 3 sides, i.e. between the bottom of the neck pocket and the neck, between the end of the neck heel and the body and between the upper side of the neck and the body. Sorry not easy to describe in words.
Apparently a more common problem is that the neck pocket is slightly too small for the neck heel, especially if the body is painted and lacquered.
The other thing that worried me is whether the pocket might be too shallow or deep but it was just right.
Thanks Ian. I appreciate the level of detail in your response. I’ve watched a few YouTube videos about how to fit the neck so it’s straight. I’ve read about the issue of the gap on the sides of the neck, and most people say to consider it normal and not do anything about it if it’s not too big. If it’s noticeable you’re supposed to use maple wood sheets cut to size and slide them into the gap. I probably won’t have to do that but I just wanted to know if you’d come across that during your build.
The gap in my case is just under 1mm, which apparently is “normal”.
Nice to meet you, Erion. It is great seeing other guitarists working on their guitars and not being afraid of getting involved; it brings you closer to your instrument, makes you want to play it, in my opinion, that’s how I own so many. I make/fix them, get attached and keep them arghhhhhh
and its kept me from trying anything on my electrics.
