I have bought a Mexican HSS Strat secondhand and am wanting to upgrade it, but have a few issues. So any advice would be gratefully received.

a) I'm after a black replacement scratchplate, all i can find are the plates that only have one screw on each side of the humbucker. On my strat there are two screws next to the left hand side of the humbucker, and one on the right. I think this is standard. And i don't want to mess about with drilling.

b) I'm wanting to replace the tremolo bridge with a hardtail, is it just a case of replacing the bridge. What happens to the tremolo unit inside the body?

c) While I am waiting to upgrade i have done a temporary set up, however i have encountered problems with setting the spring tension on the tremolo. One of the claw screws is very difficult to turn. So both screws are not flush.

d) Pickups - does anyone recommend some pickups. I'm looking to replace them all - HSS

Thanking you in advance.

For parts search for the Allparts and Highly Strung websites. I know nothing about pickups but I do know that on my strat I:

Loosened the strings.
Backed off all the screws on top of the bridge unit (pick-up side).
Inserted 2 extra springs (from highlystrung) to make 5 in the back cavity.
Turned the claw screws in a little, but not beyond where they want to stop.
Turned those screws on the top gently so they just sit flush with the bridge plate.

However, there's something not quite right about doing this to a strat, I guess it wasn't designed to be that way.

chairman_hall wrote:I have bought a Mexican HSS Strat secondhand and am wanting to upgrade it, but have a few issues. So any advice would be gratefully received.

a) I'm after a black replacement scratchplate, all i can find are the plates that only have one screw on each side of the humbucker. On my strat there are two screws next to the left hand side of the humbucker, and one on the right. I think this is standard. And i don't want to mess about with drilling.

Pull the pickgard off and look at the baseplate of the pickup. Some pickup manufacturers use three holes to prevent lateral shifting if the pickup. If there are two holes, buy a normal black one and with a needle or pin burn some new holes....not a big deal...no "drilling" for holes that small.

b) I'm wanting to replace the tremolo bridge with a hardtail, is it just a case of replacing the bridge. What happens to the tremolo unit inside the body?

What you want to do is "block" your trem. You can't replace a tremolo with a hardtail bridge. They are not interchangeable.

Do what the guy above suggested, but don't be afraid the screw the "claw" all the way in. Screw it to the back of the cavity and put on all five springs. That should be enough, buy I went as far as to put wooden shims in behind the bridge. It's not a noticeable enough change that is worth the effort though.

c) While I am waiting to upgrade i have done a temporary set up, however i have encountered problems with setting the spring tension on the tremolo. One of the claw screws is very difficult to turn. So both screws are not flush.

Use some elbow grease and a long shafted screwdriver for better torque, or deepen the holes if you must.

I don't know anything about Strat pickups, so I'll let someone else answer that.

Why go through all of this? If you love the guitar, but want to change one thing, sure.

But you want to change so much about this guitar, you should just consider getting a hardtail strat that somebody dropped a humbucker in.
Therefore devaluing it, yet making it your dream guitar.



-A

alex maiolo wrote:Why go through all of this? If you love the guitar, but want to change one thing, sure.

But you want to change so much about this guitar, you should just consider getting a hardtail strat that somebody dropped a humbucker in.
Therefore devaluing it, yet making it your dream guitar.



-A

He's not considering anything that will significantly devalue the guitar...nothing that can't be undone. Unblocking a trem is as easy as turning a screwdriver. His Strat already is HSS, so no routing. A hardtail Strat will sound different from a trem-ed Strat. Maybe he likes the sound?

blackmarket wrote:

alex maiolo wrote:Why go through all of this? If you love the guitar, but want to change one thing, sure.

But you want to change so much about this guitar, you should just consider getting a hardtail strat that somebody dropped a humbucker in.
Therefore devaluing it, yet making it your dream guitar.



-A

He's not considering anything that will significantly devalue the guitar...nothing that can't be undone. Unblocking a trem is as easy as turning a screwdriver. His Strat already is HSS, so no routing. A hardtail Strat will sound different from a trem-ed Strat. Maybe he likes the sound?

I'm not talking about the devaluation of the guitar. If he likes the sound, why change the pickup?

Really, I'm not trying to be a wiseass, but I think people get to attached to the wrong guitar. I've probably owned 50 guitars. When one isn't cutting it for me it's just easiest to start looking for something that does a better job.
SO much easier to get a fair price for your gear in this EBAY world.

Then he can find a guitar that is either modded the way he likes it (and they are out there) and devalued to a price that is really fair, since the buyers are limited, or buy one that is the way he likes it, stock.

You can drop over $100 on a pickup, put in the time to install it and block the trem, and hope that that does the trick, or you can think "maybe this isn't the right guitar."

I'm not saying either is right, I'm just saying that it's worth considering.

A guy was on this board a few months ago talking about ripping the P90s out of his Epiphone SG to upgrade them to USA Gibson quality, as well as some other mods, and a few of us were saying "for that cost and effort, you can buy a nice USA SG."

It's worth keeping an open mind about.

-A

True, true. That's why I finally got rid of mine a year or so after I blocked the trem. It's just alot of effort (and risk) to buy and sell sometimes.

chairman_hall wrote:d) Pickups - does anyone recommend some pickups. I'm looking to replace them all - HSS

Thanking you in advice.

What kind of wood is your strat made out of? I like Duncan SSL-1's for the neck and middle regardless of body wood. I have a Duncan JB in my Strat, which is made of ash. It sounds pretty good, but it has a tendency to get a little bright sometimes. If your guitar is a warmer-sounding wood like basswood, I'd recommend the JB, but if your Strat is ash or alder, I'd recommend a less-bright pickup like a Duncan Custom or a DiMarzio Air Zone.

Pickups with three mounting screws isn't exclusive to Fender, but they might as well be. With Duncan or DiMarzio, you want two mounting holes.

Doesn't d) cancel out the problem described in a)?