I couldn't wait to get home from our trip today so I could work on my Strat. I basically just replaced the existing pickguard with a new Pearl one. I think it fits the color (Candy Tangerine) better than the original "aged" plastic guard that came on it (top right photo).
It was pretty easy to do. At first I
thought I was going to have to unsolder a few wires, but after getting the pickguard off I realized that everything would come right off and transfer right over to the new one. I was very careful not to disturb any of the wiring because all that stuff is very delicate and it's easy to break a solder if you're not paying attention. ;)
It was necessary to make a simple modification to the new guard in order to fit the vol. and tone pots through the holes. I just took a Dremel bit and made the holes bigger to accommodate the pot poles (left photo). Other than this, no other mods were necessary to fit the guard onto the guitar. Easy
as pie.After getting all the parts threaded back onto the pickguard (pickups, switch and pots), I put all the screws back on the guitar and strung it up. I used a new wooden trem block that I whittled down to size so I could get my approximate float back before tuning up. This makes life a lot easier when you have to cut all the strings off (like I had to do on this project).
Voila! That's it. It looks much cooler now, and more like it should in my opinion. Next project... the Ernie Ball MusicMan Petrucci. I have already replaced one of the saddles and it's still slipping out of tune on that string. At this point I am pretty sure it's still the nut that's causing the binding. Should be an interesting project. ;)
Until later...
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