How To Replace Strat Pickups. Strat Picture. Maybe you bought a Korean or Squier Strat and you aren’t happy with the way it sounds. Maybe you’ve heard the guitarists you admire talking about the pickups they use and how their sound is largely due to them—whatever your reason, you’ve decided it’s time to change out the factory pickups in your Stratocaster or Strat- style guitar, but you’re not sure how to go about it. This guide is for you! Materials Needed: Before you start, you will need a Stratocaster- style guitar, and this guide is specific to those kinds of Strats that have three single coil pickups—the old- school way. And obviously, you will need to have some replacement pickups. Replacement pickups are available from many different places. The ones I’m using in this guide are these: Fender Custom Shop Fat 5. Pickups. Fender Custom Shop Fat 5. Here are a few to get you on the right track: Seymour Duncan. Di. Marzio. Fralin Pickups. Fetish Guitar. Tools Needed: Now that you have a guitar and some replacement pickups, you are going to need the following tools (or comparable ones) on hand to be able to complete this project: String Winder – for winding and unwinding stings! Many, many uses. Now that you have the tools and parts, we’re ready to get into it! Step One: Remove the Strings. While it is possible to remove the pickguard without taking off the strings, it’s kind of an advanced procedure. You probably needed to change the strings anyway, so you might as well take them off. Removing the strings. Stringless Strat. How to replace pickups in a Fender Strat. This is my Fender Stratocaster American Standard. I changed the stock neck and bridge. Fender Custom Shop Texas Special Strat Pickups give you that classic blues sound. Take a set of vintage Fender Strat pickups and overwind them for more midrange. Ice-House Tele Style Guitar Pickups: SD Pickups, Custom-Made, Hand-Wound Pickups by Dave Stephens, Stephens Design. Get answers to some of the most Frequently Asked Questions about Lollar Guitar Pickups. The best handwound guitar pickups in the business - Offering different types of single coil pickups and humbuckers. Step Two: Remove the Pickguard Screws. Using your trusty #1 Phillips head screwdriver, remove all of the screws that are holding the pickguard on. Removing the pickguard screws. Fender Strat with Pickguard Screws Off. Step Three: Turn the Pickguard Over and Snip Any Tape or Cable Ties. To ensure that I won’t mar the finish of this guitar, I’m using the awesome paper towels mentioned earlier as a cushion on which to rest the inverted pickguard. Also, this is the time to cut any tape or cable ties that may be serving as wire retainers. Strat Pickguard Removed. Removing old zip ties. Removing old zip ties. Step Four: Unsolder the Pickups From the Switch. Using your soldering iron, heat the lugs of the switch leading to the pickups. In this case, the wires are white, yellow and red. DAllenPickups are Superior hand made Boutique pickups used by Touring Pros and Studio musicians. VAST - 'Turquoise' from the album 'Nude' 2. VAST - 'I Know How to Love' from the 'Bang Band SiXXX' EP. You can purchase these tracks and. Listen to these comparison clips of the Fender Custom '65 Strat Pickups with the Custom '60s pickup. It is the Jimi Hendrix Monterey Strat guitar tone through and. Electric Guitar Pickups, Bass Guitar Pickups, Acoustic Guitar Pickups and Accessories - EMG Active & Passive Pickups - over 25 Years of Active Pickup Technology - The. Get the guaranteed best price on Stratocaster Pickups (Humbucker) like the DiMarzio Area Strat Pickup Set at Musician's Friend. Get a low price and free shipping on.Remember which pickup was soldered to each lug. It may be a good idea to use your digital camera to document where each wire goes, so you can put the new pickups in the right places. Unsoldering the Pickups From the Switch. Unsoldering the Pickups From the Switch. Unsoldering the Pickups From the Switch. Step Five: Unsolder the Pickup Ground Wires from the Back of the Volume Pot. Typically in a Strat, all the ground wires from the pickups are soldered on to the back of the volume pot. Heat up the solder that is attaching these usually black leads to the pot, and gently lift them away from the pot. Unsoldering the Pickup Ground Wires from the Back of the Volume Pot. Step Six: Remove the Pickups from the Pickguard. Using your trusty #2 Phillips head screwdriver, loosen the screws that hold the pickups onto the pickguard. The pickup with the blue mark on the underside is the neck pickup, while the pickup with the red mark on the underside is the bridge. Strat Replacement Pickups. Step Eight: Put the Covers on the Pickups and attach them to the Pickguard. Taking care to put the pick ups in the right places, screw the pickups into the pickguard. Attaching the pickups to the pickguard. Attaching the pickups to the pickguard. Attaching the pickups to the pickguard. Step Nine: Measure and Trim the Pickup Ground wires. Usually, the pickup wires are longer than you need them to be. Trim them to the correct length. I am just eye- balling these lengths. The three black ground wires are trimmed so they will fit on the back on the volume pot. Measuring the ground wires to be trimmed. Trimming the Pickup Ground wires. Step Ten: Clean off the Back of the Volume Pot. Whoever worked on this guitar before I did sort of left a rat’s nest and a bunch of messy solder and flux on the back of the volume pot, so we should really make it more presentable. Using a solder- sucker or desoldering wick, I’m trying to remove the solder and flux mess. When that looks better (and looking at these pictures again, I probably should’ve done a better job! So be better than me!), we’re ready to solder the pickups. If you have to get a lot of flux off the back of a pot, use some 2. Step Eleven: Solder the Hot Wires from the Pickups to the Switch. I’m making sure that the wires leading to the switch have plenty of wiggle room, in case i need to move them out of the way when I put the pickguard back on the guitar. If you forget where the wires are supposed to go, refer to this diagram. Since the leads on these particular pickups are cloth- shielded push- back wire, I don’t really need to use wire strippers, I just need to push the shielding back and expose the end of the wire. From there, just put the wire through the correct lug, heat and apply solder. I put one in between the middle and bridge pickup,Installing The Cable Tiesand one between the treble side of the bridge pickup and the volume pot. Installing The Cable Ties. Installing The Cable Ties. Step Fourteen: Lay the Pickguard in Place. In order to test the wiring job I have just done, I placed the pickguard in its position. I didn’t screw it in until I have tested and made sure everything is fully operational (there’s nothing worse than screwing in 1. I test each switch position to make sure the right pickup is making noise when I tap it. Tap- testing the bridge pickup. Tap- testing the bridge pickup. Tap- testing the middle pickup. Step Fifteen: Screw the Pickguard Down. Once I’ve tested everything and determined that everything works, I screw the pickguard back down and test it again! Adjust the pickups to suit your taste, just make sure they are not too close to the strings, or you will have weird noises and intonation problems. Restringing the Guitar. Pickup Replacement Finished Project. So there you go. That’s the basic Strat pickup replacement. This was basically a vintage- style pickup configuration, so it used nice pickups and pots and it had a nice switch. Your guitar could be different, but the basic steps and principles are the same. Good Luck! Post Popularity 2. Popularity Breakdown.
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