Having A Guitar Built - Internal Wiring Question

Blaze

Blaze

Member
I'm planning on having a superstrat style guitar made by a custom builder. Can anyone tell me the differences/advantages/disadvantages of having the internal wiring of the guitar in a back cavity (like an Ibanez) vs. on the back of the pickguard (like a traditional Strat)? Any differences tone-wise? How about reliability-wise?

Thanks in advance! :)
 
IDK if it's just me but I have always felt that pickups that are mounted in the pick guard have a tendency to sound clunky when compared to ones that are mounted directly to the wood.
 
After just installing new pickups in my strat, and having to rewire several times, I can tell you that I wish they were direct mount as opposed to pickguard mount. Even though it wasn't that difficult to loosen the strings and remove the neck.....I would've rather just remove the back cavity cover and make tweaks from there.
 
The logistics of wiring are easier with the pickguard type as there is no threading through the body to be done. You don't have the option of mounting directly on the body (lots of tone information on that online), but if you mess up with the iron, you only have to replace the pickguard. Drilling extra holes for switches is less stressful.
 
I like the accessibility of the back cover. Pick guard is harder to take off. Then again, after settling you won't have to be in there much. Unless you'd have something battery powered in there.

Tonewise I don't believe there is a difference where the opening is. Maybe pickup mounting does make a small difference.
 
retro_dad said:
After just installing new pickups in my strat, and having to rewire several times, I can tell you that I wish they were direct mount as opposed to pickguard mount. Even though it wasn't that difficult to loosen the strings and remove the neck.....I would've rather just remove the back cavity cover and make tweaks from there.
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I would never never remove the neck on a bolt on unless it was to replace the neck. Reason number one it's too easy to have it not lined up perfectly straight when you put it back on but more importantly every time you put in and take out those wood screws you bore out the screw holes in the neck a bit more. It will get looser and have more play and you don't want that.
 
I play guitars with both configurations. I like the traditional look of the pickguard on the stratocaster. Some players feel the tone of the pickups is slightly different when they're directly mounted to the body wood rather than the pickguard; I have switched from pickguard-mounted to direct-mounted the pickups on my guitars, then switched back to pickguard mount and not be able to detect any difference. One year at NAMM, I brought up this question with pickup manufacturers. It's a mixed jury, but everyone agreed (1) it shouldn't make a difference if the pickups are mounted correctly and (2) if there is a difference it's very small. So perhaps it's a matter of taste and preference. Then again, I use star-quad cable for all my interconnects because I "think" there is a difference in tone. :)

I do occasionally muck about with my pickups / wiring, and it's very easy to just flip the pickguard over. On my guitars with the wiring inside the body (Les Paul style) it's just a little tighter working in the routed cavity from the back, but still very manageable. I wouldn't expect any difference in terms of reliability, so it will mostly be a cosmetic choice.
 
USMC_Trev said:
I would never never remove the neck on a bolt on unless it was to replace the neck. Reason number one it's too easy to have it not lined up perfectly straight when you put it back on but more importantly every time you put in and take out those wood screws you bore out the screw holes in the neck a bit more. It will get looser and have more play and you don't want that.
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Have you ever done it? I have, many times...

Never for anything related to electronics (not sure why you would - just remove the strings?) but for refinishing, swapping necks, etc.

I have never had any issue with it being "lined up"... That is what the neck pocket and screws are for. It was was lined up when it was installed, it should be the same when you put it back in unless the neck pocket is really sloppy.


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All my guitars are direct mount pickups with back cavity, it makes wiring changes / tech maintenance very easy and quick.
Another reason for having the back cavity and not a pick guard is that for my taste, no matter which pick guard you use, you just "kill" the beauty of the guitar, the pick guard covering most of the front of the guitar, shame and even more if we are talking about a custom guitar.
Further, I fill that direct mount pickups "ring" better than pick guard installation where the pickups are basically "in the air" and not touching the wood itself.
 
I agree with Roadrunner on this; I prefer the rear-routed cavities both for convenience and appearance. I've had two Warmoth builds with nice mahogany body with beautiful maple caps and I can't imagine covering up so much of that cap with a pickguard. As far as the tone goes, really can't say if there's a difference, as it's been years since I've had a guitar with a pickguard, and it had some pretty mediocre pickups in it anyway.
 
unix-guy said:
Have you ever done it? I have, many times...

Never for anything related to electronics (not sure why you would - just remove the strings?) but for refinishing, swapping necks, etc.

I have never had any issue with it being "lined up"... That is what the neck pocket and screws are for. It was was lined up when it was installed, it should be the same when you put it back in unless the neck pocket is really sloppy.


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Truth be told I usually remove the strings to do electronic work, but last night I didn't have a spare set of strings available to me and of course the local GC was closed. What can I say, I'm impatient. I wanted to try out a few new presets and didn't want to wait till morning so I just loosened the strings and unbolted the neck.

Back to the OP, I think it's purely aesthetic. If I had a guitar with nice top wood (flamed, quilted, etc.) I wouldn't want to hide it behind a pickguard. In that case I probably would want direct mount.
 
unix-guy said:
Have you ever done it? I have, many times...

Never for anything related to electronics (not sure why you would - just remove the strings?) but for refinishing, swapping necks, etc.

I have never had any issue with it being "lined up"... That is what the neck pocket and screws are for. It was was lined up when it was installed, it should be the same when you put it back in unless the neck pocket is really sloppy.


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Every time I've removed a guitar neck or seen someone touch a neck it's been a disaster. They never seem to go back on exactly the way it was. It always feels "off". Harmonics don't come out right, intonation is off. It's like the pancreas - you don't fuck with it. I've done a lot of work on guitars in the past 21 years of playing and consider myself pretty handy but breaking the structural integrity of the guitar has never gone well.
 
USMC_Trev said:
Every time I've removed a guitar neck or seen someone touch a neck it's been a disaster. They never seem to go back on exactly the way it was. It always feels "off". Harmonics don't come out right, intonation is off. It's like the pancreas - you don't fuck with it. I've done a lot of work on guitars in the past 21 years of playing and consider myself pretty handy but breaking the structural integrity of the guitar has never gone well.
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Weird... My experience has been mostly with Ibanez guitars, so maybe it's down to build quality... But seriously never had a single issue.


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