Strat Prewired Pickgaurds

6L6C

Power User
Just curious?


Thinking of getting a prewired pickguard for my Strat, and was wondering what companies people have used and if they were satisfied overall with their purchase. It doesn’t stop with the pickups, was the work good? Were the switches and pots of a good quality?


I guess I could order the parts and do it myself, just so busy this time of year.


Thanks

John
 
I love the Dimarzio solderless pre-wired noiseless Area guards. Get 'em straight from Musicians Friend.
 
D Fellow Long Island guy here (originally Levittown) I have used Jimmy Darr at 920D Custom (Sigler Music) for many yearsWork is perfect-solder points, etc......Right now I am using Fralin Blues Specials hybrid in my 06 USA Dlx Strat (MyAvatar) -love it...Very accommodating guy...just tell him what you want.
Great guy....
 
D Fellow Long Island guy here (originally Levittown) I have used Jimmy Darr at 920D Custom (Sigler Music) for many yearsWork is perfect-solder points, etc......Right now I am using Fralin Blues Specials hybrid in my 06 USA Dlx Strat (MyAvatar) -love it...Very accommodating guy...just tell him what you want.
Great guy....

Funny, I just ordered a pre-wired Tele control plate from Sigler on eBay yesterday. Never heard of them before, but the quality and options looked really good. We'll see once all the parts arrive and I get it assembled!
 
Got one at Sigler early this year and from ACME in 2005, the latter don't seem to exist anymore. But all was OK.
 
I have replaced the Fender Vintage`59 pu's on my Fender AM Vintage`59 Strat with EMG's "David Gilmour". I haven't really played much with them yet as I just get the neck replaced with a Warmouth Birds Eye Maple neck. I have also replaced the Fender Vintage tremolo system with the "Bladerummer" from Super VEE and it has a great effect on sustain and more open tone, as well as Pick Attack. So I'm waiting to get my Strat back real soon and hope it'll turn out good. All the replacements have cost as much as an "normal" USA made Stratocaster :oops:
 
Thanks for replying everyone!

Although I have pretty much made up my mind what I’m going for, always curious what the other guy is up to.

I love the Dimarzio solderless pre-wired noiseless Area guards. Get 'em straight from Musicians Friend.

Funny thing, as of right now I have DiMarizio’s in the guitar Area 61 in the bridge and 58’s in the middle and neck position. They do sound good! But they can be awful high-endy. The guitar an American Standard came with Fender Custom Shop pickup’s (basically something overwound). They did sound great! But the hum was annoying, so the urge to change or shall I say, the quest was on. I had given the Fenders to a friend and I was too quick to do this. The DiMarzio’s do have that bell like quality like the pickups that came out of the guitar (or close as any stacked humbucker will get) but it is not as round, I find it rather fatiguing to the ear after a while.


Allot of times I will either roll back on the volume a bit to darken then or leave the volume and back of the tone controls a bit, kind of depends what the guitar is plugged into.

So what do I want to try??????????????

I will probably get allot of flak for this, but I want to try Fender N3’s. I have seen allot of people praise these things and a hell of allot more slam these things. Watched a few videos to get an idea. It is true they are a bit darker than my current DiMarzio’s but there is something there that appeals to me.

But the real push over the cliff: a few months ago I tried a Tele that just felt so good, and sounded great acoustically that I was going to buy it no matter what. Swapping electronics is no big deal. After seeing it had Fender N3’s the little voice in my head “probably order pickups tomorrow”, just because I have read so many bad things about them. Well those pickups are staying in that guitar, it sounds awesome! And that’s why I feel the N3’s are worth a shot in my Strat.


John
 
I forgot to mention GFS does the pre-wired thing, and I really like their pickups... And very nicely priced!

But none of my guitars use pick guards so I have no experience with those
 
I have replaced the Fender Vintage`59 pu's on my Fender AM Vintage`59 Strat with EMG's "David Gilmour". I haven't really played much with them yet as I just get the neck replaced with a Warmouth Birds Eye Maple neck. I have also replaced the Fender Vintage tremolo system with the "Bladerummer" from Super VEE and it has a great effect on sustain and more open tone, as well as Pick Attack. So I'm waiting to get my Strat back real soon and hope it'll turn out good. All the replacements have cost as much as an "normal" USA made Stratocaster :oops:

Did you get the SPC and RPC tone controls?
 
I bought (and sold) the EMG DG20 David Gilmour loaded pick guard. Build quality was sweet, quiet running, unfortunately it sounded like amplified cardboard.
 
I bought one a few years back prewired with Fralins and a blender pot, works very nice. Can't remember who built it though! I used to use Acme Guitar Works, and they did great, but they went out of business some time back.
 
Funny, I just ordered a pre-wired Tele control plate from Sigler on eBay yesterday. Never heard of them before, but the quality and options looked really good. We'll see once all the parts arrive and I get it assembled!

I have ordered quite a few things from them over the last 5 or so years- with the guy I mentioned Jimmy Darr, the work is top notch and the parts are always very good-
 
I bought one a few years back prewired with Fralins and a blender pot, works very nice. Can't remember who built it though! I used to use Acme Guitar Works, and they did great, but they went out of business some time back.
I remember acme Rick. I got something from them also around that same time-good stuff. What I liker about this 920d Custom is you can talk to Jimmy Darr on the phone or by email and he is real informative and listens and suggests if you ask.
 
I remember acme Rick. I got something from them also around that same time-good stuff. What I liker about this 920d Custom is you can talk to Jimmy Darr on the phone or by email and he is real informative and listens and suggests if you ask.
I saw they made one with three mini-humbuckers that looked really interesting. Might have to try it!
 
Another happy 920D Custom (Sigler Music) customer. Top-quality components and nice, clean wiring and soldering. I got the pre-loaded pickguard with the Gilmour "Black Strat" set (Seymour Duncan SSL-5 at the bridge, Fender Custom Shop '69 Strat in the middle, and Fender Custom Shop Fat '50s Strat at the neck.) It made my MIM Strat come alive.
 
I've ordered a DAllen prewired pickguard about a year ago and I'm very pleased with the quality of the components and workmanship of David Allen. The tone was the most important factor for me and DAllen pickups deliver tone in spades. It's also a solderless pickguard, so the installation is very easy and David offers many different colors and configurations of components and pickguards. I didn't need anything special, though, just that the middle tone pot should conrol the high end response of the neck instead of the middle pickup. However, if you want coil splits, push/push pots, two volume knobs etc. you can order that, too. All in all, it was a very useful purchase for me and definitely worth the price.

Hope you find a pickguard that fits your bill!
 
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