Low dollar loaded Strat pickguard questions

[BB]

I'll do my best to keep this short.....HA! OK, I have a late 70's, early 80's made in Japan no name strat. Found it in a stack of cases around 1980-81 in a music store. It was just a body and neck and sweet hardshell case.

No pickguard, no pickups, no name on headstock. From the research I've done in the last 40 years, it looks to be a Tokai copy of a 54 strat. 2 Tone sunburst, correct F strat headstock and the most comfortable Soft V neck I've had the pleasure to play. Seriously, I would put this guitar up against expensive Fenders. It just plays and sounds (when it does sound!) amazing.

I've had 10-15 different sets of pickups in it over the years....everything from Fender to Carvin to Lawrence to Lollar to Porter to BG, etc. Around 2006 or so, I installed a set of Tonerider Pure Vintage. Those were perhaps the best match I found for the guitar....just beautiful tone.

Well, in a moment of brokeness, I sold the TR loaded pickguard. A few months later, I did some swapping with a fella and wound up with a minty set of Dimarzio Class of 55 pickups. While I was familiar with the Class of 55's, I have never actuall heard them before... and since they are long discontinued, there is not much info online about them.

I already had a few pickguards, knobs, et al, so I ordered the pot's, caps, wiring and everything needed and proceeded to wire up the pickguard using Fralins blender wiring. That was 11 years ago!

Well, I wound up getting very sick and I'm just now starting to come back to the land of the living. I must have made a mistake wiring it up. I did my best to fix it, but now I suffer with 'Essential Tremor" and coming to the truth that my days of soldering, set up, repair, etc are over.

All this to ask the question, has anyone here had luck with one of the many $30 to $50 low cost pre-wired, alnico pup loaded pickguard? There are a ton of them online from Amazon/Ebay/GFS/ Guitar Madness/ etc.

I prefer to keep low wind, vintage style pickups. So, I need something to bridge the gap until I can trace down my wiring mistake and find out if the Class of 55 pickups will work for me.

Any insight you can share will be greatly appreciated. Man, it sucks getting old and broke!

 

[MattAndTheMachine]

Just an idea... Can you upload a few decent pics of the current wiring, preferably straight down and from an angle, and a bit more info regarding what the problem is, do you have any sound or no sound at all, etc.

Since you have all the parts, I'd rather spend the 30 to 50 bucks on fixing the problem rather than on some other pickups of questionable quality. Perhaps just print out the wiring and find a radio/TV repair guy to check it, should be an easy job for anyone who knows what he's doing.

Just my 2c...

 

[BB]

Thanks Matt. Great advice.

 

[ABetterTelePlayer]

Like you said, there are tons of loaded pickgaurds on Amazon. I wouldn't trust any of them unless they're a well known name. But any one with a well known name brand is going to be expensive - well usually anyway.

That said, there are a few with great reviews out there.

 

[archetype]

I'll do my best to keep this short.....HA! OK, I have a late 70's, early 80's made in Japan no name strat. Found it in a stack of cases around 1980-81 in a music store. It was just a body and neck and sweet hardshell case.

No pickguard, no pickups, no name on headstock. From the research I've done in the last 40 years, it looks to be a Tokai copy of a 54 strat. 2 Tone sunburst, correct F strat headstock and the most comfortable Soft V neck I've had the pleasure to play. Seriously, I would put this guitar up against expensive Fenders. It just plays and sounds (when it does sound!) amazing.

I've had 10-15 different sets of pickups in it over the years....everything from Fender to Carvin to Lawrence to Lollar to Porter to BG, etc. Around 2006 or so, I installed a set of Tonerider Pure Vintage. Those were perhaps the best match I found for the guitar....just beautiful tone.

Well, in a moment of brokeness, I sold the TR loaded pickguard. A few months later, I did some swapping with a fella and wound up with a minty set of Dimarzio Class of 55 pickups. While I was familiar with the Class of 55's, I have never actuall heard them before... and since they are long discontinued, there is not much info online about them.

I already had a few pickguards, knobs, et al, so I ordered the pot's, caps, wiring and everything needed and proceeded to wire up the pickguard using Fralins blender wiring. That was 11 years ago!

Well, I wound up getting very sick and I'm just now starting to come back to the land of the living. I must have made a mistake wiring it up. I did my best to fix it, but now I suffer with 'Essential Tremor" and coming to the truth that my days of soldering, set up, repair, etc are over.

All this to ask the question, has anyone here had luck with one of the many $30 to $50 low cost pre-wired, alnico pup loaded pickguard? There are a ton of them online from Amazon/Ebay/GFS/ Guitar Madness/ etc.

I prefer to keep low wind, vintage style pickups. So, I need something to bridge the gap until I can trace down my wiring mistake and find out if the Class of 55 pickups will work for me.

Any insight you can share will be greatly appreciated. Man, it sucks getting old and broke!

I've got a couple of these, waiting to go into partscasters.

Most of them have decent pickups that sound fine, but not stellar, though IMO the difference between fine and stellar is small. The switch is often the weak point, but weak means it will last a few years instead of decades. As long as the mini pots have a taper that suits you, they're not a worry. As long as everything functions properly, don't let the Internet hive mind convince you that everything you just paid for needs to be replaced.

Just pick one by the DCR of the pickups and how long it will take to get to you. The DCR doesn't dictate how they will sound, but it's a piece of the puzzle.

The differences between brands are slight and most of them roll out of the same factories by the truckload.

 

[Sax-son]

You can build a decent quality loaded pickguard for around $100.00. How cheap do you want to go with one of the main components of the guitar? I have purchased some OK budget Strats only to throw the garbage electronics into the trash. CTS, CRL, Oak Grigsby are cheap investments for your guitar. There are also some decent low priced alnico pickups you can buy now as well.

 

[Zepfan]

Mail me your guard, pickups, switch, pots and cap with printed out wiring scheme and I'll solder it all together and mail it back.

 

[Blackmore Fan]

I've had great results with sets of Fender Tex Mex pickups. They do the vintage sound in spades, and handle heat well. I'd put together or purchase a pickguard that included them. It'll run you a $100 or so, but they *will* sound great.

 

[stratisfied]

I’d look for a Fender MIM or Squier Classic Vibe takeoff. I bought a cheap pre-wired alnico Wilkinson guard for an SX Strat and the SX pickups actually sounded better. I wound up swapping them back in.

 

[Twang-ineer]

And here is where that "beauty is in the ear of the beholder" thing comes into play.... I've pulled out a set of Squier and MIM Fender Alnico pickguards in favor of those $30 Wikinsons.

Mind you, all of the pickguards I have bought are humbucking, but just speaking to quality, they are great.

I have also bought 2 each of the following:

Bnineteen SSS29 Prewired Loaded Pickguard

BQLZR Black White Zebra Color 3-ply HSH

With one minor problem with the pickguard plastic.... All have been awesome in materials and fabrication. Granted the Duncan loaded 920D pickguards that I have are massively better.... I am still shocked what $40 bucks can get you. Literally 10 percent of the cost and 90% of the functionality.

FYI... I originally bought the HSH "invader style" pickguard for a guitar I leave at a friends house. The pole pieces look flat out silly, but they sound really good from spanky cleans to crazy saturation. And really versatile switching and series parallel on both HB pickups.

I dropped that onto a beat up Affinity body and neck that I used to "practice" doing fretwork on.... so , very much a win.

 

[Monoprice99]

This help any ?

 

[badscrew_projects]

Cheap loaded pickguard are hit and miss.
I had two recently and both had different problems. One had a bad pickup, another had its pickup holes offset to one side and both required plugging and redrilling some holes