Strat makeover

[Alex Kenivel]

The Dimarzio Area 58 pickups came in, some push/push pots and a new little soldering arm trinket come in after I take a little road trip but I wanted to get something done today while most of the family is out watching a show. I've wanted to remove the gloss from my neck and fretboard to closer match the feel of my Ibanez Prestige AZ so I'm doing that.

A little about the guitar, it's the second "good" guitar I bought myself, a 2011 MIM Fender Standard Stratocaster.

I had replaced the entire pick guard with a "loaded" pick guard that has 500k pots an originally had Fender Noiseless pickups.

I replaced the saddles with graph tech saddles, tuners with Sperzel locking tuners, and drilled some holes through the headstock in the process.

I filed the pearl off of the pick guard because I think that stuff is gaudy and shielded the cavity because noiseless isn't actually noiseless with aluminum home ground wiring.

I replaced the bridge pickup with an SD Hot Rails and later swapped it for the Zexcoil Juicy Bucker that is in there now.
I ripped the push/pull pot off of a cheap guitar and wired it in, and later added a killswitch and a "bridge on" switch.

Here's what it looked like in between mods, maybe 2015ish:

Here it is today before sanding:

The skunk stripe on the back of the neck is beginning to lift a little bit so sanding that down flush is also a goal for this operation.

I'm using some 400 grit sand paper and finishing with 1200 grit polishing paper.

First few passes looking good, skunk stripe feels smooth now..

After the first go-between the first couple of fretting positions..

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Gawd these frets need some work but I'm not that savvy or brave yet. They did get a polish in the process. All finished with the sanding:

I told myself I was going to wait to put the Areas in but I couldn't.

I know it isn't pretty but I've come a long way

This was the first guitar I learned to solder on and that first time I installed a pickup using a Bic lighter! I've since upgraded my soldering iron twice and use a solder sucker, but man, I had a lot of solder on that volume pot!

Hey, it works!

It feels so nice in the hands and the Areas sound so much better than the old Gen Fender Noiseless. Also used some D'addario XS strings for the first time. Will wait till they dull a little to get an actual impression of everything, but first impression is the pickups are bitey but with less mid mud and less output compared to the Fender noiseless.

The Zexcoil Juicy Bucker is a better match for these volume-wise too.

Now to wait for the push/push pots..

 

[Los-D]

Nice! So far so good! I’m a fan of the non-gloss feel as well (though I like the glossy look).

 

[DrewJD82]

Hahahaha I love the “first time I installed a pickup with a Bic lighter”

I did the same thing, kind of, a while back; I have one of those butane solder irons, or did until I threw that piece of sh*t out, but I got sick of waiting for it to heat up so I’d just hold a lighter to it, make the solder than rinse and repeat.

 

[jellodog]

INKY GHOST MUST RETURN!

 

[la szum]

Hahahaha I love the “first time I installed a pickup with a Bic lighter”

I did the same thing, kind of, a while back; I have one of those butane solder irons, or did until I threw that piece of sh*t out, but I got sick of waiting for it to heat up so I’d just hold a lighter to it, make the solder than rinse and repeat.

Haha! Those cordless solder "guns" were a ruse played on the public. What shit!

I wonder how many people melted down things not meant to be melted down as
they poured that heat in the hopes that that flame would ever melt solder.

 

[Bruce]

My first attempt at soldering a guitar anything resulted in a hole thru my iPhone case.
Everything since has gone better but Ive yet to swap a pickup.
This looks like a big job to me.

 

[Eagle]

A lot of the time soldering is made much harder by a poor iron or crappy solder .
Well worth getting a good iron and multi core fluxed solder, everything will be so much easier and look neat and shiny.

 

[Bruce]

A lot of the time soldering is made much harder by a poor iron or crappy solder .
Well worth getting a good iron and multi core fluxed solder, everything will be so much easier and look neat and shiny.

I have a cheap 60 dollar kit from Amazon.

 

[DrewJD82]

A lot of the time soldering is made much harder by a poor iron or crappy solder .
Well worth getting a good iron and multi core fluxed solder, everything will be so much easier and look neat and shiny.

This x1000.

I don’t think I spent a lot on it, but the solder iron I have now doesn’t take 10 minutes to heat up a pot and pretty much the second I touch solder to it, it melts. That damn butane one I had before…..holy sh*t, I’m pretty sure they built that at the request of drywall manufacturers, because you want to throw the f*ckin’ thing through a wall before you even solder a single connection.

 

[Jarick]

My dad went to a technical college and got a degree as an electrical engineer, so I had some good lessons in soldering growing up. Still, my soldering technique is not great and my pots often end up looking like a mess.. I think that's in large part to not owning a solder sucker, so I'll just add that to my Amazon cart.

I've re-done my Strat a million times, including again yesterday. I put Dimarzio Areas in there as well, a 61 neck, 58 middle, and Injector bridge. The setup sounds good but a little dull. Part of that I think is the tone pot which measured out at 200k instead of 250k. I ordered some new ones so I can get a couple 250k specs in there. Previously, I had tried a no load pot in there, so you could get the effect of 500k pots or 250k. I never liked it without the tone pot engaged, too spiky in the high end, especially in the 2/4 positions.

My plan for this guitar next year is to get it refretted with stainless steel, along with of course a new nut, and hopefully that makes it play and ring out like a dream. I also want to get a new Warmoth parchment pickguard for it without the volume/tone knobs drilled, as I like to run master volume and master tone. Keeps the volume knob out of the way of the hand.

 

[Eagle]

Slow and steady with a nice iron and you will be fine.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

This x1000.

I don’t think I spent a lot on it, but the solder iron I have now doesn’t take 10 minutes to heat up a pot and pretty much the second I touch solder to it, it melts. That damn butane one I had before…..holy sh*t, I’m pretty sure they built that at the request of drywall manufacturers, because you want to throw the f*ckin’ thing through a wall before you even solder a single connection.

I skipped right over those, I didn't even know they existed. I went from a Bic lighter to an okay Weller to the one I have now with variable temperature, I feel spoiled.

My dad went to a technical college and got a degree as an electrical engineer, so I had some good lessons in soldering growing up. Still, my soldering technique is not great and my pots often end up looking like a mess.. I think that's in large part to not owning a solder sucker, so I'll just add that to my Amazon cart.

I have the diet version of that experience - I helped my dad wire up a remodeled section of our house and got a crash course in soldering.

@Eagle that's beautiful work, I'm going to use that painters tape idea! I took some time to clean up my pots and disassemble some of the wiring for the pot I'm going to replace.

..but the cheap pots came in and are junk so this project is on hold for a little while till I can get a better push/push pot

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Power went out early this morning and came back in so I had to futz with the fridge to get it back on, so I puttered today.

Decided to wire the old pot back in but it won't produce a sound, I guess it's totally fucked now or I'm doing something wrong. Decided to wire it up backwards because it seems the Zexcoil wiring diagrams had it different from the way I had it wired. Also practiced making little jumper wires - so glad I got this alligator clip contraption. Still no sound but least it's good soldering practice.

Hoping it's the pot and not something I'm doing

 

[Eagle]

These will make life SO much easier as well . This particular set is the one I have used for over 20 years, still sharp and cuts only the sleeve if you use the right notch. So many damage the wire as well.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

View attachment 3358
These will make life SO much easier as well . This particular set is the one I have used for over 20 years, still sharp and cuts only the sleeve if you use the right notch. So many damage the wire as well.

Agreed. I have three different wire strippers and they all work pretty well - one not unlike the one you have, another slightly bigger one, and one of those "automatic" ones I only really use for bigger wire

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Good lawd what a ride. I couldn't get anything but a humming sound from the bridge pickup no matter what I tried.

I redid everything 4 or 5 times before contacting Lawing Musical, who walked me through the process to determine that my pickup wasn't the issue, sent me a different diagram and advised me to trace some contacts in the other direction.

I ended up pulling out the orange drop cap, the "bridge on" switch, the associated wires, including the wires running to the last lug on the 5-way and redoing it all - much cleaner this time (with all the practice I've been getting in lately).

And now it all works great with no crackling, no cutting out, all strings ringing clearly in both humbucker and single modes.

I can't believe how much those Fender noiseless pickups held me back from getting a good SRV/Jimi tone. They had a cool sound but I just couldn't cop those tones without wacky settings and EQs. I can run into the same amp models with minimal tweaks and it be okay. It's like a blanket has been lifted, it's gonna be a good year!

View attachment 3358
These will make life SO much easier as well . This particular set is the one I have used for over 20 years, still sharp and cuts only the sleeve if you use the right notch. So many damage the wire as well.

How small do these go? Mine go to 20 AWG and we're still too big for the Zexcoil leads. Had to melt down the wires instead.

 

[Jarick]

You use the smallest hole on the wire stripper and then angle it a bit. Works fine with practice.

Looks much cleaner!

 

[Eagle]

Good lawd what a ride. I couldn't get anything but a humming sound from the bridge pickup no matter what I tried.

I redid everything 4 or 5 times before contacting Lawing Musical, who walked me through the process to determine that my pickup wasn't the issue, sent me a different diagram and advised me to trace some contacts in the other direction.

I ended up pulling out the orange drop cap, the "bridge on" switch, the associated wires, including the wires running to the last lug on the 5-way and redoing it all - much cleaner this time (with all the practice I've been getting in lately).
View attachment 3505
And now it all works great with no crackling, no cutting out, all strings ringing clearly in both humbucker and single modes.

I can't believe how much those Fender noiseless pickups held me back from getting a good SRV/Jimi tone. They had a cool sound but I just couldn't cop those tones without wacky settings and EQs. I can run into the same amp models with minimal tweaks and it be okay. It's like a blanket has been lifted, it's gonna be a good year!
View attachment 3506

How small do these go? Mine go to 20 AWG and we're still too big for the Zexcoil leads. Had to melt down the wires instead.

Mine goes to 26 which is small enough for anything guitar related.

 

[Eagle]

You use the smallest hole on the wire stripper and then angle it a bit. Works fine with practice.

Looks much cleaner!

You should get one the right size, If you are not used to wiring there is a probability that you may damage the core. The Red T stripper goes to AWG26 which is easily fine enough for anything you will find for guitar.