falco_femoralis
Well-known member
I took a break from my fail of a Ceasar Chorus build (can't get the relay bypass to work right) to put a new pickup in my guitar. I like my strat but it sounds weak in the bridge, so today I did this
I started by making the template
This is good
I put some glue on the ends of the pieces. This is end grain so I put it on a bit heavy and let it soak into the grain
I put them around the pickup to form the template and clamped them in place
Took the pickup out so I could clean off any glue
It's super hot today so 20 mins later the glue was dry enough to work with. I sanded one side to get a nice glueing surface
I use painter's tape and super glue to stick the template to the pickguard. It's not shown here, but I use the two other pickup holes to align the new pickup laterally with a straightedge
3/8 bit with a ball bearing in my router table
My vacuum is downstairs so I'll be finding these shavings around for the next year
The radius was wrong for the pickup so I switched to the 1/4" bit. In retrospect I could have used a round file to get the corners right as the pickup has a 5/16" radius, but what are you gonna do
It fits pretty good! The mounting holes from the old pickup are still there, but doing this is so much easier than ordering a custom pickguard. Most companies don't do filtertrons, and the one that does isn't reliable. I got a little too hot on one of the countersink holes last time I worked on this. I'd just finished painting in the garage and the fumes made it weird. I could get a new pickguard as they are cheap on amazon but it really doesn't bother me
Starting to get into the electronics
Fast forward to them being finished. I have a master tone control and the middle control isn't hooked up. I'm using a super switch here, left over another build, but it isn't necessary for this
Here's a detail of the switch. These are so much nicer than the regular 5 ways if you like to mod strats
Filtertrons are designed to mount direct into the body. There are some adapter plates to make them work with humbucker rings or strat pickguard, but I didn't want to do that. I mocked up the pickup and the pickguard and located the drill points for the pickup. There is about 1/4" clearance from this cavity to the trem cavity below, but these two screw holes are just on either side of the cavity.
I had some 2" #3 screws for Gretsch guitars but they were way too long for this so I shortened them with my angle grinder (dremel would have worked but I don't own one). This left a flat profile on the ends of the screws so I had to widen the very tops of the 1/16" pilot holes with a 3/32" bit so the screws would sit easily. You can see in this pic the profile
If you install a humbucker and it goes in easy the first time, you didn't do it right. I took this out and put in longer springs
Wiring up the humbucker to the pickguard. This wasn't as bad as I thought it would be
Hell yeah
I like filtertrons in a strat because they have better high freq responses than humbuckers. They have fewer windings than a humbucker but a bigger bar magnet. They're really an underrated pickup. Now I can bring just this guitar to rehearsal and play the songs that need a strong bridge distortion sound and have it not sound like a first act guitar
I started by making the template
This is good
I put some glue on the ends of the pieces. This is end grain so I put it on a bit heavy and let it soak into the grain
I put them around the pickup to form the template and clamped them in place
Took the pickup out so I could clean off any glue
It's super hot today so 20 mins later the glue was dry enough to work with. I sanded one side to get a nice glueing surface
I use painter's tape and super glue to stick the template to the pickguard. It's not shown here, but I use the two other pickup holes to align the new pickup laterally with a straightedge
3/8 bit with a ball bearing in my router table
My vacuum is downstairs so I'll be finding these shavings around for the next year
The radius was wrong for the pickup so I switched to the 1/4" bit. In retrospect I could have used a round file to get the corners right as the pickup has a 5/16" radius, but what are you gonna do
It fits pretty good! The mounting holes from the old pickup are still there, but doing this is so much easier than ordering a custom pickguard. Most companies don't do filtertrons, and the one that does isn't reliable. I got a little too hot on one of the countersink holes last time I worked on this. I'd just finished painting in the garage and the fumes made it weird. I could get a new pickguard as they are cheap on amazon but it really doesn't bother me
Starting to get into the electronics
Fast forward to them being finished. I have a master tone control and the middle control isn't hooked up. I'm using a super switch here, left over another build, but it isn't necessary for this
Here's a detail of the switch. These are so much nicer than the regular 5 ways if you like to mod strats
Filtertrons are designed to mount direct into the body. There are some adapter plates to make them work with humbucker rings or strat pickguard, but I didn't want to do that. I mocked up the pickup and the pickguard and located the drill points for the pickup. There is about 1/4" clearance from this cavity to the trem cavity below, but these two screw holes are just on either side of the cavity.
I had some 2" #3 screws for Gretsch guitars but they were way too long for this so I shortened them with my angle grinder (dremel would have worked but I don't own one). This left a flat profile on the ends of the screws so I had to widen the very tops of the 1/16" pilot holes with a 3/32" bit so the screws would sit easily. You can see in this pic the profile
If you install a humbucker and it goes in easy the first time, you didn't do it right. I took this out and put in longer springs
Wiring up the humbucker to the pickguard. This wasn't as bad as I thought it would be
Hell yeah
I like filtertrons in a strat because they have better high freq responses than humbuckers. They have fewer windings than a humbucker but a bigger bar magnet. They're really an underrated pickup. Now I can bring just this guitar to rehearsal and play the songs that need a strong bridge distortion sound and have it not sound like a first act guitar
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