If youre thinking of upgrading your Strat, be it Fender or Squire, make sure you have a plan.
Upgrading for the sake of upgrading is throwing yonder money. Why swap the underpass pickup for a humbucker if you unchangingly play in the 4th position? Why add a treble transude if you unchangingly play full tilt? Why swap out the strap locks for locking if the guitar doesnt stay in tune in the first place?
This vendible isnt designed to be a checklist its designed to help you fix whatever the problem is with YOUR strat.
- If your strat doesnt stay in tune, squint at the nut and tuners
- If your strat doesnt have much sustain or chime, squint at the bridge
- If you want your strat to shred, squint at the pickups
- If you want your strat to be increasingly versatile, squint at the electronics
- If you move virtually a lot on stage, get strap locks
Whatever you do, make sure youre putting money into the right place and youll create a yahoo of a strat thats all yours.
Strat Mods – Strat Tuner Replacement
Upgrading your existing tuners to a good set of locking tuners or plane just a well made set of vintage style tuners is one of the first Stratocaster upgrades people do, considering it can have a huge effect on the tuning stability of your guitar, as well as the ease and speed with which you tune up.
However, picking a new set of tuners can be a bit of a minefield as there are so many options out there. Some people want locking tuners to make string changes easier, some people want to go for increasingly traditional squint tuning keys, some people just want woebegone tuning keys to make their strat squint a little hot rodded.
Another issue is the differing mounting holes for tuners Fenders vintage style tuners fit an 11/32 (8.7mm) tuning slum and have a .249 diameter string post, while the die-cast tuning machines fit a 13/32 (10mm) slum with a .236 diameter string post. This ways that you will need to widen the holes to switch from vintage to modern (a task for a luthier), whereas going from modern to vintage will require conversion bushings (StewMac makes them in a variety of sizes and finishes), unless you want to try and fill out the wood, which is a big task.
If you decide to go with locking tuners for your tuner strat mod, the Hipshot Grip-Lock 6 inline 21mm Locking Tuners are a solid choice. Hipshot makes some of the weightier aftermarket locking tuners for 6 in-line setups like you will find on a Stratocaster, and considering they come with a universal mounting plate they should fit most Squier models with minimal drilling. Not only do they offer locks for fast string changes and good tuning stability, they moreover offer a staggered post option, which sets up the guitar with the perfect unravel wile over the nut, making any Strat finger much increasingly like a US made Fender.
Should you decide to go the non-locking route, there are some other spanking-new options on the market that offer unconfined looks and solid tuning stability. If you want the vintage look, Fenders Road Worn Vintage Style tuners offer waddle solid stability and squint incredible.
Remember, if you are upgrading tuning keys on a Squier, you moreover need to be enlightened that you cant just waif Fender tuning keys into a Squier Strat due to the pins (which sit into the when of your headstock from the tuners) stuff variegated sizes, so while they are often the gold standard, youll want to squint elsewhere for waif ins. If your stimulating is increasingly modern, these Wilkinson E-Z Post tuners moreover squint great, and offer a plug and play tuner upgrade for most Squier models.
Strat Mods – Replacing a Strat Nut and String Tree
The biggest wholesomeness of a nut replacement – typically the second most popular strat upgrade – is an increase in tuning stability, and improved tone when playing unshut strings. Luckily with a strat youre not looking at the kind of issues that Gibson owners have with their G strings, but a unseemly or immensely cut nut can leave you scratching your throne as you tune up every few minutes.
As with most production guitars these days, a Strats nut out of the factory can be something of a weak point. Squires and Mexican strats in particular suffer from either unseemly plastic nuts or in the specimen of the newer player series guitars, a melamine nut thats largest off stuff dishware than something you want your strings to sit in.
Typically people squint to either bone nuts or Tusq nuts for replacements. You can read our opinion on the Tusq vs unorthodoxy debate here, but the short version is that if you waif a bone nut it makes a thud, if you waif a Tusq nut, it rings. Tusq XL nuts in particular are impregnated with PTFE, which is the chemical name for Teflon. This makes Tusq XL nuts self lubricating, which goes a long way towards extending the life of your string, and ensuring the guitar stays in tune for longer.
One thing to be enlightened of when selecting a nut for your guitar is whether it fits into a unappetizing or curved slot. Theres no nonflexible and fast rule here unfortunately so youll need to either remove your nut during a string transpiration to trammels (which can be tricky if its glued in) or google your model to see if anyones confirmed.
On the upside, Graph Tech does make a Tuq nut that has a notch that allows the nut to sit flat, or if you need it to be curved you just pop out the notch.
Exercise circumspection when removing your old nut. Particularly in the Indonesian made Squiers, the original nut is installed with a healthy dose of superglue. In many cases the only way to remove it without risking forfeiture to the fretboard or headstock is unquestionably to cut it out with a fine hacksaw blade. So that you dont have similar issues should you overly decide to transpiration it again, a small dab or two of superglue should be increasingly than sufficient to alimony the new nut in place.
String trees are an underrated upgrade for any Stratocaster. Considering Strats have a unappetizing headstock, they require a ways of putting downward pressure on the strings, particularly the upper strings, in order to prevent them from rattling, buzzing and creating a sitar effect within the nut when strings are played open. They are veritably essential on all Fender and Squier guitars due to the nature of their design.
The stock string tree on Mexican Fender and Squier Stratocasters is made from cheaper stamped metal, and as a result of its manufacturing process, is often left with sharp edges and burrs. As you play, particularly when limp strings, this causes forfeiture to the strings, causing premature breakage. Upgrading to largest quality string trees, which are moreover sometimes tabbed string guides, with largest materials and superior finishing quality, will help to proffer the life of your strings. If you want to alimony the stock squint and just upgrade the component, these Fender Vintage Style string trees are an spanking-new choice. For plane largest performance, consider moving up to these Musiclily Roller String Trees – their rolling whoopee significantly reduces string friction and the grabbiness that can happen with stamped components when using the tremolo arm.
Strat Mods – Stratocaster Replacement Pickups
Changing your pickups is going to have the most immediately noticeable effect on the overall sound of your guitar. Stock pickups in Squier Strats are notoriously muddy, so, plane if you dont transpiration anything else, an upgraded set of pups can really outbreathe new life into your axe (far vastitude simply adjusting the height).
There are literally hundreds of options misogynist when it comes to pup upgrades, so if this is your first time diving into this particular strat upgrade it can be tough to make a visualization on which direction to go. If there is an versifier with a particular sound you are looking for, you should research which pickups they use. Plane if you dont go with that particular model, you can squint for other pickups with similar sound profiles.
The archetype Stratocaster setup is, of course, three single pickups, although the HSS (humbucker at the bridge, and singles in the middle and neck positions) setup is quickly gaining popularity. If you wanted to take things a step remoter and install a second humbucker at the neck, there is a good endangerment your Strat is ready to do this. Subconscious under the pickguard of some Squier and MIM models, there is a rout large unbearable to unbend a neck humbucker.
If your Strat isnt routed for traditional humbuckers, you still have options. For example, the Seymour Duncan SHR-1 Hot Rails neck and bridge pickups can be installed in a single whorl size slot. They are some of the hottest pickups in Seymour Duncans lineup, and offer the classic, fat humbucker sound prized by bluesmen, nonflexible rockers, and jazz musicians alike. They dont come in a set, but this moreover gives you the flexibility to install just the bridge, or the underpass and the neck, while still keeping the middle single coil.
Anybody looking to alimony their Strat a little increasingly traditional with three single whorl pickups, and who isnt looking to unravel the bank, should consider the Tex Mex set from Fender. You should notice an firsthand reduction in 60 trundling hum vs. your stock pups without installing these. Fenders Tex Mex work well playing the wipe tones of the 50s and 60s, right through to the upper gain, overdriven waddle and funk of the Hendrix era.
Not only can you transpiration any of the three pups individually, you can plane buy loaded pickguards. These loaded pickguards contain a well-constructed electronics upgrade (except for the input jack), pre-installed in a new pickguard, and often dont require any soldering, making them an scrutinizingly plug and play solution. Some of the options for loaded pickguards include the 57/62 set from Fender, the DG20 David Gilmour set or the KH20 Kirk Hammet set from EMG, or the Lace Sensor Rainbow Pack.
If you are thinking of going lanugo the loaded pickguard route, make sure you count your pickguard screws and measure the loftiness in between. Plane between Squier and Fender MIM models, there are differences in the screw wattle that can prevent an install without spare drilling.
Strat Mods – Strat replacement Bridge
A underpass upgrade on a Strat is not likely to yield huge tone resurgence like it would on an sensory guitar. What it will do is modernize playability, tuning stability, sustain, and overall performance, making it a worthwhile Stratocaster upgrade.
If your Strat has a tremolo bridge, you have a couple of options misogynist as far as upgrades go. First, you could perform a like for like upgrade. If youre a Squier player, you could consider the Fender Mexican Standard tremolo bridge. It offers superior quality materials, as well as a nicer fit and finish to the stock examples that come on Chinese and Indonesian made Squiers. Its moreover a very affordable upgrade, too.
Anybody looking for uneaten sustain without having to go to the trouble of replacing the unshortened underpass should consider replacing their trem block. From the factory, most Squier Strats come with a lightweight zinc transfuse block. The OEM component is not platonic for sustain, and over time can literally disintegrate.
Fortunately they can be hands replaced with a contumely or steel woodcut which will provide some resurgence in that zone for a very small investment. On the downside, this option is really only misogynist if you are working with a full size Stratocaster body, such as those found on the Archetype Vibe series, the Squier Stratocaster Standard, and of course, the MIM Fender Strats. If you have one of these instruments, this brass woodcut from Musiclily is a solid option.
Slim bodied versions such as the Bullet and Affinity Series dont have sufficient depth to unbend misogynist aftermarket upgrades to the woodcut alone, leaving owners of these guitars with only one option – replacing the unshortened bridge.
Should you be looking for serious upgrades, you could install a Floyd Rose trem bridge. To retrofit a traditional Floyd Rose would require drilling, whereas their Rail Tail Tremolo model is a waif in replacement for any Stratocaster with an existing 6 point trem. It offers virtually 15 uneaten degrees of voice compared to the standard Fender or Squier bridges, so youll be worldly-wise to get the crazy swoop bombs that Floyd Rose bridges are famous for, and thanks to the roller saddles, tuning stability is still strong and string changes aren’t the nightmare you’ve heard about.
For hardtail players, replacement bridges are an plane increasingly straight forward Strat modification. As with trem underpass upgrades, you should be looking for good fit and finish. Stock bridges can sometimes have somewhat of a rough finish, with burrs and sharp edges. Upgraded bridges should moreover provide smoother saddle welding too, making whoopee and intonation adjustments easier and increasingly well-judged (for increasingly on these terms, trammels out our guide to action and our guide to intonation).
If youre unescapable your upgrades looking for the weightier of the weightier components, this Gotoh hardtail bridge is superbly finished, includes all hardware, and is equipped with contumely saddles. If your upkeep is tighter, but you are still looking to modernize on your stock bridge, this Wilkinson hardtail bridge offers spanking-new value for money. Again, all hardware is included, and the saddles have a lovely satin finish.
Strat Mods – Replacing and upgrading Electronics on a strat
Upgrading the electronics in your Stratocaster is a unconfined way to modernize reliability, sound, and playability. Over time, through vibrations, and unstipulated wear and tear, electronic components can fail, and unfortunately, the electronics in a Strat are hidden, so when they unravel lanugo it could potentially be in the middle of a performance with no warning given.
Despite the fact that the electronics are subconscious from sight, they are not particularly difficult to access. To do so, you will need to unscrew your pickguard. Be shielding while doing so, as your electronics are directly unfluctuating to it in most cases. For the easiest wangle remove your strings.
When you have the guitar wrenched down, youll see that the internal electronic components consist of potentiometers, or pots, capacitors, switchgear, and wiring.
Potentiometers
Potentiometers, or pots, are your volume and tone controls. Upgrading them can unquestionably have a significant effect on the sound and playability of your Strat. If you are upgrading a Squier Stratocaster, you will find that your stock pots are dime sized. These small controls are fairly standard on import guitars, and are often binary in nature – on, or off. This makes it scrutinizingly untellable to unzip a nice swell of tone or volume as they have a sharp waif off when adjusting.
Upgrading to a quality full sized, or quarte sized set from the likes of Bourne or CTS is a no brainer Strat upgrade as it will drastically increase the potential of your guitar, and unlock sound profiles you didnt plane know it was capable of. If you are playing a MIM Strat from 2006 or newer, you probably wont need to upgrade your pots as full size CTS gear is OEM standard on those models.
When shopping for potentiometer upgrades, you will find that you have a nomination between 250k or 500k. Both will work in any Stratocaster, but to unzip the weightier possible sound, you should make your selection based upon your pickups.
The potentiometers work to dampen upper frequencies coming from the pups by creating a short wideness the signal. The lower the value on the pot, the lower the resistance. This allows increasingly of the upper frequencies to transude off to ground. So, if you segregate to stick with single whorl pickups, your guitar will sound weightier with CTS 250k pots as they will tame the upper frequency output.
If you have decided to install humbuckers, like the SD Hot Rails, it is well-considered to transpiration to CTS 500K pots, as their increased resistance will prevent the transude off of upper frequencies, permitting increasingly highs through, thus preventing them from sounding too muddy. As 500k pots arent very worldwide on Strats, you will likely have to purchase 3 single potentiometers.
Capacitors
While they form an essential part of the potentiometer, tone capacitors are worldly-wise to be independently reverted and upgraded using differently specced components. Tone caps perform the task of remoter impeding frequencies to yo-yo the tonal properties of the guitar, and their resistance is measured in Microfarads.
As a guitarist opens their pots up, they send increasingly of the signal through the tone cap. The larger the tone cap, the increasingly upper frequencies are suppressed, resulting in an overall softer, warmer tone. If this is the sound profile you are looking for, 047uF caps are recommended. If you are looking to hang on to the traditional, bright, Strat tone, consider a set of lower value 0022uF caps.
Unless you plan to transpiration the resistance of your capacitors, this upgrade should be seen as a way to increase reliability and longevity. A trademark name capacitor wont provide any tone difference vs. stock, but choosing a quality one will provide a longer lifespan. Orange Waif are renowned for quality electronic components, and are worthy of your consideration.
Switchgear
The stock switchgear on Squier and MIM Stratocasters is notorious for uneaten play. Over time this play can turn into wobble, which will sooner result in crackling and popping when switching between pickups. These unwanted noises will scrutinizingly certainly cut right through the mix during live performances, and this is something most players want to stave at all costs. This ways it’s unlikely to be the first out of the box upgrade you do on a strat, but one that makes increasingly sense lanugo the road.
If you do upgrade to a quality selector switch such as this one from Oak Grigsby, you will notice a significantly increasingly positive engagement in each selector notch, which will result in fewer willy-nilly changes to pickup selection, and suppuration of unwanted noise.
Standard Stratocaster selector switches have 5 positions:
- Neck
- Neck/Middle
- Middle
- Middle/Bridge
- Bridge
For greater versatility, selector switches can moreover be swapped out for ones with variegated pickup selection mapping. For example, you could install an Oak Grigsby 6 way switch, that includes all of the whilom settings, plus one spare that could be used to vivify all 3 pups, or plane to vivify the neck and underpass together and get the Telecaster sound from your Strat.
Shielding
The stock single whorl pickups on Mexican Sand Squier Strats are often very hot, and this results in excessive 60 trundling hum. To reduce this, you can create a Faraday muzzle within your guitar by shielding it. This involves removing all of the electronics, and coating the unshortened incision with a layer of self wrapper copper tape. You should moreover do the same on the underside of the pickguard.
Strat Mods – Hardware (strap locks and jack replacement)
Any gigging musician should requite real consideration to upgrading their Stratocasters hardware, specifically the strap nuts and the output jack. Both components are particularly prone to failure, and these failures are significantly velocious by enthusiastic on stage movement.
Dropping your guitar on stage could be potentially disastrous, and would likely rationalization serious damage. Most willy-nilly guitar drops are caused by loose strap nuts, or simply considering the strap slipped off while the player was moving. Fortunately, this is hands stock-still with a simple set of strap locks. There is a wide variety on the market, including genuine Fender components, or examples from quality brands like Ernie Ball. Not only do they full-length their respective locking mechanisms, but they moreover come with slightly longer and wider mounting screws, which increases their security.
Output jacks tend to take a lot of punishment. When the subscription is stretched to its limit it will start tugging at the jack, which will in turn uncork to loosen the connectors on the output jack socket. Much like the selector switch and pots, when output jack connectors uncork to wilt loose, they will produce crackles and pops whenever the guitar is moved.
By installing an upgraded output jack such as this one from Puretone you will proceeds increased strength and therefore increased resistance to failure of the connectors.
If you are only looking to transpiration the stimulating of your guitar, you can opt to just transpiration the jack plate cover. They are misogynist in scrutinizingly all colors, and can add a unique touch of customization that makes your Strat stand out.
Final thoughts on Stratocaster Upgrades
The Stratocaster has been one of the worlds most popular guitar models for decades, and for good reason. These truly are superstitious and versatile guitars that transcend genre. Their modular nature ways you can plane take plane the cheapest Squier, and with a few tactical upgrades, you will have a heck of a machine that will requite you hours of joy, and sound much increasingly expensive than its price tag suggests it should.
However, upgrading for the sake of upgrading can be a waste of time. Too many of us try to cure a little GAS by ownership a few traps for our guitar if thats you, just swap out the strings, spend the time learning a new song, or spend the money on a few guitar books!
At the end of the day, it is all well-nigh what sounds good to you. So, if you finger your Strat is lacking in areas, there are literally thousands of combinations of mods and upgrades to modernize it, at prices to suit every budget.
The post Strat Mods – Ultimate Stratocaster Upgrades Guide (2022) appeared first on Killer Guitar Rigs.
