Loaded Pickguards

[FredStarter]

I am looking into building my first electric guitar. Being new to this I want to minimize the complexity the first time. As such I am considering buying a loaded pickguard. Some options are Lace, Dimarzio, Fender, and Seymour Duncan. Does anyone have any experience with this for a Strat body? I was told that some loaded pickguards might not fit right into the Warmoth Strat body.

 

[Rick]

I had this experience with 920d.  They made a greaat nashville tele set up that if you bought everything separately it would be a lot more expensive.  So I got it, and of course while the pickguard would work it wasn't perfect for the warmoth body.  So .... I got the warmoth pickguard, transferred the stuff from 920d.  Perfect, and it was still cheaper than buying everything separately.  There's no downside, just tote up your math.

 

[FredStarter]

I had this experience with 920d.  They made a greaat nashville tele set up that if you bought everything separately it would be a lot more expensive.  So I got it, and of course while the pickguard would work it wasn't perfect for the warmoth body.  So .... I got the warmoth pickguard, transferred the stuff from 920d.  Perfect, and it was still cheaper than buying everything separately.  There's no downside, just tote up your math.

Thanks for your response. I appreciate it. So, if I understand correctly, you didn't have to rewire anything, or solder anything (other than the normal 3 wires, 2 ground and one hot to the output jack?)? I am really worried about doing too much soldering for my first build. Hopefully over time I will gain the necessary skills to do all the electrical stuff from scratch.

 

[Rick]

On that tele the plate was completely soldered.  It was a complicated 5 way switch with a three position toggle.  The input jack was soldered. The pickups were not soldered nor the ground. I just unscrewed the pups and put them in the warmoth pick guard and had my tech do the final soldering.