pickguard/covers - filtertron strat

[swarfrat]

So I've lately gotten a hankering for some singles again. And I have my original neck and middle. I'm kind of attached the the Memphis in the bridge, but...
I just can't get past the look of single covers with the filtertron. I no longer remember what this guitar came with - I seem to vaguely recall black pickguard w/ white covers, or maybe white pickguard w/ black covers, but neither really works with a chrome h-gate in the bridge.

The Pearloid works with the bridge pickup and knobs - I think I need covers for the strat pickups but ... what? I did see that chrome strat pickup covers exist. I'm mulling over how that'd look. My first thought is that it'd look gimmicky. I'm not opposed to it if it works cohesively though. I know that humbucker covers are a big part of the sound - and that's the reason filtertrons have the gates cut - but how does a filtertron compare to a single? Take the covers off? White covers on the strats? Black covers on the strats? Chrome covers on the strats?
Paint the Memphis bobbins white while I'm at it? Looking for ideas here:

 

[swarfrat]

Maybe these?

Or these

I kind of like the open top ones above. Or maybe I could open the space between the pole piece openings of the latter to mimic h gate in a single coil

 

[PhilHill]

I vote for the open top ones in chrome. I think they would be closest to the look of the bridge pup.......... :headbang:

 

[swarfrat]

I can't seem to find a source for the open covers in strat pickups. Those seem to be tele neck pickup covers and they won't fit (as best I understand it).  I'm not sure what the edge will look like if I tried to mill away a chromed plastic cover, but it should work to do that to a metal cover. (But metal covers are more likely to mess with the strat tone)

 

[bricksnbeatles]

Maybe try reaching out to Q Pickups. They do strat pickups with that sort of open-tele look to them. They might be able to do some without the foil but with the chrome outer-part still.

 

[swarfrat]

I think I'm going to try the chromed plastic covers Fender uses first. I get one to screw up and if it works I'll do another, if not, I'll use the two remaining for the time being.

However, in screwing around I ran across this... I've always had a thing for green pearloid. Never seen a place where it worked. It just looks garish in the wrong place. The green on this body has faded over time, and it looks "steel gray"/bue to me. But I think I'm liking this mockup A LOT. Whole. lot. I might get a white HSS and a green HSS just to see it in person. This might just be the one place it actually works.

Edit: threw tort up there. It's pretty, probably more 'normal', but I dunno how it'd go with the chrome. I got a green pearloid and chromed strat covers coming now. I'm still looking for knobs. PG is Stratosphere and comes with some generic green strat knobs. For some reason the pearloid top knobs I have are hard to find in a good looking green. I guess I'm going back to a three knob setup, as it's an off the shelf pickguard.  I might consider some of the Gibson Tophat style knobs if I can find a good black/green complement. I believe the top hat knobs are more or less the same size as strat knobs. Not really a fan of speed knobs on strats.

 

[PhilHill]

I think the green pearloid guard and the chrome covers would work. If you could turn the holes in the covers into one long opening you'd pretty much have what you want. Maybe cut out the sections between the holes and then file it into a long slot.

 

[swarfrat]

Found some tophat knobs that look like a nod to the original strat shape while picking up the green pearloid theme

 

[swarfrat]

PG came today - not thrilled  - the ebay pic was more green/black, the one I got is more green/white.  Not really the guitar for it.
Also, it appears I had a DeLonge pickguard and didn't know it.  Hmmm maybe BP or tort.

 

[swarfrat]

Well, tort it is. I didn't like the green/white pearloid, couldn't find a precut HS 2-hole in BP but I did find one in tort. Took a couple tries to get wiring correct - it's been a while. Ironically - with the 6k Lil Killer in the neck - and a 5.3k Memphis in the bridge - and being a hard tail with a 3-way... I turned it into a double cutaway tele. Not necessarily a bad thing. It's a little beefier than a strat neck. And a little hotter than the bridge still, with a sharp fat kerrangy low output bridge. Yeah - I'll take it. dumping the 10's and going back to 13's but I'm going to see just how low I can get them.

 

[zebra]

I think it worked out - to me the tort looks way better than the green.

13s, huh? I was just thinking earlier today that I should set up a guitar with really heavy strings, just so I can give them a good whack and they won't go all berserk, in a Dick Dale sort of way. 

 

[swarfrat]

Current internet trend is 8's or no more than 9's. Maybe even 7's. OMG I was using the wrong strings!!!

Phil Collen of Def Leppard uses 13's too - and he's basically a shredder (albeit one with decency to serve the song foremost.) He talks about enjoying the physicality of it and I'd agree. I love to feel the guitar vibrating in my hands. It's not a controller - it's an instrument. Enjoy it instead of trying to tame it.  I love the sound - there's no bloom on the bottom five notes on the 6th string - it's just instant on - boom.  When I tried 10's it sounded way to mushy and bloomy on those bass notes. 

 

[swarfrat]

Aimed for 4/64 and had to up a bit on the B/E(b) strings. Plays like a dream. (As long as you don't dream of effortless dive half step bends).

Have some cleanup left on things like countersinking screws, shortening the pickup screws, but I'm definitely digging it.

 

[swarfrat]

Well, the orange box must've heard me complain about needing to retweak my presets. Today it glitched and reset to defaults. All my patches gone. (all four of em). Gah. Oh well. Maybe I'll do four for my trem guitar.