Upgrading Squier HSH pickups
- Thread starter mf1984
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Neo Fender
Senior Member
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What pickups have you looked at?
musicispeace
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That guitar PROBABLY has a "swimming pool route" (open pickup cavity that will accommodate anything) so is your issue the pickguard? Pickups are relatively uniform in dimension so worst case you may be looking at getting an aftermarket replacement pickguard. Are you going to have a tech swap out pickups or are you going to do it? A tech could measure things if you took it in and tell you if you have anything to worry about. Otherwise, pickups are a highly subjective topic and are ruled by what you think you are hearing in sound samples combined with your budget. Some swear by high end boutique pickups, some swear by GFS that are very affordable, and then you look at someone like Guthrie Trapp who got his main tele from a guy who builds guitars in the south and tried swapping out the pickups but put the originals back in. The originals were from a Mexican Tele that the builder happened to like the way they sounded and apparently he was right about them in particular being a stand out set.
JD0x0
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Wilde L-90 4 Henry in the neck, 6 Henry in the bridge.(8Henry if you want to sacrifice the clean tone for more 'Rawk' or just like a thicker sound.) L-200SN/M in the middle (noiseless single coil)
This is just my suggestion. There's literally 1000's of pickups that could be suitable, it's all in the ear of the beholder.
No affiliation.
http://wildepickups.com/
What types fit? Neck and Bridge pickups use what is called 'Standard Humbucker sized' humbuckers. Middle pickup is a standard strat sized single coil. That's what will fit in the stock pickguard. You can always buy another, that will fit different pickups. Pretty sure those guitars use 'bathtub' routes which fits virtually all pickups, assuming the pickguard being used will also fit them.
This is just my suggestion. There's literally 1000's of pickups that could be suitable, it's all in the ear of the beholder.
No affiliation.
http://wildepickups.com/
What types fit? Neck and Bridge pickups use what is called 'Standard Humbucker sized' humbuckers. Middle pickup is a standard strat sized single coil. That's what will fit in the stock pickguard. You can always buy another, that will fit different pickups. Pretty sure those guitars use 'bathtub' routes which fits virtually all pickups, assuming the pickguard being used will also fit them.
Jet-Jaguar
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Yeah, I agree with what the other guys have said. I recently got a loaded pickguard from a company called HD Custom that sells their pickguards on Ebay and Reverb. Another company that does the same thing is Sigler; almost got one from them instead, but I'm happy with the HD Custom one.
I got a loaded pickguard because I don't particularly like soldering, and because when I totaled up the price of buying all the parts and a loaded, soldered pickguard was ~$20 more that buying all the pieces individually. If you were just changing pickups, and not the whole pickguard, that would be a whole different thing.
I got a loaded pickguard because I don't particularly like soldering, and because when I totaled up the price of buying all the parts and a loaded, soldered pickguard was ~$20 more that buying all the pieces individually. If you were just changing pickups, and not the whole pickguard, that would be a whole different thing.
