"If you have a project to pour your learnings into, you will retain the knowledge."
― Richie Norton.
"All the effort in the world won't matter if you're not inspired."
― Chuck Palahniuk
A bit of a change in the plan for my Ultra Gold Stratocaster project guitar. Originally, I wanted to keep Fender's Noiseless Gen 4 pickups and change out the Humbucker to either white or gold. To make everything matchup nicely, I needed 4 gold single coil pickup mounting screws for the Gen 4s. After searching dozens of guitar part shops online, I wasn't able to locate any. I eventually found the SKU, though: 006-8037-000. I reached out to Fender and the consumer relations rep said that they're at the Corona California Factory, but unavailable for consumer purchase. What!?
So, I went pickup shopping and found a great alternative from Seymour Duncan:
"David Gilmour needed a pumped-up sound for his famous Black Strat, so Seymour wound what became the Custom Staggered medium-output Stratocaster pickup. It has been, and continues to be, an honor to work with such a legend. The Custom Staggered is a special overwound single-coil that strikes a great balance between increased output and classic Stratocaster tonal character. It will deliver bigger, fatter chords, and will cut through the mix more clearly than a traditional Strat pickup, all the while maintaining the magic and mojo that make a Strat sound like a Strat. Single notes are bold and loud, and solos truly sing."Here they are installed:
These pickups are standard height so regular gold screws work just fine. In another challenge, I discovered that S-1 knobs aren't available in pure white, so I had to go with parchment. I could have gone with parchment pickup covers as well, but the knobs will be easier to replace should I find them in white. Having said that, parchment ones match the body color decently enough.
Installation ...
The wiring diagram ...
All soldered and mounted in place ...
Here's the gold Seymour Duncan JB Humbucker that I have yet to install:
Before I can do so, I need a different HSS pickguard with 2 Humbucker holes instead of 3. It's on the way and that ought to be the final part to complete this guitar. As it is, it's sounds great, but I'm sure the Seymour Duncan Humbucker will give it a tonal change.
In this effort I learned many electric guitar luthier concepts:
1. Adjusting the tremolo spring tension.
2. Proper pickup height.
3. Intonating via the string saddles.
4. Truss rod adjustments.
5. Soldering electronic components.
Perhaps one day I'll build an electric guitar from the ground up. Naturally, I'm disappointed that Fender wouldn't provide the gold screws for the original concept, but the Seymour Duncan pickups sound better than I thought they would. Noise-wise, they're pretty free of hum ― on par with the noiseless ones I replaced. They do render a thick Gilmour-like tone that sounds fantastic with gain, reverb, and delay.
It's going to look and sound sweet once the gold Humbucker is installed!
In other news, I did go birding yesterday and picked up Snow Bunting, Lapland Longspur, and American Kestrel.
All images © 2023 Mike McDowell