Fender Strat Pickup mod

. Brand: Fender

Model: Jimmy Vaughan
Year made: 2018
Body Material: Alder
Finish: Gloss poly
Neck: Bolt on
Radius: 9.5
Neck Material: Maple
Fingerboard: Maple
Fret wire: Medium Jumbo
Fret Number: 21
Scale: 25.5
Pickups: Tex mex single coils with a "hot bridge" single coil .

This one came back in for a pickup modification. Im installing 2 Seymour Duncan Antiquity II Mini humbuckers.

One of the great names in Texas blues, Jimmie Vaughan has always wielded a Stratocaster® with masterful voice and feel. His signature model, the Jimmie Vaughan Tex-Mex Strat, gives you masterful voice and feel, too, with an original-era Stratocaster look and some special hot-rodded Vaughan modifications that make it a fiery performer with a distinctive touch of Tejano vibe. - Sourced from the Fender.com website.

I taped off a good portion of the pickguard to protect the areas i wasn't working on.

Testing the placement of the template.

The template taped in place.

The first one routed.

Testing the fit after routing the first pickup cavity.

The pickgaurd ready to go.

The body was routed for a humbucker in the bridge but the neck would have to be routed to fit the mini humbucker.

I scored the poly finish with a razor blade in hopes to cut down on any chipping.

The cavity after routing.

Testing the placement of the mini humbucker mounting bracket.

I painted the cavity to match the new cuts to the original.

Testing the fit.

Cleaning off the tape to get ready for the final assembly.

The volume knob now sits to close to the pickup.

I would have to move this pot over.

I cut out a piece of plastic to fit into the pot cavity.

Then i glued it in place.

And sanded it smooth to match the pickguard size.

I drilled the new hole a little bit over to fix the placement.

I moved the know over just enough to get it out of the way and still cover up the repair I did to the pickguard.

Wiring up the electronics.

Final test fit.

I used these metal brackets from stewmac to mount the pickups.

The mini humbuckers on this sound amazing and in the future the customer can install p90,s if they so wish or swap pickguards and bring it back to a standard strat. It really opens up some different tonal options.

The finished product. I was proud of the way this one turned out.

This is the third round of work I've done on this guitar. This is what it originally looked like before swapping pickups and pickguard. Click here to see the original setup for this one!!

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