Good place to buy loaded strat pickguard under £100?

JamesC01

I have decided I'm going to convert my Squier Bullet from HSS, to SSS. I was thinking of buying the pickguard and a set of pickups separately, but then I realised I'd also have to buy pickup covers, knobs, a switch tip etc. Loaded pickguards solve this problem, and seem to be cheaper a lot of the time. The only issue is, I can't find a lot of good options. Northwestguitars seems to have a nice loaded pickguard with alnico pickups in it for £50, but it's only in black or white. I was hoping for a vintage white or mint colour. There's an amazon seller "Alnicov", that do a loaded pickguard for £26, but I'm slightly cautious, because they're on of those amazon only sellers that don't even have their own website. I think I'd rather buy from a dedicated guitar part shop.

Guitarfetish seems to have nice options, but it's £24 shipping. All the other sites I've looked at (axesRus) and allparts either don't have any options, are they're too expensive. Ideally northwestguitars would offer a colour picker for their loaded pickguards, but they don't. Anyone have any suggestions?

WYNIR0

Strat Pickguards Archives | Guitar Anatomy

Been very happy with the service every time I'm bought stuff from them,

CampbellH

Have you tried pricing a black/white loaded and buying a pickguard, colour of your choice, separately.

menamestom

If you can stretch your budget, the Fender Tex mex is a bargain:-

⁣Fender Pre-Wired ST Pickg. TexMex SSS – Thomann UK

paulnb57

I think youll be lucky for 100 quids

Ive got a Hardtail bullet 3SC plate here if you want it, in white, youve already got two SC’s, from the HSS….Ill chuck in a spare SC if you like. a tenner mailed
I can send photos if you want them….

Dave_Mc

You need to watch it'll fit. Or at least that the screw holes are in the right place.

paulnb57

@JamesC01 ;;;

Not the best but it would confirm if you like it…

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255829199818?hash=item3b909bcbca:g:pUwAAOSwOhZjc60O&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA0I8YsM6RsXGU0lwAgrABNhl76bvMQS5L44H617ILrWJrcugYy97IXSa3T0PtkO1WgODTr%2Fc97Xwd4tnH4oUhJkZsl%2Bj6384SvLnA0KUqS64XHVitQZHQiIBIPiWKzdtneMhqKtz9sb0Ir265EJpUw89HFxB60CawBaTYplDvAcz8aXpj3lDqS3vslxDlDLFqjhhc1IThD174dyQjpCAJ%2FZaRjT%2FWiis4xWu5Zsw4FILbq30Ba0TgfUGyB1qBLL78c77DJeguC8oYLlYfpu%2BSNEM%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR5ru2PeeYw

JamesC01

Anyone think this loaded pickguard from northwestguitars would be a good option? It's only in white, not parchment or vintage white, but I'm thinking I can make the compromise for the convenience of it being pre-wired. The only issue is that the price is very low considering it has alnico V pickups in it. The entire loaded pickguard is cheaper than the cheapest wilkinson alnico V's. What do you think?

JamesC01

CampbellH said:

Have you tried pricing a black/white loaded and buying a pickguard, colour of your choice, separately.

I'd prefer to take the whole pickguard and knobs out of the squier, to just keep them all together. The price of buying the parts separately (excluding pickups) is £35. After buying pickups it's about £90 without the soldering iron. I found a loaded pickguard for £50 with alnico V pickups (mentioned in the comment above), so I'm assuming it's better than the £26 amazon one, but I'm still a bit cautious since the entire loaded pickguard is cheaper than a cheap set of alnico V pickups.

WezV

Obviously you get what you pay for, but it's worth checking out aliexpress for some loaded pickguards.  you will probably find something equivalent to the NW one for cheaper.  But i will say service from Northwest guitars is usually pretty good

Jonathangus

Can you stretch your budget a bit?  No affiliation: https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/259659/fs-axesrus-strat-loaded-pickguard-texas-blues-price-drop

Also, the one solder joint you need to make with the NW Guitars one (well, any of them, actually) is the ground to the trem claw - which needs a beefy soldering iron with the biggest tip you can lay your hands on.

WezV

As an example from aliexpress
https://m.aliexpress.com/storesearch/list/Loaded pickguard.html?sceneId=050000&keywords=Loaded pickguard&searchType=storeSearch&sellerAdminSeq=228742982&storeId=2336037

paulnb57

As I said earlier in one of your posts, Ive got a Bullet SSS scratchplate, still got its protective plastic on, Ive got several SC pickups in the parts stash, Ive probably got a cover the right colour too….
All you need to do is swap everything over from your HSS plate to the SSS plate with the exception of the HB which you will replace with the SC….all for a tenner mailed…..it gives you probably cheapest option to go SSS and I move on some parts that I will never use

JamesC01

paulnb57 said:

As I said earlier in one of your posts, Ive got a Bullet SSS scratchplate, still got its protective plastic on, Ive got several SC pickups in the parts stash, Ive probably got a cover the right colour too….
All you need to do is swap everything over from your HSS plate to the SSS plate with the exception of the HB which you will replace with the SC….all for a tenner mailed…..it gives you probably cheapest option to go SSS and I move on some parts that I will never use

I wanted to upgrade the pickguard a while ago because I wasn't massively happy with the quality (and I wanted 3-ply), even before I considered changing pickups, so I'm not interested, sorry. Might be a good idea to turn it into a cheap loaded pickguard and sell it on ebay. More people would be willing to buy that rather than a single pickguard, I'm sure.

paulnb57

JamesC01 said:

paulnb57 said:

As I said earlier in one of your posts, Ive got a Bullet SSS scratchplate, still got its protective plastic on, Ive got several SC pickups in the parts stash, Ive probably got a cover the right colour too….
All you need to do is swap everything over from your HSS plate to the SSS plate with the exception of the HB which you will replace with the SC….all for a tenner mailed…..it gives you probably cheapest option to go SSS and I move on some parts that I will never use

I wanted to upgrade the pickguard a while ago because I wasn't massively happy with the quality (and I wanted 3-ply), even before I considered changing pickups, so I'm not interested, sorry. Might be a good idea to turn it into a cheap loaded pickguard and sell it on ebay. More people would be willing to buy that rather than a single pickguard, I'm sure.

Im not bothered about selling it, I was trying to help you out
Although I doubt a £50 loaded scratchplate will be much better quality

CampbellH

JamesC01 said:

CampbellH said:

Have you tried pricing a black/white loaded and buying a pickguard, colour of your choice, separately.

I'd prefer to take the whole pickguard and knobs out of the squier, to just keep them all together. The price of buying the parts separately (excluding pickups) is £35. After buying pickups it's about £90 without the soldering iron. I found a loaded pickguard for £50 with alnico V pickups (mentioned in the comment above), so I'm assuming it's better than the £26 amazon one, but I'm still a bit cautious since the entire loaded pickguard is cheaper than a cheap set of alnico V pickups.

I think you missed my point. You said the Pickguard colour black or white wasn't what you wanted. Why not buy that white loaded guard and then buy a guard of the colour you want.
The worst you have to do is swap everything over or change dials for colours you like.

That keeps your original guard and coils all intact too swap back.