Fender Pre-Wired Strat Pickguard, Tex-Mex SSS

Beautiful pickups that have transformed my 2003 Squier Strat! They sound great especially in a live setting.Fully recommend.

Upgraded a standard Mexican FSR 2002 strat with this new wired pickguard and wow, what a difference. No more hum when recording either, and it looks fabulous in black. Makes my standard strat sound like a much more expensive instrument.

After having spent money of a couple of decent Telecasters last year, I decided to go to the other extreme and buy the cheapest guitar on Amazon which turned out to be a Glarry Strat type guitar. Given its price, it is a reasonably playable instrument but very much amenable to upgrading.I had decided it was going to be an ongoing project for 2024, and the first thing I decided was to upgrade the pickups. I wanted to get something better without breaking the bank, so decided on the Tex-Mex pickups pre-installed on the scratchplate. First thing to note is that the scratchplate is design to fit a genuine Fender (or Squier) instrument, and the screw holes are not all in the same place as on a copy instrument. This wasn't an issue as it is quite easy to screw in the screws where there isn't a hole, at least on this instrument.The bigger issue in this instance was that the cutout for the neck needed to be cut down as the next on the Glarry has a larger heel than a Fender. This just required a decent sharp knife and some patience, although I suspect a Dremmel tool would make pretty short work of it.Compared to the stock pickups, these pickups have plenty of balls. I'm not normally much of a fan of a Strat bridge pickup on its own, but in this case it gives a lovely usable tone with a bit of light overdrive. The in-between positions give that classic Strat "quack".I would recommend this as a worthwhile upgrade to a lower spec instrument, and it's tripled the value of the original guitar too :D

The media could not be loaded. In an earlier review (that I can’t edit) I stated that this loaded ‘guard comes with a 500k volume pot. Well the one I bought used, previously must have been altered, because I bought another one for an American special strat that I use a lot, and it had the 250k/500k dual gang volume and 2x 1meg time pots.It’s great. The wiring is tidy, soldering likewise.I’m a fan of the Shawbucker. It is microphonic and will suffer mic-style feedback easily on loud stages with higher gain settings, but if you control that with your positioning and volume pot you are rewarded with a much twangier, livelier humbucker than a JB or similar. That might not be what you’re after, but it does country and rock/metal convincingly and matches well with strat sounds.The N4 noiseless are also great. They don’t sound exactly like single coils, the neck is fat and round and like an exaggerated tele neck pup, kind of… but, the inbetween setting is actually very convincing and you can get a very stratty tone.Their noise-cancelling is very useful in bars with old-fashioned dimmer switched lighting. I have one regular gig like this and I can’t use normal single coils there — it’s why I use these N4 and have tried a few other noiseless type single coils. These are my favourite so far, and have become my go to.I also have two American Pro II strats with dual gang volumes and the later ‘double tap’ Shawbucker — which have a coil split and are quite a bit less microphonic than the Shawbucker.Solid choice for a quiet, versatile strat setup.

20 years ago I was in the market for a Strat. I could only afford a Fender Mexican Strat at the time. It hung on the wall ,in the guitar shop, for what seemed ages. When it was in the sale, I bought it. I play Knoffler, Gilmour classic stuff. It has done a job but seemed to lack a little something. I have changed hum buckers in Yamaha guitars in the past, not for a better tone but one nearer the tone I was going for. I do not solder often and thus looked at the pre wired Mex special scratch plate option to reduce the amount of soldering to do during the change .-ve's. Obviously more expensive than just a set of three pickups on their own. The pre-wired set cost almost what I payed for the guitar! Not all the scratch plate screw holes match up with the previous scratch plate holes. No new shinny screws. Not an issue really but I had to drill a small hole for the additional earth wire.+ve's The tone is impressive. No new kit will turn you into a rock god but it inspires you to play more. My partner noticed the improvement in tone straight away. She said you can sound like Floyd and Straits after all! !!!! Less soldering and faff than if you bought just a set of new pickups. Easy to install. Watch the Youtube vid first just to see how to do it. Basically Fender "60's pickups. If you changed these on a top grade Fender you may not notice the improvement but on my Mexican made Strat, or I guess on a Squire or similar, you will notice the improvement.If you are old enough, my Blonde Mexican Strat was a Fiesta, now it is an XR2. I'm just going to open the windows and wind the volume up. Time for a go faster stripe I feel!

yes excellent product

It’s ok, better sound although the tone pots only seem to work at 8+ on any tone switch setting.. a little disappointing from “fender” glass I wasn’t putting them in a £1k + plus guitar but for squire models a good upgrade

Brought as a present. They love it.