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 I just spent some time researching and ordering some awesome upgrades for my Stratocaster. I'm really excited! I'm going to shield it, star ground it and hook it up with the highest quality parts I could locate.
I ordered new cloth covered wire, copper shielding supplies, a few types of paper in oil caps to try, CTS no load tone pots, an Oak Grigsby 5way switch, and the highly acclaimed RS Guitarworks Superpot volume pot. The strat is an 1982 '57 reissue... I've had it since I was a kid... Many years ago I replaced the original pickups with the Fender custom '69 pickups that are created, dated, and signed by Abigail Ybarra the famous fender pickup spinner. Mine are similar to the ones pictured. Great sounding pickups. I'm probably most excited about the superpot volume pot... it's supposed to have a really usable sweep. I had heard of it before but today I sat down and read peoples opinions... everyone loves them. Also, on the volume control tip... I might try the volume control treble bleed mod that everyone online is doing. It's supposed to keep the freq response the same throughout the pot's rotation. I'd really like to keep it simple in there so maybe not... we'll see. For the tone controls I ordered the CTS no load pots... I really like the sound of the pickups with no tone cap but I do use the tone controls on stage so I can't just bypass them all together. These tone pots should be perfect for me! While I'm talking about the tone controls... I always rewire so that the bridge pickup and neck pickup have tone controls while the middle is always open. I never understood why fender didn't ship this way... it's very usable. The only downside is that you cant to the Hendrix voodoo chile' pickup selector trick where you turn the middle pickup's tone all the way down and switch back and forth. Oh well, use a wah for a similar effect. For the tone capacitor I ordered a few options... A Genuine Sprague Vitamin Q, a Cornell-Dubilier PIO from the 50s, a NOS K40Y Soviet Military PIO, the Mojotone Dijon and the mojotone vitamin T PIO... The only thing I didn't go for was the jensens that are available because they are wayyyy overpriced and basically the same as all of the other paper and oil capacitors. I'll probalby do a .022uf on the neck and .047uf on the bridge... maybe just a single .047uf. I've tried a lot of configurations... right now I just have a .022 in there but I think I like .047uf more. I've read great things about shielding and star grounding for single coil guitars. It should cut down the buzz and hum to a more acceptable level. A stratocaster can never be hum free without noiseless pickups but at least we can keep out as much interference as possible. For shielding I am going to use some self stick copper shielding in the strat body and then regular old alumnium foil 3m'd onto the back of the pickguard. The star grounding will remove any ground loops and should help to keep out any extra hum that the shielding doesn't stop. Anyway... I'll try to update as the parts roll in. Hopefull some pictures will be in order. Best, CB
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