strat update questions

[daav]

OK, a while ago i posted a thread about refinshing my MIJ 89 or so strat.
People wisely cautioned me against it and i ignored that sage advice and did it anyway. I got lucky and it come out pretty nice, body is laminated, but the grain is nice and matches closely enough that is it a very pretty natural finish now.

So then, i decide it is time tp update the pickups and i get a nice deal on some used Bill Lawrance 280s on ebay. I warm up the sodering iron and manage to get them in, and it sounds fantastic!

Unfortunately after putting the neck back on, i have a ton of fret buzz. I know my limitations and am going to take it in and get it set up properly by a pro now. But first....

1. I wanted to replace the knobs to match the nice new looking white pickups, anbd I can't get the knobs off, broke the old crappy pickguard trying to get some leverage to pry them off. Any suggestions on getting these off to reuse the pots?

2. So i buy a nice new pickguard, three ply instead of the 1 ply on the original, and i am going to put in the pickups and wire it up over the weekend. I figured I'd buy some new wire and shield the cavity and do it right, what gauge wire should i be using for this?

3. I have a nice diagram of the stock wiring, and i matched that so far, but anyone have any good suggestions for wiring in a fun/interesting way? I can add a swith or two, but haven;t found push/pull pots or anything locally.

Thanks,
Daav.

 

[travelin travis]

do your knobs have set screws? probably not on a strat but worth a check. an easy way to get a strat knob if: take a piece of thin cloth (table cloth, etc.) and work an edge of it under the knob. try to get the cloth under the knob all the way around. pull straight up and evenly on the cloth. it should pop right off no matter how tight it is, unless some moron glued them.

wire guage was just covered in another thread (at the top some where). 24 guage works fine for me in strats. on one of my cheapy strat style guitars the hole from the input jack to the control cavity was too small for 22 guage. i could have made it bigger but what's the point?

since your pickguard is already mangled, you might want to route out a hole for all the controls and make a little panel to cover the whole and mount all your controls in. this will let you experiment with wiring schemes and parts without pulling the whole pick guard. or you could just cut off the control section of the pickguard. you'll still have a few screws to hold it in. ideas for experimenting but not really for long term use.

guitarnuts covers about any electronic mod for a strat that you can think of.

i've been itching to try a p90 in a strat. anyone here tried that?

some places to find affordable guitar parts are guitarfetish and guitarpartsusa.