The good: it is a major upgrade for my 1988 squier E10 type strat. It is a very good guitar, superior playability. But I found out it sounded about the same as a HB-62, which is very good tbh. Then I compared to a €2000 plus top strat. A big difference. So I bought this pickguard set, although you can buy a complete HB guitar for its price. Scary..
But to my relief… this set sounds amazing! Such nice non harsh treble. Dynamics, volume.. it sounds (and to me is) like an expensive strat now. Very happy!!! A must if you have a good strat body . (Also shielded the cavity with copperfoil while I was at it…)
The not so good: the white wire from the neck pickup to the switch was too short, couldn’t fit in the routing of the body. Had to make it a bit longer…:( that is the minus two stars. Really frustrating . (A bathtub style routed body would not have had troubles)
And almost no screw holes were the same, to be expected, but after it sounded so great, I drilled new holes. So all in all it took a bit longer as 10 minutes to swap.. ;) edit: that was my mistake, my strat was a 8 hole 60’s type. Didn’t know there was a difference. No matter for a squier, but check if you have a valuable old Strat.
Did I mention it still sounds stellar?!!!
