I recently purchased some American Strat P/U's off of Ebay thinking I could upgrade my Squire Standard Strat with them, only to find out that the American Strat P/U's are slightly too large for the Squire pick guard. Does anyone know of if their are pickguards out there for my squire that will fit the Fender P/U's.
Using an American Strat pickguard seems the obvious way to go. If the body holes don't line up, drill new ones. If the old holes are too close to the new, first fill the old ones with toothpicks and white (yellow) glue. Also, you may have to trim an Am-Strat guard to fit around the bridge and neck of your Squier -- a good set of files and wet/dry sandpaper will do the job.
-Greg
-=tension & release=-
You can also consider what these folks offer.
Do a search on "custom pickguards" and you will find others.
Or you can just enlarge the pickup cutouts on your current pickguard with a file or dremmel or sandpaper.
Or you can just enlarge the pickup cutouts on your current pickguard with a file or dremmel or sandpaper.
This was my first thought, as well. But will only work well if the new/old pup screw holes are either in the same place or far apart. I'm betting they're just a small amount off, and would he would end up with a kludgy looking, non-round screw holes and loosely mounted pups. If the screw holes are in the same place, laminate (for Formica) files will do a nice job on the pickguard openings -- get these files at Home Depot or Lowes.
-=tension & release=-
I also saw someone on ebay selling strat pickguards without the pickup cutouts for custom pickup combinations. I think you can send him a tracing of the old pickguard and he can line up the holes and make the right sized pickup cutouts. I think they were about $30US.
