Don't buy a new guitar, change it!

Since I started practising the guitar a little over a year ago I have been playing on a HSS stratocaster. The HSS stands for Humbucker-Single-Single, the types of pickups in the guitar.

This was great as I could mix playing styles, from classic rock to blues to metal. It is actually great if you want to have variety in just one guitar.

When I got a Yamaha Revstar with a HH configuration I noticed I didn’t really like the humbucker together with the single coils of the stratocaster. So I started longing for an SSS configuration.

Then a friend mentioned: “Why don’t you just get a new pick guard with three single coils?”

Brilliant.

What did I do?

The before version of the guitar is a modded version of the Harley Benton ST-20HSS. A great beginner guitar and a perfect modding platform.

The great thing about these guitars is that the body is routed to fit SSS, HSS, HH, and HSH configurations. This way they can use the same body for all their different standard stratocaster models. This means that I only have to get a new pickguard and some picksups.

I heard great things about FLEOR pickups and started looking for them online. And then I ran into a pre-wired pickguard which I could just drop in my current setup. That was perfect!

The only problem I knew I would run into was that I had to fit this pickguard to the body of the guitar as I knew this pickguard is made for Fender guitars, and not Harley Bentons. They look so similar I just took the plunge and thought I could mod it after.

The outcome

I was surprised by how good the pickguard looked and was wired.

I mean… come on! I am not this neat when I solder stuff.

All I had to do now is desolder the current connections to the output jack and the ground and solder on these new connections.

This process took me about 30 minutes, it’s crazy.

What I had to change

There were a couple of things I had to change to make this work with the body of the guitar.

1. I needed to sand a bit of the neck pocket of the pickguard to make the neck fit in the pocket.
2. The 5 way switch was actually shorting with the copper tape on the bottom of my cavity, so I had to put some non-conductive tape in-between.
3. The holes of the pickguard didn’t line up with the previous (Harley Benton made) holes. So I had to drill new holes in the body of the guitar.

Not really that much, but something to take into account.

Not a new guitar, but still a new guitar

Without buying a new guitar, I was able to turn my guitar into a new guitar. And on top of that: I can always switch it back to the old configuration because I didn’t really need to change the original guitar that much.

I’d say that is a win-win situation!