Help with pickups

[DiscoSamurai]

Hello all
Even though I'm lucky enough to own a couple of decent guitars I've always had a special place in my heart for my first guitar Squire Strat (yeah I know most people think they suck etc) I think its an affinity series one so it feels a bit nicer than the tea chest wood ones they make at the moment. Basically I was considering replacing the pickups on it so I'll be able to use it again (not for gigging just for doodling with). However I've never done this before so I have a few questions.

1) I play mainly punk/rock and occasionally blues music, can anyone recommend a good set of pickups that dont cost the earth!
2) How difficult is it to change pickups? I'm happy with soldering and I've had my guitar apart a few times to nosy around. Should it prove to difficult?
3) If I replaced the bridge pickup with a humbucker is this any more difficult that replacing it with a single coil pickup (electronics wise) and will I need to buy a new pickguard to seat it, or can I somehow widen the hole?

Hope someone can help me with this, I'd like to be able to play my first born again :)

Ta

Neal

[James8831]

1.)Kent Armstrong and Mighty Mite pickups are good cheaper makes generally- talk to the tech at your local gtr shop to see if you can cajole him into letting you use a guitar with some replacement pickups on it.

2.)No it's not difficult to change pickups - usually the black wire goes to the back of the volume pot and the white one to the selector - but check with fender/squier for a wiring diagram,or make your own by noting down where it all went before its generally just a matter of replacing wires like for like. Do make sure that you get the middle pickup in the right place as it's wound the other way to the other two so it gives you a "quack" sound in positions 2 and 4.

3.)Kent Armstrong(and others) make stacked humbuckers which are the same size as single coils (God knows how they squeeze 2 decent sized coils on top of each other) and should fit straight in.

I dont know how well you can trust the reviews anymore but http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data2/ has pickup reviews.

Good luck, I reckon if Squiers had better pickups we wouldn't need to buy mid priced Fenders..

[Branislav]

I think you should buy some Standard model. I tried both Affinity and Standard and this one's better.
You could buy used Strat pickups or if you want for best sound Noiseless Fender Pickups (about 200$)

[DiscoSamurai]

Thanks for the replies you've given me food for thought
*wanders off to find his soldering iron"
Thanks again

Neal