Since I'm a beginner... 'round the beginning of this year I chose as my "starter guitar" a Fender "Standard Fat Strat" with Floyd Rose tremolo.

I want to upgrade it. The reason I got it was because I was told it's a very upgradeable guitar... as in, you can take it from 'okay' to 'wow' easily enough.

1. The Pickups. I was told that's what needs upgrading first-and-foremost. However, I'm always worried that if I get pickups that have too much output (i.e. ones that are made for heavy duty metal such as the Dimebucker) that it will sound like crap on an alder-bodied maple-necked guitar (as opposed to mahogany). However, I've got big fat 13 gauge string and I down-tune all the strings a whole + half step so that E becomes C#, A becomes F#, etc. Might that make it "warm" enough for ultra high output pickups?

2. Electronics? Any new switches or any other doohickeys? Someone told me that for a standard Strat it would be wise to add copper shielding. Anything else?

3. What about a replacement neck? Where could I get one for a standard Strat? Are there any compelling reasons to have one? I know Warmoth doesn't make replacement necks for Mex-built Strats.

Finally...

...since I've never had the chance to play an American-built Strat, let alone an American Deluxe Strat...

...how does the MexStrat compare in terms of playability, feel, etc.?

If I had an American Strat... would I somehow be able to play better and easier on it than my Mex built... just like the commercials that tell me I can play b-ball like... uhhhhh... whoever's big in the NBA these days (not a sports fan) if I would only buy the shoes that have his name on them?

Would my fingers and my pick be able to tell the difference? My wrists? My forearms? The sensori-motor portion of my nervous system? :confused:

Should I just get an American Strat and unload the MexStrat on my little brother? :confused: Or can the MexStrat be upgraded into something I would want to play on and use indefinitely... as my "main squeeze"?

personally I think...

Pickups: change them...I wouldnt go for a Dimebucker or any high output or distortion pickups unless I wanted that sound. Try a Seymour Duncam Jb humbucker...has a very versatile sound...and also has balls if you need them. Others to try could be a Bareknuckles Nailbomb, Emerald or anything off of the bareknucklepickups webpage that sounds good to you...I love Bareknuckle pickups...

Electronics: I suppose you could add a push/pull pot on one of your tone pots, and get a 4conductor humbucker, that way you could split it and activate either single coil or humbucker in the bridge with your push/pull pot.

NecK: If there's nothing wrong with it, the leave it alone.

personally I think...

It doesn't seem like you even know what you want. Everyone seems to be telling you to do this and that. What do you want? Are you happy with the guitar? Or, since you just hear that you should upgrade this or that, you want to? Use your own judgement, not someone else's.

You say your a beginner as well. Most beginner's don't know what they want and alot of them will not even notice small changes. Keep the guitar the way it is for a couple years. Once you get into bands or start finding what kind of music you really get into, then change stuff as needed, not because someone said you should do this or that.

I personally agree with tele...

you certainly shouldnt change anything if you dont think it needs changing.
And if you dont know if it needs upgrading...then (atleast until you do know), It does not need upgrading.

I'm a beginner when it comes to guitar but certainly not when it comes to bass. I am very much the veteran when it comes to bass. Very much so.

I have a loooooooooooong and very specific list for the bass I'm going to have custom-built for myself. I'm also in the process of upgrading the bass guitars that I already own. I definitely know what I'm doing when it comes to that... as far as tone, pickups, the intricate specifics of the neck (I have extremely specific parameters in mind), etc.

Though I've always been a dummy when it comes to electro-tech stuff. That's why I ask dumb questions when it comes to that.

In general, I am in the process of transferring my highly anally-retentive ways to guitar.

I absolutely intend on upgrading the pickups on my Strat. There is no question whatsoever about that. That's why I bought this guitar. It was meant to be upgraded.

I just want to know what else to take care of while I'm at it.

I'll see if I can find an American (Deluxe) Strat to mess around with and I will see for myself if there is any real difference. If there is, I most certainly will be able to tell. If I find the difference to be compelling enough then I will save up for the American (Deluxe) Strat and then unload the MexStrat on my little bro.

And ultimately, the kind of tone and feel I'm looking for is floating in my brain. I can say with confidence that I know what I want. I bought this guitar because I was told it was very upgradeable, so that is what I intend on doing.

I'm mainly trying to figure out what kind of difference electronics make... because like I said, I'm a retard when it comes to anything other than feel/playability and tone.

There are a few things you can do to customize your Strat. As far as pickups go I would suggest Dimarzio HS3's for the neck and bridge position. These are high output pickups that work very well with a strat. You can get a new neck from Warmouth Custom necks. These necks have very similar headstocks in relation to the original and they are of excellent quality. My personal favorite is the compound radius neck ($450). Solid Maple with the fret wire of your choice. Mine is scalloped with 6100 fret wire. You can also put on a graphite nut at the top of the neck which will lubricate the strings and prevent snagging in the groves if you take your locking tremelo off. I don't feel that a Floyd Rose is good for the strat. Some guitars are made for that system and others are robbed of their natural sustain with them I feel that the strat falls into this catagory. If it was a Jackson or Ibaneze it would be a different story. 3 position toggles are easier to work with and still will enable you to get some great tones.

Well, for the bridge humbucker I've narrowed it down between the Seymour Duncan "SB"... and the Seymour Duncan "Distortion." I found out that some people have put the latter on an H-S-S Strat and it worked just great... but I don't know if it's been done (successfully) with the SB.

Now, with either of those two models, should they work okay with the weird Strat/Floyd Rose spacing? I don't want to install the thing and find that my E string (well, in my case, my C# string :D ) doesn't float over the pole piece/surface like it's supposed to.

What i would change on my mex strat...that i dont play anymore cuz i have a vintage strat btw, is

1) tuners gotta go, i need my guitar to stay in tune...50 bucks, best investment no matter how good you pick ups are

2) pick ups

3) heavier tremolo block, the one in the mexican is the worst piece of metal...type and size

Unless your talking about American Standard strat..but i dont think so...

Well, mine has a Floyd Rose and the locking nut that goes with it. So it stays in tune, for sure. Are you saying the Floyd Rose on the MexStrat is crap? Or rather, that the Fender-made tremolo that comes with the regular (non-Floyd) model is crap?

Okay, earlier today I think I figured out the best way to ask this two-part question. It's long, involved, and elaborate... so here goes nothing:

1. Take an uber-experienced guitarist (maybe even someone famous like Yngwie) or a top flight guitar tech, or an elite custom guitarmaker, blindfold him and put 100% noise cancellation headphones on his head (put in custom molded earplugs just for good measure), then (without telling him what it was) put, in no particular succession order, A) a Mex-built Strat; B) an American Strat; C) an American Deluxe Strat in his hands (all of which have the Floyd Rose tremolo) and then instruct him to noodle around without the benefit of knowing, seeing or hearing (the amp's turned off and he's got those muffs on his ears) what it is that he's holding and fingering/picking.

Just going by feel, heft, hoist, string pressure, the neck, (basically everything that can be detected by tactile means) etc. etc. ... what discernable differences would our expert be able to detect?

2. Take those same three guitars (all made of alder with maple neck and rosewood fretboard), leave them as is.

Except for the Mex-Built Standard. With that, you upgrade the electronics as much as they can possibly be upgraded, and install the same exact pickups that come stock in the American Deluxe. In random succession, run them through the same amp (some top-of-the-line Hughes & Kettner or something) on the cleanest setting that it can possibly be set to, with no effects or anything whatsoever.

Then stick some top flight Grade-AAA producer/sound engineer/guitar builder/studio pro guitarist... or even Seymour frickin' Duncan himself, in the room with a blindfold on.

Let him listen to each one for a few minutes. Each guitar will be noodled on by... oh, I don't know... some anonymous studio pro who's halfway up the totem pole of studio rats (so he's entirely competent, but not to the point of being famous or having a recognizeable style that those "in the know" would recognize), who will play the same piece the same exact way three times in a row.

Or better yet, make it a double-blind study. Three different studio pros... each one is only told that he has to step into the room (he'll have his back turned to the tone/sound expert and it'll be set up so that he has no idea that anyone's standing there listening) and play whatever is handed to him (the same piece for each of the three... they're polished and professional enough to do it the same exact way, with precision). He will have no clue that the guitar in his hands is being compared to a guitar that is inferior or superior to any other guitar being tested that day, so he will play no differently.

Hell, blindfold them. If they're that pro they can do it without looking at it.

[Though it's not my area of expertise at all and I can't imagine ever finding myself doing it, I am technically qualified to design and conduct social research experiments.]

Would our expert (or even several such experts, kept in isolation from one another) be able to tell the differences, and if so, what would they be?

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I'm hoping that in both cases there would either be no difference, or they would be so miniscule that only some legendary professional uber-expert with hearing like a dolphin would even be able to tell.

That's what my hope was when I bought the Standard Fat Strat... that it could be upgraded to the point that it was at least the equal of a stock American (Deluxe) or custom/signature Strat that's nearly twice as expensive or more... both in playability/feel and in tone.

Well, I'm going to go to GuitarCenter soon on a routine shopping trip... I'm going to pull an American Strat and then an American Deluxe Strat off the wall and give it a rip... and then a MexStrat like I got... all three of which will be played through the same exact amp. So I'll see for myself what the difference is.

But I just have to wonder what these hypothetical experts in these hypothetical research experiments would have to say.

(Yes, I'm that anal. :D I'm also diagnosed with OCD, which can be a good thing in certain areas... unless you're trying to work with me. *hee hee hee SNORT* ).

Basically I'm trying to avoid shelling out the $$$ for a much more expensive guitar! :eek: But I really like the build and feel of the Strat (contours, playability, etc.) so I can say that it's not because I'm stuck on having something with name recognition (e.g. Fender Strat, Gibson Les Paul, etc.). Though I've always preferred the look of vintage guitars to the space agey metal guitars of the 80s or the weird modern thingies like the Parker Fly.