Pick Me Up and Tune Me

I'm leaving a lot of detail out on the pickup install. There are a number of Strat schematics/circuit diagrams out there - there are a number of variations. If you can understand them and you can solder, you're in business. It ain't rocket surgery.

This is a shot of my harness halfway near completion. The only thing missing is the tone cap. I bought my pickups from Angela Instruments, and they threw in an Angela paper-in-oil .047uf cap, so that's what I have in the guitar.

Vhut ees next? Hmmmmm....

Ah yes, ve can poot zee tooners on ze neck!

The tuner installation is pretty straightforward. You just need to be careful not to hose your nice new finish. The bushings press into the holes in the headstock. There's a good chance that the stain, lacquer, polishing compound have found their way into the holes and made them a bit smaller, and the bushings won't press in. That was the case for me. In my experience, you should be able to press the bushings in by hand about halfway, and then seat them with a Special Tuner Bushing tool. I had to file the holes a bit so the bushings would seat enough to where I could push them in by hand. I happened to use a file, but a piece of sandpaper wrapped around a pencil would probably work just as well if you don't have a file. Just be careful of damaging the finish...or of taking off too much wood! Just a little bit will do it.

You should be able to press the bushings in about halfway by hand. You don't want to use your Special Tuner Bushing tool to ram them in the whole way - there is a good chance the headstock will crack!

With the bushings partway in, we reach into our toolbox and pull out our Special Tuner Bushing tool. Here it is in action. These clamps are great and are available cheep at the Home Depot. Be SURE to put cloth or similar over the finish. Otherwise, you WILL mar the soft lacquer. Ask me how I know!