HSS Pickguard for the Fender® Stratocaster®

The evolution of the “Fat Strat®” is a bit of a grey area. The earliest examples started appearing as aftermarket mods in the mid-1960s, but we don’t see humbuckers as standard on any Fender® until 1972—and even then, the Stratocaster® didn’t get a factory-fitted humbucker in the bridge until the late ’80s or early ’90s at the very earliest.

Aside from the addition of that bridge humbucker, the pickguard layout remained largely unchanged from the post-1963 single-coil version. Because of that, this plate is likely to fit most USA and Mexican-built Stratocasters®, as well as some modern Squiers®—but always check the body cavity before ordering, as not all guitars will have the routing clearance for a full-size humbucker in the bridge.

This plate is designed to fit Fender® and Squier® Stratocasters® made from 1963 onward, including most modern production models and vintage reissues built to the same specs.

Now available routed for either “Covered” or “Uncovered” humbuckers in the bridge position, or, at extra cost, an "Uncovered - 3 screw Mount" humbucker, which corresponds with the Fender® humbucker style

CUSTOM OPTIONS

By default, HSS plates come with an uncovered humbucker in the bridge and a standard single coil in the neck and middle. That said, with the flexibility we’ve got these days, we’re now able to offer a range of customisable bridge pickup options.

We’ve kept things limited to humbucking pickups to avoid confusion, but if you want a HSS with a little twist, we’ve got you covered!

A Closer Look and what to look out for

A few years back, we changed how we approached pickguards. For a while, we ran a full “custom pickguard” service — and to be honest, it was a headache from start to finish. Interestingly, the most common requests weren’t for wild custom shapes — just standard plates with slightly different control layouts.

So, when the full custom work wound down, we took a more practical approach: we started stocking “half-finished” pickguards — fully cut and finished, but without the control pot holes drilled. This allows us to offer a wide range of pickup and control options, drilling the holes in-house to your spec. It’s quick, simple, and keeps costs down — no need for a full custom build.

What’s Custom, and What Isn’t?

Let’s be clear — this isn’t a full-blown custom shop service. We’re not cutting new shapes, routing entirely new cavities, or making major structural changes.

Instead, we’re simply drilling different control layouts using jigs and a pillar drill. While that technically makes these pickguards “custom” (since they’re made to order), the scope is intentionally limited.

You’re choosing a pre-made plate — often something like a covered or uncovered HH layout — and we’re customising the pot holes, and occasionally routing a pickup if needed.

Any Extra Costs?

• Pot hole drilling: Free of charge. It’s quick work, done in-house.

• Routing a pickup: This may carry an additional charge, depending on the pickup combination and complexity. It involves extra handling and setup, so pricing is determined on a case-by-case basis.

You Can Have Three Hole Sizes Drilled

We offer three sizes of holes, depending on your needs:

• 10 mm – for standard pots

• ½" – for full-size toggle switches

• ¼" – for mini toggle switches

The positions stay the same; only the diameters change depending on what you’re adding.

So — with all that in mind — let’s walk through how to understand where the holes go and how to get the layout you want.

This is, probably, easier with a diagram, but, be warned, whilst it makes sense - its pretty cluttered.

• 10 mm Pot Holes: White

• ¼" Mini Switch Holes: Pink

• ½" Toggle Switch Holes: Grey

• UFO Knobs (~1" diameter) and Switch Tips (9 mm over the slot): Green

The system is smart enough to prevent most overlap issues, but some combinations sneak through. For example, fitting a 10 mm pot in the Offset 2 position alongside any switch will get really tight once the knob is installed.

And in closing - Pickguards, once drilled away from the standard hole plan, come under the remit of Custom work and as always, if you've got any questions what so ever, please feel free to get in touch with us and we can talk through all the finer details of your proposed build.

You’ll have to forgive the slightly grumpy tone here—but, truth be told? Custom pickguards aren’t exactly “fun.” From the stock side, the manufacturing side, or even routing them myself, it’s a headache. Years of “I don’t want to pay that” emails haven’t helped either.

So this section isn’t about showing off a dazzling product range. It’s more like: here’s what we can actually do—it might not be glamorous, but it’ll get you out of a jam.

First things first: we’re not actually making “custom” pickguards from scratch.

What we are doing is modding existing plates—re-routing, tweaking, adding extra holes. Basically, taking a pre-cut guard that already mostly matches what you need, and nudging it closer to your spec.

What we can’t do:

• Change the outer shape

• Move the mounting holes

• Mess with trem/neck routes

What we can do:
We can take a plate that’s as close as possible to your spec and drill in extra pickups if you need them.

A Couple of Examples:

• Covered HSS plate? That’s standard. No extra charge—grab it, pack it, ship it.

• Covered HH plate, but with an extra uncovered humbucker in the middle? Now we’re talking. We take the stock plate, slot it into the jig, and drill the extra pickup ourselves. Not a huge job, but it’s dusty, it takes time, and there’s a bit of wear on tools—so yes, there’s a small extra charge.

So, what’s the deal?

• Standard plate: If you spec something we already make (highly likely if it’s a common layout), there’s no upcharge—grab it, ship it, job done.

• Modded stock plate: If it’s basically a stock plate but with an extra pickup (or two) routed in, there will be a small upcharge. Simple, quick, and not too painful, but still extra work.

• Blank or heavily customised plate: If your spec means starting with a “blank” plate and routing multiple pickups, the job can be done—but the charges start to creep up. The more pickups, the more complicated, the more expensive.

• Outside our scope: Anything that involves changing the outer shape, moving mounting holes, messing with bevels, or similar? Sorry, we can’t do it.

Pot holes, colours, and quirks:
Most plates can be customised for pot hole size and layout—especially Covered HH, SCSCSC, and Covered HSS. Older stock may already be pre-drilled. Colour availability is a little hit and miss, but the builder will guide you.

The Bottom Line:
This isn’t a full-blown custom shop. It’s a practical way to fill gaps in our range and give you a bit of flexibility. It’s not glamorous, it’s not free, but it works.

Pickups

Choose from a range of pickup styles to suit your build.

Humbuckers

The HB Strat® pickguards are so common these days that most players don’t even think of them as a “mod” anymore. Still, it’s worth approaching humbucker routes with the mindset that this isn’t the standard setup—mainly because there are a few variations that can catch you out.

By default, we offer the bridge position routed for either an Uncovered or Covered humbucker, included at no extra cost.

Prefer a 3-screw mount humbucker? We can do that too. This option requires routing the pickguard to order, which involves extra work and carries a small additional charge.

Nighthawk Humbucker

Gibson’s short-lived “super strat killer” from the ’90s, the Nighthawk, came with a pretty unusual pickup layout: a slanted bridge humbucker, a single-coil middle, and a Nighthawk mini-humbucker at the neck. And if you know the guitar, you’ll understand why those quotation marks are there—it was a bit of a dog’s dinner overall, and never really gained much popularity.

That said, the bridge pickup design had real potential that, in my opinion, was never fully explored. The slanted mounting gave the low strings more bass response, which made the guitar feel more aggressive and better balanced.

I’ve been experimenting with this setup on my Strat®, running an Axesrus® Heretic humbucker in the bridge. It’s… interesting. For me, it tips a little too far into the low end (though the Heretic is a pretty hefty pickup to begin with). Not for every situation, but definitely an option if you’re looking for something a bit different with more tonal variety.

If you’re curious about exploring something a little out of the ordinary, I’d definitely recommend giving the Heretic humbuckers a try—they’re surprisingly versatile and open up some tonal possibilities you won’t get from standard pickups.

Single Coils

“The Normal Stratocaster® Pickup”

It’s a bit of an oversimplification to call these just “single coils.” Strictly speaking, Telecaster®, Jazzmaster®, Jaguar®, and even P90 pickups are all single coils as well. But for whatever reason, when someone says “single coil,” most of us immediately picture a Strat® pickup.

Strat-style pickups are very much “Fender®” in how they’re built — and unmistakably Fender® in how they sound. I think most of us know what a Strat-style single coil does, so I’ll spare you a full-length deep dive.

That said, there are a few quirks unique to the Stratocaster® layout that are worth touching on, along with some interesting alternative options we offer.

“Double Single Coils"

Double Single Coils were, frankly, rare. Off the top of my head, I can only think of Robbie Robertson and his Last Waltz Stratocaster as a “known” example, and even then, it’s a bit of a left-field case, because the guitar wasn’t widely recognized until Fender released it as a (very short-lived) signature model. It’s a beautiful guitar, so I can see why it gained attention, and the main point of note was the “Double Single Coil” concept.

While Robbie, if not the inventor, was certainly an early adopter of the idea, Fender actually dabbled independently as well, with the 1990s Stratocaster Ultra, which sported a Lace “Dually”—essentially two single-coil-sized humbuckers wired in series. The routing was a “flat” Double Single Coil setup (whereas Robbie’s is a slanted version).

Either way, Fender revisited the concept more recently with the Squier Contemporary series, which featured a slightly different setup again (slanted this time, with the single coils very close, but separated). It’s a nice idea, and it has potential, but there are a few considerations.

Firstly, electrically, it’s not advisable to wire a “Double Single Coil” as though it’s a standard bridge and middle combination. The pickups are so close together that, assuming the middle coil is reverse-wound/reverse-polarity, using them both in parallel will induce significant phase cancellation, making the output almost unusable.

It’s better to follow Robbie’s approach and wire the two pickups in series, so they essentially act as a humbucker. The result is big, beefy, and aggressive—but a little unfamiliar. With an inductance around 6–7 Henries, it may feel slightly “loose and lardy.” It’s something different, certainly usable, but don’t expect Gibson-style tones just because it uses two coils.

They do, too, bring up a few weird quirks, so, lets cover some of the finer points too.

PLEASE NOTE – I’ve included the “Double Single Coil Bridge Pickup” as an option in the HSS plates. Technically, this is what we’d call a “Juan” mod "deluxe". It’s a bit muddy, because at this point the plates are essentially custom-built, but here’s the gist: a pair of single coils wired in parallel are acting as a humbucker.

Since I’ve added all the other humbucker variations into the dropdown, I wanted to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. So: a Juan mod "Deluxe" is a HSS mod, but a HSS mod isn’t necessarily a Juan mod.

Mini Humbuckers

Mini Humbuckers are, frankly, a little bit strange. As near as I can tell, they exist largely because Gibson had a surplus of P90 Les Paul bodies they couldn’t give away. To make use of the design, they acquired a relatively small jazz guitar manufacturer from New York to adopt their Mini humbucker design — which they then mounted in “rings” made from cut-down P90 covers.

Whatever the truth behind the story, that’s how Mini humbuckers became part of the mainstream, and how Epiphone ended up with them.

Basically, they’re smaller than “proper” humbuckers and somewhat limited in what they can do, coming in two main “flavours”:

• Traditional — with six exposed screw poles and a covered “rail” pole on the other coil. Almost always wound to 6K, sitting atop a bar magnet.

• Firebird — a completely enclosed cover with two bar magnets pressed into the coils. Weirdly, they don’t behave all that differently from the traditional version, considering how unusual the construction is. They’ve had a bit of a resurgence in recent years.

Personally, I’ve never been a huge fan. In my opinion, “once you’ve tried one, you’ve tried them all,” since the size and shape limitations make them all sound pretty similar. They’re a lot less defined than a normal humbucker, soupier under gain, but incredibly pleasing if you keep things clean and classy.

Interestingly, there’s a lot of confusion around size. Most Mini humbucker rings are designed to accept a 68 mm pickup, so technically 68 mm Mini humbuckers should exist. In practice, though, I’ve never seen one — my suspicion is that the pickups themselves are actually closer to 65 mm where it matters, and the “68 mm” spec only applies to the flared base.

Colours

Ok, even I’ll concede this isn’t the most thrilling topic at this stage — but there’s a surprising amount of confusion around the various “off-white” pickguard colours. And seeing as we’re already ticking off pearls and tortoise shell variants, we might as well tackle the parchments, mints and creams too.

So, let’s get stuck in.

Mint Green Notes

Before we dive any deeper into colours, a few things are worth flagging about Mint Green — it’s a tricky shade and often comes across completely differently in photos.

First, if you’ve looked at the “real” photos of Mint A and Mint B, you’ve probably noticed they look almost identical. That’s not a mistake — cameras genuinely struggle to capture the subtle differences. They tend to auto-correct everything toward a washed-out Mint A, regardless of the actual plate.

So, why bother showing photos at all? Well, the unedited images highlight how misleading camera shots can be. From here, you have to trust the edited examples above, or the colour swatch in the pickguard customiser — that’s a very accurate representation of what the plates look like in real life.

The takeaway? Don’t rely on photos when judging Mint Green. If I’ve had this problem, so has everyone else. A quick search online will show you at least ten subtly different mint shades on Fender guitars — but in reality, Fender almost always used Mint B (with the exception of Fender Japan). Over the last 20 years, I’ve come across just four actual Mint Green shades: B, A, a very bright “snot” green, and a slightly lighter version of B that’s still pretty close.

Pearloids Explained

Pearloid pickguards are often lumped in with tortoiseshells, but they occupy their own, slightly shinier niche. They’re not as subtle as tortoiseshells — the swirls and patterns are more pronounced, with a pearlescent effect that catches the light beautifully. Historically, they’ve been a relatively straightforward affair: virtually all pearloid pickguards are made from PVC, and there isn’t a deep, mysterious backstory like some of the vintage materials.

What makes them interesting is less about origin and more about aesthetics. The colour and pattern variations are deliberate but consistent, making it fairly easy to anticipate how they’ll look on a finished guitar. Unlike tortoiseshell, which can shift dramatically from manufacturer to manufacturer, pearloid maintains a stable palette. That said, the swirl direction, density, and shine can give each plate a little personality — no two are ever perfectly identical.

In short, if you’re after a classic, eye-catching pickguard with a bit of sparkle, pearloid is a solid, no-fuss choice that’s stood the test of time.

Pearloid Quirks

Pearloid plates do have a few quirks of their own. While the material is relatively consistent, the way the “pearl” swirls are distributed can vary a lot from sheet to sheet. You might find sections with tight, dense pearling or areas that are more open and sparse. This isn’t a defect—just the nature of how the pattern is formed.

Additionally, colors can shift slightly depending on lighting and viewing angle, so a plate that looks crisp under one light may appear softer or more muted under another. It’s worth keeping this in mind when matching to existing finishes or other pickguards.

Tortoise Shells

You’ve probably noticed that we do a huge variety of tortoise shell pickguards – and even then, we barely scratch the surface of the available styles.

Originally, tortoise shell pickguards were made from actual tortoise shell – pieces carefully shaped, joined, and polished until semi-transparent. Some of the earliest acoustic pickguards were made this way. Of course, nobody wants to go back to that practice, but people loved the look. When plastics came along in the early 20th century, they offered a much cheaper and more practical alternative. (Trade in hawksbill turtle shells didn’t become illegal until the 1970s.)

The first plastic tortoise shells were made from celluloid. It’s semi-transparent, with a kind of leopard-skin effect, and it looked gorgeous. Celluloid made its way onto guitars, mostly acoustics, and eventually electrics by the late ’50s and early ’60s. The problem? Celluloid is extremely flammable. Cutting it generates heat, storage is risky, and it’s generally unstable – prone to warping, shrinking, and colour changes under sunlight.

Today, tortoise shells are mostly made from Polyoxymethylene (more stable, but still flammable) or PVC (extremely durable, though it gives off toxic fumes if burned).

For modern pickguards, we typically work with five main variants (ignoring the rare, historical celluloid options). While celluloid still exists and looks incredible for historical accuracy, it’s extremely expensive, difficult to source, and high risk to work with. As a rough guide, sourcing a single celluloid plate could cost upwards of £150.

A Quick Note on Returns for These Plates

These plates are made to order, based entirely on the specifications you choose—pot hole positioning, pickup routing, and any other tweaks. Because of this, they’re classed as custom work and fall under the relevant section of our Terms & Conditions.

Once we’ve made a plate to your chosen spec, it becomes non-returnable and non-refundable. Even if the product page shows a “standard” configuration, that’s just a starting point—every plate is individually built to your selections.

Before hitting “buy,” please double-check that everything is exactly how you want it. We’ve made it as easy as possible to be confident in your order:

• Spec diagrams are available under the Technical Specification tab

• Colour photos can be found under Colours Explained

We want you to feel confident in your order—and we’re here to help if you have any questions.

Once it’s made, it’s yours: no returns, no refunds.

FAQs

Will this pickguard fit <INSERT GUITAR MODEL HERE>?

Alright, I’ve typed this out in emails tens of thousands of times, and honestly? The answer is still the same:

“I DON’T KNOW.”

No one really does—not with total, unwavering certainty. And here’s why:

1. The sheer variety of guitars

I (and any guitar tech, shop employee, or parts specialist) see a tiny cross-section of guitars each year. There are models I’ve never seen in the flesh, let alone held in my hands for a pickguard swap. Some makes and models won’t even come onto my radar until an email or call mentions them.

There’s no “Haynes manual” for pickguards. Even Fender® doesn’t publish a spec sheet for every Strat®, Tele®, or Les Paul®. Knowledge here is largely a hive mind thing—shared between techs, enthusiasts, and shop staff. I generally only know if a pickguard fits when someone tells me it worked (or didn’t). Feedback is everything.

2. Pickguards aren’t truly standardized

It’s a common assumption, but not entirely true. There are recognized specs—take Stratocasters®, for example: 1954–57, 1958–62, and 1963 onward. Mounting screw positions remain consistent in those ranges.

But even within those ranges, guitars can be slightly “off.” A hole might move 2 mm, a tremolo cavity might be 1 mm smaller, or a humbucker route could shift 5–6 mm. Sometimes these changes are factory experiments, sometimes they’re just quirks. By the next production run, everything might snap back to the standard.

So yes—a pickguard that fits one guitar of the same model may not fit another produced a week later.

What’s the best advice for checking fit?

1. Measure it yourself.
   Click the Technical Specification tab for diagrams. Measure centre-to-centre on holes, edge-to-edge on the shortest sides, and allow a small tolerance for measurement error. It’s a two-minute job.

2. What if it fits physically, but screw holes don’t line up?
   This happens more often than you think. Most aftermarket pickguards assume the “official” spec. If your guitar is out-of-spec, the screw holes might not match.

   Options:

   Option 1 – Modify your guitar:
   Fill and redrill mounting holes (Epoxy works well), adjust routing if needed. Easy, tidy, and future pickguard swaps remain simple. Could technically reduce resale value, but practically? Rarely a problem.

   Option 2 – Custom pickguards:
   These do exist. A sheet of plastic is cut to match your individual guitar. They’re labor-intensive, expensive, and have a high failure rate. Expect a £100–200 job. Don’t fall for anyone offering to do it for £30—it’s not realistic.

“I’ve received my pickguard and it’s VERY scratched.”

Chances are, what you’re seeing isn’t actually scratches on the pickguard itself—it’s the protective plastic film applied to the surface during manufacturing and shipping.

This thin sheet is designed to shield your pickguard from scuffs, scratches, and dust while it’s being made, packed, and shipped. It’s completely normal for this film to look a bit worn or scratched—the good news is, that means the pickguard underneath is still pristine.

What to do: Carefully peel off the protective film before installing your pickguard. You’ll reveal the flawless, shiny surface underneath.

If you do spot any marks after removing the film, please get in touch—we want to make sure every pickguard leaves here looking perfect.