Musiclily Basic ST-SSS Loaded Pickguard with Mini Rail 4Ply White Pearl

Well constructed. Sounds good. Pretty easy installation. I have a fixed bridge that's a little wider than the standard strat so I had to modify my pick guard slightly to get it to fit. But it's a big upgrade from the stock squire pickups. Pots are smooth and quiet when adjusting tone and volume. Pickups have a lot of presence. Deep smooth tones from the neck pickup and that classic bright bridge pickup give those classic strat vibes that sounds like they're coming from a more high value guitar. I might get another one with an HSS set up to see if I like that even better. For the price, you can't go wrong.

This is my second loaded pickguard from this company. The packaging was tidy. Installation was a snap. I should also mention that this particular pickguard sounds fantastic. Definitely a lot more lively than your stock ceramic pickups. If you look on YouTube for demos, unfortunately most folks are not showcasing this the way it should be. It's quiet and high output, but if you back off on the volume control you get some really great blooming tone. The clean tones are great as well. This is a complete steal for the money.

I'm overall happy with this product, but there were two problems. First, the cable for the neck pickup is too short to reach the cutout for the bridge pickup and drop down to the tone controls. I had to chisel out some chunks of wood to get the existing wire to reach the controls via the center pickup cutout. Second, I ordered the white pearl but got plain white. I thought the pearl would be visible when I peeled the anti-scratch plastic layer off, but it's white -- and the part number on the box is for the pearl version, so it's likely a factory mixup. The humbuckers sound great, all 5 switch positions still sound like a strat, just minus all the single coil buzz. I installed this on my Fesley kit guitar as an upgrade to the single coil pickguard included with that model and I'm happy -- except the part about missing out on the pearl design and the unexpected woodworking project it took to get it installed.

Bang for the Buck… 110%. I don’t do reviews but after giving bad ratings & writing how the pickups are noisy, potted/ not potted, the fit etc etc. This is for upgrading (or downgrading for modifications) an SSS style Strat Guitar. You should have some basic understanding of electronics (related to pickups and gtrs) and basics of soldering. I bought this for an old school New York Pro strat (black originally). (Btw I’m a studio owner, gear collector and player for 30years with over 60 guitars in inventory). I got the newYork Pro Gtr for $25 and I knew the wood was good and that enough was good for me (70s/ 80s/90s gtrs of any value were made w real maple/ rosewood/ bass/ ash/ mahogany etc etc). I was able to set it up to a great playability but, the stock configuration lacked power and single coils notoriously buzz so, With only $25 into the Gtr, I decided on this loaded pickguard was going to originally get the Wilkinson Vintage Alnicos and put a Seymour Duncan Hot Rail I have laying around but, went for this. I chose mother of Pearl white (cream was the original pickguard color), I decided to paint the guitar “Hunt Club” Green to offset the white, also changed the 5 way knob to a stub and painted it to match. Now, to the reason for my review… I didn’t even take the strings off to replace this - I cut the ground, and two Input Wires. Knowing that this was designed for Squire Strats I may run into size issues (I did). But first because of all the reviews of RF and noise I copper shielded the entire cavities, and Re-Aluminum Foiled the back of the guard, I also re-Potted the pickups (a whopping 20 mins total out of my day and $12’s in tape (I already had). Then when I started soldering the input Jack and grounding I decided to drop so extra “melted Lead” on some of the terminals to reinforce them because the wiring is a small gauge with weak connections upon looking… (another whopping 15mins total). Now installing I realized right away it was too big and I needed to make more insertable length for the neck…. 3mins of using a Dremel with a hard sand disk attachment ($19 for a 48pce dremel set at Walmart). When done… blew off the excess plastic (I did all of this with the plate sitting in its place on the guitar & strings on lol)…. & WHALLAH, fits perfectly. I knew I had to now drill holes for the piece (kept the Dremel out and used the mini drill bit to hit the holes with the pick guard in place, then screwed it in and put everything back on this newly greened out guitar. *The 5-way selector had a slight bend like other people here that complained about (Needle Nose Pliers and 3 seconds rectifies that) I wasn’t sure what to expect when I plugged it Into a Two Rock Bloomfield Ave Tube Amp, once the standby was kick off it was deathly quiet & I went to turn the volume knob up on the guitar and… IT WAS!!! No hum, no buzz, no static it was absolutely perfect! I tuned her up and put it thru the paces of all Five configurations on the pick gaurd. FLAWLESS! Then I changed up some volume on the Gtr and I had no Volt jumps in volume- swelled beautifully. The Tone knobs however did go from Zero treble to normal treble from the 0 to the 3/4 Position. I rectified this with an Orange Drop u.22f capacitor and the tones roll better than most high end gtrs. So, in all, it’s an amazing loaded p-Gaurd (especially for the money). That being said, if you aren’t experienced then pay to have it done or else you won’t get your $20-$30 worth you spent on the pick gaurd. When done right, including any modifications (if you’re not using a a Fender Squire strat you aren’t using the intended guitar that this item was designed & purposed for). So, from a SUHR custom strat, a Mario Martin s-style to 7 US Fender Strats including 2 Custom Shops this $25 beater can hang with any of the aforementioned gtrs to whooping on them! All due to the tones on this item! Note: I also put Fender Vintage Inline Tuners & a Fender USA Bolt-On plate ($67 for both). Just my review and my unsolicited two cents. Just wanted to share my experience as I’m sure many that know what their doing have had. This is for project gtrs and for those that have knowledge in that department. Thanks!

Excellent product the sound improvement I was looking for. No hum. Very simple installation. 3 soldering points real easy. Fit perfectly even with the 6 screw bridge. I did need to move some wires around to get it to sit properly. Great purchase. Highly recommend it.

This pickguard was installed on an Affinity Strat that I had acquired a while back. I took on the project primarily for fun. The guitar was practically new and there really wasn't anything wrong with it other than the stock pickups being terribly muddy. I'm not so mechanically inclined, so this venture allowed me to gain some experience working on guitars without jeopardizing something more valuable. When the pickguard arrived, it was in good condition other than the switch being bent at a 45-degree angle toward the middle tone knob. This was probably more Amazon's fault than Musiclily's since Amazon shipped it. I toyed with the idea of returning it but the switch seemed to function and the bent switch added a little character, so I kept it. Overall, the quality was as expected. The wires were pretty thin and the other parts on the cheap side, which is what you'd expect for a prewired pickguard you picked up for 35 bucks. They did a good job assembling it, with the wires contained in shrink tubing instead of just zip-tied together. This, however, turned into a bit of a problem since they simply looped a bunch of excess wire and zip-tied the loops together, and the result of this was a great deal of difficulty fitting the guard to the body. My Affinity is routed for an H-S-H pickup configuration even though it came with three single-coils. I had to move the loops of wire around to get the guard to settle down on the body and that ended up being a lot of work. If you had a body with a "swimming pool rout" it would probably be pretty easy. If you had one configured S-S-S, I'm convinced it might not be possible to seat the guard on the body without removing a bunch of excess wire and re-soldering the connections, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of buying a prewired pickguard in the first place. My guard has about the same amount of wire looped together as the one in the product description but on mine the loops were below the bridge pickup and not like the one displayed. That made it a little easier to install but it was still a major pain in the ass. If you get one of these, you'll want to prepare yourself for having to drill new holes for some of the pickguard screws. On mine, two of the screw holes were in the right place, four more were close enough to get the screws to bite, and five will need new holes drilled. This is going to happen pretty much regardless of what pickguard you buy and what guitar you want to put it on. They've been making Strats and copies for over 65 years now and you'd think they would have that pretty much standardized, but you'd be wrong. I was expecting this, so it really wasn't that much of a problem. You should expect the same. Once I got past these two issues, installation was a snap. There are only three wires that need to be soldered: two for the jack and a ground wire that attached to the tremolo mechanism. It took me all of 10 minutes and while my soldering skills won't win any awards, the wires are attached securely and everything works. So how does it sound? Well, it had been quite awhile since I had played that guitar with the original pickups but, based on my recollection, it's certainly an improvement. The three pickups don't really sound all the different from one another, with the bridge being slightly crisper than the other two. The output is moderate. The switch and potentiometers all work without any noise or problems. I played around with it for about a half-hour and managed to get some good tones with it. I look forward to spending some more time with it to see what it will do. Bottom line: if you have one of the millions of cheap Strat copies out there and you don't like the pickups, this is an inexpensive and easy way to improve it. It doesn't take a lot of skill to swap out pickguards, just about anyone with a little patience and a soldering iron can do it. For me, it was a good investment and an enjoyable way to use up a Saturday afternoon.

I've tried everything. Reflowed solder joints and especially all the grounds. Oh well. It was cheap enough I can use it for parts at least. Sure looks cool though. EDIT: LOL I thought I was so smart.. but as it turns out, I had the output jack wired backwards. 😌🫣😅 Once I fixed that, it sounds excellent. Nice clear tone and zero buzz. Minor complaint: I wish it came with the bridge pickup wired to the tone control. Also wish it came with a treble bleed stock. No biggie though I can do those mods myself, and I will eventually.

5 star based on price/value. This is an excellent loaded pick guard. I'm amazed at the great tones from such inexpensive pickups! Installation was simple. I can't speak to hole placements, as I installed as an upgrade on a DIY kit build. Everything works and looks great.

Surprisingly good for the price. Pros Will Fit standards Strat bodies. Was pleased that the in between, positions 2 and 4 tones, are still there. Positions 1,3 and 5 no longer noisy as with the majority of Strats with single coils. Impedances of around 9k so not hi power but significantly higher to notice a difference in output. Cons Mini Pots and cheap 5-way switch will need swapping out with CTS/Oak Grigsby ones to achieves better range in tone and volume sweep but stock ones work ok.

Nice quality and tone

Bought this loaded Strat scratchplate for a basic level Squire Affinity strat, to replace a HHS setup. The scratchplate fits perfectly and was very easy to install. The screw holes are in a different place than the stock one, but this is not a problem. The pickups are noise free, non-microphonic and sound very 'stratty' Very impressed and looking forward to gigging with them.

Ça l’air de bien fonctionner à date beau son ✌🏻😎

Piètre guitariste depuis de longue année (30ans..), mais adorant bricoler mes pelles, je voulais assembler une Strat/partcaster genre relique..... sans flinguer une gratte ou des micros à 1500 balles. Bref me voila devant des restes de guitares (Squier/Fender/Kluson/GFS...) .... je teste avec des potards et des condos de fond de tiroirs mais ca buzz, ca crachouille... bref.... en regardant le catalogue de grossisste Allemand (Th.......an) ou dans les magasins de grattes (de plus en plus rares), cela risque de me couter un bras. Et la, miracle une plaque précablé chez Musiclily à 45 balles..... Quitte à faire n'importe quoi autant prendre des "Hotrails" même si je ne suis pas fan (look/son). Bon rentrons dans le vif du sujet. Pour 45 balles ca sonne vraiment bien, le cablage est vraiment correcte, les micros sont adaptés aux plaques et défonces Squier/Fender (même sans piscine), ca le fait grave (pour le prix). C'est simple mais ca fonctionne. Alors oui, vous n'aurez pas la gratte de David Gilmour (son compte en banque et ses doigts non plus) c'est léger niveau sortie (c'est pas les derniers Seymour Ducan ou EMG). Mais pour s'éclater à petit prix, c'est le top. Et ma gratte poubelle ne rougie plus à coté de ses copines. Point postif : Prix /simplicité /adaptation (taille des micros) / un clean sympa/ un son crunch vraiment top. Négatif : plastique cheap/potards en tailles mini/un son en disto qui part vite en bouillie. En qq mots pour upgrader une pelle genre Squier ou vous amuser pour le prix d'une plaque en plastique de chez Fender c'est vraiment bien. Par contre pas de secret, si vous cherchez des micros de folies et coller une dépression aux Clapton, Gilmour, Knopfler et autres ils vous faudra beaucoup de talent et un ou deux zéro de plus sur la facture finale.