Prewired Strat Pickguard
The Ultimate Prewired Pickguard Choice
$375
New & Improved Design
Premier Pro Upgrade Available
Don’t settle for some one-size-fits-all generic pickguard. Design your own with the finest-quality materials in the industry. Our Strat Prewired Pickguards are the perfect product for anyone who wants the Fralin Tone, instantly. We use the finest materials available: from CTS® Pots, USA-Made Pickguards, and CRL® Switches.
Quick Links
Jump to Sound Clips and more info
Our Pickups, Your Personality.
Want to learn more about our Prewired Strat Pickguard? Here's all the information you'll need:
Features
At Fralin Pickups, we’re always trying to make you sound better. The Fralin Prewired Pickguard offers the best tone and highest quality available. We use our world-famous pickups with the best ingredients we can get. We hand-wire our prewired pickguard with painstaking attention to detail.
Furthermore, you can customize your pickguard exactly how you want it! With this Prewired Pickguard, you can have the famous Fralin tone and ease of mind. All you need to do is solder a few wires, screw it in, string it up, and you’re off rocking!
- The ultimate “Build Your Own” Stratocaster Pickguard
- USA-Made pickups & electronics for superior quality
- Hand-wired with USA-Made vintage cloth lead for a traditional look
- Fully customizable – from appearance to function
- Features a variety of Push-Pull mods for a personalized tone
- Hand-assembled signed and dated by our pickguard craftsman
- 10-year warranty on materials and craftsmanship
Sound & Video
Load your pickguard with a Complete Set or Mix and Match between our entire Strat® pickup line! Check out our sound samples below.
Sound Samples for Prewired Strat Pickguard:
Additional Outputs
We have 7 outputs of our Prewired Strat Pickguard. Compare them below.
About these Sound Clips:
All sound samples are played from Neck Position First and Bridge Position Last.
Videos for Prewired Strat Pickguard:
Appearance
We only use the finest-quality, USA-Made pickguards available. Our pickguards are standard USA-Made 11-hole Stratocaster pickguards, unless you choose Single Ply, which is an 8-hole vintage-style pickguard. See below for the color options:
Available Pickguard Colors
These are the colors available for our Pickguards.
Note: All of our Tremolo Covers (Backplates) are available in these finishes as well.
Available Strat Cover Colors
These are the cover colors for our Strat Pickups.
Installation Instructions
Installation of our Prewired Stratocaster Pickguard is a breeze, and most can handle it with basic soldering skills. If you are uncomfortable with soldering or working on a guitar, take the pickguard and your guitar to a local, experienced luthier for installation.
Installation Overview:
Remove your existing strings, pickguard, and output jack (if replacing), and replace with a new Pickguard and Output Jack. Test the installation with a "tap test" by tapping on the pickups while plugged into your amp on low volume to make sure the installation was successful before stringing your guitar.
Tools Needed
- Soldering Iron & Solder (We use Kester 60/40)
- Phillips head screwdriver (For removing pickguard, backplate, and output jack mount)
- Wire cutters (for trimming excess wire, if needed)
- 1/2" Hex Nut Driver (for uninstalling and installing the output jack)
Step 1: Remove Strings and Prep For Installation
Perform the following steps to get started:
- Remove the strings from your instrument
- Optional: Unscrew the tremolo cover and save all screws in a safe place - See note below
- Unscrew the Jack Mount plate to expose the output jack
- Use the 1/2" Hex Nut Driver to unscrew the hex nut while holding the output jack from the back to uninstall the output jack from the plate
- Unsolder the leads connecting the output jack (if replacing the jack, simply snip the leads off)
Step 2: Uninstall the existing pickguard
Next, simply unscrew all pickguard screws and put in a safe place. The pickguard should wiggle free and lift out of the guitar.
Cut or unsolder any of the ground connections holding the pickguard in the guitar. You will need to solder these connections back on the new pickguard.
With all the Ground connections removed from the pickguard, you may now remove the existing pickguard from your guitar.
Step 3: Install your new pickguard
With the old pickguard out of the way, we can now proceed to install the new pickguard! It's a good idea to lay the pickguard down to make sure everything fits and the holes line up. If the mounting holes do not line up, mark the new location and drill a 1/16" pilot hole for the new screw location. This is a simple, non-invasive way to make sure the new pickguard fits perfectly.
Here's how to wire up the new pickguard:
Install the Jack to the Jack Plate, wire it up, screw everything back in, and plug the guitar in before stringing it up to make sure everything works.
Final Step: Adjust Pickup Heights
Finally, adjust the height of your pickups to the appropriate height. We have a whole guide for you to follow here. Here's a cheat sheet to get it up and running quickly:
Prewired Strat Pickguard FAQ's
Product FAQ's
People frequently ask these questions about our Prewired Strat Pickguard. If you have a question that you don't see listed here, click "Ask" in the Quick Links section above.
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Can I return my pickguard?
No. Your pickguard is completely custom-built for you, so we cannot accept returns.
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What warranty applies to the pickguard?
10 Years on our Pickups, 1 Year on electronics, parts, and pots.
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What does the baseplate do?
The Baseplate adds a touch of power and output to the Bridge pickup. This mod is removable and is only available on certain models.
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What does the Bright Switch mod do?
The Bright Switch modification adds a bit of clarity, brightness and output when you pull up on the push-pull modification. This mod only affects pickups installed with 250K pots, so it won’t work on our Steel Pole 43’s and High Outputs.
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What does the Volume Kit do?
The Volume Kit (or Treble Bleed circuit) prevents your tone from getting darker when you roll your volume down.
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Does my Pickguard come with Hardware?
Yes! We ship all pickguards with the screws needed to install your pickguard.
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Do you sell Matching Backplates (Tremolo cover)?
Yes, we do! Simply check “Add matching backplate” in the “Options & Upgrades” box.
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Can I send you my pickguard to wire up?
Yes, you can! Order a Prewired Pickguard from us and let us know in the “Notes” field that you are sending us a Pickguard. Don’t select Tortoiseshell / Pearloid options as they are more expensive. Reference your invoice number on the new pickguard you send to us. Please note, you do not get a refund if you send your own pickguard in.
Premium parts. Pro results.
Upgrade our Prewired Strat Pickguard with the best pots in the industry.
We are thrilled to announce the latest upgrade to our Prewired Lineup: Emerson Custom’s Premier Pro Pots! Our partnership with Emerson Custom guarantees that your next Prewired Pickguard, Control Plate or Harness will feature the highest-quality pots available in the industry.
At Fralin Pickups, we are committed to sourcing the best parts, and when it comes to pots, Emerson Custom’s Premier Pro Pots are the finest we have ever used. These pots boast a sturdy build quality, a custom audio taper, and exceptionally tight tolerances. You can confidently upgrade, knowing that each pot is reliable and built to last a lifetime.
Need Guidance?
Contact our Prewired Craftsman Directly
Builders Love Our Prewired Strat Pickguard
These are just some of our talented builders that use our Prewired Strat Pickguard
Featured Reviews
Reviews We Worked Hard For, and Are Proud Of
Customer Reviews
338 Genuine Reviews for Prewired Strat Pickguard
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Amazing pickups…..now I need to change all the pickups on my other guitars to Fralins.
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Product is excellent – the wiring is a work of art & the pickups sound amazing!
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Amazing pickups! Installation was a breeze, definitely recommend
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After a ton of research, listening to countless soundbites and a lot of input from players I know, I decided to upgrade my 60th Anniversary Diamond Strat. It had a set of Fender Custom Shop Vintage ’54 pickups. I went with a Fralin pickguard assembly that has Vintage Hots in the neck and middle, a Blues Special in the Bridge, and the Fralin Master Tone/Blender Pot wiring.
The workmanship is top notch – a perfect drop-in eazy-peezy. This set gives a Strat a whole new dimension . . . Clarity, dynamic classic bell tones, huge punchy sound, and best of all – a USABLE position 5 bridge pickup sound. My guitar tech summed it up nicely after he finished installing it and plugging in, “Holy Friggin’ Cow – Now That’s A Proper Strat Tone. Do you want to sell it?”
I am elated with my guitars “new” voice; only wish I’d done it sooner!! Many thanks and a heartfelt “Job Well Done!” to the Fralin Team . . . I’m a BELIEVER!
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Just the absolute best for your Fender Stratocaster! It will make it sound perfect!
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3rd guitar I’ve put Fralin pickups in! Love them! They have an open liveliness yet full and powerful. Customer service was outstanding helping me with selection for a vintage look and sound.
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Unbelievably great sounding pickups…
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From start to finish, the whole process was flawless. Spoke with Lindy himself, who help me select the right pickup and configuration for that “dialed in” sound. The builder contacted me personally, making suggestions and in the end, I wound up with the perfect set of pickups and the perfect tone. Next set of pickups that I need, I know who I’ll be going to for sure: FRALIN!!
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I’m very pleased with the Vintage Hot pickups I received, excellent wiring on the prewired guard. Definately pleased with the tone of these once I backed them off from the strings.
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Got the pre-wired Strat pickguard, neck and middle Pups are the Blues Specials, bridge is the Steel Pole 42. Also opted for the treble bleed circuit and blender. These went into my 2000 Custom Design Strat that was originally equipped with the Noiseless II pups, which were nice, but never really sat well with me. I play mostly classic blues rock typically through a Kemper Profiler. I spent a lot of time using the tone comparison feature of the website, I’m happy to report my results were very similar to what I heard there!
These pickups turned my Strat tones to pure gold! Honestly, every combo is absolutely satisfying; clean, gritty, pushed hard-doesn’t matter! Not sure I have the language to really capture the tonal difference but I can say that (for me) the level of complexity and richness of each tone is just immediately apparent and then compounds once you start blending them. In fact, I liked these so much I got myself another (less fancy, ha ha) Strat to someday throw another pup combo into! Can’t recommend these enough, and of course installation was a breeze! I did have to explore pickup heights a bit, but even that was a ton of fun! Good luck, thanks, and hat’s off to Team Fralin!!!
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I was 100% impressed by this order. The pickups are fantastic. The wiring was well done. The guard fit without any need to adjust things. The instructions provided to wire it up were perfect, and the order got to me well within the time frame I was told they would arrive when I ordered.
I would do one thing differently on the next order though…The jack that I upgraded was extremely tough to solder. I had to rough up the terminals to accept the solder. Whatever the plating or coating was that were on the jack terminals caused this problem. I am an electronics tech by degree and worked as a bench tech for a major GPS manufacturer for a few years. I know how to solder. I was trained by professionals how to solder. The jack, however, would not cooperate. This isn’t Fralin’s fault by any means. I should just have ordered the standard jack.
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I’m a Fralin pickup user. I now have Five guitars with different Fralin pick ups insatalled. This prewired hot strat pickguard went into a MIM standard strat. (pre player series MIM). The guitar sounded ok before. Now.. It sounds like “The Stratocaster.”. The “put this on the spacecraft so aliens will know we made this” Stratocaster.
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Everything I was looking for. Blues special wind all off white beautiful wiring and solder job sound fabulous
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I’ve been buying Fralin pickups (local guy) since they began and just purchased my second pre-wired pickguard. Its loaded with 3 blues specials and has the blender pot. To me this is the perfect strat set…lots of quack in 2 & 4 and the neck rips. The blender gives an opportunity to soften the bridge tone to or go all the way to a pseudo tele in-between sound. The single master tone is perfect in its simplicity. Mostly I’m in 2, 4 or neck. The folks there are helpful and friendly and it was great to see an old friend and amp tech, JH, working there as I walked into the shop. The best pickups around, they have pretty much everything covered from vintage sc to humbuckers with a great website displaying all the technical details. BTW, both my teles are Fralin wired control plates and pickups as well.
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Wow!!! I wanted to give my MIM Classic Player 60’s Strat more “growl”. Ended up getting a pre-wired tortoise shell pick guard with Steel-pole 43s and blender pot. Not only is my strat now a beast when the gain is turned up, but the cleaned up “Strat” sounds amazing!!! Here is my advice….don’t dither and just make the jump…
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I ordered the loaded Strat pickguard with Blues Specials. They are everything I hoped they would be – thicker, fatter, yet still very Stratty. I wanted to get a little more versatility out of my Strat to cover various 70’s classic Rock, 80’s and 90’s songs in my band without changing guitars. These are perfect & made the Strat my go-to guitar!
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Absolutely outstanding! This Fralin pickguard transformed my mid-70s strat from a sentimental favorite, just kept around for nostalgia, into my current #1 active instrument. Here are the build details: neck = steel pole 43; middle = blues special; bridge = blues special with a baseplate; plus the Fralin wiring with a blender pot. Not a bad sound on it and what feels like infinite nuance across the range from p90 to tele. I can’t recommend it enough!
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Dear Fralin Team – just rec’d and installed my lefty loaded Strat guard. As I had hoped!! My ’93 MIA sounds super now. Thanks a million!
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I’ve had a lot of Strats, and I’ve tried a LOT of different pick-ups. These are by far the best sounding Strat pick ups I’ve ever played. Excellent note articulation, superb tone from lows to mids to highs. Clean is absolutely stellar, but they also crunch like a million dollars.
The pre-wired pick guard with the blender pot is amazing and saves so much time. Just wire it to the output jack, screw it down and you’re ready for some amazing sounds.
Don’t overthink it- the sounds on the website are good- in person they are phenomenal. -
The clarity of these pick-ups (Blues in the bridge, Vintage Hots middle and neck) is amazing! My Strat never sounded so good!
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NOTES ON COLOR:
- Please note that while we strive to provide the most accurate color representation possible, different computer monitors, manufacturer dye lots, and other circumstances may prevent the color from matching perfectly.
- Since we cannot guarantee color matching, we cannot provide a return to you if you are unhappy with the color matching of our Prewired Strat Pickguard.
HARNESSES:
- Our parts and wire lengths are designed to work seamlessly with our Prewired Strat Pickguard. Due to various guitar and instrument designs, we cannot guarantee that our parts will fit properly, and due to this, we do not offer Wiring Harnesses.
