Beginning My Quest For TONE | Modding My Fender Strat 

When you first pulled the pickguard off.. That wiring job is a fucking work of art

Rabea can you please make a full guitar collection? I know it might be a lot of work to do, but I would love to see it :D - Great Content btw

You could dip the pickup covers and knobs in coffee for a few hours to “age” them. Works like a charm.

Ok, somehow I'd managed to never see the innards of a custom shop strat and oh my god, that has to be the sexiest cable management I'd ever seen. Holy shit

The change in tone from 6:20 to 16:55 is insane. I'm blown away.

Useful tip Bea: when soldering by the switch, tilt the while thing, so nothing can drip into the switch itself, otherwise it can ruin it for good ;)

What a gorgeous cleanish tone at the beginning. Beautiful.

"It's a polite guitar." I feel this sentence. It's Such a fantastic great description, and It's so simple but relatable. Love it Bea!

My experience of aluminium pick guards is that, with single coil pickups, eddy currents induced in the aluminium have a muffling effect on tone. Some people like this, but I found it reduced too much high end. The effect is measurable as a small change in inductance. About 4% less at 1000Hz when mounted in aluminium compared to measurement in air or mounted in a plastic guard. As far as I know Fender started using the gold anodised aluminium guards for looks and for electrical screening in 1957 but soon dropped them. One possible explanation for this is that once a player wore through the gold anodising, aluminium particles worn off the exposed surface turned their fingers black. Later on from 1959 to 1967 Fender fitted a thinner aluminium screening plate under a plastic guard. This also has an effect on tone, but being thinner, not as much as the previous gold anodised pick guards.

Thank you for your humility and your love of Tone/Guitars/Gear. Cheers

Rabea playing a strat is just magnificent. The what goes around cover he did is insane.

Thanks Bea ! I am a Strat player as well (60's era) . I am intently watching yours and Mick's journeys with pick ups .

I came back to this video again just for the view under this custom shop pickguard at 9:18. I have never seen such care taken on wiring including the routing of the wires, which is just beautiful. It makes me want to get one of these someday.

For what it’s worth, after trying a lot of Strat pickups, I’ve found that narrowing down the options into 2 categories, the 50s style and 60s style pickups, is the best way to stay sane through this process. I’ve been watching you play in all of the Andertons videos for years, and now your own videos. My guess is you will prefer the 60s style Strat pickups, because of the more assertive sound they provide. The trick is to find the right spank, without harshness, so you can feel the sweetness in the tone. I have a Fender 57 reissue Strat which I love, but eventually I found that the 50s sound was not right for me. After looking into it, I realized that my favorite Strat players were all using mid 60s Strat pickups, including Hendrix, which I know you love too. I actually ended up with, and recommend the Fender 65 vintage pickups which I found to have the right balance between being more assertive, and still allowing the important dynamic range needed to let the subtlety of your playing to come through. Congrats on your success and best of luck with your journey!

I loved the sound of both sets of pickups ❤ both very different, and I believe you’re first impressions of the sound change are spot on 👍

"The neck is SO fat" - puts his hand round the neck like a mere mortal holding a chopstick...

Truly inspiring, thank you for the great content Rabea

Sound aside, which your opinion is much more important than ours, given that we can't really *hear* it, I really appreciate someone doing work on their guitar and explaining it as someone who isn't an expert. You've got this sweet spot of knowledge where you're not over complicating it, but you do know what you're doing. It's very approachable.

Superb post Rabea. for my money the new pickups are extraordinary and are at home in the Blues/R&B area - perhaps more than full on distortion. Clarity is just great and you play with great fluency. Thanks so much for this. you've really got me thinking about my older strats...

Love the Project, but I'd resolder the Ground (Black) Pickupwires with a Soldering Iron that has more Power. The Solderjoint looks pretty cold and might cause Trouble down the Line. The Joint should form a dome and be nice and shiny

Rabea you´re Strat tone is truely inspiring me It sounds awesome. To me it is the holy grail !!!

Yes I love the color scheme too.

In all honesty, I preferred the sound of the original pups.

Honestly, i'd be happy either way, but since your are happy and this is your guitar i'm glad for you. Awesome video Bea

changing the tremolo/bridge can have a huge effect as well, I'd heartily recommend Wudtone (UK based), installed one of their tremolo bridges on my frankenstrat, made a really nice difference, well worth checking out

I’m a bit OCD, but the cleanup after the new pickups went in was hilarious. Bea was dying to just go play the thing! It sounded awesome, btw. Good job, Radio Shop!

Very much enjoy these sorts of mods. I picked up a 2019 Squier Classic Vibe 50's Strat at the end of December; very well-made and terrific guitar. Upgraded to Gotoh locking tuners, Tusq XL nut, Seymour Duncan pickups and Graphtech saddles and it plays and sounds as great as it looks. Absolutely killer guitar at a down-to-earth price.

Great choice with the anodized pick guard 👌 I started modding my strat about 20 years ago. All white strat, got a black pick guard, a stacked dimarzio humbucker in The bridge, and chrome metal knobs 🤘

Dude I love this...This is almost exactly what I do with mine. I've got 2 Mexican Strats that I have put so much of my own soul into I've had to re-fret both of them. EVO gold fretwire, High mass bridge blocks one brass one steel, and different flavors of Fender's Custom Shop pickups. Scratchplate knobs and covers of course need to be tweaked from the sterile white they come with and a bone nut because why not, once you do a full re-fret you've gotta carve a new nut anyhow. I do all my own work, my first guitar was actual trash my old man rescued from a dumpster. Smashed into pieces and left for dead, a few parts from Radio Shack gave this thing it's heartbeat back...ten years later I restored the thing proper and she is an absolute Powerhouse. It inspires me so much that this piece of garbage has had possibly the most profound affect on my life; decades later this guitar would end rehabilitating me in much the same way. My Mexicans will go toe to toe with your Custom Shop and I could not be more proud of that. Awesome video brother.

treble bleed was one of the best mods I made to my strat... just a low value cap like 220 cross the input and middle lugs of the volume control. No need for a capacitor or anything fancy, it just makes the volume so much more natural sounding as you turn down because the highs don't disappear.

I like the original tone, and that custom shop solder job was a work of art.....the way they wired the 5 way selector was awesome. I would have just made a loaded pick guard and swapped the whole thing, if I could afford it. That being said Ive done the same thing many times over, chasing tone.

That intro music was great! Amazing sound. More of that please!

That is probably the best strat sound I've ever heard. I always think I like something about a strat until I play one, then remember why I still don't own one. This almost makes me feel like I'm missing out

My impression is that the sound is somewhat stronger beefier, more bass and mids - maybe actually sounding a bit less like a typical "vintage strat" - than before. It immediately reminded me of when I replaced my 70s Strat original pickups with Kinman "Blues" type pickups in neck and middle position years ago. Of course it's hard to remember exactly from this distance but there's that spontaneous impression like I heard that type of "shifting" of the overall sound before. And as you said: you probably can't tell on the spot if it's really "better" than before because it's just - well - "different" and you've probably got to have some time to relate to it playingwise before making up your mind on some sort of solid basis. Interestingly with my Kingman's going in a similar direction soundwise I've over the years developed a feeling that I might like to have a bit more crispness back (like the old pickups had) - especially for rhythm or chord playing. So I put in a treble bleed mod, which did the thing. Having played a year or so with this "clearer" less mid/bass sound I find myself thinking today that I actually may remove that treble bleed mod again to get back the original beefy Kinman Blues sound I had then been going for in the first place and which really reminds me of the sound of those Radioshop PUs... I guess this illustrates in a way that the perception of a guitar's sound and the personal preference of a certain sound may well change gradually over time and so it can be quite hard to decide on what's better (or worse) in the long run. On the other hand you probably have other guitars where you never felt the need to change anything at all...

That sounds amazing nice playing.

good lord the tones from that amp are incredible... i looked for other videos and it sounds great even on channels where the tones are usually not top notch - studio quality - in your face

It’s good to see even pros like Rabea have to set sail on an occasional Tone Quest. Killer vid man!

Love it! I've watched just about everything Mick as done with Blue and totally enjoyed that as well. The Strat sounds totally different.. def more gain and looks killer! I have a Bordeaux Metallic Strat I want to put the gold scratch plate on as well. Great job Rabea! Thank you!

Dude!!!!!! That sounds sooooo sick. Keep those pickups. Looks amazing.

Loving the journey 👍👍 Sounds great...

Sounded great to me!! Thanks

It really isa matter of taste. For me, the stock pickups are strat tone perfection. The new ones are really cool though.

the sounds are just as amazing as the LOOKS that right there is the definition of BADASS

That sounds great with the new pups!

Inspiring tone + playing, and also inspiring weight loss mate having watched your vids for years now you've never looked better! Keep at it 🤘

Looks and sounds bad ass! I have a Road Worn 50s body in black with a classic series 50s lacquer neck and the gold pickguard. Favorite guitar I have ever owned.

Amazing video - really informative and great playing as usual mate! And youre looking great too! Keep it up 👊🏻

Nice Job Bea, sounds great and looks awesome 👍👍

Welcome Rabea, You have just entered into the Strat Zone of tone search. Mind your head it tends to get tight in that rabbit hole. Best of luck.

Love a bit of guitar modding, more please. Your playing is always awesome dude.

Hey Rabea, I know I don't speak for just myself when I say you look incredibly healthy now, I've seen even your skating videos and such on your RU-vid story and you've come a long way man. You seem more confident and comfortable in videos and look great. I watched the old sounds like dimebag without busting the bank video right before this one and your change is incredibly clear. Good work man, cheers. We all love you

Your Strat sounds incredible with the new pickups and looks awesome with the gold pickguard, it definitely gives me early Jazzmaster vibes and I like it. Great demo, Bea

This reminds me of my favourite strat type which is Mark Knopfler's Schecter Dream Machine. Maple board, sunburst, brass/gold scratch plate, black pickup surrounds, metal knobs. It's the Tunnel Of Love guitar and it's amazing!

That tone stock is what does it for me !!!!

i am just doing a 3-tone sunburst strat project with maple neck. i'll go with black scratchplate and plastics, HSS. i'll go with a schaller megaswitch e 5-way, it splits the humbucker in position 2 and 3 (without additional switches or push-pull pots). yes, in mid position you get one coil of the humbucker and the neck together! positions 1, 4 and 5 are the same as on a regular 5-way.

In the first few seconds I was thinking: wow this is some really nice sounding guitar, and looks to be a well made, interesting video. then I realised: this video is by Rabea Massaad, the metal guitarist that does stuff for Andertons. Was pleasantly surprised by this, amazing.

such an awesome sound when you get the right strat

Yes man!!! Mick Taylor’s strat is a perfect strat 😍😍😍

I was sceptical of the gold pick guard when you first showed it, but once on the guitar, you were right man ..it’s cool looking.👍

Fancy finding some Radioshop pups just lying around your room. Amazing.

Absolutely gorgeous rich tones

Did you notice that the wires from the pickups came twisted together? There's a reason for that. I noticed Mick also left the wires untwisted on one of his pickup change videos. Since the vintage style pickups don't use shielded cable, twisting the "hot" wire with the ground provides some degree of shielding. The aluminum scratch plate will provide some shielding as well as the ground plane providing some magnetic field change making the guitar less bright. Early '60s Strats had a metal plate under the plastic to recreate the effect of the late '50s metal plates.

That wiring job by Fender Custom Shop is so neat.

You have gotten in great shape! Nice work! 👍

That opening guitar music was amazing

Looks and sounds awesome, love the mods and the vid.

Love the relic’d gold anodized pickguard. Thanks for the tip on rebelrelic. Been looking for one of these for my black over 3-tone sunburst mischief maker. 👍

Great job. Love your videos and Anderson’s.

That looks amazing! Can't remember seeing a 50s style two tone sunburst strat with anodized gold pickguard. I'm sure I will see many now!

It's about time one of you British tone mammoths we all love and adore demo a set of handmade EdMire pickups from the north of Norway.

Already ordered an anodized pickguard in the style of the 50s, for my RI 54. It's sexy and so authentic!

Guitar sounds more alive! I’m glad the alnico iiis sound so good as I’ve just chosen a set of alnico 3s handwound for my tele project, so I think they will work out- good confirmation for me! Wish I had been able to find a set of custom pickups in my cupboard too!😁

HA! I _KNEW_ this would have something to do with hanging out with/talking to Mick as soon as I read the title! When you brought him up by name and I almost said "called it!" out loud lol.

great job sounds and looks amazing.

Gorgeous tone and playing on the intro:)

The new set of pickups sound really nice!!

Pro tip, eep the original electronics in place on the original pickguard and get everything new to put on the new pickguard. Then all you need to change is two wires. Easy to switch back if you either don't like the new sound of it you love the new sound and want to bring it to a new axe. You can also purchase "loaded" pickguards which come completely pre-wired.

Ive been looking to buy a Fender Stratocaster for a few year's now. I got into Squier to learn. Then, my friend brought me one to fix. A Mexican Stratocaster. I have not been aboe to afford one so i started to see what Squier model's closely resembled a real stratocaster. The Starcaster, and then the classic vibe qnd finally i landed on the holy grale, a Stratocaster made by Axl for Squier. They didn't cut corners and did it right. Baseball bat neck, 50's headstock, full thickness body qnd good wood's. I added my own pickups qnd some cool trebel bleeds. Duel potentiometer and 22g wiring. Its a beast! My free guitar beats all my other one's. Soom it'll have some texas vintage tone but i love it as is. Heavy relic too, had a veneer!

You’ve inspired me to upgrade my pickups and scratch plate now.😆 Awesome job as always brother. Cheers from the states!

Cool sounds there, mate. Seems to me that the extra bass on the Rshop ones has more to do with height than the pups themselves. So far, I prefer the originals, but let's see how it turns out, since Mick sent you a set of pups too... You've had the anodized plate for awhile now, which means we've been hearing the nodded strat for a few weeks- when you get to the end of this pickup journey, maybe give us a "wrap it up" video, showing all the sounds/pickups you've had (original, radioshop and Mick's) ? Cheers

It's a beautiful guitar Bea and your playing is awesome as always. I really liked the guitar as it was but the changes are great too - I think whatever makes you feel better when you play it, stick with it. As several people have commented, you should definitely try adjusting pickup height too, it makes a huge difference.

Was wondering what happened to that beauty. Now I know. You know your all time best tone vid (at least for me) was the snake oil pedals review. Watching (listening) that 55 reissue made me fall in love with strats again, made me buy a gorgeous Squire CV 50s. That also has Alnico III pups with similar output and great sounds. But as you say tastes could differ. Great playing as always!

The great thing about a strat is you can unsolder the jack socket and the scratchplate then removes entirely so you can work on it without damaging your guitar. Otherwise get a big soft clean towel and use it to protect your guitar whilst you work on it so you don't add unwanted relic marks.

New pickups sound awesome and definitely looks killer with new scratch plate. 🤠🎸🤘

Great sound！　ありがとう

Looks way better with the gold pick guard ! And awesome beautiful playing, as always.

Great video! Thnx. I have been using Dimarzio and Duncan aftermarket pick ups for years. Lately, have been jonesing for something different. So many great boutique p/u’s out there. May have to check out the radio shop ones

Wow man, the new set sounds incredible!... No doubt, keep those!

That intro was beautiful!!

Love these kinds of mod video's hope you'll do more!

Josefina built pickups!! Sweet. Helpful to take pictures before ripping things out.

My buddy introduced me to "White Dove" a few years ago, and I totally dug your playing. Then the more I heard your stuff, it was cool that we share some guitar DNA. . .Nuno Bettencourt. You are just as rabid a fan as I am of the guy. I'm 37 years old and I laughed the other day when I heard we both got Nuno vids off Limewire. My thoughts are that you are the link between "old-school" players like Nuno, but with modern sensibilities. I can hear you are part of the new breed of technical and polished players, but with soul. . .not that whacked out computer sounding stuff, non-stop. Great to see you evolving in your search for tone!

I love the sound from that Strat in your cover of Wicked Game. When it ramps up and you kick the pedal, Love that solo and the sound. Must have listened to it well over a 100 times with the volume Cranked! Could you when done and happy with the tone play that solo part for us? Thanks and I hope to see you at Sweden Rock Festival some time in the future.

Damn, the new pickups...huge difference!!!

The new pickups definitely have a more full, rounded sound. It has a sound that presents itself better if playing live. I did compare the tone with the earlier pickups. I like them.

Looks great. Sounds great. You're a great strat player.

I have always been a believer that your tone should be dynamic and should reflect what feels right at the time.

Rebel Relic is from Amsterdam, and I think that every guitarist ( who can of course) should visit the shop, plus the owner Luke is so friendly! Great video in any case!

Radioshop PUs are great ! I have 3 of my strats loaded with their PUs and they sound awesome if you're looking for vintage kind of tone. You should try to low down the heigth of the PUs to get less bass and reduce the output a bit. BTW the pickguard is gorgeous !

Putting an anodised pickguard on my 57 made a big difference to the tone, changed the top end entirely. Neither better or worse but in the end I opted to go back to plastic to get that high end I love back