This was SO CLOSE to being an incredible deal... 

I bought a couple of those Groove guitars for me and my daughter after your review a few months ago. I also bought that same pickgaurd around the same time to install in my 87 Squier II. No problems so far.

I'm grateful for your venturing into unknown waters with these unknown gear items. I was a Buyer and purchasing agent for many years, so I know the pain of an unsatisfying purchase. Your the best Max at keeping real expectations when buying " cheap" gear. \m/

I had bought the same pickguard from China directly (which have more cheaper price), and the original seller have descriptions for the mini button, and it's not a kill switch. If it's on, the 1 and 2 position will have the "tele mode" and "black beauty mode", which have the neck and bridge PUs works together, or all three PUs works together.

For that price, it's not a total loss. It's an opportunity to hone your wiring and soldering skills.

Hey, Max. June 2024 now and back to reconsider. And thanks for more than turning me away from this pick guard. Thanks for advising me about coil splitting dual rail pickups. Another bullet dodged thanks to Max. Glad your channel’s doing so well these days. It just keeps growing and getting better. Good. And thanks for everything.

That's set up on that pickguard reminds me of the Cort effector. Back in the early 2000's I had bought a explorer style Court effector from a local pawn shop here in Texas. I played the hell out of that guitar it was a lot of fun but unfortunately I come home from work one day my back door was kicked in and all my guitar equipment was gone among other things out of everything that was stolen that cort effector I missed the most I was really good on it. I hope someday I'll be able to get another one.😢

I bought one of these in the spring, put it on a EART Strat. I love it - full humbucker sounds and you can mix in the single coils for awesome Strat tones. I did notice a loose wire on a pickup, soldered it before the install - 6 months and running no problems.

I just have to say that I severely appreciate the niche you've carved out for yourself on here. It's really made me rethink the way I shop for gear in recent times. Made me rethink how I VIEW gear really. Thank you.

I bought this same pickguard a couple of months ago. On mine the bridge pickup worked fine, but it is very low output compared to the mini rails. I had to change the pickup heights a lot to get them closer to the same levels. I changed the wiring of the switch to something they they should have done in the first place. That is I changed it to be a dedicated neck pickup switch so it is possible to have all pickups on at the same time. I think this gives you 22 combos when used with the 5-way and split switches if I am remembering correctly. The biggest issue with this pickguard by far is how microphonic it is. If it wasn't microphonic then it would be a great deal with some tweaking. It is still a great deal for somebody that wants to use it as a platform for using their own pickups and to have a flexible guitar.

Like always, Max keeps it real and tells the truth! THANKS MAX!!!!

What worked sounded great! I agree about coil the splitting. With the two in-between positions, there's a bevy of workable tones already. Why reduce the volume and add noise by splitting? To each their own.

Thanks for an honest review. Too many websites make glowing reviews that are not honest just to stay on the gravy train of free gear. I have purchased pickups in the past from your reviews so I appreciate your real analysis.

I have the same pickup installed on my cheap strat last May 2023. All pickups and switches are working. I use the bridge pickup mostly. 19USD including shipping from China to Philippines.

Just bought the pickguard. Let's see what happens! Great video as always.

Bummer - it sounds like yours might have been damaged in transit. Mine (which I got for $20 new) came in suspect packaging that had minimal padding - fortunately, all of the pickups worked, and the bridge HB rocks. The split neck and middle pickups don't sound chime-y like my SD Hot Stacks, but then again they are a different design, and do OK in HB modes. I did have to replace the kill switch for a proper "momentary off" one as the original one was latched and was only useful as an off switch for all of the pickups.

Nicely presented, Max! I learn something new with each of your vids.....🤟

At the minimum, it should come with an electronics schematic. Otherwise, it's a trial & error project to fix it. That said, the humming is really loud, make sure you insulate (electric insulation) your guitar's cavities with Copper shielding foil before installing the pick guard.

I ordered one of these. Waiting on my Glarry Strat to put it in. Thanks for this review

nice info Max.. never fails to educate. thanks for the review..

I purchased the same product 6 months ago and fitted it to a yamaha pacifica body that I got from the tip shop for $7. I needed to modify the the body routing a bit to get it to fit right and the screw holes were not quite right which I expect is the difference between a true strat body and a yamaha. It's worked great for me so far and I really like the output of these pickups. The guitar all in has cost me a total of about $35 and plays awesome. Cheers MAX.

exactly one I was trying to decide whether to buy or not yesterday. I made a cart full of gold hardware for my surf green stratolike. The stick-in-place kill switch is hilarious🤣. I see other people using it today and working for them. Maybe you have some issue with soldering or something relatively easy to fix, but start being loaded, as you say.

I did not take delivery of a pick guard exactly like this one. However, I was able to get my lines on one that was loaded with a different type of pickups, Burns mini TriSonics, as well as the same type of pickup and phase switching that Brian May pioneered for his Red Special. I had that component put into a parts caster.

I saw that same pickguard and thot what a deal. I still can’t believe it’s that cheap. Thanks for sharing!

I got one of these off Ebay out of curiousity. Good news: all three pickups work. Bad news: all pickups microphonic, taper on the volume knob is ridiculous, 10 to 0 is a third of a turn and the tone knobs don't work at all..

I like that you are Helicoptering in the beginning. Always like that effect.

Sounds like the 5 way switch is bad or dirty spray some contact cleaner in it . Some times when they set around or shipped to different places sometimes the humidity can cause the contact points to corrode a little I’ve bought brand new switches that has done the exact same way.

I've started creating Loaded - Swappable Pickup Configurations on separate Pickguards that can be easily switched without any soldering by using a single "Quick Connects." I've got a number of old pickguards, pickups, pots, switches , and Caps, so I should be able to get 4 of 5 loaded Pickguards for different styles. I've made 2 so far, and it takes me 8 minutes to loosen the strings, swap out the pickguard, and tune back up. Some of Pickups are Single Coils, so I need to learn about "Dummy Pickups" so I can cancel the noise they are susceptible to.

I bought one a few weeks ago and it works fine. The bridge humbucker registers a DCR of 12.37k. There may be a short or a broken wire in the winding. That's a nightmare to fix, so just toss it and get another bridge humbucker.

Bought 2 and changed the kill switch for a normally closed momentary switch. Interesting combinations of sounds.

Hi Max, thanks for giving this thing a once over and offering an honest evaluation. I saw one of these on sale on AZ Canada - end of August? - and with the coupon, it came out to $21.89 or some such. I admit I wasn't expecting a whole lot, since even the half-dozen "review" comments were somewhere between "baffled" and "not a fan." However, I had a strat-pattern guitar, full-size, picked up around 2012 for less than $50 with a Fender practice amp. It turned out to be ok in the wood department, but pretty thin in the electrics - it wasn't a big surprise. It had a headstock branded "Beaver" - out of Montreal, Quebec. Never have seen another. Anyway, I fiddled with it for a bit, then set it aside for some future project. When I saw this pickguard, I figured that I might have my project. As you've observed, it arrived with no documentation of any kind - although really well packed, oddly enough - and right off the bad I could see several "iffy" solder joints. The "Big Switch" seemed like a complete waste of space. But, I happened to have an inexpensive 5 position rotary switch, and I made up a Varitone that just cleared the opening. Re-soldering cold joints took care of more problems, but the low output on the humbucker was puzzling, as were the meter readings. I found yet another poor connection, and fixing that brought the output up. By adjusting pickup heights I got things a little better. The end result? I can safely say it was an improvement on the original pickups, and the switching gave some interesting combinations. It wasn't an outstanding success, but I was able to sell the finished guitar in the local swap/shop listings for a fair price, as a student strat-style guitar with 'upgrades.' I had the feeling that if the makers had put in just a little bit more effort, the product might have been better. I've always been a bit leery of unknown-brand loaded pickguards, just because of things like this one. I suppose the most interesting thing was having the 3 extra toggle switches, which actually worked quite well after bad solder joints were fixed. It served its purpose - somebody liked it well enough to buy it, and put a few dollars in the cookie jar toward some higher-end gear. Not a total loss, not a great success. Thanks for posting your take on this thing.

The stuff that actually works sounds pretty good and the splits one those rails are nothing to sneeze at.

Great video as always!

That green Groove guitar of yours is gorgeous!

I have that same one coming this firday. Hopefully it will work.

Hi Max…great vid. I also purchased one of these PUP plate. Mine was damaged upon arrival and I had to to replace the plate. I also omitted the kill switch. But after doing repair work I still like the tones. It was only $20 something

I just got that, two weeks ago! Works GREAT! Although it does have some hum to it when turned to 11!

I dropped one of these it into an eBay Squire just yesterday. It seemed weak and vanilla before the transplant. Maybe I got lucky, but it works well, and transformed mild to wild! This thing is a "StratoBlaster" now.

I got one for my GLARRy tribal strat.You can't by the components for that price,I know I have tried,and the labor you save makes it worth even more

I got one and the neck pickup was doa the winding was broken. This was my first kit guitar I put it on and was more of an art thing than for playing so I just put the single coil that came with the kit in for the neck.

I put one of those on my kit ST. it is awesome.

It is pretty adventurous for a company to put out a loaded pickguard with sll the features for $24. Interesting to see if other companies would attempt this(like companies already putting out good inexpensive guitars). I would trust something like that from say HB or FF. Good video

I bought the same one for a EVH I'm working on except I got TBE black one. Hopefully it will work.

I just stumbled upon your channel the other day, you do fun guitar things, and that P-38 lightning in the back caught my eye. I can tell I'm going to like it here!

I have that pick guard on a Yamaha EG112 painted in blackest black

My experience with the SSH-Coil Splitting Electric Guitar Pickguard. First of all, I had to remove some material from the electronics channel in order to fit the kill switch properly. This was easily accomplished with a Dremel-type tool. Speaking of the kill switch, I removed the toggle switch and replaced it with a 12mm momentary NO switch. The volume pot wire was soldered to one terminal and a ground wire was soldered to the other terminal (with extension wires added to go to the output jack. Now when you press the switch, it grounds the output signal, thereby killing the sound momentarily. The ceramic humbucking pickups are not inspiring, although they are adequate. The actual ohm readings were: bridge = 14.4, middle = 8.6 and neck = 8.55. After assembling the guitar, there was a problem with the middle pickup, which had a low ohm reading. It appeared to be reading only one wire coil. I discovered the problem when I disassembled the guitar. The exposed shield braid wire was touching the back of the middle coil split switch, thereby grounding out one coil. Since the pickup wires are directly over the coil split switches, it would have been appropriate to use shrink wrap over the exposed shield braid wires. I addressed the problem by using a wire tie to connect all of the pickup cables together to provide more stability.

I have the Valgoa VVS guitar with similar pickup arrangements. So, when I saw these on Amazon, I bought two. The first one I put in a Starcaster Strat by Fender, and it is fantastic. The second one I put in another Starcaster, but I can't seem to solve the grounding issue. I will have to do more checking to find the problem. But at that price, if only one works, so what. Oops! I wired the second pick guard incorrectly. They both work great, what a deal.

@Guitar Max Even though there are some issues, I just ordered one to use as a stepping stone in my journey learning about soldering and how components work. Cool vid. If it all works...wel i guess im lucky. Lol. But, following the wiring will teach me more about how to do wiring in the future. No loss here.

I have three of these in a couple of different guitars and I really like it a lot. But I bypass the kill switches

Waiting on the fix on it

I bought this same pickguard 2 times now. do yourself a favor before you install it. go back over every solder joint and re melt them. both of mine that this issue. especially around the volume pot. selector switch and all pots needed cleaning out with deoxit. plays fine.

Good episode. Waiting for your swap with a known good bucker 😁

The bridge pick up is outta faze, turn it around! Mine is different!

Actually I bought that exact item and put on my parts caster project and works awesome.

Hi, really interesting review. Thanks. I’ve recently modified a tele style guitar with humbuckers which can be coil split and put in micro-toggle switches. I’ve also put in a 4 way switch. This gives potentially 12 combinations. What I’ve found is that on overdrive splitting the coils does much the same as you’ve found. But the real differences show up on clean settings. I’m finalising a RU-vid vid to post on my RU-vid channel. Anyway, I really like your channel.

For my money, a true strat-style single coil in the front (not a split humbucker), a P90 in the middle, and a humbucker in the bridge is ideal. Alternately, a SD P-rails in the front and HB in the bridge.

Guitar How Tos already covered this pick guard.😀

that exact loaded pickguard is being sold for much less here in south east asia. it's literally only $17! also almost all loaded pickguards below $50 have the same flaws with wiring and cheap pots, which can be dealt with easily if you know or someone you know can understand diagrams and do soldering.

I just got me one of those from Amazon, "saphue" brand and it worked out well for $16.00 dollars, the soldering it's to pour and the ground the one goes to the back bridge was a little to short, wires was to thin very small gage but it worked well

With the new pickguard and pickups, it kinda sorta reminds of Steve Vai's Green Meanie.

At least two of your pickups work. Mine came with all the wires broken loose. I got it all back together again. Now the bridge hums loudly, and the others dont make a sound.

It sounds like a ground issue. I got 2 of those loaded pickguards L/H from AliExpress, one black and one white. My nightmare was my guitar wasn't routed for a humbucker. Sounds awesome, but meh split. Lots of power from 500k pots. Other pickguard I haven't installed yet.

Original kill switches were a toggle on mostly... gibson I beleive.

I never noticed the P-38 behind you. My favorite plane by my favorite engineer. Yes. I am that big of a nerd.

That looks killer, but I despise pickguards of any kind. If you want a Strat without a pickguard, you get a Charvel. Les Paul's, no pickguard and no covered pickups. Black/cream zebras. The only exception to the rule is a Korina Explorer with a white pickguard.

So I have some Strat knockoffs (like G&L Tribute stuff) and they have shallow body routes. That, combined with the shielding paint in the cavity, will make some full-sized 5 ways short out in some positions. A piece of electrical tape applied to the body directly under the switch solves that problem. No idea is that's the issue here, but not all "drop in" pickguards drop in to every cavity.

Plus there guitar bodies are pretty cool to

I got mine installed by a luthier and it works just fine.

Take some resistance measurements of the windings.

I bought a Squire that came with a pre-loaded pick guard. Looks like a pair of Invaders. They sounded ok. Looks amazing though. The switches are wired a goofy way. Worth the $30ish off of Amazon.

I bought one of those. The button never worked for me. I'll probably rip it out and put another pickguard in with slightly better pickups and a tone control for the bridge pickup. Cool review!

Was going to recommend groove pickguards

Nice review Max, it is a nice idea ...but...Without drilling holes in the faceplate, one can make similar modifications with splits etc, using Fender Deluxe and pull-switched pots... I'm not a fan of those fiddly little intermittent toggle switches. I get a lot of customers wanting the ability to bring bridge, and neck together + option to mis-phase them + option to have all three switched as one massive single coil.

Liking the color

Did you spray the contacts on the switch with cleaner? Had to do that on a brand on EVH Wolfgang Special.... Wasn't pumped on that.. Works perfect after that.

I wished you had done this video before I purchase mine. Waiting on the guitarto see if mine will actually work.

On the Amazon website it has a wiring diagram for the wiring , I bought one & a more expensive one the parts are a bargain for several projects

I would guess the latching kill switch was probably the only one they could order for the pickguard. I can't tell you the number of times I've designed a PCB, placed a footprint for a part I know exists, then it's completely sold out and discontinued. Super frustrating. Not quite as frustrating as the product not working at all though. Edit: Kudos to knowing the correct term for a bad solder joint. 👍

You've got to go over $50 to get a better build/quality. I have one on my watches right now that I think is the prettiest pg I've ever seen. (I stopped looking for the super switches, there's better ways to wire it up. The most I would want is a single 7way gilmour switch and that's not even necessary) LAMSAM Prewired Pickguard with SSH Pickup Set, 3-ply Pick Guard Loaded High Output Alnico V Single Coil Humbucker Pick-ups, Electric Guitar Scratchplate as Luthier Replacement Parts, Black-03 It looks amazing.

Fesley has those to I think

Love the intro 😂 ❤

😂😂😂😂 That intro was hilarious.

Thanks for another cool video, Max! Total pro! You got rooked and then made a cool video of a bad situation anyway. That’s the total success model. Nice job!👍🏼

Love the Gamma Ray shirt

the switch types are latching vs momentary.

Maybe it gives it a boost

Awesome

Change the bridge humbucker pickup out, I would.

What type of rout is under the hood, hss or swimming pool?

I think the issue with the pickup is some of the magnets might be reversed or improperly placed. The pickup passes signal, so both the coils are in tact. My bet is one of the magnets is in the wrong polarity. Luckily, its only $20 or so so if you mess it up, you can just buy another cheap humbucker. I do not think that this is an issue that will happen with all of these pickguards of the same line. I think the brand gets pickups wounded by a different company then sent over to them. In other words, I dont think this would be an issue for most people who buy.

The pickups that work sound like very high n medium output. I thought the other was just low output till it quit.

is that a full size fender stratocaster body ? if not, i can find a squier neck online that would fit very well with it . i really like that green metallic finish, i would get a bit darker shade by a couple degrees on the edges - for the price it sounds very good ⚡🔥🎸 iT would be a good platform to 'practice' set 📐 ups learn fretwork, nut filing, bridge adjustments- a good way to learn through trials and errors and ' practice ' installing the various components , 'practice' soldering and installing pickups for electric guitars

Max I think I know what the issue is I did notice that they left a lot of bare ground wires exposed and because the wiring is kind of tight in there it sounds like you have a grounding issue

Two out of three ain't bad 😁

Are you certain the Groove is drilled correctly?

try this, take a piece of wire and run it from pot to pot soldering it to the back of the pots, then run one to the ground, the body of the guitar right inside the control cavity, basically how charvel does it or did it int he day, you humbucker has a ground issue, either its not grounded to the pots very well or your pots are not grounded together so the tone pot is making noise due to poor ground.. is it wired where the middle tone controls the two singles and the bottom tone is for the humbucker? sort the grounding, all pots should be grounded to the common ground . . .

I was thinking about buying all the guitar parts from Temu, and making myself a guitar out of it.

Revenge of the $25 turd! Could be a cool platform for modding. I wish it had a momentary switch for the killswitch. Those alone can be like $10, there's other inexpensive ones in bundles but I've never tried them.

Hey Max. What was the Ohmage value on the bridge pickup? Just curious. Not a total loss. The white pick guard is probably worth $24 anyway. Are the cavities in the guitar shielded? I noticed the back of the pick guard isn’t shielded, but wasn’t sure if it needed to be. And the kill switch could be used when disconnecting the guitar cord, without the popping noise. Great video, Max. 🎸👍

Honestly,for that price I would have been surprised if it did work. And I would have been shocked if it worked good and sounded good

I was waiting for the thing to start smoking when it began to cut out!