After waiting four weeks for an eBay seller to completely fail to deliver a pickguard, I gave up and bought from another seller. Japanese Fenders have a number of annoying non-standard features and the pickguard is no exception. The pickup cavities are in a different place necessitating more wood removal, the screw holes don’t match up and the bridge cutout needed to be opened up with a file.
I’ve abandoned the coiltap switch again, just a combined S1/S2 switch and a GK/magnetic selector. And damn, those F-stamped knobs are classy. The horribly cheap plastic enclosed switched has been binned in favour of a proper Switchcraft unit. I appreciate those switches must save Fender Japan a good 50p per guitar but really, they have no place on a quality instrument.
We’re getting there! Side note, I’d have got a lot more done today if I hadn’t misplaced my desolder pump. I put the thing down for five minutes and it just disappeared off the face of the planet. I’ve searched every room in the house and it’s nowhere to be seen.
Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that I went too deep with countersinking the pickup screw holes. Another Fender Japan annoyance is their use of metric threaded pickup screws so I had to countersink the plastic or replace the pickups. I went for the cheaper option and got a bit over-enthusiastic with the countersink bit.
Frank's V-Guitar Stuff 