[Nathans_Dad]

I recently sold my Highway 1 strat to fund the purchase of some new tube amps (which I am very happy with, BTW).

The strat I have is an Olympic White MIM strat which is a 2008 model with a maple fretboard. I got an all single coil loaded pick guard off an American Standard strat about a year ago which I installed to replace the stock MIM pick guard which had a humbucker at the bridge. This was a Craigslist score and I was able to swap the MIM pick guard for the American Standard one as an even swap.

The volume pot on the strat has recently become very scratchy and the volume sometimes cuts out. I have tried cleaning it with electrical contact cleaning spray but it's still scratchy. So, I have ordered a new 250k CTS pot to replace it.

While I have the pick guard off the guitar I was kicking around the idea of upgrading the pickups as well. I thought I had scored some Fender Custom Shop '69 pickups for only $100 shipped but the guy said he ran out of stock. I am also considering Dimarzio Area pickups as well as Fender Tex Mex or Texas Specials.

Any thoughts?