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Hi, I am retired and live in Thailand, I have a Fender American standard, 1 year old, the only choice at the time as I am a lefty, and they would'nt do it in Red. It came with size .009 strings and 3 single coil pickups. its hard to get hold of gear here so i want to get this right. The question is, to improve the sound shall I go for, CS 54's, or 57/62 pickups and what string size is better. Thanks Liam.

Check out the threads under "How To Get That Sound" for all the options...

And welcome!!

Hi Liam. Being a lefty myself finding lefty Fender pickups is not as easy as it sounds. CS54's are not available as lefties, wrong stagger, 57/62 again are difficult to find but are availlable as lefties. You could look for 57/62 second hand as I believe they are standard on the left handed American re- issues. Fender have now made available lefty, vintage stagger, pickups as single units. They do also still supply lefty Texas Specials and Noisless as calibrated sets so you have the option of three singles or a set. The other options are the many left handed sets of single coil Strat pickups available from other pickup manufacturer's, Kinman, Bare Knuckle, Tone Rider,Seymore Duncan, etc etc. Good luck in your search and let us know how you get on.
Regards GEOFF.

Hi, I contacted Fender tech in the states, the man said he is a lefty himself, and that Fender dont make left handed pickups, he says cs54's pop straight in just turn them around. Liam

Hi, this is the reply i got from Fender. Unfortunately, we don’t make left handed pickups., but as a lefty myself, I just flip the pickups around

Hi Liam . Best get your wood chisel out then and start chiseling.Believe me Liam Fender do make and sell the left handed pickups I have mentioned. Best of luck .
Regards Geoff.

Hello, Chocdee,

Mounting a right-handed pickup the wrong way round might work if there's plenty of clearance inside the body routings. On the other hand, it might not.

Here's an illustration of standard pickup routing on a Strat:

http://www.bhefner.com/images/products/S.FLOYD.SWAMPASH.jpg

You can see that the cavities for each pickup are shaped to allow the pickup to be installed only one way (the correct way) round. Trying to install a pickup back to front (ie, with the solder contacts facing the neck) may not be possible - in fact, it's likely that it won't be, with a standard three-cavity routing.

But... some Stratocasters (perhaps including the American Standard model) have a single, large, routing which will allow the pickups to be mounted the wrong way round without problems; for example:

http://www.wilderdavoli.it/images/imgw/gbsap66.jpg

So check out under the scratchplate before taking that advice about turning the poickups around. Another way to do it might be to slip the magnets out of each pickup and re-insert them in the correct stagger for a LH guitar (it's usually possible to remove and replace the magnets, especially on a fairly new guitar).

Best wishes,

JN

Hi, Thanks for your help. Liam.

Hi Liam, welcome to the site.

My advice for you is to contact Daniel Martin. He is a left-handed player and has changed pickups a handful of times. Send him a personal message (PM) via this site and he'll likely be able to point you in the right direction. You'll find him listed under the name "BurnsMarvin2".

HTH...

J

Thanks have sent him a mail. Liam