Steel pickuards (also strat pickups with bottom plates)

[qersty]

I had a pretty wild idea this morning cause i was thinking about tele pickups and how the bridge pickup with the bottom plate extends the magnetic field all the way into the bridge. I thought why the hell not do it on a strat and have the whole ass pickguard be steel maybe even copper plate it. Would at least looks sick as hell! Like tele style bridge plates on strat pickups are already a thing for moar output. anybody has any thoughts on this? need to aquire a strat bod

[Gone Fission]

I *think* you’ll get a stronger effect if the steel is coupled directly to the magnets, which may raise practical issues. But you may not want it that strong, and I believe it can still work. IIRC, the Dimarzio “Air” pickups use an air gap between the humbucker’s magnet and the slugs and pole pieces to mellow the sound.

So get a thin sheet of steel at a home improvement store, some protective gloves, metal shears, and something to smooth down the sharp/jagged/rough edges, and experiment and report back? I would think ideally you would want to know if there’s an optimal size, or an adequate size where more coverage doesn’t improve anything.