Guitar Gear Forum

Took off today, and decided to work on one of my strats. I've tried everything from tapping a tip into it, the rubber band trick, heating with a solder iron, and even tried melting solder into the head, but it's too corroded, so it won't stick. Trying to slot it would be pretty difficult because the heads are countersunk. Lastly, do they make an EZ out bit for screws that small?

I've solved this problem on occasion by gluing the screwdriver into the screw with CA glue.

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The epoxy trick with a nut works, if you can clean the screw head up enough to get it to stick. Screw extractors are a pain to line up if it's not a phillips head with enough left of the head to center it properly.

Best of luck. I've been down this path of madness myself and it's a frustrating one until you get it worked out.

Maybe cut a line into it and use a flathead?

Ultimately, a strat pickguard is not very expensive. You can usually get one for under 20 bucks.
So you can break off this pickguard around the stripped screw to get it off that way. Once the pickguard is off, there will be enough room to grab the screw head with a vise grip or pliers and remove it.
Then install the new guard with a fresh set of screws.

Unless, of course, this is a vintage guitar. Then don't do that.

But for the regular US/Mex strat out there, just get something like:

https://a.co/d/8JNXCu5

No need to stress yourself out over a $9 part IMHO. Get it out of there and replace it.

Found an EZ out kit at our shop yesterday. If that doesn't work, then it's a new guard.