The Strat humbucking conundrum

I have a Strat and I love it. It's nothing fancy, just a regular Mexican-made standard Stratocaster with three single coils and a 6-screw tremolo, just as Leo Fender intended - although, to be fair, he probably didn't intend for them to be made in Mexico. But I digress...

As I said, I love my Strat. I love the way it plays and, for the most part, the way it sounds. There is an inherent design flaw in the Stratocaster that has been sending Strat owners to their soldering irons for years - there is no tone control on the bridge pickup. Leo designed the Stratocaster for maximum brightness and twanginess - that also accounts for the angled pickup, as the pole pieces for the higher strings are even closer to the bridge, maximizing twang. While this may be great for country music, it's not so great for rock. That's why a lot of players take out their trusty soldering irons and rewire their guitars to get some tone roll-off on the bridge pickup.

There are many ways to do this, but the easiest is to connect the tone control for the middle pickup to the bridge. The middle pickup sounds great with the tone maxed out, so most players won't miss the ability to roll off tone on the middle pickup. Also, having a tone control on the middle and neck positions means that when the switch is on position 4 (or 2, depending on where you start counting) and both of those pickups are activated they run through two tone potentiometers, resulting in a lot of tone roll-off, even when both are cranked. Moving the tone from the middle to the bridge eliminates that. This is what I want to do with my Strat, once I get the balls to attempt to use a soldering gun on my favorite guitar.

There's another issue, though.

I really like humbuckers. Especially after getting my new HH Telecaster. I like them even more when they're in the bridge position. The HSS pickguard I got for my old Hondo has a really nice bridge humbucker, especially for a no-name brand. The single coils, however, leave a lot to be desired.

This morning, an idea hit me that's so good it may just work.

I could remove the Hondo's pickguard assembly, replace the crappy single coils with the middle and neck single coils from the Strat's assembly, rewire the middle tone control for the bridge, and install it on my Strat. Just like that I have a bridge humbucker on my beloved Strat, plus I'd still have the better Fender single coils in the neck and bridge. The electronics on the Hondo's assembly are pretty good quality, so I don't think I'm losing anything by not using the Fender parts. Then I can take the crappy singles and put them into the Fender assembly, then install it on the Hondo.

It's so simple it's brilliant.

But all is not perfect. I don't know if I want non-Fender parts on my Fender. I like that it's a cohesive piece. I like having Fender pickups going through Fender volume and tone pots to a Fender switch. Also, do I really want a pearloid pickguard on my real Strat? If not, I'll have to buy a new one, and my guitar budget is already blown for the year after buying the new Tele. There's the problem of compatibility. The Hondo is not built to Fender specifications, probably to avoid lawsuits. The neck pocket is bigger, and the pickguard had to be altered to fit. While this shouldn't make too much difference if the Hondo assembly is mounted on the Fender, it does mean that the Fender pickguard won't fit on the Hondo without modification, so I'll be one guitar short until I can get it fixed.

So therein lies the dilemma. Do I put non-Fender parts on my Strat (and render my Hondo temporarily unplayable) just to get a bridge humbucker, or do I just keep it as it is and make the tone change?

If you have suggestions, please comment below!