Fraser Guitars....Any Good?

paul_xt

Can anyone shed any light on these guitars? I've always been attracted to a relic, some of these are a it extreme but wondered if anyone had any experience with him or his guitars (other than the matchstick guitar he built..)

http://www.fraserguitars.com/product-category/vintage-series/

Cheers

Paul

grungebob

I like the look of the surf green with the bound neck, the price seems attractive too but are they all handmade or are they parts assembled and finished? I'd imagine the latter given the price. 

dindude

Needs to tone down (or provide an option) that isn't full on "found in a skip" level of relicing.

Also, the provenance detail is deliberately sketchy, which I hate personally. If you make the bodies and necks yourself, shout about it. If you make it from parts and finish, relic and set it up to perfection, shout about it. 

paul_xt

Totally agree with you @dindude about it being sketchy, kinda hoped someone may know the guy or own one and be able to shed some light. I've been offered the chance to go and try them, may take him up on it in the next few weeks and report back.

mikestrat57

As Dean is building me a guitar as we speak,  I can assure you that nothing he does is a parts assembled guitar, He;s doing a custom build for me to my specs and it's totally custom built. From the ground up. All aging is to my specs. Neck,  hand carved from blank stock to my dimensions.

Danji

Not seen these before, one worrying detail omitted is the hardware, are you paying for handwound/brand pickups, (highly doubtful), or cheaper no-name mass produced pickups.  The same with the other hardware items.

Adamski

Can't possibly be a full build. £799 is too cheap! 

usedtobe

They look ok, but the relicing is a bit much, maybe... ?

GoldenEraGuitars

dindude said:

Needs to tone down (or provide an option) that isn't full on "found in a skip" level of relicing.

Also, the provenance detail is deliberately sketchy, which I hate personally. If you make the bodies and necks yourself, shout about it. If you make it from parts and finish, relic and set it up to perfection, shout about it. 

Ill be undertaking a few builds for customers this year. At no point would I ever hide behind the fact that I buy ready made necks and bodies. They do arrive completely unfinished though. 

WezV

lonestar said:

dindude said:

Needs to tone down (or provide an option) that isn't full on "found in a skip" level of relicing.

Also, the provenance detail is deliberately sketchy, which I hate personally. If you make the bodies and necks yourself, shout about it. If you make it from parts and finish, relic and set it up to perfection, shout about it. 

Ill be undertaking a few builds for customers this year. At no point would I ever hide behind the fact that I buy ready made necks and bodies. They do arrive completely unfinished though. 

weird ain't it.  I consider them all my builds, even if i didn't start "from scratch"


I have build from parts many times.   I have built from planks many times.  Building from a rough sawn plank is quite different to building from a ready made  jointed and planed body blank.

No matter how much you do yourself, there is always someone who does more.   

Maybe if I plant a tree tomorrow my great grandchildren can harvest the wood from my tree and hand build a guitar using  nothing but hand tools they made themselves




quite frankly, if you are building something standard like a telecaster, its all in the first and last 5 %, material selection and set-up are where the quality difference lies.  i consider it a waste of my time to replicate a standard fender part in standard fender woods.

GoldenEraGuitars

WezV said:

lonestar said:

dindude said:

Needs to tone down (or provide an option) that isn't full on "found in a skip" level of relicing.

Also, the provenance detail is deliberately sketchy, which I hate personally. If you make the bodies and necks yourself, shout about it. If you make it from parts and finish, relic and set it up to perfection, shout about it. 

Ill be undertaking a few builds for customers this year. At no point would I ever hide behind the fact that I buy ready made necks and bodies. They do arrive completely unfinished though. 

weird ain't it.  I consider them all my builds, even if i didn't start "from scratch"


I have build from parts many times.   I have built from planks many times.  Building from a rough sawn plank is quite different to building from a ready made  jointed and planed body blank.

No matter how much you do yourself, there is always someone who does more.   

Maybe if I plant a tree tomorrow my great grandchildren can harvest the wood from my tree and hand build a guitar using  nothing but hand tools they made themselves




quite frankly, if you are building something standard like a telecaster, its all in the first and last 5 %, material selection and set-up are where the quality difference lies.  i consider it a waste of my time to replicate a standard fender part in standard fender woods.

I'd love to be able to cut my own bodies and fashion my own parts from plastic blanks etc but for now it is essential that I build a customer base and offer the basics to get started. I have no problem with this but I do question why people believe someone building a standard replica guitar is wrong because they don't grow the tree, cut the blanks from said tree THEN go on to replicate a Fender telecaster to perfection. I replicate fender designs, so do lots of others. I'd like that to change over time but it will take time. I like the guitars in the link, the teles look particularly cool. But it's all marmite isn't it...

Adamski

I just wish everyone was honest about it!

I'd be happy to accept building from a blank as it would usually mean a reduction in cost to me and would mean that the other parts would be at least 'good' (branded pickups, bridges etc). 

Theres even been a few bigger brands where ive been a bit dubious, such as Revelator (how can they be so cheap?) and there is of course be whole Dusenberg thing where nobody has a clue where they are started, only that they are 'constructed' in Germany....

i once gave Relic Guitars The Hague a call about a Telecaster build and they quoted me £550! A full from scratch build apparently.......although their prices have now tripled. 

paul75

I just had a bizzare experience with Fraser guitars. Facebooked him with a spec for a quote, he said to email it so I did. No reply- I went back on fb to ask if he'd received my email, he'd blocked me! Maybe I offended by asking for reverse headstock? Really baffled.  I'd stay well clear. Shame, coz the guitars look great.

Sporky

WezV said:

Maybe if I plant a tree tomorrow my great grandchildren can harvest the wood from my tree and hand build a guitar using  nothing but hand tools they made themselves

I hope they'll have mined and smelted the ore themselves for any metal parts in those tools.

I plan on a more thorough, authentic, and artisanal approach; I'm going to begin by making my own universe from scratch.

GoldenEraGuitars

paul75 said:

I just had a bizzare experience with Fraser guitars. Facebooked him with a spec for a quote, he said to email it so I did. No reply- I went back on fb to ask if he'd received my email, he'd blocked me! Maybe I offended by asking for reverse headstock? Really baffled.  I'd stay well clear. Shame, coz the guitars look great.

Strange story unrelated to Fraser Guitars.. I was blocked by Deltone Guitars because he thought i had pinched his images (no, I hadn't). Odd how some of these chaps operate.

I sent Dean (Fraser guitars) a message via Facebook too but no response yet. I'm sure he's busy. Still, odd though...

wackojacko

I think his guitars look great....I follow his instagram account.

however - I suspect they expensive and very nice looking parts casters.

Which is strange...as I'm sure you can buy reverse headstock necks these days.

DanR

So does anyone know if they are parts casters?

His site refers to them as handmade with handwound pickups.

So it sounds like he makes them all.

BGG

He posted a lovely relic HSS strat last night.

GoldenEraGuitars

DanR said:

So does anyone know if they are parts casters?

His site refers to them as handmade with handwound pickups.

So it sounds like he makes them all.

He seems to make them all from scratch so fair play to him. Id like to be able to make my own necks and bodies!

Jack_

Is it possible to hand make a guitar from the ground up and make a profit worth your time for £900?

Teyeplayer

We probably should invite the guy, see what he says?