My quest for a cheap Strat

JanekLubanski

For reasons that I don't rationally understand I have set myself a cheap Strat challenge. As long as it has a Stratty shape and has 3 single coils it will do. Nothing under £100 in local guitar shops....yes there's a few on the bay starting with come and get me prices under £50. But seriously thinking of a Strat kit guitar currently calling me for £70. Maybe a bit of a punt......but how wrong can putting a kit guitar together go?!

Hurling_Fruitmig

I managed to bag a slightly shop soiled but otherwise new hardtail Squier Strat for £50. Saved me gluing my fingers to a fretboard or routing my leg.

JanekLubanski

Slightly shop soiled Squier Strat for £50!! Now that's the kind of deal that I'm looking for. And before your post I was thinking that a Westfield Strat with mini Marshall amp for £80 (collection only) was  a nailed on bargain.

paulnb57

I really wouldn't bother with a 70 quid guitar kit, when you can have one of these

https://www.bax-shop.co.uk/electric-guitars/fazley-fst118sb-electric-guitar-sunburst

or wait until something appears on your local selling site

DrCornelius

Not sure where you are Janek but there’s a home relic’d (badly) Squier Strat on Gumtree in Dorset for £70 looking for an offer . Other than the piss poor relic job it looks pretty sound.

JanekLubanski

DrCornelius Thanks for posting. A bit too far from me unfortunately.

JanekLubanski

paulnb57  Thanks for posting. That's cheap....I'm tempted....but still looking for that real cheapo 'bargain'. 

Switch625

I remember the days when there were plenty of Squier Strats on gumtree for around £50. Anyway there’s one in a South London for £65:

https://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/fender-squier-strat/1429999962

munckee

We picked up a 2004 indonesian squier strat for £40 from facebook for my 14 year old nephew.  Have resprayed it red for him and will upgrade it bit by bit with him.

JanekLubanski

Really miss Bulmers second hand shop in York. Closed around 8 years ago. The place sold everything but it always had weird, wonderful (and generally cheap) musical instruments....the bulk of which were guitars.

BillDL

JanekLubanski said:

..... seriously thinking of a Strat kit guitar currently calling me for £70. Maybe a bit of a punt......but how wrong can putting a kit guitar together go?!

I really love your optimism.  In general kit guitars at that price are going to have pretty cheap quality hardware and electrics, and the last thing you want to get into is spending much more than the guitar kit to buy decent replacements.  Kit components don't always just fit together accurately.  Everything is done by CNC machines these days and is usually consistently accurate, but you can get bad batches with badly positioned holes if the body or neck isn't held properly in the jig and moved, or even operator error.  Success very much depends on whether every screw hole is pre-drilled rather than just marked out for you to drill your own holes and pilot holes, and how accurately those screw holes are positioned.  This is especially important when it comes to positioning of the bridge if there isn't enough saddle travel to compensate for the error.  Even if there are errors in this respect things like that can usually be rectified, but whether you want to get into plugging and redrilling holes or sanding neck heels or making shims to fit the body is another thing.

If you aren't talking about a pre-lacquered guitar, then you would have to spend money buying your chosen finish.

One thing about kits that I have noticed.  You might assume that a kit being sold by Thomann or Bax Music is probably off the same machine as one of their Harley Benton or Fazely models, and is just an unfinished version of one still in pieces, but they are not.  It could well be that the body and neck were made in the same factories as their other own-brand guitars, but they make them sufficiently different from their own-brand guitars so that you are not just assembling one of their own models.  On that basis you cannot always assume that the quality of the components will be of the same quality as their finished guitars.  They could be worse or even better, and you have no way of knowing until you receive the kit.

If you think about a Strat kit that sells for £70, if the equivalent guitar was available as a pre-built guitar I would guess thatit would probably be in the £120 to £140 price bracket.  That's Squier Bullet, the budget Kramer "strats", East Coast, and Harley Benton budget range.  Unless you really wanted to personalise a guitar by building from a kit you would be better buying something like this for B-Stock £139 that would most likely be superior to the kit:

https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_st_90sa_swamp_ash_dlxb_stock.htm

Swamp ash body, maple neck, Pau Ferro fretboard, double action truss rod, Alnico-5 pickups, 2-point tremolo bridge and other hardware will be pretty good quality (DLX = "deluxe" in Thomann's lingo).

I'm not trying to discourage you from having a go with a kit, but don't just assume that it will fit together with everything perfectly aligned.  If it does that is a bonus, but you should be prepared to do some rectification work just in case.

rossi

Try for Squier  starter packs  on Gumtree .Often a gift that rarely has much use .You might get set with a Squier SE which is full sized .It will probably have  a string missing .

Look for "THE STRAT " logo on the headstock and stick on seriel number i have paid between 20 and 60 for them .

JanekLubanski

20 to 60rossi said:

Try for Squier  starter packs  on Gumtree .Often a gift that rarely has much use .You might get set with a Squier SE which is full sized .It will probably have  a string missing .

Look for "THE STRAT " logo on the headstock and stick on seriel number i have paid between 20 and 60 for them .

20 to 60........too high.

swiller

Late 80s (87-89) korean squier. A few on e bay for 150-200. Save yourself all the bother. Untapped fluke of strat heaven imho. Trounces my cv60 on all levels. Mines a plywood S9 series, stock ceramics and 500k mini pots.

WBT2079

Just bagged myself an old made in India encore S-type for £23 posted from flea bay. Keep looking there bargains to be had. I find filtering to for parts not working helps. Sometimes it’s nothing more than a crackly pot. Granted the MII encores are a pain for modding as the necks and pickups aren’t standard sizes which makes pickguard replacement / adjustment a pain,but the necks are lovely and the bodies have lovely thin contours. 

Flip

I've now built several kits and with one exception, all have fitted together without a problem. With bolt-on necks even that potential problem area is avoided. Maybe BillDL has other experience but this is mine. Provided you don't want guide holes pre-drilled my current favourite is Guitar Kit Fabric.

The big advantage of kit builds is that you are starting from scratch with no one else's mistakes. The principal disadvantage is that they're made to a price and not only will you have some expense in finishing materials but you may not be happy with the quality of the electrics. That means more expense. You'll probably also have to get to grips with fret dressing because I've never found a kit fretboard that suits me personally. However, the tools for that aren't hugely expensive.

The alternative for me is Facebook's local markets with which I've had good fortune. I'm lucky that I live in Manchester so the supply is fairly regular. I recently picked up a perfect ie unplayed Epiphone DR100 in a new case with a new tuner for £65 and a pair of Strat copies (one full size, one 3/4) in decent condition with a Fender practice amp for £55. When I've fettled them they'll both be canvasses for my wife to work on for our guitar-art website but even if I was just selling them on I'm certain I could make a decent profit without ripping anyone off.

But there are people who'll try. On the same marketplace, I've been offered a Yamaha F310 for £65 described as 'used but good' which far from being 'good' had a broken neck that someone had tried to fix with a hacksaw and superglue. You have to be aware of the scammers and make sure you know what you're buying - or take someone with you who does.

Good luck.

JanekLubanski

OK then. Got my cheap Strat today thanks to the Vape/guitar shop in York. Won't disclose price, but the geezer threw in a gig bag and a set of new 10 gauge strings into the mix. Got it home......took a bit of relief off the neck and lowered action somewhat. (Neck was like a longbow and action measured at around 3mm). First string may be a little too low but at least it plays when played open.  New strings on and it sounds to my old ears half decent. HOWEVER.... as soon as I use the term bar the tuning goes haywire. I could block the bridge off.....but a bit of tremolo bar shimmer would be nice.