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I'm in the midst of making my second Strat partscaster and it won't be my last.
I think if that's what you *really* want, I'd save up for it.
your friend it a bit of a Debbie downer.
personally I would get a body from guitarbuild all mine have been good work, his cheaply eBay ones are ideal unless you must have highly accurate blackgaurd specif you want to know the weight before buying.
i think throwing the best of everything is a waste on money.
all mine I used Wilkie son tuners or hand wound stuff I did or something like OCP which are great value and a lot of bang for not too much buck.
the real trick to me is fit and finish thats what makes it more than the sum of its parts. So lots of fret rolling, buffing the shit out of the neck by hand to give a played in feel.
It wont be worth the cost of the parts but you are making your own special version. So it has to be a keeper.
ultimately the best tell in the world is still just a simple bit of work designed to be put together by moderately skilled labour not master lutiers
The parts were gathered together entirely randomly - mainly pre-owned. I chose the body from Warmoth's clearance deals pages. I thought that I had ordered an alder body, routed for single pickup, finished in Dodge Charger Green. When the carton cleared customs, it included a handwritten note, apologising for the fact that the body was actually mahogany. Shame!
It was assembled by someone in a different place. Oh and you can have a Fender logo.
Seriously, guitars are assembled by semi-skilled workers and then set up by techs - that was Fender's genius, he broke the manufacturing process down to tasks so it could be taught to anyone. Much like Henry Ford with cars.
CS stuff (especially the Masterbuilt stuff) is a little different but if you believe that the Fender (or any other Guitar factory) is full of highly skilled artisan luthiers crafting guitars from scratch then you are wrong. Having visited (and QC checked processes) guitar factories I can tell you, it's just people working in a standard production environment.
So I'd say your friend is wrong.
It is a seriously good guitar - really good!
I've also got two basses made from parts, both of which are also really very good.
I say go for it, but not if you think you will sell it, build YOUR dream instrument, in your choice of colour hardware etc...
I have never been interested in bitsas.
You buy a load of parts without knowing how it will sound or feel until its finished.
I prefer to buy something I can try out that is real, not pie in the sky. Something that has a value if you get fed up with it not something you have to disassemble again and try to hawk off the bits.
BTW you never hear any stories of bitsas that turn out a load of crap, they always seem to be at least Fender custom shop quality.
On the question of economics, partscasters are generally in the £200 to £400 range, which is what you'd pay for a Far East import. After you've modified it twice you might have spent £300 to £500. If you'd bought three imports you'd have spent around £900. If you managed to sell two of them at £200 each (66%) then you'd have spent the same, and learned less.
There are loads that turn out crap - just like most CS fenders will be crap until they are set-up properly
If you build a partscaster and you are not happy with it, its worth having someone else take a look as 9 times out of 10 its a really easy fix to make it great.
The problem for me is parts manufactures like warmoth advertising on out the box playability. It sets unrealistic expectations
They do a good job of it, but I have only met one warmoth neck that didn't benefit from a bit of extra attention... and I have done a lot of warmoth builds.
The same is true of any brand, so that's not a dig at warmoth, I truly think they do an excellent job. Allparts stuff is good quality, but very factory fresh - it needs decent fretwork and a rolling of edges to get the most out of it - you can take it from MIM to CS level just through the extra work you do on it.
If doing a partscaster please either learn, or budget for, nut/fret work.... don't expect it to be perfection out the box. Don't settle for "playable".
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