Fraser Guitars....Any Good?

GoldenEraGuitars · August 2017

Jack_ said:

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

Not sure man. I have heard good things about him and tbh I wouldn't doubt anything I've heard. He has a massive following on social media too. If I had that sort of numbers behind me I could quit my day job (that's my goal btw). But I can't make my own bodies and necks so my business plan has to allow for bulk purchasing to keep the cost to the customer reasonable. If I was making the bodies I'd be into another load of issues i.e. timber storage, timber qc, CNC machine space, labour time for making necks etc...

Richardrichard · February 2018

Guys, bit of a necro but wanted to share my new Fraser. This thing is incredible, and amazing value. Plays beautifully, at least as good as anything I've played from Fender Custom Shop, custom wound pickups sound awesome, in all I can't see any reason to go elsewhere if you're looking for a strat and you have £800+ to spend. Swamp ash and overspray cost a little extra, but so worth it!

Gallery here at various stages of build process. https://imgur.com/a/qGwFn

algroves1 · February 2018

That looks fantastic, lovely guitar!

Im interested in one of his Telecasters. Is he making these from scratch or getting the necks and bodies pre-assembled?

Richardrichard · February 2018

Apparently all made in house. Bodies I believe are CNC'd, necks I did wonder when I saw the "raw" picture, but I couldn't find a supplier of vintage necks with the truss adjustment at the heel end so I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt! PLays beautifully regardless, and at that price if i learned he was buying them in it wouldn't change anything.

If you see the custom pieces on his website, he clearly can make necks - including out of matchsticks! http://www.fraserguitars.com/product/matchstick-54-stratocaster-tribute/

dindude · February 2018

They look like good value and honestly if more UK built guitars were priced favourably compared to US equivalents I think the UK market would fly in the face of the price hikes for USA stuff we’ve been seeing over the last few years.

Put it like this:

There are people who will sell you a nitro finished body for £250 and make money out of it.
There are people who will sell you a nitro finished neck for £250 and make money.
There are people who will hand wind you a set of Strat pickups for £150 and make money.
There are people who will sell you quality Strat hardware and plastics for £150 and make money.
There are people who will level frets and set up a guitar for £100 and make money.

That’s £900 all in, the price of one of these, and all of the above business’ transactions and margins all in one shot. A simplistic view I know, but a different angle on it nonetheless.

UK built, direct sell guitars seem to start at £3K, I know most of them are complex builds but they don’t appear to be better value than the US prices we moan about.

I’d have a Probett Rocket in a flash if it were £1800 instead of £3.4K.

Richardrichard · February 2018

I think you're absolutely right, plus I expect it's a business tactic - sell at lowish prices to build up a reputation that will let you charge more later.

mixolyd · February 2018

He needs to have a word with his webmaster about the resolution of the pics in the menus, the guitars look all blurry and horrible until you get to the actual product page and even then they don’t look “right”.

Richardrichard · February 2018

I've seen comments that suggest there's a new website in the works. I think mostly he relies on facebook/instagram currently, certainly far more piccies etc there.

GoldenEraGuitars · February 2018

Richardrichard said:

Apparently all made in house. Bodies I believe are CNC'd, necks I did wonder when I saw the "raw" picture, but I couldn't find a supplier of vintage necks with the truss adjustment at the heel end so I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt! PLays beautifully regardless, and at that price if i learned he was buying them in it wouldn't change anything.

If you see the custom pieces on his website, he clearly can make necks - including out of matchsticks! http://www.fraserguitars.com/product/matchstick-54-stratocaster-tribute/

Every neck I use has adjustment at the heel. I’m guessing here but I personally wouldn’t be able to produce a neck for less than I can buy them for. When mine arrive I spend a lot of time on them to make them as good as they can be. That’s time consuming enough without thinking about actually making them from scratch too. If he makes his own necks then fair play. Lots of respect for that.

@dindude is quite correct. You can get a bloody good guitar for under a grand if you’re putting a partcaster together. From what I’ve gathered the people who have come to me to source a guitar are getting that custom shop experience too for 25-30% of the cost of the big brands.

hobbio · February 2018

@Richardrichard ; are you the builder incognito? Your posts kind of read like you are...

Richardrichard · February 2018

Haha nope, but I guess having used his pics it probably looks like that. Just wanted to share as there isn't a great deal of info about these, expect for his own website/social media, in case it helps others looking into the brand. Here's one of my own pics having received the guitar today. Second from right is also a custom build that I had made in china. It's essentially a "fake" but with custom logo;

wyancey · July 2019

I have 3 of them they are awesome!!

Dan_Halen · July 2019

wyancey said:

I have 3 of them they are awesome!!

Hi Mr Fraser, welcome to the forum!

SlopeSoarer · July 2019

wyancey said:

I have 3 of them they are awesome!!

Come on @wyancey get yer guitars out and show us some pics: )

Fraser Guitars look great!

mbe · July 2019

hobbio said:

@Richardrichard ; are you the builder incognito? Your posts kind of read like you are...

Don't tell him Pike!

wyancey · July 2019

how do I post pics

wyancey · July 2019

how do I post pics

wyancey · July 2019

wyancey · July 2019

i will post on my face book if anyone wants to look i cant get pics on here my facebook is willis yancey

wyancey · July 2019

also on youtube type in wyancey2 reclaim the tone that's my first one my green one i had it done with a 12 radius tone machine

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

Fraser Guitars....Any Good?

Comments