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I'm looking at putting together a parts caster.............my 1st one.
I have never even had the neck off a tele, let alone put a whole guitar together but I'm willing to invest the time and money to put together a beaut.
I'm looking a buying a bare strat style body and neck and then adding some wudtone magic.
The question really is - where is the best place to get the neck and body from. Love the Warmoth stuff but don't really want to be buying parts from over the pond.
Are there any specialist tools or skills that I will need? My soldering isn't too bad and have rewired a couple of guitars.
Thanks
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Wow, they have some really nice stuff on there!! A single pickup walnut Tele style may now be the one!!
Any advice on tools and skills?
I was thinking about the HB kits but then thought that I would rather make something a bit more luxurious and then hand it down to my son in years to come.
I would go for satin nickel hardware.
If I do start to balls it up, I can also sell the parts on here!!
What I'm really asking is, if I go out and buy a nice body and neck with some mid range hardware, how bad can I mess it up? Main pitfalls etc.
Thanks
and also a really detailed series of blog posts for the same build on another forum - I'll just link to the first in the series here: http://forum.rguitars.co.uk/blog/building-a-walnut-strat-part-1
Thanks for all the replies folks!
Some really informative stuff.
I don't think I will be going down the Harley Benton kit as I would like something a bit more upmarket (no intended snobbery) and I will also know that I will be able to sell the parts if I get fed up half way through.
I have saw a few of the guitarbuild bodies on ebay for a let less than on their website so its looking like I will plump for one of those in the near future.
Whats the best way to go about nut files? Buy some (to make 1 guitar) or pay a pro to do it for me?
electric proddy probe machine
My trading feedback thread
electric proddy probe machine
My trading feedback thread
The fret levelling one is a great post. I wouldn't know where to start before reading that but it looks like a straight forward guide that even I can follow.
Lots of good comments already but I’ll add my two penneths…
I actually finally built up my own strat a couple of weeks ago (maple neck, sonic blue, mint green pickguard, EJ pickups, Callaham trem etc.) I had considered maybe a Fender CS and some other nice options but in the end decided that I really wanted to put something together and paint it myself. I didn't skimp on anything and just specced everything I thought would make me the nicest sounding & playing guitar. Here’s some notes that might help from what I think I did right / wrong:-
Thing I did right:
- Neck: I wanted the best made neck I could get and my research led me to USACG. Tommy there was amazingly helpful and the neck they made to my exact specs (quartersawn maple, lowered peghead face, '54 soft v to a c profile, 6105 frets, 12" radius, rolled edges) is the nicest I’ve ever played.
- Shelling out for decent hardware: Callaham trem, Gotoh vintage staggered tuners, EJ pickups. It’s hard to pinpoint one thing but the guitar overall sounds fantastic and has the right tonal character that I wanted from each of the 5 positions. (this is one of the obvious downsides of DIY – you never quite know how those parts are going to combine)
- Setup: I didn’t trust myself with the critical stage, so gave the thing to Henk Philipsen in Horsham to fit the neck to the body and fit a tusq nut. The neck pocket in the body wasn’t deep enough and he had to rout the body to get it to sit lower and correct the neck angle. That all looked pretty tricky to me and he did an outstanding job with it.
- Painted it in nitro…time will tell how it wears but I have to say I’m really disappointed with how my poly finished 1987 ’68 reissue has worn in over 25 years of playing and wouldn’t buy another poly-finished guitar as a “keeper”.
Things I did wrong:
- Body: - The single biggest mistake I made was starting with a nice looking, lightweight alder body I couldn't resist on Ebay. It worked out fine after some tweaking (thanks Henk!) but that fitting is so critical that I would definitely get the body matched from the same place as the neck next time.
- Spraying the nitro went fine but in sanding it I went through it in a few spots and so had to buy more paint and respray: clear coat, vintage tint, under coat and 2 tins of sonic blue, all at £15 per can that added up. The nitro took ages to dry, too.
- Didn’t quite get the tinted laquer right on the neck - there is some spray “shadow” of it either side of each fret (though I’m not sure how to avoid that)
- EJ Pickups: I love the sound of them but the B and E string pole pieces are very low and those strings are noticeably quieter as a result. I’m considering tapping the pole pieces gently with a Birmingham screwdriver but it sounds like that is somewhat risky…
Good luck! Would be pleased to read how you get on. A surf green tele is next up for me…
I have always had an itch for a bass guitar but never fancied spending too much money. This kit will allow me to build a guitar and own a bass guitar for £70