How to save $3000 on a guitar

Talk about guitars, amplifiers, effects and other gear
Post Reply
User avatar
LeftyCanuck
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon May 09, 2011 5:40 am

How to save $3000 on a guitar

Post by LeftyCanuck »

Last year I phoned up my "local"Fender dealer to find out what it would cost me to get a lefty version of the Eric Clapton Stratocaster from Fender. Turns out, my only option was going custom shop... to a price tag of nearly $4000! I also called up Southpaw guitars in Houston TX (where I bought my Les Paul several years ago) and they were quoting not much less - and couldn't ship Fenders to Canada.

So.... I thought to myself: "Self, Fenders are basically screwed together from parts. You can operate a screw driver, right?"

I decided I wanted to copy the Stratocaster from the 1996 "Live in Hyde Park" concert.

After spending hours pouring over the Warmoth website, I ordered up a bunch of "replacement" Stratocaster parts - including a body pre-routed with a battery compartment in the back for the EC midboost kit and a contoured neck heel; a neck with the same specs as the EC strat; and some upgraded hardwear (modern bridge, locking tuners). From another site, got the midboost kit and 3 Gold Lace Sensor pickups. And from my local Radio Shack, bought a soldering iron.

A friend at an autobody shop was able to find the Mercedes paint code for "Black Opal Metallic" which is the actual colour name for Fender's "Mercedes Blue" used on the Hyde Park strat... and was willing to paint it for $60. Although he does have an odd taste in music... see photo.

Putting it together was a snap - even the soldering wasn't has hard as I thought it would be (although I was glad when I finally got the pickguard screwed down and didn't have to look at that mess of wires and soldering). All in all, for about $1000 in parts and labour, and a weekend worth of my own time, I got a lefty version of the Clapton Stratocaster without having to spend $4000 and 8 months waiting for the Custom Shop to build one for me!
P1210005.jpg
P1210005.jpg (114.57 KiB) Viewed 8037 times
IMG_0088.jpg
IMG_0088.jpg (1.79 MiB) Viewed 8037 times
User avatar
VikingBlues
Posts: 4466
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2010 7:44 pm

Re: How to save $3000 on a guitar

Post by VikingBlues »

Sounds like a good job well done :clap: - you're quite right - the "Strat" style of guitar is ideal for a self-build as it is, as you say, a load of parts screwed together.

Good quality parts is a big help to a successful project.

Helps to have a friendly paint guy unless you're going for a natural oil finish - I'd be terrified of doing a full paint job. Though I'll admit the two things that make my nerves jangle are - (1) getting the neck alignment / angle right, and (2) the soldering. It's not happened yet but I'm always sure I'm going to solder everything and then find that it doesn't work because of a faulty bit of solder somewhere. Especially when there's as many bits of wire as a Strat! :eye_rub:

Hope you have many years of great music from your own "baby". :thumbsup:
An improv a day keeps the demons at bay!
User avatar
LeftyCanuck
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon May 09, 2011 5:40 am

Re: How to save $3000 on a guitar

Post by LeftyCanuck »

You know, the neck was actually a breeze. Bolted it on, strung it up, and it needed no adjustment. Setting the intonation on the bridge was a bit of a learning process (having played nothing but Les Paul's with tune-o-matics for the last 15 years!) but it really only took an evening of my patience.

The soldering... well... it was a pain. Didn't help that I mounted the pots for the volume and the mid boost in the wrong locations and when I plugged it in got a really nasty noise. I ended up having to de-solder, swap them around and re-solder again. Definitely NOT going to be opening the hood on that guitar again unless something goes wonky (and there's a reason why I don't have any photos of it!)
User avatar
12bar
Site Admin
Posts: 3273
Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2010 12:05 pm

Re: How to save $3000 on a guitar

Post by 12bar »

Congratulations - well done!

Soldering and mounting a strat is easy compared to a ES-335 style guitar where you can't open the back... :big_smile:

Now you need a new avatar! :wink:
User avatar
vancouverois
Posts: 922
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 5:55 pm

Re: How to save $3000 on a guitar

Post by vancouverois »

Nice guitar, congratulations! :clap:
I built two Strats from parts, one has the mid boost with fender Noiseless pickups.

Soldering isn't that difficult, I use a pencil type of soldering iron, 30W, but I guess
the most important is the rosin core solder must have at least 40% lead.
Building guitars can become very addictive, I am in the process of finishing the third
build :lol:
Jan 15th 2007
Micromet
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2012 4:33 pm

Re: How to save $3000 on a guitar

Post by Micromet »

Yes - I did a similar DIY job. Saw the Manson Works #006 guitar in UK "Guitarist" Magazine - thought it looked cool - then had the sweats when I saw the price £5200 - Wow!
So I decided to build my own from the photos in "Guitarist" Magazine and from the Manson Wesite. Scaled the photos up according to fretboard scale lengths and pickups dimensions and then made copy from Basswood body (tends to dampen treble response) with aluminium tubing and sheet "veneer" etc.
The result can be seen here - in a "pose" similar to the one shown in "Guitarist" - cost me about £250 in total
Attachments
Manson_a_la_Guitarist-small-2.jpg
Manson_a_la_Guitarist-small-2.jpg (53.38 KiB) Viewed 7708 times
MichaelRobinson
Posts: 2172
Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 10:20 pm

Re: How to save $3000 on a guitar

Post by MichaelRobinson »

I thought ones or more to build my self but I found out that it's not cheeper, at least on the sites I lookt on. I can do stuff with my hands and have build complicated airoplain in a jig that I build my self. But the price and all job cost patiens and I seem to get less and less patient as older I become.

Interseting aluminium guitar but the price of aluminium is high, at least in Sweden so I back of. I don't trust my self to be able to build perfect guitars that have the same quality as fabric made. And it's easy to buy fabric stuff. I allso have lack of space to start up buildnig projects.

I have no friend how can do the paint job in a dust free environment so I guess I have to pay full price for that job.

Off couse I realy want to try building just to have something in my restless hands to concentrate on but I don't know what the price tag would be compered to by a fabric made one.

Ones I had the possibility to build. I had a whole machine park in my hands I had but not longer. I like to do stuff from scrach so I miss the machines. Nowdays I have to buy even the simplest things like guitar stands.
Micromet
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2012 4:33 pm

Re: How to save $3000 on a guitar

Post by Micromet »

Hi Michael,

I don't have any dedicated machinery or paint booths when I make guitars - I'm doing it all in my garage. The aluminium guitar was just aluminium tubes of various sizes pressed and glued into the basswood body shape. Then 1.5mm aluminium sheet was again glued on either side of the body using DIY glue/sealant (in this case a UK product from Evostik called "No More Nails" - its flexible so that it can accommodate the very slight expansion differences between aluminium and wood. Patience is a virtue and being able to accurately transfer measurements is also desirable. The finish was just a brushed finish - achieved using those green plastic abrasive washing up clothes - and then several coats of automobile clear acrylic spray from a can.

Perhaps start from a simpler design - how about trying a telecaster. Again I managed to make one of these for less than £200 - I buy telecaster-type necks from Ebay, the swamp ash from a UK tone wood supplier and the rest of the bits (pickups, pickguard, etc from various web sites in the UK, US and Asia. For wood finishes - I just French Polish the wood - gives a better tone than applying coats of acrylic polyurethane paint. The attached photo shows my finished Telecaster with one piece swamp ash and bakelite pickguard.
Attachments
FinishedTelecaster-small.jpg
FinishedTelecaster-small.jpg (36.54 KiB) Viewed 7683 times
Post Reply