$60 in parts, $60 in shipping.....

I can get some of the parts i need from mojo, some from acme, and some from RSguitarworks, some from stew mac, some from guitar parts resource, some from guitar fetish (you get the picture), but there is no one retailer that has everything i need so i end up paying almost as much for shipping as i do for the very small handful of pots, switches and jacks i need to purchase. Annoying!

I am looking to get the standard Fender Pat. Pend bridge plate, switchcraft jack, with electro-socket jack mount, a quality 3-way switch, a no-load tone pot, audio taper vol. pot, and some comp'd saddles and some affordable heavy knurled knobs and a cap (actually i think i have plenty of those).

The bridgeplate i can get from MF. Everyone else is charging an 50%-70% more or bundling in saddles i don't want.

mojo has the nice blender no-load pots, the 3-way, and affordable heavy knurled knobs (gotoh)

RSguitarworks, has those nice cheap comp'd saddles and really nice smooth audio taper vol. pots.

Only stew mac and guitarpartsresource, as far as i can see, has the electrosocket (out of stock at stew mac as always, wait 3-4 weeks ugh!) (guitarfetish only has black or gold?! yuck!)

Okay, so i found all the places that have the best parts for what i want and at the good prices, but ordering from three or four places negates pretty much any savings. Why is there not *one single place* that has everything for tele-heads?

How could Acme, Mojo, RS & co, all not sell electrosockets? GRRRR....

Hehehe, I just got my electrosocket shipped from stewmac.com last week! Maybe I got the last one?

You are right though, there are too many guitar parts supply stores that do not carry all one needs.

it is so annoying to pay more in shipping than the part is worth!

You prolly got the last one. I like the stew-mac aluminum electrosockets. Kind of annoying to have to wait 3-4 weeks while it is back-ordered, meanwhile i have a jack cup hanging out of my guitar.

:sad:

I prolly have to bite the bullet and order from guitarparts resource... and their famously speedy service :mrgreen:

Angela Instruments?

On this occasion at least?

Angels does often have some cool hard to find stuff. They were indispensable when i did my '66 musicmaster. They had odd stuff no one else had.

Angels does often have some cool hard to find stuff. They were indispensable when i did my '66 musicmaster. They had odd stuff no one else had.

Angela's Instruments can cover just about all of that list. If you email them in advance with your shopping list they'll send you a postal quote for combined shipping.

The electro socket's are out there on the 'bay.

I think Paul, who is a member here, would have a large part of what you want.

http://www.specialtyguitars.com/

I actually could have gotten pretty much everything from specialty guitars (they had the electrosocket, though not the aluminuim ones i like) and i ended up getting most of what i needed from them, but i had to get the saddles from RS so i thought i might as well treat myself to the one of those super loose pots they have there. So loose and they have a nice taper ... and got my blender pot from mojo.... If i wasn't a fusspot i prolly could have pretty much gotten everything from Specialty. I am not sure about those knobs. I made a mistake and forgot to get the gotoh knobs from mojo that i like. I am not sure i will like the ones Specialty has and i was tempted to go for the Callaham ... but that is overkill. I can't pay $40 for knobs, i need to be frugal.

Fire up the iron! ooh.... the smell of flux burning in the morning~

I hate that MF is the only place that you can get a reasonably priced bridge plate by itself yet they have almost nothing else. I usually end up buying a half-dozen at once along with a whole mess of strings so that the total order is over $100 and qualifies for free shipping.

Angela is nice but I'm not going to pay $20 for a bridge plate that I plan on mangling.

I hate that MF is the only place that you can get a reasonably priced bridge plate by itself yet they have almost nothing else.

word...

i wish i had seen this before i checked out my order tonight though...

http://www.specialtyguitars.com/bridges/bridgeparts.html

same price as MF...

I hate that MF is the only place that you can get a reasonably priced bridge plate by itself yet they have almost nothing else. I usually end up buying a half-dozen at once along with a whole mess of strings so that the total order is over $100 and qualifies for free shipping.



That's the only way to fly when it comes to shipping. I usually order hundreds of dollars worth of stuff from my main vendors and it lasts me several builds. This is the first time I haven't stimulated the economy that way for about 5 years. I know I'm going to have to pay lots of shipping for my next couple of builds because I just don't have the money to do that at this time.

I wish i had the getus to do it that way... though that is what i did for screws. I went to mcmaster and loaded up on all the screws i would need for guitaring. Better quality screws (all case hardened steel or stainless) that don't cam out, in bulk and cheaper than them fendah baggies.

If i had the money would just buy half dozen of everything and be set. I am really hurting for cash so just got the minimum i needed for this upgrade.

Socket, knobs, jack, 3-way: 49.45 ($6.50) Specialty
Saddles and pots: 42.70 (shipping $8.30) RS
a SINGLE Blender pot: $24.15 (shipping $9.15 ouch! what a gouge) Mojo

I have a bridge plate here it turns out and plenty of caps (i am an "any cap that measure correct will do kind of guy) ... I shouldn't have gone with the Mojo,but my intent was to save a little by getting the gotoh knobs from them too, but silly me forgot to get them.

$116 to do the hardware totally over from scratch (not p/ups obviously) but a whopping $23.95 in shipping... Part ways my fault for being insistent on that mojo pot (both mojo and RS have the premium pots with nice taper)

Kudos to Specialty for:
1. not gouging on shipping
2. being as close to one stop shopping as i have found.

Another BIG +1 for Specialty Guitar. Not only do they have most everything you would need, the prices are good and they ship FAST!!!!!

Paul at Specialty Guitars is great.

Angela was indispensable for getting some of the hard to find parts when I built my USACG T-Style 5 years ago.

Believe it or not, Musician's Friend had most of the Fender brand parts that I needed.

No such thing as paying more shipping than the part is worth. If you pay it (part + shipping), it must be worth it. We tend to take for granted the ability to find the part in the first place.

yeah, thanks for that philosophical twist. makes me feel a whole lot better. really, it does....

yeah, thanks for that philosophical twist. makes me feel a whole lot better. really, it does....
I hang around classic British car restorers. :grin:

I am a music student, so i do this for "a living" (haha) or at least, for a grade. I am dirt poor and buried in debt. But i have gigs and i need my gear to work. This isn't so much a side hobby for a middle aged guy with tons of disposable income. I am a guy trying to break through in my field and trying to get through my gigs (about 30 a year) without my jack cup falling out of my squier while i am on stage. I am bulletproofing a squier not fixing up an old '57 chevy for kicks.

I ordered everything I needed for gold tele hardware from allparts and shipping wasn't too bad, like 20 some bucks. Allparts has a nice catalog too. I called a guy there and said fix me up with what works, looks good, so that I'll be happy camper. He went thru everything and honestly, it sounds great & believe it or not, I'm completely satisfied. I'll order with them nx time too, good deal. Any of this hardware look cheap or outta whack?

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i78/Eska_2006/MVC-689F.jpg


You should see shipping to Alaska. The boy once ordered a lat machine that cost 400 bucks, cost him 800 for shipping; nuts.

Sweetwater has treated me right in the past too. I ordered a 60 lb rotary speaker and they split the nx day fedex shipping with me; and I had her in a few days too and it wasn't all busted up either.

Here where we live in Alaska, we have to fly supplies in during winter months from Fairbanks; going rate is dollar a lb for 200 mile jump over the mnts. I've gotten use to it actually. Grow as much as I can in garden, shoot as many caribou as I need, and put up all the salmon on a good year. It's either that or pay 4X price at local store. I have seen people pay 75 bucks for a bale of straw flown in.

This isn't so much a side hobby for a middle aged guy with tons of disposable income... ...I am bulletproofing a squier not fixing up an old '57 chevy for kicks.
KP - I didn't know, but now that I do I understand. Doesn't change my opinion. Passions (or needs, what's the diff?) are what they are, and if you think all classic British car restorers are "middle-aged guys" with tons of disposable income, you couldn't be more wrong (that's an ELP lyric, isn't it?). Keep hollering for what you want from the vendors, and eventually it will be available. Might not be while you're still in need, but it will happen.

I've seen so many posts on this site that take advantage of knowing another poster's age that I'm tempted to hide mine. Nah... Proud I've been alive this long, proud I've been married this long, proud I've been playing guitar this long, proud to have some experience to pass along. Take it for what it's worth, which may be nothing.

I take your point and i don't meant to belabor mine, but the main thing we see here is that there are a bunch of retailers the majority of whom have a subset of these parts. At the very least it shows some of the options out there beyond the ones we all know. Now it might just seem like complaining, but the upshot was that i got what i needed, mostly from a dealer i didn't know about and learned of a few more places to track things down. However i do think some vendors gouge a bit on shipping. I got the most items from Specialty, and ironically, paid the cheapest shipping.

My other point is that many of these places do not seem to know what is needed. I find it pretty telling that the one place that seemed to have everything was not a mega retailer, but the small storefront made by a guy who posts here and is clearly knowledgeable and clearly works on amps and guitars himself. He's do this even if he wasn't in business. It's his passion. He knows what he needs to stock because he needs it too. Just like a farmer knows his way round the supermarket and the feed store and the guy who sell autoparts but also works on his own car also knows what he needs on his shelves and what works better than what.

You'd think one of these places would have a guy or gal working in it who also worked on fenders and who also knows you need to stock electrosockets for teles and 250k pots and saddles and which bridge plate is the good one, which knobs are grippy.. etc. & co.

Thanks for turning me on to the specialty guitars site, i'll be sure to turn there next time i need parts! High shipping prices are a good deterrent for me buying things I don't need half the time...