BYOGuitar

I want to do my first build, but I think that building an electric from scratch is too big of a challenge. What do you guys think about getting an unfinished body and neck from byoguitar.com? Have you used them before? How is their overall quality?

Thanks!

Good idea to build a partscaster first. That's what I did, now I have two scratch builds under my belt. But...if I'd had the tools to begin with, I really could have scratch built first. Not that difficult to do if you put the study time in first.

I want to do my first build, but I think that building an electric from scratch is too big of a challenge. What do you guys think about getting an unfinished body and neck from byoguitar.com? Have you used them before? How is their overall quality?

Thanks!

+1

You can learn all you need from the build threads here. IF you have the tools there's probably not much that doing a parts build will teach you that transfers to doing a scratch build, EXCEPT finishing and wiring, which will pretty much be the same whether you scratch build or parts build. If you don't have the tools the parts build will work fine. Bottom line, jump in and enjoy yourself either way, and DON'T kid yourself into thinking you'll save a bunch of money doing either versus cruising Craigslist and eBay. I check Craigslist every day and am continually amazed at the awesome deals to be had on nice used guitars. Building is for fun, or to make something you just can't get otherwise.

Have fun and share the experience with us.
Rex

I built a partscaster first. I guess it's a good way to learn to set a guitar up, but I had other guitars already for that. If you buy parts, I would suggest getting the body unfinished. It will be cheaper and you can learn some finishing techniques. If you have the tools, scratch building can be quite a bit cheaper and it's not as challenging as you would think. Either way - have fun :grin:

My wife got me a PRS double cut from them a couple years ago for xmas.

It started as this:

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b27/ugly_guitar_guy/Building%20a%20guitar/2010-12-27_11-46-58_833.jpg

Here's what I turned it into:

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b27/ugly_guitar_guy/2011-01-21_21-56-07_733.jpg

The quality is good enough, although I chose to replace all the cheap hardware and electronics with better quality stuff (Wilkinson vintage trem, Schaller locking Tuners).

My only complaint is that the bridge pickup is REALLY far from the bridge. Funny this is that I never even noticed it until I was installing the hardware. :roll: I don't know if this was a routing error at their factory or if it's just the way they made this particular copy, but to me it just looks really weird.

The sound is great though. I put a SD Distortion in the bridge (with a volume knob coil tap) and a SD Phat Cat in the Neck. I've played it at several shows and occasionally at church, but I've found that it really sounds the best when detuned. I guess the pickup position grabs the harmonics just right.

Personally, I wouldn't be against getting another guitar from them if I didn't feel like building one from scratch.

+1
Bottom line, jump in and enjoy yourself either way, and DON'T kid yourself into thinking you'll save a bunch of money doing either versus cruising Craigslist and eBay.

My first parts-caster ran me $400 back in the 90's, one of the more recent ones ran me $500. You can find a used guitar and upgrade parts here and there for less.

Do a parts caster if you cannot find what you are looking for used (ie. surfgreen strat with rosewood board) or if the subtleties of build quality make a difference to you (ie. poly vs nitro finish, 1 piece body vs, 3 piece body, etc.)

Or do it because you enjoy putting it together and finding out how it works. A used guitar will run you about the same amount yet will retain a resale value. The BYOguitar will be tough to get rid of for what you paid for it if you no longer want it.