self building cost effective?

[Strat82]

well, i'm interested in building myself a blonde "fender" telecaster custom...but the thing is, i'm not sure if i'm really going to save much money.

i mean, warmoth charges a good chunk for the body and neck, then there is the charge to have someone put finish on everything, then the pick-ups and such...

i guess my question is, "can self building be cost effective" and if so, what are some good links to suppliers other than warmoth

thank you all for your constant help

[da dougster]

I'll say no, but it's fun :^).

If you got a drawer full of parts ( meaning you've had them so long you forgot how much you paid for them in the first place) and maybe some lucky hits on eBay or something and can paint it yourself if'n it needs painting, well maybe. But I wouldn't count on it.

But, like I said it's a lot of fun.

Doug

[TeleGeir]

Originally Posted by pouch

well, i'm interested in building myself a blonde "fender" telecaster custom...but the thing is, i'm not sure if i'm really going to save much money.

What do you mean by "telecaster custom"? A 60s style double bound Custom Telecaster, a 70s "Keef" style one, or just custom as in non standard?

I guess the short answer is: Depends on what you are building and what you compare with. Basically, if you want a "simple" guitar, you are better off buying one at Musician's Friend. If you want Custom Shop specs, it will be cheaper to build one yourself. Will you be able to make a great custom tele cheaper than buying a new '52RI or '62RI? Yes. Will you be able to beat the price of a used MIM? Probably not.

Let us assume that you want top quality components. Nothing fancy, just state of the art. Here is the breakdown (I'll use USA Custom Guitars since the Warmoth site seems to be down):

$ 155 - Body, top routed alder
$ 155 - Neck, maple on maple
$ 160 - Body satin finish by Roxy
$ 55 - Neck sating finish by Roxy
$ 250 - Callaham Hardware kit
$ 160 - Fralin pickups

That is 935 dollars! You can easily get it cheaper, by selecting cheaper parts and suppliers, but still you won't be cheaper than a mass produced guitar of equal specs. I buy quite a bit of my stuff on eBay. Also I have e.g. a supplier for bodies that is far cheaper than Warmoth and USACG. (Contact me if you'd like to get in touch with him.)

But a standard Tele is 350 dollars at MF. Not to mention that non Fender Teles can be had for under 100 dollars on eBay. And your custom built one won't be a Fender either.

You can of course make it even cheaper by doing say the finish yourself. If you know how, and have the time. Time is money too...

So no, you cannot compete on the lowest price possible thing. But most bang for a resonable amount of buck? Yes. Haven't done any maths on this, but over say 7-800 dollars should start to tip the scale in favour of a custom project.

And besides the price: Building one to your own specs is great fun.

Geir :)

[cowboytwang]

TeleGeir is right on the money. For just about a grand you can build your own guitar the way you want it. You can buy a "Tele" for cheeper, but if you go the DIY route then you will have a guitar thats just a nice(or better than) a $2000. Custom Shop Tele.
Another advantage to building it yourself, is that after you do it a few times you never have to have anyone else work on your guitars because now you know how everything works and how to fix it yourself.
And it's alot of fun to build one the way that you want it.
I just order another Warmoth swamp ash body and maple neck last week to start building a "Nocaster" replica.

[Paul in Colorado]

I'm working on an Esquire-clone. The body is a USA Custom and the neck Warmoth, both that I found on ebay for around $100 each. The finish work is being done by a luthier friend who wants to work on his painting chops, so he's shooting it for the cost of paint. So there are ways to cut costs if you're not in a hurry and shop around.
I have a Strat built from parts that started with a maple burle pickguard that I found and bought just because I liked the way it looked. I think ten years went by before I had an actual guitar in my hands, but I'd find parts along the way. A bridge here, the body from a repairman that had it sitting around...
Going out and getting all the parts is more expensive and quicker, but I like the adventure of discovery. I'm usually rewarded for my patience.

[TeleGeir]

Originally Posted by Paul in Colorado

Going out and getting all the parts is more expensive and quicker, but I like the adventure of discovery. I'm usually rewarded for my patience.

Most definitely. Lots of the stuff I have lying around happened that way. I make the plans as I find the parts. My current dream project could have been completed with "stock" parts, but instead I have assembled them from all around over the last months. Some saddles from a set of 80s Charvel and Schecter parts I found on eBay, a vintage neck that a US contact happened to have at the time. In the process I bought a bridge that I have no idea what to use for, but one day I will.

And sometimes the parts makes the guitar. When I bought my mahogany neck, I was really looking for a neck for one of my ash/poplar/ash bodies. While this wasn't quite what I was looking for, it was too cool to pass. And when I got it I decided that it deserved a mahogany body too. So now I have a spare body instead. But one day I will find use for it.

Geir :)

[Rob DiStefano]

NO way will you "save money" with the average partscaster. A good Tele for cheap is still a MIM, IMO, and that's at least half the cost of rolling yer own. Partscasters are all about defining the parts, setup and finish that you just won't find on a stock g'tar ... or perhaps it's all about the feeling that you assembled yer own g'tar. I guarantee one thing for sure - partscasting will be an education! YMMV.

[Cooper]

except for partscasters. i can promise you this: if you do it right, you will spend WAY more than you thought you'd spend. but WAY less than calling up Fender and saying "hey, i want an ash body and a 7.25 radius fretboard and a duncan broadcaster and a . . . ."

at the beginning of the summer i decided i wanted a new tele to beat around on, and maybe put a bigsby on. so it seemed like my options were to buy all the parts one by one from eBay and warmoth/usacg, or get an MIM std and mod it out. at the time, i figured i could do both for about the same price, so why not build it from scratch and have more fun, right?

well, then i got an awesome deal on a sweeeet neck. and then another deal on a pristine body. so i've got these two high-quality parts . . . i HAVE to get some good pickups, and i might as well get some nice tuners, and really, should you build such a nice guitar and not have a tweed case . . . . you know what i mean. it just got bigger and bigger and then i was $500 in and had to sell one of my guitars to keep going!

but it was so worth it, because of the experience of the whole thing. i learned a lot. mostly though, the mystery of the process has been taken away. i'm not afraid to do a little work on my guitars now.

go for it, but don't expect to come out cheaper!

[Dana]

I decided to swap out the neck and body from my 97' American Standard Strat for a Warmoth Ash Body and Maple neck. I'm having MJTele do the finish. I'll probably have someone else do the assembly. So far it's costing a bit of $$, but I'm having fun. I can't wait to play the finished guitar!

I'm just tired of buying guitars from stores. For me it's always a compromise; Like the tone/hate the color. Love the feel/hate the sound. Feels heavy/sounds great.

I like the idea of getting every component exactly how I want it. If in the end the guitar isn't what I hoped? Well, I'll just chaulk it up to experience.

Good luck.

[dean]

First, I must say that building my own Tele was one of the most rewarding projects I have ever done - I got to build exactly what I wanted and I was able to save lots of $$ in the process. Ever since I sold a '52 RI Tele, I wanted another one, so I decided to build one.

Now, I will admit that I'm pretty cheap when it comes to buying some stuff - kind of a minimalist in some respects. I wanted to find good deals on the parts, and I think I did pretty well. Here's a pic of my guitar:


Here's what it cost:

$125 - MIM James Burton Tele Neck (FAT!)
135 - USA Custom Vintage Tele body
100 - Harmonic Design Pickups
30 - '52 RI Bridge
30 - Vintage Tuners
35 - ReRanch Paint
35 - Hardware and Electronics
------------
$490 - Total

I did all the work myself and really tried to find good deals. I could have saved a few bucks here and there if I had wanted to use a different neck or different pickups. With the exception of the body, I got all the parts from TDPRIers or on eBay. One thing I do realize, though - I may not be able to get this amount for the Tele if I sell it - that's a common fact of rolling your own.

In the end, I have a Tele that feels and sounds better than my old '52 RI. It's also lighter, has better pickups, has a totally nitro finish, and I have the satisfaction of knowing a lot more about Teles than I did when I started.

I think you can save a lot while learning a lot!

Dean

[Bob Rogers]

I agree with the other posters. You only save money when compared with a custom guitar. If there is a stock guitar close to your specs, the cheapest approach is to buy it and modify. I think that to make building worthwhile, the act of doing the building has to be a big part of the attraction. If you consider stipping a guitar down to parts and putting it back together fun, go for it. If it seems like a chore, don't.

[PeterUK]

Originally Posted by Cooper

except for partscasters. i can promise you this: if you do it right, you will spend WAY more than you thought you'd spend.

Right on the button. Both mine came in over budget, admittedly not by much (10 - 15%), but once you get the nice neck, nice body, etc.. are you really going to put in cheap pick ups, cheap hardware?

But as been said above, at the start you don't factor in the fun factor, the satisfaction factor and the knowledge you gain.

I'm planning my third Tele project and I've adandoned the idea of a budget, with only the end goal in mind.

Go on, do it. You'll be a lot richer at the end of the project.

Regards

Peter

[Kevin]

Depends on what you mean by cost-effective....

You won't come in cheaper than a MIM model, but you will come in cheaper than a custom-shop model. You've got to ask yourself if your abilities are akin to those of the guys in the custom shop....

When I started my current project, I figured that I would have a total out-of-pocket expense of about $200, cos I had a bunch of parts lying around, received others as gifts, and could make and finish my own body.... Well, as I've progressed, I've upgraded the neck (not really an added expense, since I sold my other neck for far more than I paid and got my new neck at dealer cost), upgraded the humbucker from an Epi pup that I had to a new Seth Lover, and just bought a Duncan 54 tele lead pup (STL-1) to use instead of the 52RI that I have lying around. If you consider the value of all the stuff I bought, my total investment is somewhere in the neighorhood of $500, now -- and that's with me making the body! Of course, I still figure that the guitar is "free" since I'm paying for everything with the proceeds of other bodies I cut....

Still, if you buy all of your parts retail -- and get the best stuff out there -- a homebrew guitar will be a piece of crap if you can't put it together correctly. Anyone can turn a few screws to assemble a Fender-style guitar, but getting things to fit correctly and the final setup is a bit of an art....

I would recommend that anyone try it, if they have a spare few hundred bucks, but don't expect perfection your first time out. That's what makes it fun. I didn't do the best job in the world at binding my current project, but I learned a lot about it; I guarantee that my next attempt will be better -- and by the third attempt I'll have it down. Ask yourself if you've got the time and the money to afford a couple of mess-ups....

[GlennLewis]

Never had a store bought tele.
Made all my own so far.
1. http://168.144.54.56/images/telefront1.jpg
2. http://168.144.54.56/images/unclectele2.jpg
3. http://168.144.54.56/images/maplecasterfront3.jpg
Working on #4 http://168.144.54.56/images/sycside2.jpg
and #5 right now.

After making my own, I'm spoiled and find that I am not satisfied with anything at the store with a Fender logo on the headstock.

I keep looking at them thinking, wrong pick ups, don't like the bridge, the tuners are wrong, why did they cover up that nice wood, awful pickguard, etc.

So if you make one, beware of what you may do to your perception of mass produced guitars.