At What Piont is a Fender a Partscaster?

I have Teles with two and three Fender serial numbers on them; neck plate, bridge, and headstock.
Does that give them double and triple Fender mojo?
Sure feels that way to me.

 

When you build your Tele out of Parts made by the people who sell them to Fender, it's a Partscaster.

~ ST

 

Unlike, say, a Martin D-28 or a Gibson ES-335, the assembly of parts into a guitar by Fender employees is completely reversible by anyone who can operate a screwdriver with minimal competence. A Strat or Tele is a partscaster, regardless of whether or not whoever assembled it most recently was a Fender employee.

Whether it's considered a partscaster by a prospective purchaser is another question.

 

What good is the term partscaster then if it has no meaning, no ability to distinguish among any two 'caster' type guitars?

 

My view is that if the neck and body are the original mated pair, its a telecaster. If either have changed, it becomes a parts caster. If it was built of a bunch of spare parts from different guitars it is a parts caster. If it was custom built and its a Tele-style then its still a telecaster in my mind. If only hardware has been swapped, then it is a modified tele.

 

Dead on correct!
I probably don't mean what you mean, but "partscaster" means nothing!

How the hell can a Telecaster stop being a Telecaster just because parts get swapped or repaired by non Fender employees?

It may no longer be a FENDER Telecaster, but a F NG Telecaster is a Telecaster.

PARTicularly if the parts are Fender licensed TELECASTER parts, the parts make a TELECASTER.

A Fender licensed Warmoth Telecaster body is deemed a Telecaster body by Fender.
It is not a FENDER body, but according to Fender it is a TELECASTER body.
Just as Fender deems an Allparts Fender licensed Telecaster neck a TELECASTER neck.

The idea that swapping the necks on two Fender Telecasters makes them both cease to be Telecasters is ludicrous.
They are Fender parts Telecasters.
If the parts are Fender licensed but not Fender made, it's a parts Telecaster.

Partscaster is a cute name and all, but as a "name" it means nothing.

 

IMHO a Partscaster is a Telecaster or Stratocaster assembled from (wait for it)... Parts. Basically if the neck and body were not assembled together at the factory, it's a partscaster. It is still a Telecaster (or Stratocaster), but now it is also a partscaster.

 

Exactly - that's why I (and others) usually say a partscaster Esquire or a partscaster Strat - conveys all the relevant information in two words instead of saying "Stratocaster style guitar assembled from parts from various sources".

 

couple of things.
1. who replaces the body of a guitar, I can understand replacing a neck, but the body itself, you might as well just a guitar with a body you actually like and mod that.
2. I play a heavily modded Squier Hello Kitty, is it still a Squier Hello Kitty because anyone who see's it knows it as a Squier Hello Kitty.
3. going back to the body thing, the body and the neck are the most important part of your guitar, you wouldn't have a guitar without them. the neck is replaceable for a reason, they can go wrong, but it is the body that defines a guitar, if you have a Fender body and everything else is aftermarket, I'd say its either Fender Partscaster or a Mongrel Fender.
4. A real Partscaster is something you build from scratch, not something you have built using an existing guitar with a load of new parts, that's a Mongrel guitar.

 

I have one that a couple of times - once because I picked up (on impulse) a reliced Strat - had great pickups and a really nice neck but had been given a "John Mayer" relic job which I hated. Cost me £80. Found a beat up body on Ebay for £30 and sold the one I didn't like for £40.

The other time was when I fell in love with a walnut fronted Thinline body. I had a Japanese flower paisley (that had been refinished in a sparkle finish and was getting a bit tatty). Gorgeous neck though so I had the neck and the Seymour Duncan pickups off that to go with the new neck.

Of course, after a while, I picked up another neck and there was this sparkle body lying about... but that's another story.

But I'm sure there are a lot of other reasons why someone would swap a body - probably most of them based on really liking a particular neck.

 

For arguments sake I buy a Fender '62 re-issue and put new pickups in it it's still a '62 Fender reissue ... i just put new pickups in it.
If i decide I want a maple neck and grab a Fender '52 reissue neck well it's still a Fender just not the original '62 it was
if i start doing things like putting an all parts neck on it or getting an ash body for it then yeah into partscaster territory it goes.

 

Wait, who replaces a body? The pink was driving me crazy, which is a non-fender body anyways, so I got a MIM Fender body and, switcheroo. So is it a Fender Telecaster again, since the neck, pickups, bridge, controls, and now the body are all Fender items? Wow, this is hard.

Before and After: