Question For Partscaster Experts

[Alex_C]

Four ways to go about building a partscaster.
1. Buy inexpensive parts of a single brand (Squier, Epiphone, etc).
2. Buy random parts and see what happens.
3. Buy a quality kit, Stew Mac has some that will be easier to build.
4. Buy a cheap kit and see what happens.

I started with number 2. It was an educational process with quite a bit of work involved. I would not recommend it.
Option 4 is what I'd recommend. You'll end up with a good instrument. Then you could move to option#2 which is the most fun for us masochists.

 

[Wayne Alexander]

In my experience almost all newly acquired guitars ( including custom shop ones)require work on nut slots, fret leveling and crowning, truss rod and bridge adjustments. If you don’t have the tools and skills to do those things I would suggest not assembling partscasters.

 

[stratisfied]

If you succumb to the Siren song of Guitar Fetish you are at a decided disadvantage from the start. If you choose parts that are supposed to go together, Squier, Fender, Mity Mite, Warmouth, etc. it's a lot easier.

I hear that all the time but my experience must be an exception. These turned out nicely (GFS bodies, import necks from ebay sellers) and went together with no drama.

 

[northernguitar]

what they do need is dressing of the fret ends

This is easy and I already have that one file for dressing fret ends. Polishing is easy too. Thanks for the reply.

 

[northernguitar]

Thanks to all for the replies. Lots to think about. Not sure I want to get to deep and buy tools. A used Squier CV is only CDN$500. From what I read, they need little work or pickup swaps.

 

[KokoTele]

Fender does not 'license' their fretwork...and not all neck suppliers LCP (level/crown/polish) their frets.

I'm not aware of any parts makers that do.

The people who successfully make partscasters usually have a good selection of hand tools (including sharp drill bits) that they are good at using. If you need to acquire tools and learn to use them, a guitar is a pretty complex and expensive project to learn on. I usually suggest scaling back because you are going to make mistakes in your learning process, and those mistakes are potentially ugly and expensive ones. It's unlikely that you're going to create your dream forever guitar your first time out.

You can minimize the headaches by buying a good kit. The Wilkinson kits that StewMac sells are excellent, with parts that fit together well without modification. At $500, it's almost certainly less than you'll spend sourcing all of the parts separately.

Edit to add that you can maximize your chances for success by finding a centerline of the neck and marking where it aligns on the body. You cannot always trust things like fret dot markers, body seams, etc. What I usually do is to put a layer of tape at the first fret and near the neck and body joint so I can measure the center and mark it carefully. I also put a layer of tape on the body near where the bridge will mount so I can mark on the tape instead of the body. A tight piece of string or wire makes a great straight edge to mark where the centerline of the neck lays on the body.

 

[Fenderbaum]

Well, I built a few and i picked up plenty of tools and learned the trade.
I added my self on Google as a business, made a small website. And every now and then i get calls from people who need guitar service.No complaints yet.
And i do it for the half of the price as those "expert luthiers" downtown.. Of course i dont possess all the skills or have the facility for it, but that is what i state on the webpage. Service only!
So you can make a buck or two earning back the spendings you get from tools.

 

[northernguitar]

I hear that all the time but my experience must be an exception. These turned out nicely (GFS bodies, import necks from ebay sellers) and went together with no drama.

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A spalted maple top is freakin hawt!

 

[northernguitar]

Thanks for the additional posts! I appreciate the enthusiasm and clarity in the answers. Looking at the responses, it would seem I need some fret-files and levelling tools. I will consider that, but this CV Tele at $500 seems a good deal.

 

[Freeman Keller]

My experience with parts guitars is very limited - I've assembled a couple for friends and done setups on a couple more. My general feeling is that like any guitar they almost always need work. I feel the same about new guitars hanging in a store, a good setup to the new owner's playing requirements should be part of every sale. But I know it doesn't happen.

My humble and limited experience is that Warmoth makes about as good a neck as anyone (and better than a couple of PacRim manufacturers) but in an interview Ken Warmoth said they expected end users of their necks to do the final fretwork. He also says that he knows most done. I've always done a bit of leveling and dressing - just the way I am.

You can buy your parts finished but many people do the finishing themselves. Finishing is one of the hardest things to do well if you have no experience or the proper equipment. There are an amazing number of things that people put on their guitars - if you are going to do the finish I always recommend getting scrap pieces of the same kind of woods to practice on. Set reasonable expectations and practice before you put anything on your guitar.

One of the nice things about building your own guitar is that you can choose exactly what pickups and electronic stuff you want to get YOUR SOUND. You do need to have a pretty good idea what that is and how different components work. I have to laugh when I see all these new builders with a laundry list of all the things they want to put into their signal. Basic soldering and wiring skills, the ability to read wiring diagrams will help.

The other thing to remember about putting any guitar together is that the final setup is up to YOU (or to me if you bring it to me). Even if the frets are perfect and the parts go together with perfect geometry you still need to do the nut, action, relief, intonation to YOUR standards. Nuts are almost always high (much better than low). Setup will require some tools - nut files, some measuring tools and a few wrenches and screw drivers. My post about basic setup has been helpful to a few folks

Basic Setup

There are a couple of threads running right now where questions have been asked about leveling frets, making nuts and other setup related topics. I’ve commented a bit and I’ve received a few private messages asking about aspects that we’ve been discussion. I thought maybe it was time to...

www.tdpri.com

There is one book that I recommend to anyone just starting out, Melvyn Hiscock's Make Your Own Electric Guitar. He covers everything you will need to know for assembling a parts guitar all the way up to designing your own dream guitar.

I'm going to mention one more thing since you ask about it in your first post - what to do with guitars that don't work out (or even ones that do but you tire of then). I think parts guitars and "modded" guitars and most home builds are darn hard to get rid of. Not too many people will choose exactly the same parts that I would, and the whole idea of modifying a guitar to make it "better" is lost on me, particularly if the modifier doesn't know what they are doing. Just accept that if you have to sell a home made guitar it will be at a loss.

Good luck, have fun.

 

[Freeman Keller]

Thanks for the additional posts! I appreciate the enthusiasm and clarity in the answers. Looking at the responses, it would seem I need some fret-files and levelling tools. I will consider that, but this CV Tele at $500 seems a good deal.

One of the biggest paradoxes of building my own guitars is that it costs me more for materials and parts than many very fine commercial guitars. I couldn't buy the parts or materials that would satisfy me for five hundred bucks. Then add twenty or forty hours of labor (can you put a value on your time? What if you had to hire this done?). The cheapest PacRim import will have a better finish than an amateur like me can put on. And the biggie, I won't know what I've got until I'm done.

Has that stopped me? Heck know, I've built thirty guitars to date and am thinking about the next one....

 

[Freeman Keller]

There is kind of a similar thread running at the Home Depot right now asking if building a parts guitar is false economy. It most definitely is. Don't let that stop you.

 

[KokoTele]

There is one book that I recommend to anyone just starting out, Melvyn Hiscock's Make Your Own Electric Guitar.

Freeman, your post reminded me of a funny/ironic/unfortunate incident a few years ago.

There was one Facebook luthiery group that I participated in that was pretty active, and there were some very good pro and semi-pro luthiers on there, including Rick Turner and Melvyn Hiscock. Both would chime in with advice sometimes. One day some newb posts pretty basic question and Mr. Hiscock answered politely and correctly. The newb didn't like the answers and got snippy. It sat for a while and eventually I chimed in with a post that was something like "My approach would be similar, though I might do this step differently. And btw, Melvyn literally wrote the book on this." And I provided a link to the book. You wouldn't believe the stuffstorm that erupted after that.

I left that group shortly afterwards.

 

[brookdalebill]

The Strat is a MJT one piece ash body and a Fender Hot Rod 62 Strat neck.
Everything fit perfectly.
The Cabronita has a 2011 Fender Telebration body, and an AllParts TRO-Fat neck.
Same fit.
The ol’ avatar has a Philip Kubicki (late, former Fender employee), and Bill Giebitz one piece Tele body.
Another perfect fit.
Love em’!

 

[lammie200]

I have put together quite a few. More than 6 but less than 12. At most I may have needed to slightly file one or two frets. Polishing the frets is pretty common though. And you shouldn't need a pro to do that. You can also get precut nuts that you will probably need to slightly file to fit and work right. Everything else is pretty straightforward with typical specs. If you are going to try to do something like neck bolt inserts it gets more complicated and also more prone to failure IMHO. If you stick with typical specs you can vary things like the wiring and pickups to get something more interesting than a standard Fender if that is what you are looking for.

 

[Boreas]

Thanks for the additional posts! I appreciate the enthusiasm and clarity in the answers. Looking at the responses, it would seem I need some fret-files and levelling tools. I will consider that, but this CV Tele at $500 seems a good deal.

They ARE a good deal, but I still wouldn't expect the frets and nut to be perfect. A nut is usually needs to be "tuned" to the individual player and guitar. They rarely come perfectly set-up, including the nut. That being said, it could be just fine for YOU.

Frets on any Squire typically will want to be polished if nothing else - even a CV. They don't usually "gleam"! Some of us have gotten used to gleaming frets, and any "unnecessary roughness" will draw a flag. Also, it certainly is not uncommon for the frets to sprout the first winter if you don't keep hydration reasonable. But these fret issues typically do not require expensive tools. A triangular file at most. I just use Stew-Mac Micro-Mesh Touch-up Sticks for the majority of my polishing.

 

[Freeman Keller]

Freeman, your post reminded me of a funny/ironic/unfortunate incident a few years ago.

There was one Facebook luthiery group that I participated in that was pretty active, and there were some very good pro and semi-pro luthiers on there, including Rick Turner and Melvyn Hiscock. Both would chime in with advice sometimes. One day some newb posts pretty basic question and Mr. Hiscock answered politely and correctly. The newb didn't like the answers and got snippy. It sat for a while and eventually I chimed in with a post that was something like "My approach would be similar, though I might do this step differently. And btw, Melvyn literally wrote the book on this." And I provided a link to the book. You wouldn't believe the stuffstorm that erupted after that.

I left that group shortly afterwards.

Nice anecdote. I sound like a broken record every time I say to a new builder "I alway recommend getting Melvyn Hiscock's....." Most don't, once in a while someone does. As you know, Hiscock passed away after releasing the third edition - tremendous loss.

My first electric guitar was an LP clone built from Hiscock's book and a set of StewMac plans

Recommended

(ps - not a parts caster, sorry about the thread drift...)

 

[Ricky D.]

When I did my partscaster, I used a new Allparts prefinished neck. Still needed a nut and tuners, but it was a perfect fit on the body.

After I assembled it, I couldn’t get it to play well. I took it to a really good luthier who charged me $75 for his standard full setup. This included tweaking the nut slots and fixing a couple of high frets along with truss rod and saddle adjustments. When I got it back, it was the best player I’ve had in 50 years of playing and doing my own setups. Perfect. This guy is the Guitar Whisperer. Totally worth it.

That experience changed my approach forever. I’m very good with layout work, very good with a hand drill ( I did not user a power drill), but my luthier has been doing his thing full time for thirty years at the shop in his house. There’s a difference, and I’ll never catch up.

 

[natec]

'Building a partscaster' means different things to different people (and in some cases means different things at different points as you learn). You can dial up or dial down the amount of skill or attention or time needed.

* If you buy a body and neck from PGK (Precision guitar kits) then the neck and body junction will be perfect.
* If you buy a Fender or Warmoth neck - that'll get you halfway there. You still need a body that is dimensionally correct (whether you buy it or build it).
* If you buy a nitro finished body from Warmoth - the finish is better than most of us can do (exception for folks like @Freeman Keller ).
* If you inherit a chunk of wood from an old family building/barn - then lots of things can go wrong

In addition to this subforum - check out the DIY, Finely Finished, and Home Depot subforums. Most folks aren't shy about what did or didn't work for them.

Good luck, have fun, and just know up front that the value is largely wrapped up in your own experience building it. They don't have any resale value.

 

[brookdalebill]

When I did my partscaster, I used a new Allparts prefinished neck. Still needed a nut and tuners, but it was a perfect fit on the body.

After I assembled it, I couldn’t get it to play well. I took it to a really good luthier who charged me $75 for his standard full setup. This included tweaking the nut slots and fixing a couple of high frets along with truss rod and saddle adjustments. When I got it back, it was the best player I’ve had in 50 years of playing and doing my own setups. Perfect. This guy is the Guitar Whisperer. Totally worth it.

That experience changed my approach forever. I’m very good with layout work, very good with a hand drill ( I did not user a power drill), but my luthier has been doing his thing full time for thirty years at the shop in his house. There’s a difference, and I’ll never catch up.

I too had my AllParts neck “finessed” by two local gurus.
Ben at South Austin Music did the fretwork, and Tony Nobles put a little shellac on the neck.
Much better.
The neck is great, BTW.