Building a guitar from parts was very slightly harder than I expected, but probably slightly easier than most expect. The electrical aspects are beyond easy for anybody with a vague idea of how to handle a soldering gun/iron, and a 13 year-old's understanding of circuits.

The timber finishing (assuming you buy raw parts) is worth spending a great deal of time on. Rushing to finish the timber is pretty much going to guarantee that every time you look at your guitar you'll think 'I wish I'd spent more time on the finishing'.

Hardware is just a question of going low and slow and triple-checking all drill-points before committing to drilling.

The difficulty (if there is one) is the fault-finding and fine-tuning at the end. In my (limited) experience you'll end up spending as long on the tweaking as you did on the entire build (save maybe the timber finishing).

Ultimately though, if all goes according to plan, you'll have a unique hand-assembled instrument, built to your own specifications that you know inside out and have already established a relationship with. It'll also cost you far less than a pre-built guitar of similar specs.

Recommended.

Squire Strat

I love it.

JC23by5 wrote:Anybody here ever built their own guitar? I've been curious about this for awhile now and wonder if any of you have some helpful suggestions. Maybe I should just start a thread on this....

Used Warmoth/USACG is the way to go IMO. Resale is very low on these parts so you can scoop up some pretty good deals if you are patient. When this guitar is done, I will have spent around $600 on the whole thing. That bridge is a Joe Barden, which usually run like $80-$100 by itself. It came with the body, no way in hell I'd spend that kind of money otherwise. I'll be putting an Harmonic Design Super-90 in the bridge position.

blackmarket wrote:Some pictures I took earlier today of the Telecaster I am slowly piecing together.

The body is a Warmoth, nitrocellulose finished in clear, two pieces of mahogany and the neck is USACG, ebony on maple, 24.75" conversion scale with locking Sperzels. I can't wait to get my input jack so I can wire this baby up.

You're thinking, "but Boombats, everyone knows you're a bass player not a guitarist!" However, thanks to Slash and "Sweet Child-o-Mine" I started playing stringed instruments in the first place, I wanted to be that mulatto. Switched to bass after a year on my Synsonic electric guitar with the built-in speaker.

Now here's my current weapon, got from a junkie for $30. You can hear me playing this BC Rich Outlaw, an unusual shape amongst their regular jabby-jobs, at http://www.myspace.com/vpset . Check the fugly-wugly snakeskin paint! Made in USA in the late 80's/early 90's, serial #165. Spikes stickers and metal skull added by yours truly.

Hi, i'm new to the forum here so thought i'd use this thread as an introduction...

I play a Mexican '72 Telecaster Custom re-issue

Though i'm mainly a bass man, and I use an early TB2000 (#195), and also a Kramer DMZ4001.

The Travis Bean is the sweetest thud staff i've ever played.

John.

Hi John, welcome to the Premier Rock Forum.

Way to introduce yourself, nobody here will ever question a word you say, now that you've mentioned you play a Bean (unless you slap it).

ok,

theirs a yamaha sc-300t...nice freak..good neckpickup.
it's sperm colored.

and



except it's white...with an ebony fredboard.

they're fine..

i want a mosrite.

generally: reissue Jazzmaster with wiring issues.

i've grown less fond of the bridge over time. anyone ever see one with a string thru body?

at the moment: Yamaha APX

Boombats wrote:Hi John, welcome to the Premier Rock Forum.

Way to introduce yourself, nobody here will ever question a word you say, now that you've mentioned you play a Bean (unless you slap it).

Thanks man, and rest assured, my Bean isn't slapped, that's a nasty thought!

r0ck1r0ck2, that G&L looks nice. How do you like it?