Custom building a guitar over buying one? Opinions

BarryCreed

So, I was shooting the breeze with a guy last night, and he came out with the idea of, rather than buying, say, an American strat, or a high end one in general, why not buy all the parts yourself, neck, body, pups, hardware etc. then take it to a good Luthier, and get them to put it together/set it up.

I suppose we happen to know a good Luthier, so that part would be sorted?

I havent actually worked out the total cost of buying all the parts separately compared to just buying it factroy built...

ideas?

Doctor J

Been down this road and I'd go with a ready built one. The custom idea is fun to do if you put it together yourself and if you have a load of parts sitting around, but if you're spending a grand, for example, you should be able to find an amazing production instrument which will do exactly what you want it to do. The idea of buying parts and getting a good luthier to bolt them together is hugely cost inefficient. You're not benefitting from the economies of scale as a manufacturer would and you're also paying shipping on a whole load of parts rather than just one instrument. Decide on the instrument you want and then see who makes it, that is what I would do.

BarryCreed

Yeah, I'd tend to agree with you. You'd probably be spending a few hundred alone on shipping after you'd be done ordering

I know exactly what I want, so no worries there...

just wondered if anyone had ever done it...

that's my mind put at ease..

Johnny Storm

Loads of people seem to do it with Strats because they easy to put together and there's any amount of parts widely available from Fender and others, new and secondhand.
The main downside of building your own is that it will not hold its value if you want to sell it on.
Also you can put all the effort and cost into building it, get it set up perfectly and so on but, especially on your first one, you have no idea what it'll sound like or play like until after it's all finished.

Last Angry Man

Johnny Storm wrote: »

Loads of people seem to do it with Strats because they easy to put together and there's any amount of parts widely available from Fender and others, new and secondhand.
The main downside of building your own is that it will not hold its value if you want to sell it on.
Also you can put all the effort and cost into building it, get it set up perfectly and so on but, especially on your first one, you have no idea what it'll sound like or play like until after it's all finished.

Yes and no... If you use Fender parts then you know it will sound good. I built mine from Highway 1 parts and a custom loaded plate from Metal Music Shop in Florida. Chrome Domes and Gilmore mod... I opnly built it because Fender didn't make one with the specs I wanted. I have a set of Kinmans to go into it when I feel like a change but the pick-ups in it right now are great TBH.

See it now!!!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055184887&page=17

Johnny Storm

Red firebird FTW

Here's a link to a guy who assembled his own strat with some nice photos:
http://myfolder.se/myspace/?k=pcaster

-=al=-

i done up 2 strats i have here there amazin now :cool:

next gutiar i get shud be custom

NoQuarter

building an strat right now and i gotta say that its important to do your research first, i bought a bridge that was less than half a centimeter out and it made all the difference, mine should be finished by end of summer so ill tell ya how it turns out then but there is the odd time i look at a ready made guitar on a shelf and wish id just bought that and swapped out the pickups or something!!

BTW i estimate mine costing around 7-800ish

Sergio

Go buy a Musicman guitar and you will be satisfied.there instruments are fantastic and their quality control is better than fender+gibson in my opinion.