Guitar build #2

[jimistone]

So, I'm buying Tele parts on ebay and I find a fender lonestar strat body.
It has the vintage fender trem, saddles, claw, springs and large steel trem block. Also the strap buttons. It has a beautiful 3 color sunburst finish too.
How in the heck am I NOT gonna buy it?
Are you kidding me....I'm not even done with the Tele and I have another project going.

 

[jimistone]

I went with another allparts neck. Rosewood fretboard, 9.5 fretboard radius, C profile, truss adjustment at the heel, no skunknstripe....it's the spitting image of the Tele neck except it's a strat neck
I also bought this really cool vintage looking tort guard for it!
I will take some pics when the neck and guard comes in

 

[spantini]

Question from Guitar Building 101 :

I'm not up on my Fender terminology.. is a neck without the skunk stripe a two-piece? Or has some lighter wood (maple?) been inserted into the routout of a one-piece?

 

[jimistone]

Question from Guitar Building 101 :

I'm not up on my Fender terminology.. is a neck without the skunk stripe a two-piece? Or has some lighter wood (maple?) been inserted into the routout of a one-piece?

Fenders early necks were one piece maple. They didn't have a fretboard glued on. A channel had to be routed in the back
of the neck for the purpose of inserting the truss rod. The wood piece, that was inserted to close in that truss rod rout, was stained darker. It's referred to as "the skunk stripe". In 1959 Fender introduced the rosewood fretboard. They were able to insert the truss rod from the top, so, there was no skunk stripe. At some point (late 60s?) they made the maple fretboard available again but they still made the truss rout from the top and used a maple cap. I'm not sure exactly when fender went back to the bottom truss route and skunk stripe...early 1980s I think.

 

[jimistone]

I bought a really cool tortoise shell pick guard. I have a tort guard on a vintage bass and this guard is almost the spitting image of that one.
It's REALLY hard to find a modern tort guard that looks likentge vintage stuff. The modern ones are really orange or really red or damn near black.
This one looks great so I bought it.

 

[jimistone]

I bought a really cool tortoise shell pick guard. I have a tort guard on a vintage bass and this guard is very simular to that one...except the vintage bass guard is a red tort and this one is a brown.
It's REALLY hard to find a modern tort guard that looks like the vintage stuff. Most modern ones are really orange or really red or damn near black.
This one looks great, IMO, so I bought it.

 

[jimistone]

Here's a parts mock up of what I have in mind on the strat.

 

[jimistone]

The neck for the strat arrived. It's a really nice allparts neck. Fine sanded and rready to finish.

 

[jimistone]

I went ahead and hit the neck with amber tinted shellac. When I get the color where I want it I will hit it will clear lacquer.

 

[jimistone]

It's close to the same tint as the Tele neck I just did....maybe one more light pass will do it. After getting the tint right and lacquering it, I will darken the fretboard with the Old English scratch cover stuff.

 

[andrushkiwt]

 

[CoolCat]

so wheres the projects at now?
neck sanding or clearcoat?

 

[jimistone]

waiting on parts....but according to tracking the last of it is in

The strat parts are as follows:
Bourne pots.
Fender pure vintage tuners
Fender 3-way switch
Fender jackplate and output jack
Fender pure vintage '59 pickup (neck)
Fender 57/62 pickup (middle)
Fender Texas Special pickup (bridge)
vintage cloth covered pushback wire to wire it all up.

This strat is going to be sweet!!

more pics coming.

 

[andrushkiwt]

How much does it cost you from start to finish for a guitar like this? What do you spend putting into it?

 

[Mickster]

Here's a parts mock up of what I have in mind on the strat.

Man that's gonna be nice!! Have you thought about using the vintage "cream" pup covers and knobs and switch end? I think that would be a great look. IMO only.

Love that 3 color body too!!!

 

[jimistone]

Thanks.
I have some cream plastic, as well as black. I tried both and, IMO, the parchment white looked the best.

All components installed.

 

[jimistone]

The pickguard pickup screw holes weren't beveled for the counter sunk pickup screws. I could have used flush screws, but the beveled ones look much better. So, I had to counter sink the holes myself. The bit for this cost $7.

looks nice now.

 

[jimistone]

How much does it cost you from start to finish for a guitar like this? What do you spend putting into it?

in the $500 to $600 range, If you use the highest quality components. By "quality components" I mean using a genuine fender solid alder body, a high quality neck (allparts, warmoth, musikraft, or Am. Fender), Fender hardware (tuners, bridge and trem), genuine fender switches and pots (or a high end componet like Bourns or switchcraft), and genuine Fender pickups (their top end stuff that is in the American made guitars).
If you use cheapo parts you can put one together for $200 or less (but you can already buy a squire complete strat that's pretty decent for $150)

A partscaster made with high end parts body and neck will sell for $500 and it will cost you $500 or so to build it. So, you can't really build one and flip it for a profit, but you can get your money back out of it if you wanted to move it on down the line.

The thing you get out of building one is the enjoyment of having a high end guitar EXACTLY the way you want it.

Even though a partscaster like I'm building will probably only fetch $500 if I wanted to sell it....
To get something, that is built and loaded with top of the line stuff along the same lines, from Fender, would be over a $1000.
Probably around $1500

 

[jimistone]

See....
No junk under this pickguard....only the good shit!!

 

[jimistone]

so wheres the projects at now?
neck sanding or clearcoat?

The neck was already sanded. I tinted it and clear coated it with nitro lacquer. Last night I put an early 6os strat decal on. A 1962 to be exact. A neck with the truss adjustment at the heel, and a laminate rosewood fretboard, would be '62.
Even though this strat is not a 62 clone in a few ways, it is done along the lines of a '62. If I ever decide to do a 62 clone I will already have a neck with the correct decal.

This vender's decals are the best!!!
light years ahead of the rest of the decal pack!