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Post subject: GREAT IDEA EVERYONE READ AND TELL WHAT YOU THINK
Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:04 pm
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How about this,
Who has heard of kit guitars, they come relatively cheap, you put them to gether, all the parts.
We can all also agree that squier guitars are budget guitars.

We can also all agree everyone wants a custom guitar.

So here is my idea. On squier'es website they have an online order form, you pick the body strat or tele or jagmaster style. pick the color, or if you want it unfinished. Pick hardware option 1 or option 2. Option 2 is better pick ups, maybe duncan designed or something. Pick maple or rosewood fretboard. Then it will cost maybe $299. they ship it to you, assembled or unassembled and you put it together. comes with detailed instructions, and a gigbag.

so what do u all think
can it work
or will i fail
and would you buy it... :D

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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:25 pm
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Hello Zaf11,

It's a pretty neat idea, but the big problem I see
is that many folks cannot setup a guitar properly,
they will buy these kits and be overwhelmed and
bummed out that they have to pay out more green
to have a tech finish the job. Frankly if priced right
and decent components I might even spring for a kit.
It would have to be a Fender product.

Cheers.


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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:26 pm
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I really don't think this would be cost effective for any guitar company.

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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 9:23 pm
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Part of the reason why Squiers are so affordable is because they are mass produced in large quantities. What you are talking about seems almost like custom made guitars, and with that, you would have to pay custom prices, which would make it impossible to keep a $299 price limit.

Plus there are already guitar kit companies out there.

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Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 7:26 am
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Like a Heathkit? Anybody remember those? I just don't think people are as inclined to be Do-It-Yourselfers as they once were. Most folks now have the "throw it away and get a new one attitude".


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Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 1:20 pm
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Do it yourself is an interesting topic. I feel that if the kit was offered from a reputable company (Fender or Squier) and was competitive with what they sell at the stores it would work as a product. I can't imagine it happening though.... how much do you think you would save? I can't imagine that it would be a heck of a savings. The kits I have seen aren't real inexpensive and I would be concerned about the process having some overly deep aspect (like the kit might want me to mine copper to make wire or something messed up).


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Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 2:48 pm
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I think Fender should assemble the kit per your specs. I'm sure they could do small batches based on the specs they offer.

How many times have you been turned off a new model because it has something you don't like (maple, rosewood, unappealing color, wrong type of pickups).

I don't think you are going to get them to do options not normally offered but just that one little thing you don't like might be changeable.


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Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:07 pm
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Carvin has a Strat style kit for $399. If they put it together it's $649 for a basic Strat style guitar. They also have options for the kit, but those are extra. You'll have to paint it though.
Then there are those SAGA kits starting around $149. You can get a Strat, Tele, LP or PRS styled guitar with all the parts, but you still gotta paint it yourself.


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Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:45 pm
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but the intended audience here is the younger crownd, teenagers like me, i would totally get this and im 14. They could use really cheap bodies and poly finishes. The saga kits sell for $90 for a strat syle. i think they might be able to sell them painted for $299 and the hardware can be crap, most of the kids who buy it wont realize how baad it is, and theyll just be stoked they got a custom guitar. Think about this. IF u were a teenager living in todays modern world where it is very cool to play guitar...would you buy it. Think prewired pickguards with snap together conncetions. like saga kits.

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Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 5:36 pm
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Its not gonna happen. Fender, Squier, Gibson, and Epiphone do not want you to buy something with their name on it unless they built it. These kits could cause a PR nightmare for these companies if someone was putting them together without knowing what they were doing, then selling them as Fender (or whatever brand) for Fender's prices. It would piss a lot of people off if they later found out that the Fender guitar that they thought they bought was just parts from Fender, but put together by some non-Fender employee who may not have the skill level or strict quality standars to adhere to as a Fender or any other company employee. People come to expect a certain level of quality with certain brands, and the companies run the risk of screwing up their business and quality expectations if they let people buy Fender DIY kits.

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Post subject: Re: GREAT IDEA EVERYONE READ AND TELL WHAT YOU THINK
Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 12:55 pm
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zaf11 wrote:
How about this,
Who has heard of kit guitars, they come relatively cheap, you put them to gether, all the parts.
We can all also agree that squier guitars are budget guitars.

We can also all agree everyone wants a custom guitar.

So here is my idea. On squier'es website they have an online order form, you pick the body strat or tele or jagmaster style. pick the color, or if you want it unfinished. Pick hardware option 1 or option 2. Option 2 is better pick ups, maybe duncan designed or something. Pick maple or rosewood fretboard. Then it will cost maybe $299. they ship it to you, assembled or unassembled and you put it together. comes with detailed instructions, and a gigbag.

so what do u all think
can it work
or will i fail
and would you buy it... :D


Hmmmm.....You know, from a product perspective, Warmoth is already doing this. In fact, you can order products and have the parts built to your specs.

But since we are talking about modding....You know....even though I like this idea, if I was of a mind to do this, I'd probably go out and get a body and neck, and then the other products on it would more than likely be non-Fender.

On a point I do agree with the other posters that Fender probably wouldn't do this since for all intensive purposes they want to sell you a stock guitar. If it was a case of assembly though, and you were talking Squier hardware, I'd actually go for a Squier body, a Fender neck (arguably a model with a larger headstock), and then I'd go with third parties for the associated hardware.

If we're talking modding here, you might as well go for what you can get in terms of the most bang for your buck....

:wink:


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Post subject: Re: GREAT IDEA EVERYONE READ AND TELL WHAT YOU THINK
Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 1:38 pm
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The_Sentry wrote:
On a point I do agree with the other posters that Fender probably wouldn't do this since for all intensive purposes....


Not busting your chops, Sentry, just correcting you: the expression isn't "for all intensive purposes." It's "for all intents and purposes." I know people say it wrong a lot, so that's where the confusion comes from.

AS for this concept, we discussed in some detail on another guitar forum the idea of Fender offering a kind of Junior Custom line, a BTO or "mass-produced custom" concept like Dell does with computers. To keep the current channels intact, it works like this:

You go into your local Fender dealer, and they have a bunch of ready-made Strats and Teles on the wall, lots of different models, and they also have a BTO catalog from which you can choose neck, body, finish color, pickups, bridge style, and a bunch of cool upgrades. They ring it up, tell what it costs, you pay, and in six weeks, you come in and pick up your guitar. This is NOT a custom shop guitar, meticulously assembled by master builders... it's a production guitar screwed together on a small special line devoted to this BTO concept. They're just using stock parts, grabbing the next body or neck off the line, and putting it together just like any stock guitar: so you only pay a slight premium for the extra time it takes to do this.

You get to spec your guitar, it says "Fender" on it because it really is, the dealer gets to have you in the shop at least twice and everybody is thrilled to death.


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Post subject: Re: GREAT IDEA EVERYONE READ AND TELL WHAT YOU THINK
Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 9:38 am
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Gravity Jim wrote:
The_Sentry wrote:
On a point I do agree with the other posters that Fender probably wouldn't do this since for all intensive purposes....


Not busting your chops, Sentry, just correcting you: the expression isn't "for all intensive purposes." It's "for all intents and purposes." I know people say it wrong a lot, so that's where the confusion comes from.

AS for this concept, we discussed in some detail on another guitar forum the idea of Fender offering a kind of Junior Custom line, a BTO or "mass-produced custom" concept like Dell does with computers. To keep the current channels intact, it works like this:

You go into your local Fender dealer, and they have a bunch of ready-made Strats and Teles on the wall, lots of different models, and they also have a BTO catalog from which you can choose neck, body, finish color, pickups, bridge style, and a bunch of cool upgrades. They ring it up, tell what it costs, you pay, and in six weeks, you come in and pick up your guitar. This is NOT a custom shop guitar, meticulously assembled by master builders... it's a production guitar screwed together on a small special line devoted to this BTO concept. They're just using stock parts, grabbing the next body or neck off the line, and putting it together just like any stock guitar: so you only pay a slight premium for the extra time it takes to do this.

You get to spec your guitar, it says "Fender" on it because it really is, the dealer gets to have you in the shop at least twice and everybody is thrilled to death.


Eh, no probs about bustin' my chops, man...it's all good. (I probably need it once in a while anyway.)

Just some thoughts...

1. If I'm already looking at a Squier, one has to assume I really don't care what a guitar says on the neck.

2. There's always a risk with purchasing a guitar sight-unseen, and one you haven't played. I learned this lesson the hard way when I got a guitar from another manufacturer who will not be named. Even though I'm left-handed (which sort of puts me in a special cases scenario since I can't just go to any music store and try out 90% of their guitars), I am still not really sold on buying something sight unseen.

3. If you're going to mod, you might as well mod. I've got nothing against stock parts. (In fact, I've got a Highway 1 which is about as solid of a guitar as you can buy....) But in the case of modding...or getting something tailored to one's needs....I will probably go third party in terms of hardware. The pros and cons of Fender products...

They're SO popular, that many manufacturers have parts at better prices, and many of those parts are superior quality...specifically because they aren't labeled as Fender.

But, in terms of these kit guitars...I also know there's another vendor out there that will send you a kit guitar...but at what point is it easier to have a guitar in hand, one is satisfied with the basic build, and then the mods are made in order to make one really satisfied with the end product?

(Keep in mind that as aforementioned, I'm a leftie, so I'm probably not going to pursue the same channels as most of the other posters. In fact, I can tell you that on more than one occasion I have ordered left handed components, and was shipped RIGHT handed components. Once you start getting into something like a full-blown guitar...eh, what can I say? I just don't trust "the man")

:lol:


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 10:43 am
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I gotta agree with the parts point. Fender Strats are like the small block Chevy, there are a ton of parts and upgrades for them at very affordable prices.


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