I wasn't trying to spark this debate. was just a friendly warning about cost control when buying from Stratosphere. Personally I have bought a few things from them, I know however that if I were to buy all the components for a Strat from them, it would end up costing significantly more than that guitar is worth.

I am not saying not to do it, just to be aware that there are in fact other options. for example, from experience i know how much work it is stripping a poly surface and repainting a guitar. If you want to paint a guitar (in general, not if you want to fix up a specific guitar,) then buying an unfinished body from warmoth or allparts or a similar company would be a better and (unless you order a rweally jazzed up body,) quite a bit cheaper than buying a disassembled body from Stratosphere. using licensed parts is in my opinion acceptable. If fender offered replacement parts it might be different, but you can get quality parts from places like warmoth, maybve even superior parts.

Also remember you can buy a lot of legit fender parts from your local retailers too, really its only bodies and necks that are a big deal.

if you find a magic collection of parts from Stratosphere, and are willing to pay the premium go for it. was just a suggestion for some viable alternatives, use em or not.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

I think that is an excellent point! Perhaps I'm simply less cynical of others (although typically it's usually the other way around) but I don't assume that a person who does something like this is intentionally and deliberately trying to perpetrate fraud. Certainly there are a few out there...some folks do certainly want to make a fast and easy buck on the ignorance of others, but I think that there are simply a lot more folks out there who simply do it for their own pleasure. You build a guitar from parts or even from scratch, you want it to look "authentic" so you put the logo on the headstock. In most cases a person only needs to remove the neck to find out for sure...not a big deal with Fenders! LOL!



I will agree that it is certainly possible to build a guitar from aftermarket parts that easily rivals or exceeds the "real McCoy" as it were. There are some truly outstanding aftermarket parts out there...even in the "affordable" range from places like Carvin, Grizzly, etc. and the "quality" of the finished instrument is really only limited by the person putting it together. To me though, the cost issues is a bit more subjective. I've build my own guitars...not only from "parts" but I've cut my own bodies. I perhaps have a better understanding of what goes into a "quality" instrument than many folks. As such, I look at something like my Squire Standard for example and I'm simply blown away. As I told my wife when I bought my "Special Edition" last year, very simply I could not build a guitar of that quality for that same $200! The craftsmanship that has gone into that instrument is simply incredible considering the price. Very simply if a person pays for "American" craftsmanship such as that from Warmoth, they are certainly going to pay more but that does NOT by any means suggest they are getting a better crafted product.

I would also quickly add that the "quality" of the finished instrument is again highly dependent on the person building it. A person (who has the money) can easily go out and buy top of the line parts from some place such as Stratosphere but if said person really doesn't know what they are doing, the guitar is likely still going to play like crap. On the other hand, person who knows what they are doing can take a pile of halfway decent parts and create a true master piece. In other words, a person can get a genuine neck from someplace like Stratosphere on Ebay with the genuine Fender logo and if they don't know how to assemble a guitar, it's going to play (and sound) like crap where as a person who knows what they are doing can assemble an instrument from aftermarket parts such as Warmoth or others, create a simply exceptional instrument and then slap the logo on themselves...personally I'd rather have the later.

Peace,
Jim