I was thinking it would be a fun (hopefully) and challenging project to put together my own Strat with various Strat parts. So basicially Frankenstein together a Strat body, neck, pickups, etc. I was curious if anyone has done this and if so, how difficult and costly would something like this be?

Any advice out there for a newbie?

Thanks,

Bosephus

When it comes to putting together a guitar it can be very fun and rewarding.

One major thing to determine first is where you want to go with the instrument.

Do you want a trem or hardtail
what kind of bridge
will it fit on the body
etc.....

make sure you get proper parts to fit your body, nothing worse then spending money on a nice trem and realizing that it won't fit on your body without modification.

Just take your time with it and i'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Dan Erlwines book would also be a good read before starting but for the life of me i can't remember the title. I'm sure someone will chime in with the title.

I've done this very thing, and I the only problem I had was the fret height was sligthtly too high so I had a luthier do some work on it. Should be getting it back either monday or tuesday and Im stoked after 5 years of collecting the exact pieces I wanted. Mine cost about 1,000 after everything is said and done, but definitely worth it. I'll post pics soon!

I have built 5 strats out of all genuine fender parts,and it is a fun and rewarding hobby to build a guitar in a configuration that is not available from the good people at Fender.The things that I have learned along the way is that there seems to be alot of secret information as to what fits with what.Mexican bodys can be drilled with two different tremolo screw spreads to accept the six screw vintage trems and within the wider American vintage there are two different string spreads.The necks all fit any strat body but the width at the nut the string spread can be different as well.tuners hole sizes and mounting can take many different mounting solutions.And one of most frustration thing I ran into where bodys where the screw holes for attaching the neck to the body were just a wee bit too small and when the screws were tightened the neck would rise almost imperceptebly and ruin the set up.An easy fix but knowledge gained.All in all I have several guitars that are truly "mine" and most of these kick $@! customs have been accomplished for about half to two thirds the cost of the factory built units.I didn't build them to ever sell them,I built them for my own use and satisfaction.cheers

Thanks to everybody so far. Would anybody have suggestions as far where to go for parts? Is Ebay my best route or should I go through specific retailers?

Bosephus

Jay told you pretty much what you need to know and his Kickassocaster is talked about a lot. lol There are still a bunch of guys on the forum who have built there own axes and these guys are truly talented at what they do. I have seen some amazing instruments built and it has even tempted me to want to build one though I am not a handy guy with power tools. Just wait a bit and post what questions you would like answered and someone will answer them for you. Good Luck

Have you ever posted pictures of this creation?

I assembled my first (and only) "custom" guitar 2 years ago.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

It is fun to do a build and not hard just don't get hung up on having to use only fender parts. You can get top end after market necks and such that are as good as any custom shop neck. Custom shop fenders are not the ones being bought and taken apart and sold for parts.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Planning is your most important step.

Figure out what you want, figure out a budget. A project like this can be as simple as buying some parts, and assembling, all the way up to building from scratch. Either way you need a clear vision of what you want to end up with.

A friend did one, but he didn't plan it out, he ended up with a huge final cost (more than he could have bought a factory guitar with those parts,) and wasn't even completely happy with the result.

If you have a clear plan of what you want, you an make your dream guitar, and at a bargain price, but be patient.

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

Hi Orville....youre either making a sarcastic joke because I've posted about the Kickassocaster about 1 million times, or you just missed it and are really interested. I suspect your trying to be funny (its OK, I can take it), but I'll never shy away from bragging about my Kickassocaster because it truly KICKSASS!

http://www.fotothing.com/JayMM/

And again, this Limited Edition from the Custom Shop is trully a coinicidence but Im very proud that we wound up in the same place...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2m7qWHd ... re=related

Love to hear your thoughts...unless you are actually mocking me. [/quote]

Wow, that's is really cool. How long did that take you to craft together? May I ask a ballpark cost on something like that?

Bosephus

No joke, no mocking. I know that I've read about it, I just couldn't remember ever seeing it. So ... thanks for the links to the pics.

It looks great. I'm sure it plays the same. I like those Hwy1 necks.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Hi BosephusG: Jay did name that figure for you in a post earlier on this thread - but I have a feeling that since you've asked nicely he may be pursuaded to break it down for you. You may not know it, but he's the man for that job!

Cheers - C

PS And I'm not mocking either. Some may find it instructional...