Hi all, looking at buying a guitar, strat style.

Warmoth usa body

Fender strat neck, fender lace pickups, fender trimmings, nut, bridge, etc

It has the logo on the neck obviously, and looks to all and sundry like a strat.


So, what should it be called, if not 100% strat?

Also, why would someone use a warmoth body, and everything else from strat/ fender?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... 3DWatching

What do you think is a fair price in US$?

Please help this noob out! I have no idea whether its worth 1k, 2k, or 3k or 4k! My guess is that if it was a genuine strat, it would be 2.5 or 3k, but with the body??????????????????? Me not so sure!

It is not really a Fender is it? Its a warmoth body with a Strat neck.

Look at the neck near the LSR theres some wear there. Not sure what did that perhaps when he installed the LSR?

Its only going to be as good as the person who put it together and the sum of the parts. If you wanted someone to put those components together for you then add in some value for the time he spent building it.

I would say its worth about $800 in effort if everything is legit and the neck had no damage. Really it could be any body. You can't tell.

Since its an action its worth whatever you want to pay for it. Personally I cannot see anything on that guitar that looks special. The back pickgaurd looks different from the front as well. Should put a black on in to match the battery cover.

Hello DrPaul,

It's at $655 right now I wouldn't go much higher
$800 total max if I was in love and had to have it.
Super nice color and great neck the guitars a real
looker.Maybe it's got your name on it. Best of luck.

Cheers.

Warmoth is an authorized Fender replacment company. The guitar is probably worth 700 to 800 USD. I would not pay more for it than that. It is nice looking. I would not call that guitar subpar...if it is indeed a Warmoth body.

RK

I can't comment on the authenticity of the guitar or it's parts, but I can say that it's a beautiful guitar. The body, if it is indeed a Warmoth, will have the Warmoth logo stamped in the neck pocket. It would have been nice if the seller would have posted a picture of this just to confirm. I say if everything is as the seller claims, it's certainly worth $600-800, as others have said. Warmoth makes very high quality guitar bodies and they also do outstanding paint and finish work. I would ask the seller if Warmoth painted the guitar body. If so, I think it's definitely worth $600-800.

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2010 American Deluxe Strat Sunset Metallic - Lindy Fralin Blues Specials in the neck and middle, Dimarzio AT-1 humbucker in the bridge.
PRS Custom 22 with solid rosewood neck
Mesa/Boogie Electra Dyne 1x12 combo
DRRI

Seller is after about 1500ish all up

Parts were 1300, 200 to put it all together, ship it, etc. Claims to have sold these on special order for just under 1800

Have sent him a pm to find out if backplate matches the front. On one photo, it looks much different, on another about the same, so i think it may just be the light

All up for me in australia with shipping and taxes would be about A2000, which is about the price of a new roadworn 60s strat. A highway one would sell brand new for about 1500, american standard strat 2500 , a 72 tele custom or deluxe about 1800

The american deluxe ash, new about doesnt have a roller nut on it.

Prices referred to above were from at http://theguitarlounge.com.au/flash.php?typeid=1 after i knocked a couple of hundred off their list prices

Yes, here in australia, we really get screwed over in price, hence why i have been searching ebay and guitar centre, even though ill have to add 15% in taxes and 250 in postage

So, considering what it would cost me to get HERE to oz, and some other possible alternatives HERE IN OZ, (I also think the seller is selling this as a brand new guitar, not an old one) does that change anyones opinions about the price?

Just managed to finally find the new fender hard case, its A220

Obviously it's not 100% Fender, so it should be called an American Deluxe with a Warmoth body.

"Why would someone use a warmoth body?" you ask. The original body could have been damaged or the owner just didn't like it for some reason. Warmoth can provide a quality piece of lumber and a custom color.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Nice strat, however, everyone is right about the $800.00 price. Don't get me wrong, it's very nice but it still qualifies as a partsocaster.

$1500.00????
Good luck with that.

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10-4 good buddy, over and out!

What if you wanted to build this guitar yourself?

Bona fide MIA Deluxe neck new on Ebay - $350-500
Warmoth body + finishing with a solid color - $175 + $185
Lace Alumintone pickups - $150-ish
Fender MIA Deluxe bridge (gold) - $130
Schaller locking tuners (gold) - $125
Pickguard and backplate - $35
Electrics - $30
Knobs and tips - $12
Strap buttons (gold) - $4
Jack socket and plate (gold) - $15
Deluxe neckplate (gold) - $20
Strings - $5

TOTAL US$1236 to $1386

I am well aware that people can shop around and quibble with most of those prices. But as ballpark numbers they are reasonably accurate. Sources:
Ebay.com
Warmoth.com
GuitarPartsResource.com
WDMusic.com

So would you expect to pay this seller more, because he did all of that work for you? Or would you expect to pay less because you feel a finished instrument should cost less than the sum of its parts?

Something to go on, anyhow...

Cheers - C

Hi guys. Paul gave me the link for the discussion. Ceri, is pretty close with his estimations. One thing you have to watch for is the the Deluxe necks come with a bone nut for the S/S/S configs and the LSR nut for the S/S/H. The LSR's will go for a little more depending on condition. But he's pretty close on the estimate . One area that slightly off is the body. Candy Tangerine is not considered a solid color so there is an upcharge for the Candy colors. That body will cost about 300 from Warmoth before shipping.

Please also consider the body has all the pickup and input cavities copper shielded. Copper shielding is somewhat expensive but its about 2 hours to cut the copper to shield the top side of the body. I didn't include that as part of my cost on this one.

Also Schaller locking tuners would be about 125 if they were chrome. These are authentic Fender parts in Gold. They are hard to come by and I was told by Music Parts Guru (MPG) that they are not made any longer. I give my buyers the parts tags/bags so they can see the actual parts that was used. I ordered 2 sets of these in gold, waited 3 months to get them. I paid 175.00 new and picked them up myself. You can get them everyone once in a while used from the parts stores, and MPG has some for 200 bucks now. (discontinued)

The electronics estimate is pretty accurate with the exception that you left off the N-Tuner which this guitar has. (hence the battery in the back) The N-Tuner is about 79.00. and is a pretty stealth addition to the pickguard.

Speaking of the battery compartment. The Stew-mac parts for that are only about 15.00 but I also had to route out the body to make a nice professional looking look. I bought the router template to make it perfect and now it can be used if the owner ever wants to use active pups.(like the older Clapton's)

You also forgot about the Fender Hard Shell case. It's a brand new Fender hard shell case directly from the box which the guitar will be shipped in. I bought that case for 115.00 and picked it up myself. (MPG is 40 miles from my house)

The strap buttons are gold but they are part of the Schaller Strap Locks. If there were strap buttons only then that would be correct. I include the Strap locks and the original package and those are installed on the Fender Leather Guitar Strap that is new and also included. Gold Strap locks are 42.00 and the leather strap was 31.00 before tax. I picked those up myself at JC's.

I also have included small details that do add to the cost although not greatly but make for a finished product. The jack plate is gold and the actual jack itself is a Gold Switchcraft jack. Usually you just see the nickle jack, but this one matches. Also all of the screws for the body are gold. There are 19 of them and I only use new screws. Depending on the pickups used I always use gold pickup scews too.

I buff the body and the neck before assembly as well as prep the frets. This neck was nearly new, so they only needed to be polished up with 2 grades of steel wool. They will look like chrome now. I also include a DVD with all the photos that I take of the project. I did have photos of the neck and body which I "always' do for all my projects but for whatever reason, I misfiled these as I did the body shielding and photos of that a few months back. If Paul does buy it, I will take it apart and shoot the photos of the neck heel and the pocket to show its authenticity.

Sorry for the long reply fellas, but Paul was kind enough to include me in on the discussion and I wanted to clarify what went into this project. I've sold about 20 of these one off projects over the past year and half or so. I know many of you can assemble these just as I have. But for some players they want something unique, that is ready to play and has a cool look that maybe they wouldn't have thought of themselves. Some are more elaborate than others, but they all are made with great care.

Now for the commercial. I will have my third Monterey Strat coming out in a few weeks. You may have read about one of these in some of the other Fender sites. Thanks for listening and for the time.

If the gutiar plays as good as it looks I would pay 1000 to 1200 but would have to play it first.

I agree with the above being around how much the seller has into it. But, it is unlikely that someone will pay that much for a partscaster. $700-800 sounds about right.

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

"The neck is a 2005 Fender USA Deluxe LSR Maple Neck. I purchased this neck in 07 and it's like new with very little fret wear and no dings or dents on the back of the neck. I dressed the frets and polished them to a like chrome shine."

Looks like this should be the reserve price then? Lets see how the auction goes.
Hopefully no non payer buys it so we can see what it fetches.

Hi 01GT: yep, I'm pretty sure that's how most will look at it (as this thread shows). I just thought some folks who may not be familiar with this stuff might be interested to see how the numbers can stack up. It's sometimes a surprise...

Whether the seller, Mr Chicagoblue, gets his desired price or not remains to be seen. But at any rate he's not being greedy.

Especially as he says he's done extra work installing a battery compartment. It so happens I know how much effort can go into that...

Sadly for the homebuilders amongst us there's not a lot of profit in assembling guitars.

Cheers - C