With so many people changing out parts from their Strats and Tele when does a Fender Stop being a Fender?

Is it the body or the neck. So let say I use a non-Fender neck on a Fender body (or the other way around) does that mean that it's not a Fender guitar?

What if the only thing left is the neck and body?

Also What would call a Fender guitar made from three Fender guitars?

When you use non-Fender parts, it isn't. I just used a few parts off of my Strat to fix my Tele. It's still a Fender. It just has the soul of 2 guitars.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

I say if you "made" a Fender out of all Fender parts, you have a Partscaster, or a FrankenStrat.....if you replace either the neck or body, without using real Fender parts, I wouldn't call it a Fender....at that point it becomes someone's cobbled together junk that has lost ALL resale value (to me anyway). Not that you can't cobble together a nice looking/sounding/playing axe. It just isn't anything you could ever sell easily, cause the guitar was made up to suit YOU.

Personally, I'd say simply when either the body or the neck is not a Fender as either one is half the core of the instrument.

You've cited three Fenders. By necessity, this would have to include hardware. I don't feel hardware is a proprietary or even major factor due to many Fenders possessing OEM bridges, tailpieces, heads and strap buttons (locks) made by Schaller, Gotoh and Ping; the pots are made by CTS and the output jacks are made by Switchcraft. These examples are just to name a few.

The above can also be said of stock Gibson Les Pauls as a parallel example. Does having all Schaller or Gotoh hardware as OEM negate it from being a Gibson Les Paul? I don't think so.

As always, this is merely IMO where YMMV.

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You dig?

What happens when a famous player such as Andy Summers, David Gilmour, Joe Walsh, the "Boss" and half a dozen heavy metal guitarist change out the electronics? We would look at their guitars and say, "hay, look they play Fender."

So when I replaced the Hwy 1 neck on the Clapton body w/ EC Strat parts, isn't it still a EC Strat? I once read somewhere that Brad Witford played a Clapton Strat, but with a different neck.

I sometimes think that we get bogged down with identity and forget about what makes a great instrument.

Some of the best players I've known take a guitar and build a monster to their liking.

Thanks for everyone's input.

The Tele I have is all custom. But everything is legit Fender except the neck pickup. I'm also putting a Bigsby (designed for the Tele) and a set of Klusons (Also designed for Fender) Even though some of the parts aren't by Fender, they were still designed for Fender, so I guess it's a technicality.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

Yeah good question. I think that if it's an factory original it's a fender.For example if I bought a signature guitar regardless that electronics may be different and it still can be bought online and retail, it's a fender.If you switch out parts it's your fender!I used to sell your fenders on ebay.Id buy parts install electronics etc and made a little side money but I learned that alot of people wanted other options with various factory fenders.

Only your luither has to know!!!.......
ALL of my Highway One Strat HSS's are gutted....new pickups, tuners, saddles.....and I STILL consider them FENDER's!

Aren't we forgetting that Clapton's beloved BLACKIE was an amalgamation of a couple of Strats! He took the best of each and made his dream axe!

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I refuse to have a battle of the wits with an unarmed man!

A Strat made from three different Strats is "Blackie"...and those came from Nashville,Tn....where you could buy them for $200-300 all day long back then.
See...even our Tennesseean Strats are famous for more than country music.

The Bigsby is a nice vibrato unit, but I have some issues with it.

1. I felt that it changed the sound too much for my liking.

2. The Pigs which hold the strings onto the bridge are a b*tch to put on and stay on when you are setting up the guitar. I would make the posts longer or curved.

3. The Jazzmaster is not as good a design as the "blade" type that Gibson uses. Other than that I'd say go for it. It's got really smooth movement, works well and gosh darnit it looked cool.

Gotta pay $160 for it though.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

I gotta agree with Martian. If one swaps out the neck or body, it becomes for example "A Fender with a Warmoth body (or neck)."

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

A farmer had an axe and told a guy he had owned the same axe for 50 years...the guy said "that's incredible",and the farmer said "yep,only had to replace four handles and two axeheads!"

Kinda like a bladeless knife without a handle?? LMAO

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"It's about sound and sound alone. Looks are irrelevant. You can have the best-looking guitar on earth, but if the sound isn't there it is nothing more than a beautiful piece of trash. The sound it makes is the soul of any guitar."

Hmm...this gets me to thinking. So when does a strat stop being a strat?

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Dust off those rusty strings just one more time...

For more info on my gear, visit my blog at http://www.jgsguitargoodness.blogspot.com