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Post subject: Re: Home made strat.(copy)
Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2014 12:44 pm
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Thanks for the comments they are appreciated.
I've learnt a learnt a lot building this and its been enjoyable at every stage.
Any tips or advice are very welcome.

The neck feels good and stable and nice to play. Its obviously
not as slick as a real fender but I'm surprised myself how well its turned out.
I decided to play safe and go with a 12" radius. There's still more wood to come off the back as its more of a D shape then C at the moment but I couldn't wait to put it together, and I have to take the scratch plate off to adjust the truss rod though its hardly moved .

Image

I bought some new tuners after this picture.

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Post subject: Re: Home made strat.(copy)
Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 5:15 am
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Hey chrisH60...very nice build...congratulations

It certainly deserves to be in our Build Thread Listing

Depending on your schedule to finish, you might arrange your pics and commentary from start to finished project. Then post it on the forum.

PM me and I'll see that it goes in a well deserved place on the Build Thread.

- Dan

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Post subject: Re: Home made strat.(copy)
Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 11:03 am
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ok I'll have a look to see what pictures I've got


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Post subject: Re: Home made strat.(copy)
Posted: Mon May 13, 2019 11:46 pm
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Amazing guitar. I saw that pictures you have shared with us.

Routertable is used for some woodworking stuff. Can you tell me which is the best routertable for beginners?


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Post subject: Re: Home made strat.(copy)
Posted: Thu May 16, 2019 9:58 pm
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Super impressed, bro. Very nice. How much money would you have to spend on materials if you built another one just like it?

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Post subject: Re: Home made strat.(copy)
Posted: Fri May 17, 2019 2:08 am
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Crumbs! The threads are rising from the dead, grab your pitchforks and wooden stakes....that was an impressive build though.

With regard to material costs - in the UK a body blank is around £50 where as a fully machined body is about £120. Aside the satisfaction of saying you have done it yourself (knowing I could if I wanted to) I wouldn't bother and just buy the machined body.

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Post subject: Re: Home made strat.(copy)
Posted: Sun May 19, 2019 4:13 am
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John Sims wrote:
With regard to material costs - in the UK a body blank is around £50 where as a fully machined body is about £120. Aside the satisfaction of saying you have done it yourself (knowing I could if I wanted to) I wouldn't bother and just buy the machined body.

My question towards material costs was with regards towards the feasibility of turning this guitar building into a revenue stream in addition to ChrisH's "day" income. ChrisH could make some money here with these skills. My guess is he has likely thought of that, and good for him ...

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Post subject: Re: Home made strat.(copy)
Posted: Sun May 19, 2019 8:38 am
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01GT eibach wrote:
John Sims wrote:
With regard to material costs - in the UK a body blank is around £50 where as a fully machined body is about £120. Aside the satisfaction of saying you have done it yourself (knowing I could if I wanted to) I wouldn't bother and just buy the machined body.

My question towards material costs was with regards towards the feasibility of turning this guitar building into a revenue stream in addition to ChrisH's "day" income. ChrisH could make some money here with these skills. My guess is he has likely thought of that, and good for him ...


It is cirtainly doable, as people have, but you really need a name as a builder to charge anything close to the value of the time involved. The material cost is almost negligible by comparison.

Until you become "a name" anything you present for sale will attract the same value as any other Partscaster.

It is nothing new as Fender offered guitars to known musicians of the time when looking to grow credabillity.

Similarly, if you are skilled builder with jigs and tools available one assumes you could create a guitar in a similar time to a Cutom Shop Master Builder. The base materials cost the same so can you charge the same as a Masterbuilt Strat?

There are 100 of builders out there, probably thousands, but those independent owner builders who can charge enough to make a living could probably be counted on two hands.

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Post subject: Re: Home made strat.(copy)
Posted: Sun May 19, 2019 11:38 am
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01GT eibach wrote:
My question towards material costs was with regards towards the feasibility of turning this guitar building into a revenue stream in addition to ChrisH's "day" income. ChrisH could make some money here with these skills. My guess is he has likely thought of that, and good for him ...

I think that would be rather tough.
Look at the sale value of "Partscasters" vs the material costs that go into them.
Now substitute some of that cost with the time and tooling required to build some of the parts from the ground up.
It's not going to be easy to become the next Suhr (who was an established name with the Fender CS before he started making his own line), or looking at Lucky Dog, who has sold fewer than 80 guitars in the last 6 years. Reverb pricing is around $1700. That's less than $25k per year (assuming steady sales) gross... before paying for materials.

I put well over $1200 into my Tele, and I used a Fender MiM neck, which was half the cost of a US neck. The custom paint is the major "cool factor" and the real value in the build, and my choices for hardware and electronics were not based on being frugal.
Had it not been for the custom paint, I would have been better off buying an American Professional, which includes the molded HSC.

You can do a budget home-build from OTC parts, John's "Fishface" is a good example and the opposite end of the build cost spectrum from my Tele.
But there's a lot of competition. The budget guitar market is saturated with Squier, Epiphone, Ibanez, and the low-cost steamroller Harley Benton. Low volume home builds cannot compete in the sub-$800 market.
The boutique market is tough to get into without a reputation.

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Post subject: Re: Home made strat.(copy)
Posted: Sun May 19, 2019 11:43 am
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danagos wrote:
Hey chrisH60...very nice build...congratulations

It certainly deserves to be in our Build Thread Listing

Oh wow... I had no idea that thread existed.
Being a Fender forum, I've always been a little shy about sharing "Partscaster" builds (particularly since I use Fender necks)... I've only shared a couple of photos of the finished product from my Tele build.

I'll try to do better getting progressive shots of my next builds.

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Post subject: Re: Home made strat.(copy)
Posted: Sun May 19, 2019 5:34 pm
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CB91710 wrote:
01GT eibach wrote:
My question towards material costs was with regards towards the feasibility of turning this guitar building into a revenue stream in addition to ChrisH's "day" income. ChrisH could make some money here with these skills. My guess is he has likely thought of that, and good for him ...

I think that would be rather tough ...

Let's pump the brakes here a little bit ... First off, I am talking about generating some extra cash in his spare time. We can save discussion of creating the next PRS (or such) for another thread. Secondly, if you are making (and not buying) necks, pickups, and bodies, there is not much material cost. So ... we know the dude can certainly make his own bodies and necks -- the hard part. All that is left is winding his own pickups (which is much easier to do than making bodies and necks, by comparison -- I have idiot-yahoo friends that wind pretty good pickups in their garage). Between the neck, body and (assuming) home-made pickups, he is likely no more in to the guitar than $100-120 for the actual guitar materials (I am thinking; could be wrong, though). Then all that is left is the hardware and maybe some finish materials (another $120 or so?). So, let's assume he is $300 in for all the materials used to make his guitar (does not include tooling) -- he could sell a nicely built up hand-made guitar (made in USA/UK) with handmade body, neck and pickups for $800. Initial throughput is estimated at two guitars per month. The $500 profit (per guitar) equates to $12,000 per year -- some fair spare-time extra cash ...

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Post subject: Re: Home made strat.(copy)
Posted: Mon May 20, 2019 1:07 am
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Yes, I agree with comments so far - well done!

Making the neck from scratch is very impressive, and with your obvious attention to detail I bet it plays fine!

Cheers - Peter.


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Post subject: Re: Home made strat.(copy)
Posted: Mon May 20, 2019 2:31 am
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01GT eibach wrote:
Let's pump the brakes here a little bit ... Initial throughput is estimated at two guitars per month...


I think you are dramatically underestimating the time involved in building a complete guitar from stock timber, and you are throwing in handwound PUP's for good measure. And also ignoring the market.

I would anticipate the poor guy would have little to no spare time left after holding down a full time job and building two guitars from scratch a month.

I also think you underestimate the value of "handmade". I have the skills and equipment to make a guitar from scratch, but wouldn't. With no disrespect to the OP a CNC cut body is better. It is measurement perfect every time. We have seen how Fender guitars year on year (after CBS) have improved in quality. We all sit in awe of the very early Fender instruments but then think back to early Clapton when such instruments were readily available and he would buy 3 to dismantle and make one really good one, and give the other two away. This suggests to me that they weren't all Holy Grails.

I further think you underestimate what people will pay for a shed made guitar. Again with, no disrespect to the OP, if I had £900 burning a hole in my pocket, considering I could buy a second hand full fat MiA or a new MiA Special (or what ever they are called this month) I would buy one of them rather than something someone made in their shed.

If you could get your guitar seen in the hands of any guitar hero you care to mention that is a different matter, but until such time it is a no name shed made guitar.

People do make some money and charge reasonable prices £1500+ but these are generally unique designs, novelty guitars, art guitars very different and unavailable elsewhere. I am sorry it doesn't suit your argument but (IMHO) selling hand made Fender copies, no matter how good, isn't a viable proposition in this day and age (YMMV).

"Oh but he is getting paid for the pleasure of making the guitars". I am a craftsman myself and, while I still get pleasure out of making things, I am certain there would be little pleasure in having people on the phone chasing their new budget handmade guitar when; the neck you made last week has inexplicably warped, the router cutter burnt the edge of the neck cut out, the body you have spent 2 hours buffing has a previously unseen blemish and needs to be stripped and refinished etc, etc, I could go on.

Trying to put some sense into the equation you aren't going to build guitars one at a time. When you are set up to do a job you could probably make 5 unfinished bodies in the same time it would take to make 2, one at a time, individually. You have the tools out and set up, the jigs to hand etc. So you are saving time. But, you are spending 5 times as much on materials in the first instance. Based on your scenario of selling two guitars a month that will be 3 months before that material outlay is monetised.

You would absolutely be better making novelty/unique guitars to commission at a half sensible price as the market is already full to overflowing with artisan made Fender style guitars.

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Post subject: Re: Home made strat.(copy)
Posted: Mon May 20, 2019 8:45 am
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Looking at your achievements, there's no doubt you know what you're talking about, John! And I too am messing about with a partscaster at present, and I bought the bits ready made. In my case I haven't the gear to manufacture either body or neck accurately, but I'd buy them too, even if I had.

Obviously OP has really enjoyed himself, though, and that's good enough for me!

I, on the other hand, am not much enjoying the partscaster experience. Having been fitted up by a Fleabayer for a Squier wreck which wasn't advertised as such, I don't think I'm ever going to be playing this. Spending as little as possible, getting it playing decently, and moving it on - at a loss - seems likely!

It seems to be difficult to buy good bodies and necks secondhand. Do you or anyone else have any experience of Hosco, incidentally? They seem to do cheapish bodies and necks...

Cheers - Peter.


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Post subject: Re: Home made strat.(copy)
Posted: Mon May 20, 2019 12:00 pm
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Peter S wrote:

Obviously OP has really enjoyed himself, though, and that's good enough for me!

.


Absolutely. I agree 100%. The satisfaction of sitting back and knowing you have done it all would be immense.

My father spent many years making reproduction oak furniture for around the house, often based on original designs in St Fagin's Welsh Folk Museum. This he would make entirely by hand using only hand tools despite being the MD of 14000 sq ft joinery factory. I understand the satisfaction and may yet make a guitar myself from scratch just to do it...but not necessarily because I want to play it. I'm actually thinking of doing an acoustic because it will be more of a challenge....and I almost never play acoustics.

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