Average Cost of a Warmoth / USACG Parts Build?

[ImmortalSix]

Can anybody who has actually built a guitar from parts give me some real numbers, including tax and shipping and every little detail expense, how much did it cost for you to build your parts guitar?

Was it worth it, or in retrospect would you have been better off grabbing a MIM Fender on Craigslist and throwing $200 at it?

 

[muttznmongrelz]

Re: Average Cost of a Warmoth / USACG Parts Build?

My Warmoth SRV Tribute wound up costing me about $850.00, parts and assembly/set up.

I scoured eBay for each and every piece of the guitar so it was exactly what I wanted it to be. All parts were either brand new or vintage (DiMarzio SDS-1 Neck/Bridge Pickups are late 70's "PAF", Floyd is a NOS WD KKT-3 Licensed w/a Huge Brass Sustain Block).

I've built a couple of guitars this way...and I believe it costs more, simply for the assembly/set up if you don't do it yourself, but, on the flip side...there's a connection you get w/the guitar from getting the parts having it assembled etc.

If you can't find what you want off the shelf...or if you have a specific "concept/theme" in mind, like I did w/this one...def Warmoth or USACG.

 

[Chris of Arabia]

Re: Average Cost of a Warmoth / USACG Parts Build?

My Warmoths cost roughly this for each:

• Tele: $1,300.00
• LP: $1,900.00
• Strat: 1,680.00

None of them were cheap, but then again, if you are building to spec you do tend to extend the budget at times to get the bits you really want.

 

[theodie]

Re: Average Cost of a Warmoth / USACG Parts Build?

Hunter, you can count on starting at about a grand.


Re-sale sucks on parts guitars, keep that in mind.





I would mod a MIM over a parts caster in most cases. It depends on what you want to do that determines if this is the way to go.

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Average Cost of a Warmoth / USACG Parts Build?

Hunter, you can count on starting at about a grand.


Re-sale sucks on parts guitars, keep that in mind.





I would mod a MIM over a parts caster in most cases. It depends on what you want to do that determines if this is the way to go.

That's pretty much what I needed to know.

I am wanting to build a big necked rosewood board Strat with vintage specs, and a vintage spec'd Telecaster in the next 2 years or so.

I think it will be my preference to start with off-the-shelf guitars and swap out stuff until I get what I want.

I believe I can accomplish what I want for under $1000, given my fairly common / been-done-a-million-times goals for the two instruments.

 

[Bludave]

Re: Average Cost of a Warmoth / USACG Parts Build?

Heres how it will breakdown.

Body ( $150 to $350) I got my body as a gift, but thats a ball park on what a basic body will cost

Neck (150 to $250) Depending on wood species and fingerboards. Mine was a Flame maple with Brazillian. I paid $250 for the neck with 6105 fretwire

Pickups, pots, switch & Jack.$200 to $350 depending. I put a set of Antiquity Surfers in my Strat.

Hardware. Bridge, Tuners strap buttons Knobs, screws, about $350 depending.

Pickguard anywhere from 20 to $50.

Approx. cost $1000.00 I love my Strat & I am in the process of doing another. I have the body being custom painted now. I have a Birdseye maple neck, but may order a RW FB neck, depending on what the painter and I come up with as far as colors & design. It may look better with a RW board.

Its not really cheaper to do it this way, its a combination of things. It is fun to put it together (as long as you have someone who can help you to do what you can't... I do) and you get pretty much exactly what you want.

 

[B2D]

Re: Average Cost of a Warmoth / USACG Parts Build?

I've priced my future Warmoth build out a few times and it always lands somewhere around $1300.

 

[jmh151]

Re: Average Cost of a Warmoth / USACG Parts Build?

For a Floyded superstrat, about $1200- and that's if you finish (paint) it yourself.

 

[muttznmongrelz]

Re: Average Cost of a Warmoth / USACG Parts Build?

I guess I didn't do as badly as I thought on building mine out. $850.00 is sounding like a bargain all of a sudden. :scratchch

 

[scottish]

Re: Average Cost of a Warmoth / USACG Parts Build?

Since you are going for vintage spec'd strats and teles you could prob knock them out for under a grand since there wont be any exotic woods in there, nothing flamey or nonsense like that.

Wont be much under a grand but maybe a little.

 

[uOpt]

Re: Average Cost of a Warmoth / USACG Parts Build?

This stuff is either when

• You want your specs and don't care about the money.
• You have drawers and boxes of all the other parts except body and neck...
• ...and/or you paint yourself.

Re-sell isn't bad if you resell in parts. But nobody wants somebody else's all-custom build.

 

[J Moose]

Re: Average Cost of a Warmoth / USACG Parts Build?

Was it worth it, or in retrospect would you have been better off grabbing a MIM Fender on Craigslist and throwing $200 at it?

I don't think you can really compare those two things... modding a stock guitar and building one from scratch. If you build from scratch you can get every little detail to be what you want... neck shape & radius, fret size, heel cuts & contours... wood type & weight, pickups, hardware etc. Otherwise there's only so much you can do...

The major parts of my thinline Tele came used, untouched but "used" from Poorman and represented a substantial savings over a new neck & body. My total cost on the project was well under $1,000... might've been a little closer if the neck & body were "new" but still.

For under $1000 I got a thinline Tele with a neck humbucker & quarter sawn maple neck. Try getting THAT from Fender, Shur or anyone else! I can hardly count the cost of pickups & electronics in a build since those usually get changed anyway on store bought guitars.

What really drives up the cost on a parts project is finish work... paint. If you can do that yourself or have a friend do it you'll save a lot of money.

And don't expect that you'll be able to just unbox parts & bolt everything together... It's not that easy, not terribly hard either... some basic woodworking & measuring skills are mandatory.

 

[tone?]

Re: Average Cost of a Warmoth / USACG Parts Build?

For me it was definitely not worth it. And I learned the hard way.

There are too many things that can go wrong and it is a mess if you dont know what you are doing.
Sure I can do it way way better now. But I invested a bit of money into it by trial and error. So for me it is way cheaper to buy instead of build.
I thought it wasnt but I was wrong.
Check out threads of mine from a long time ago. You will see that I wanted to save cash as well and come out with a quality instrument as well.

I just dont like the idea of not knowing how it will sound in the end after all the work. Instead of picking one up and playing it. If you are picky like me than it is even worse. Even high end guitars wont all sound great, not to me at least. Even when buying a Suhr I would try a bunch of them out first.

Mind you while trying out Suhrs they were alot closer in tone but STILL there were differences that made one stand out. Never bought it cause in Greece they cost way more, now that I am in the US, but you get what I mean.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Average Cost of a Warmoth / USACG Parts Build?

For me it was definitely not worth it. And I learned the hard way.

There are too many things that can go wrong and it is a mess if you dont know what you are doing.

+1. While it definitely works for some guys, I think I can do a lot better buying a used guitar and modding the PU's and electronics, than sinking that much money into a build-it one. Just my opinion. If the guitar just doesn't sound like what I want, I can resell the used one for what I paid for it, whereas with a build-it...

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Average Cost of a Warmoth / USACG Parts Build?

I don't think you can really compare those two things... modding a stock guitar and building one from scratch. If you build from scratch you can get every little detail to be what you want... neck shape & radius, fret size, heel cuts & contours... wood type & weight, pickups, hardware etc. Otherwise there's only so much you can do...

The major parts of my thinline Tele came used, untouched but "used" from Poorman and represented a substantial savings over a new neck & body. My total cost on the project was well under $1,000... might've been a little closer if the neck & body were "new" but still.

For under $1000 I got a thinline Tele with a neck humbucker & quarter sawn maple neck. Try getting THAT from Fender, Shur or anyone else! I can hardly count the cost of pickups & electronics in a build since those usually get changed anyway on store bought guitars.

What really drives up the cost on a parts project is finish work... paint. If you can do that yourself or have a friend do it you'll save a lot of money.

And don't expect that you'll be able to just unbox parts & bolt everything together... It's not that easy, not terribly hard either... some basic woodworking & measuring skills are mandatory.

I hear what you are saying. Don't worry about me as far as the base level of craftsmanship you need to have to put something together from parts, I am good to go there.

To be honest, I don't give a crap about quarter sawn maple and I probably couldn't tell you what neck contour or radius any of my guitars had except for in relative terms (smallest, medium, biggest, and fat, thinner, thinnest :laughing: ) so I will be fine with parts I find from other guitars.

I'll most likely piece it together in no hurry which is a nice luxury.

I will probably buy some Fenders off craigslist and keep the good necks and flip the bodies and stuff until I find the right body, then GET IT AWN!

-Hunter

 

[FretFire]

Re: Average Cost of a Warmoth / USACG Parts Build?

I don't put a parts guitar together to save money, I do it to get exactly what I want in an instrument from the get-go.

FWIW, my strat build came in between $1000 and $1200. The telecaster I'm in the middle of started out in the $1500 neighborhood if I went all out on some "fancy" parts (like a pre-wired Callaham control plate), but I've since trimmed it down to right at $1100 plus a bit of elbow grease . The guitar will be much more sentimental because of it, too.

 

[Richard]

Re: Average Cost of a Warmoth / USACG Parts Build?

Mine was around $900 after I bought a HSC. Body was used from a fourm bro for I think $125 IIRC and I already had the pups and dome knobs... Everything else is brand new.

 

[JustWendell]

Re: Average Cost of a Warmoth / USACG Parts Build?

My USACG Tele w/Brazilian rosewood fb, hand wound zhangliquin pickups came in around 1300 or so, and my maple floyded super strat thing I'm working on will probably come in around the same, maybe a hair less due to an all tru oil finish. Looking back with my tele I wish I didn't opt for the Brazilian fb or to have them finish the neck as I discovered the awesomeness of tru oil. Could have saved a chuck of change right there that could have went towards a professional setup which something of this caliber deserves.

 

[Luke Duke]

Re: Average Cost of a Warmoth / USACG Parts Build?

Hunter it sounds like you need to call Scott (Mrfjones) at Cleveland Guitars. Last year when I was getting updates from Christian on the Broadcaster and the attention to period correctness it made me realize that I WANTED an old guitar, but I don't have the money to pay for it. From there I had to decide if I could be happy with an off-the-shelf Fender or if I wanted to have one built. As pictures filtered in and info drifted down about the Broadcaster I started thinking about having a guitar built. I thought about DIY, but I KNEW I'd get in a hurry and mess it up, so I decided to have Scott build me a guitar.

So far everything is going great too.

Luke

 

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: Average Cost of a Warmoth / USACG Parts Build?

It really depends on what you're after. I've priced it a few times through the site (haven't ordered yet though) and it was around $900 for my Tele idea (a lot less if I'd choose to go through the showcase) and I've stopped counting with the Les Paul idea when it passed $1500...

Using a Floyd makes it a lot more expensive then a vintage bridge. Each pickup you add to it is $70-$100 more. Laminated tops and bindings also make the price jump. DIY paint or picking a finished model from the showcase would also lower the price considerably.

If you're going for a self painted, one humbucker, vintage bridge, no thrills guitar you might get it for a very low price. Most of us are going for something else I guess...