How much should I spend on a strat...?

Re: How much should I spend on a strat...?

jimijames said:
So, I don't know how you feel about assembling the guitar yourself, but for what you want it may be a good option. Warmoth usually has a decent amount of strat bodies in stock and for what you want you could take this body, paint it candy apple red (I just checked and guitar reranch doesn't currently have CAR in stock unfortunately, but I'm sure if you were diligent you could find it), a neck like this, a floyd rose bridge (that's what the body is routed for that I linked to), some SSL-1's, tuners, a pickguard, and you're about good to go.

For finishing, luthier's mercantile international sells tru oil which IMO is the best finish for necks. Smoother than shellac (or glass for that matter) and feels all kinds of awesome. Plus you'd have a guitar that you put together yourself, with the only requirement being a little drilling and some light spraying of the body. Total cost would be body ($145), neck ($157), tuners ($60), paint and tru oil would be $30-40 because you'd need grain filler and sand/sealer for swamp ash before you could finish it in CAR, pickups would be like ~$100 for some used SSL-1's up to $300 for custom shop single coils. I'm a big fan of JS Moore's humbuckers but I've never played their single coils so I couldn't tell you about those. So you're looking at $670 (that's with the floyd rose locking bridge) to $870 for a brand new, completely custom stratocaster built exactly to your specifications with high grade materials.

The downside is the resale value of a parts-built guitar is a lot lower than a comparable fender. The upside is if you do it right, you won't ever be willing to sell the guitar. I've done two parts guitars and would sooner sell my kidneys than either of them.

edit: if you went FR bridge with a locking nut you could save some money on the tuners, maybe pick up some used ones online. Same thing for the FR bridge, could probably get that for a little less.

About the custom shop pickups, I really, really like the strabro 90s I have in my maple-neck strat. I think they'd fit really well what you want (blues and hotter stuff in one package.) If you're willing to spend the money they're absolutely worth it.

Double edit:

- USACG has some bodies for sale that are ridiculously cheap. ($125 for one and $135 for two others that are all strats)
- You can find replacement strat necks from Stewmac for like $118
- If you don't have to have a FR bridge you can pick up a vintage 6-hole for less than $50 through warmoth

That would bring down the price to something like $500 flat and you're still getting MIA strat quality and tone. Just saying.
Click to expand...

If thinking/able to spend between 600-1200.......and you are able to go Warmoth or similar design-your-own-strat method......you can not only end up with a high quality guitar but one for which you personally selected just about every major component of YOUR guitar. If you can.......think about it. Good luck!~
 
Re: How much should I spend on a strat...?

I'll build my own guitar one day, but when I do that my grandmother (who was a professional painter before retiring) will be the one to paint it :)
 
Re: How much should I spend on a strat...?

if you are thinking ssl-1's, dont worry about you toob vids. Just get them. They are awesome. Trust me on this, I've had god knows how many strat sets in my strat over the past 20 odd years.
 
Re: How much should I spend on a strat...?

If you never had any experience installing pickups, then I suggest that you go and buy a pre-wired strat pick guard with the type of pickups that you are looking for. All you'll have to do is just solder it to the imput jack. You can usually find a wide assortment on E-Bay ,but check the seller's rating and don't buy anything from China. A lot of dealers will buy brand new Fenders and just sell the parts on there. You can usually buy a new pickguard that'll have Texas specials on it , or fender 57/62's which is what I have on my Strats.
 
Re: How much should I spend on a strat...?

I have used Carvin guitars for like 15 years. Either the customs they build with all options you want on your instrument or their parts and kits which I enjoy making and the connection of building my own guitar.
Superb quality, playability, and workmanship. Since there is no vendor middle man markup you save a lot and get the quality of a much more expensive guitar.

I am currently building a new kit using their parts, marvelous. My previous one is a ebony fingerboard Strat with the Seymour Duncan Everything Axe pickguard assembly I put on it.
I have 2 others they built, customs for my tastes and needs plus they have my name on them. Beautiful finishes they render, or more basic natural look of Koa, Mahogany, etc, whatever you want.
Warmouth is all fine and good but a lot more money.
Carvin offers complete options, from woods, hardware, even fret material and size, Sperzel locking tuners. Just FYI, I have not considered another guitar makers for many years as mine have been delivering the goods for me and consistently.

Cost varies a lot according to what options and upgrades you pick. A kit is like under $500 and up, mine are more as I use a lot of options on my necks and such. My two custom builds were like $1400 and $1000 and works of art. Carvin is not cheap inexpensive gear it costs less only because there is no middle-man store marking up the gear for resale. I have been a Strat maniac for many years and had many different models. Carvin kicks the crap out of any Fender model I owned and that includes the Clapton signature I had.
 
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