Piecing together Fender guitars.

[Gearjoneser]

I'm interested in hearing from those who have done it, or are thinking of which pieces to buy.

Also, I'm assuming you can mate modern and vintage Fender parts with no problems. or am I wrong?

Anyone pulled off a 2 point trem and replaced it with 6 screw vintage trems?

I've pieced together a few strats, to get exactly what I wanted, and will probably do it again for a tele. Even if you're paying up to $600 for a neck or body, you've got to consider if it's a significant ingredient in the guitar.....it's often worth it. If you're putting together a $1500 quality guitar, you may need to spend a bit on it's neck or body.....not to mention Fender, Wilkinson, or Callaham hardware.

Here's a 90's Strat Plus Blue Pearl Dust (reverse metallic-burst) body. All the rest of it is a 2001 American Series, with black and aged white guard/pickup covers. Chubtone reverse stagger 69's.

Here it is when it had an HSS engine turned guard, Jazz B, 2 Surfers.

This my 90's Strat Plus Black Pearl Dust (reverse metallic-burst) body. All the rest is a 2004 50th Anniversary American Series Strat. I can use it with either a Fender Black Moto/Surfers or Warmoth HS with Custom/59 hybrid/Chubtone 63....which it is currently.

 

[75lespaul]

Re: Piecing together Fender guitars.

I've done it a few times. I'm really good at taking them apart. An expert. Where I have trouble is getting them to act like real guitars again when I put them together, lol. I'm terrible at setups and my local tech has been less than desirable lateley, hence the feverish selling off of stuff and a billion questions about the 62 Hot Rod. Oh yeah Gear, thanks for that new attack of g.a.s. :crazy:

 

[jeremy]

Re: Piecing together Fender guitars.

been doing it since i got my first squier II, sometimes the bridge swap will work, sometimes it wont. the block vs trem rout size can be an issue and so can spacing. vintage bridges tend to be wider

 

[MikeS]

Re: Piecing together Fender guitars.

The routs for the posts need to be filled in for the 6 screw to be a screw screw, otherwise it's a 4 screw because there's no wood for the outside screws. It's not difficult to make functional, but making it look like it was born that way is tough.

And couldn't you have asked the question without posting the pics? Your Ecstasy and Jubilee side by side make me feel like I did when we climbed the rope in gym class.

 

[J Moose]

Re: Piecing together Fender guitars.

Also, I'm assuming you can mate modern and vintage Fender parts with no problems. or am I wrong?

Most times they'll go together without a hitch.

Sometimes not...

I've pieced together a few strats, to get exactly what I wanted, and will probably do it again for a tele. Even if you're paying up to $600 for a neck or body, you've got to consider if it's a significant ingredient in the guitar.....it's often worth it.

I have a pretty hard time convincing myself that any run-of-the-mill Fender USA neck or body is worth 600 bones each... Any of the parts companies could crank out something just as good/better quality (in terms of wood only) at maybe $600 for the pair.

Now, if you're into paying for finish work, serial numbers & other jazz... ok... I can dig it. But not based solely on "wood" quality.

 

[Pete Galati]

Re: Piecing together Fender guitars.

I've pieced together a few strats, to get exactly what I wanted, and will probably do it again for a tele. Even if you're paying up to $600 for a neck or body, you've got to consider if it's a significant ingredient in the guitar.....it's often worth it. If you're putting together a $1500 quality guitar, you may need to spend a bit on it's neck or body.....not to mention Fender, Wilkinson, or Callaham hardware.

Nice Strat builds. I've never put a Strat together that I was real comfortable with. For me, Tele builds have a much higher success rate. I think a lot of that has to do with how I can just remove the control plate, and tweak the electronics, while it's more of a project to get at Strat electronics.

I think the neck is one of the most important ingredients in a parts guitar. Good pickups are pretty important too.

With Telecasters, most of the aftermarket bodies come drilled for the vintage style Tele bridges that're held down by 4-screws. But in recent years (I don't know which models) Fender has been selling Telecasters with bridges held down with 3-screws. So not all Tele bridges are interchangable, but the vast majority of the aftermarket bridges are 4-screw style.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Piecing together Fender guitars.

And couldn't you have asked the question without posting the pics? Your Ecstasy and Jubilee side by side make me feel like I did when we climbed the rope in gym class.

lol ... how did you even notice those amps with the Matchless in the pic?

 

[cream123]

Re: Piecing together Fender guitars.

I've pieced together the Duo-sonic and everything fit together perfectly. I had a neck from 1977, a body from 1960 and everything else was new. It sounds great and it works really well.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Piecing together Fender guitars.

Wow, the first pic of that blue one is tremendous. One of the nicest looking Strat color schemes I've seen.

 

[Richard]

Re: Piecing together Fender guitars.

How you like that Bogner? I know there high. I was looking at one at a local shop and it was 3400 bucks just for the head. are they worth it?

 

[ericmeyer4]

Re: Piecing together Fender guitars.

I have to almost all of the parts to piece together a Telecaster parts guitar right now. Sent off the cash for the body and a pickup as soon as it gets here I will hard at work on it! With this one I plan on bringing together all of my favorite parts of telecasters and a few other guitars as well. So it should be fun!

 

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: Piecing together Fender guitars.

All of my Strats are mongrels.
:bigeyes:

 

[tone?]

Re: Piecing together Fender guitars.

You are actually gonna put yourself through all that mess??! lol
Didnt you learn anything from me?

well my two cents is, that you should stick to the basic formula that the guitar is made of a go from there. That is, i always putz with my guitars, but when you are gonna change the neck or body, that is drastic and it just wont be the same guitar. You might get lucky and something real great will come out. i think such a drastic change will make you go in circles. better to get a new guitar or something.

IMHO, what i have learned so far is that the neck is the most important element of the guitars character, even the sound. I have done millions of experiments taking off necks from one guitar and putting them on others. Always i have seen that a great deal of the character follows the neck. That is, on a secific Ibanez guitar the neck has a bit of a hollow sound to it and putting it on another guitar gave it that sound as well.
So the neck is the last thing i would mess with. Unless i had almost identical necks to work with.
I remember a friend a long time ago offered me a neck from an american strat for my jap strat. it totally ruined the tone in my opinion. changed it.

the most drastic thing i would do is change the body. Joneser said awhile ago that he would rather buy parts from the bay and slap em together instead of parts makers. I would tend to agree with that now after doing my thing with parts shops. It will come out cheaper usually and the parts are usually played which brings in the broken in factor which i think is a good thing.

Of course i need to experiment more to be more sure of what i am saying, but i think that i would rather go with a guitar that i like the basic tone of and then maybe try and putz with the hardware and pickups. NOT the neck and last the body. That will just throw everything off and make you go in circles.

For me what i have learned is there are waaay too many factors that make a guitar sound the way it does. Certain parts have more percentage than others. Its the sum of the parts and the way it was made.

My best sounding most balanced guitar remains my Ibanez Roadstar II. Mind you it has over 20 years of playing on it. That had a good sound to start off with, so then i changed the pickups, and blocked the trem, which took alot of the cheesy Ibanez factor out and made it sound like a real good guitar. The next thing i will do to this guitar is change out the Edge trem to a better make. Yeah i know some people think these trems are great and everything. I do to, but i want to try a Gotoh Floyd on it cause i think that the brass block will make the guitar sound even better that the potted piece of crap the edge has.
Who knows maybe the potted crap metal makes it sound great?

Sorry for the rant!

 

[tone?]

Re: Piecing together Fender guitars.

Oh and by the way, i DONT think that taking expensive parts and slapping them together will necessarily give you a great guitar. Hogwash....a tested formula sometimes from a cheaper guitar with woods that just for some reason came out good and matched better will sound better. Then you can probably mess with the cheapo tuners, hardware it has etc...

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: Piecing together Fender guitars.

I have my old BBQ'd 80s Fernandes strat body sitting in the closet. Must get a neck for it and get it up and running again. I've seen some nice flame maple necks recently, which I'd use a tinted oil on. I quite like the idea of a super nice neck on such a brutalised body...

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Piecing together Fender guitars.

Joneser said awhile ago that he would rather buy parts from the bay and slap em together instead of parts makers. I would tend to agree with that now after doing my thing with parts shops. It will come out cheaper usually and the parts are usually played which brings in the broken in factor which i think is a good thing.

The thing about Fender is that they've done all the homework for us. In 50 years, they've had the time to figure out woods, neck profiles, headstock angles, truss rods etc. I've messed with aftermarket companies, but I've always gotten something left or right of center.

Curly's USA Custom strats and teles are the exception....he's put all the RIGHT parts together. His guitars are killer!!! However, he's made some that didn't hit the nail on the head, and learned from it. When he sticks to proven specs, the guitars are gems.

Tonight, after changing the nut on my Schecter tele, in a last attempt to improve it, I've decided to possibly change it's neck to something like Fender or USA Custom. The nice light ash body and pickups are great, and the neck is good, but too skinny for me. It also had a low cut graphite nut, so I cut a plastic one at the perfect height. It's still not putting a big smile on my face. I thought of selling it and buying a whole new tele, but I may just change the neck.

 

[tone?]

Re: Piecing together Fender guitars.

Its that left or right of center that kills me too. And i dont have the resources to mess longer.
There are waaay too many factors involved in how a guitar will sound in the end. That is why i dont want to deal with parts again.
Trust me i am ALWAYS tempted to try stuff and buy more parts so it kinda gets into a sickness, lol!

You always have to remember one thing though, that you will NEVER know what the guitar will sound like till you put it together. And we all know that wood all sounds different.
You might get a good neck and a good body, but how will know if that will make a good guitar??? It might not.

I really wouldn't change the neck on that guitar though. Like i said i think that the neck carries alot of the character of the specific guitar with it.
You may think that the ash body is great etc....but the specific neck on it is contributing ALOT to that sound. you might find that changing the neck will totally change the guitar. I think that is very true. This is why i would much rather redo a neck that change it in a guitar which i like.
Know what i mean?? You say the ash is really great, but you have only heard it in the context of that specific neck. That schecter neck might have a double rod in it and do alot for the sound. you may put in a single rodded one and see it mess up.
I have done this as well with my old Kramer 1984. I didnt like the old neck cause it was too wide. So i got the same specs neck but got it single rodded and more narrow. The neck was really nice too, but it messed up the sound! I couldnt believe it. Luckly i sold all the parts of that guitar and even made a profit. But i didnt get the guitar i wanted.
I thought in my head "a single rodded neck will be even better cause that is what everyone says" but bam! it didnt. People here told me not to change it, but i didnt listen. I just thought in regular logic that it should make it better. go figure

 

[tone?]

Re: Piecing together Fender guitars.

sorry bout hijacking this thread but i have tons to say about this...lol

I see alot of different guitars these days and always see that it is the design that plays a huge role in their sound. Plus the SUM of the parts. Sometimes messing with this will throw everything off balance.
One example is, without noticing it, the new Frankenstrat that everyone says is overpriced.

Going on lets talk about the design....
Many people say that the ash of that specific design isnt THAT heavy as most hard ash is thought to be. So this immediately puts a swing on it. Has anyone noticed that it uses a big block for the trem?? Wouldnt alot of people then come to the conclusion that this is the best sound??? Because this specific guitar sounds so good??? Wrong
I have put a big block on my floyd and it didnt improve the tone of the specific guitar. I even put on a steel big block and it sounded like ****e. the original block sounded best on that specific guitar.
So the way the builder designed that specific guitar, is why it sounds that way. Maybe if you used a big block with an alder body it will sound crapppy as well?

This is why i think so many of us fall into this thing with parts and thinking we can do better, where it is in the totality of the design that designates the end result and tone.

Alot of times, dont we play a guitar that is made from all the 'wrong' materials and it sounds a specific way??
Like we play a mahogany guitar and it sounds bright???
Then we play another mahogany guitar and it sounds dark????

recently John Suhr said that a Les Paul sounds dark because of the design and NOT cause of the Mahogany.

We sift through all the wood descriptions for bodies and necks and assume that the descriptions we read will determine the outcome of the guitar it will be in. We also do the same with hardware and pickups. In the end it is the SUM of the parts and the design that will determine the tone of the guitar.

this or im full of ****e up to my ears! :laugh2:

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Piecing together Fender guitars.

I have a '77 ash strat body in CAR, a mid 90's Am Std maple neck, Schaller tuners, Graphtech saddles, a Dimarzio bridge, and an EMG-DG20 set.

I love that guitar.

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: Piecing together Fender guitars.

The thing about Fender is that they've done all the homework for us. In 50 years, they've had the time to figure out woods, neck profiles, headstock angles, truss rods etc. I've messed with aftermarket companies, but I've always gotten something left or right of center.

Curly's USA Custom strats and teles are the exception....he's put all the RIGHT parts together. His guitars are killer!!! However, he's made some that didn't hit the nail on the head, and learned from it. When he sticks to proven specs, the guitars are gems.

Tonight, after changing the nut on my Schecter tele, in a last attempt to improve it, I've decided to possibly change it's neck to something like Fender or USA Custom. The nice light ash body and pickups are great, and the neck is good, but too skinny for me. It also had a low cut graphite nut, so I cut a plastic one at the perfect height. It's still not putting a big smile on my face. I thought of selling it and buying a whole new tele, but I may just change the neck.

that seems sensible. There is an outside chance that you're not an ash tele guy, of course, especially seeing as all your strats are alder. I personally prefer alder or similar bodies on teles, even though ash is the 'classic' body wood.