NZGuitars.com

sidewinder wrote:Thanks guys! So much experience here steering me in the other direction, which is good!

I had no idea the end result could be so, variable.

The Classic Vibe and Pro Tone (discontinued) Squiers are the well regarded ones.

There was a Pro Tone on TM for $700 recently, don't think it sold, that's creeping into used MiM territory

Classic Vibe is the one I'm thinking of.

Slowy wrote:
They're probably outside your budget but the Mexi Roadworns are great.

This. One on here just a year or so ago and the guy was struggling to shift it at about $700.

Even an Indonesian Ibanez is Miles ahead of the mim stuff, join the future

jeremyb wrote:Even an Indonesian Ibanez is Miles ahead of the mim stuff, join the future

But they don't sound like strats :p

Have you thought about stripping the paint of the Squier? I had a 50th ann one and it was a bit meh but it took on a new life once I took it back to bare wood....then I took a blow torch to it (but thats another story)

Do you like the neck on the squire? ... If NO then bin it if YES then use it and get a body of Ash (assuming he still has a stock pile).

When I make guitars or put together a partscaster cost to build and "potential resale" never enter my mind. Having something that you created is all the mojo you need

Nope, it's not time.
But then again it might be
But it's not

I've had heaps of experience with doing partscasters. I would of done 10 or more of them.

Bang for buck they can be good value for money... but on the flip side of the coin - you can also end up spending a lot of money and not have a good guitar.

If you're not in hurry, and are happy to let the project take six or so months, you can just take your time and buy the parts when they pop up cheap on trademe. That's the best way to do it.

Partscasters get expensive if you are in a hurry to buy the parts, or if you want a very specific spec'ed strat/tele - whereby you have to pay top dollar to buy what you need - because you need it quickly and or it's hard to find the specs you want. I wouldn't recommend doing this if it was your only guitar.

My advice would be look for a good solid mexi or jap strat, and use that as your base for building the guitar. A mexi strat in an unpopular colour can be got for $500 if you're lucky. Once you have that - hunt around for things to replace on it (if you think that's necessary.) The first thing I'd do is maybe do the pickups and pots, you'll get a big step up in sound by doing that. If a really nice body or neck comes up, you could try them. There was a nice fender blonde mexi tele body that sold for $80 last week - so they can be found cheaply.

The key is to keep the parts that you're taking off. Once you get down the track you might find that you've replaced most of the original guitar, and can buy a couple of extra bits to finish off the partscaster, re-assemble the original donor guitar, and sell it.

You have to outlay more money to do it, but it's the most cost effective way to do it.

A good place to start could be a jap squier - they usually have really nice necks, but sometimes the body and hardwear can be lacking. You can pick one up for a couple of hundred bucks if you're prepared to look for them.

I recently had the pleasure of playing GrantB's partscaster jazzmaster. It was fantastic in every way. Sure it cost more than a mexi or jap fender (and prob some USA ones) - but it is just a fantastic guitar - and worth every penny he spent on it - and more. That's a good example of a success story with a partscaster - BUT HE REALLY KNEW WHAT HE WAS DOING.

On the flipside I picked up a superstrat that cost the owner well over 2k to put together. I picked it up for 6 or 7 hundred bucks, after it had been passed in on trademe for a few weeks.

Feel free to flick me a pm if you have any questions about it.

I'll echo the advice of others that you should just buy a MIM or Japanese strat (I prefer Japanese because they are just made better, in my experience). Partscasters can be really amazing if you go for premium quality parts. This just makes it rather expensive when all is said and done. Partscasters on the cheap aren't a very good idea because they do not tend to produce guitars that are any better than a MIM or Japanese, even though you'll end up spending the same (or more) just to put it together. They also have terrible resale value, should you change your mind later.

Mexi I strat just listed on trademe with a buynow of 500 dollars. Cnt post a link because I'm on my phone.

Zaulkin wrote:

jeremyb wrote:Even an Indonesian Ibanez is Miles ahead of the mim stuff, join the future

But they don't sound like strats :p

Put the same pickups in and they'll sound better

AiRdAd wrote:Mexi I strat just listed on trademe with a buynow of 500 dollars. Cnt post a link because I'm on my phone.

here it is...

http://www.trademe.co.nz/music-instrume ... 868178.htm

StrummersOfThunder wrote:Nope, it's not time.
But then again it might be
But it's not

Deep Man, really, really Deep.

If you're going MIM, try and play it first...some are dead and lifeless, IME.

GrantB wrote:If you're going MIM, try and play it first...some are dead and lifeless, IME.

I see this mentioned every now and then... something being "dead and lifeless". What does this mean exactly? To me it's the resonance of the guitar acoustically/unplugged that makes it feel "alive". The body and neck resonates with the strings. More often than not I have fixed or improved this with a good setup. I haven't had a huge number of guitars so my experience is limited to the less-than-a-dozen that have crossed my workbench.

Are we talking about the same thing?

GrantB wrote:If you're going MIM, try and play it first...some are dead and lifeless, IME.

That's not just a MIM issue, if the dead and lifeless American Strat my workmate brought in week before last is anything to go by. It was awful.