Yes!!@!!!!!!!
The Cost of Building Your Own...
- Thread starter Sp8ctre
- Start date
Yes!!@!!!!!!!
RVA
Ambassador
Outstanding guitar. You did well.
So, I could have either of these built by Fender’s Mod Shop for $1800.00 ($1799.99). I would get all the components in it that I’d probably choose, anyway...including Fender’s Generation 4 noiseless pickups.
Hmmmm....
View attachment 33037
The silver burst idea is growing on me.
The nice thing about Warmoth - although i prefer Musikraft and B.Hefner - is that you can get just about any wood, any scale length, any neck profile or finish that you desire.
If you can dream it up, any one of these three can build it for you.
There is great satisfaction in putting together your own builds, but - for me - it became a huge distraction.
The Blackout is a magnificent looking instrument.
OP
Sp8ctre
Ambassador of Steel
The Blackout is a magnificent looking instrument.
Now played and approved by Robert Von Herndon player extraordinaire!
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Just a humble tone seeker.....
SG John
Ambassador of Cool Guitars and Amps.
I've been meaning to post here. I can easily attest to the fact it is not cheaper to build your own. Maybe with certain pre-cut kits, but they still require a lot of finish work. The cash laid out for tooling is the greatest expense. I'm a bit fortunate that most of the tools I needed I already had, and repurposed them. Having been a machinist, mechanic, and field tech for years, I've built up a large selection of quality tools. Stuff I did have to buy, I looked long and hard at, then decided on how much I would use the stuff in the future would affect the price paid for level of quality. I loathe cheap (quality) tools, so some stuff I spent quite a bit on. Some things like palm sanders, I didn't.
Next is materials.
Per guitar I've built so far, I spent about $700.00 each for lumber, pickups, hardware, fret wire, binding, etc.....
A hobbyist builder just simply can not get the price break that a larger builder who is buying a thousand board feet at a whack would get. No breaks on bridges, pickups, etc.
What you get out of it though, is something unique. You get part of yourself that you or others will be able to express their deepest emotions. You will have something that was given life by you, and screams what is in your soul. It is something you will learn to know quite intimately. That is something that you can't put a price tag on.
After we get done doing a bunch of work on the house and cars, I can return to rebuilding my workshop. On a bench, I have three guitars in various stages of incompletion. Under the bench is lumber for another seven. I can't wait to start picking away at them again.
There is no feeling like creating something beautiful that is intended to bring people joy.
Next is materials.
Per guitar I've built so far, I spent about $700.00 each for lumber, pickups, hardware, fret wire, binding, etc.....
A hobbyist builder just simply can not get the price break that a larger builder who is buying a thousand board feet at a whack would get. No breaks on bridges, pickups, etc.
What you get out of it though, is something unique. You get part of yourself that you or others will be able to express their deepest emotions. You will have something that was given life by you, and screams what is in your soul. It is something you will learn to know quite intimately. That is something that you can't put a price tag on.
After we get done doing a bunch of work on the house and cars, I can return to rebuilding my workshop. On a bench, I have three guitars in various stages of incompletion. Under the bench is lumber for another seven. I can't wait to start picking away at them again.
There is no feeling like creating something beautiful that is intended to bring people joy.
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SG John
Ambassador of Cool Guitars and Amps.
Like everything I build, a couple of years. I travel for work, and do most of the guitar work by hand. I'll also wait to do stuff until I know I have a day where I can get a bunch of stuff done without interruption unless there are little things to pick at.
I'm right there with ya, but I buy the body and necks from Warmoth. I can do major construction projects but have not worked on fine finish work. Planning, evaluating parts, reading reviews and buying all the components you want is just satisfying. Here's my recent builds.
Black on Wue
Fire Wuilt
Purple Wuilt
The Wrat Mind Bender
Purple Wurl
Col Mustard
Ambassador of Perseverance
All right, I read through all of these posts.
There are some incredibly talented and creative individuals on this forum.
I really enjoyed most of what I read, and am fascinated by all of this.
Pity the fool that thinks he can design a generic guitar that will satisfy
everyone. If anybody ever did this, it was Leo Fender. But he actually went
to shows in person and talked a lot with players. He gave experimental models
to players and listened to what they said in review. And then he put their ideas
into his designs. This too was a brilliant concept: Design guitars based on what
players actually want.
Maybe Les Paul gets a nod, if he really designed the guitar we know by his
name plate. McCarty doesn't back this up. But Les Pauls satisfy most everyone,
like Strats do.
Maybe one of the best ideas ol' Leo had was to make the parts interchangeable.
That is actually priceless, because it makes possible most of this thread.
Me, I built my dream bass. I used Warmoth neck and body, because I didn't have the
tools or the skill or the confidence to try any precision wood working. Warmoth makes
excellent components, I'll testify. I bought one of their least expensive necks, and was
delighted with the workmanship and the way it fit right into the body.
Those are not frets, they are maple inlays. Here you see rosewood (fretboard) and
walnut (P/G) and Swamp Ash (body) and Maple (neck). Some might say that's too
many different kinds of wood, but I don't care. This is mine.
I've loved the tones of the Fretless Jazz Bass since I first heard them... maybe Jaco Pastorius with Joni Mitchell and Weather Report. So of course my dream bass would be
a fretless J-Bass. I already owned one of the best: my '66 J-Bass. The only tone I could
not get from my vintage Fender was the Fretless M-wah sound. I kept hoping somebody would design and market a pedal that would enable the fretted bass player to get that sound
on his regular bass. But nobody ever did... so I had to build me a fretless, and learn how to play it. And there's no loss in that adventure. ...unless I spent a lot of money on a bass that
was no good.
But I didn't... Ain't nothin' like the real thing, bay bee...
I named this bass Luretta, after a song by Townes Van Zandt.
And I chose the same neck as the fretted ones I was used to playing, to make the
transition a little easier. So my fingers found there way around without too much
cramping or stretching, and I only needed to be more precise in my finger placement.
Playing a fretted bass allows the player to be a little sloppy, which was another of old
Leo's brilliant ideas. His original "Precision Bass" was one of the best musical ideas of
the 20th century... as well as being the best musical instrument name of those times.
...Lay your finger down between the frets, and your note is Precise...
Players of the doghouse bass could appreciate this concept.
And since the Fender dimensions are now available for other makers to use
with proper licensing, we now get to design our own guitars, as if the designers
and engineers who work for Fender and Gibson didn't know their business,
and we needed to do it better.
This actually is not true... the designers and engineers and luthiers and craftsmen
who work for the big guitar companies actually do know their business. The only
reason for us to be doing these projects is the FACT that we CAN do it. Lucky us,
we have the resources and the motive and the opportunity to execute a project like
this. So let's go for it, I say. Create your dream guitar, because no one else can get
every detail the way you want it.
But most guitarists never do this. They just buy a Strat and play it, or they
by a Les Paul and play it. And they make music to the best of their ability and
the guitar is like a springboard, enabling the music and allowing the player to
fly free. So there's nothing wrong with the "standard" guitars. We only make our own because we want to. And we can. Or because we have a dream tone in our heads,
or we have a dream look that we want to create. And why not, I say.
There are some incredibly talented and creative individuals on this forum.
I really enjoyed most of what I read, and am fascinated by all of this.
Pity the fool that thinks he can design a generic guitar that will satisfy
everyone. If anybody ever did this, it was Leo Fender. But he actually went
to shows in person and talked a lot with players. He gave experimental models
to players and listened to what they said in review. And then he put their ideas
into his designs. This too was a brilliant concept: Design guitars based on what
players actually want.
Maybe Les Paul gets a nod, if he really designed the guitar we know by his
name plate. McCarty doesn't back this up. But Les Pauls satisfy most everyone,
like Strats do.
Maybe one of the best ideas ol' Leo had was to make the parts interchangeable.
That is actually priceless, because it makes possible most of this thread.
Me, I built my dream bass. I used Warmoth neck and body, because I didn't have the
tools or the skill or the confidence to try any precision wood working. Warmoth makes
excellent components, I'll testify. I bought one of their least expensive necks, and was
delighted with the workmanship and the way it fit right into the body.
Those are not frets, they are maple inlays. Here you see rosewood (fretboard) and
walnut (P/G) and Swamp Ash (body) and Maple (neck). Some might say that's too
many different kinds of wood, but I don't care. This is mine.
I've loved the tones of the Fretless Jazz Bass since I first heard them... maybe Jaco Pastorius with Joni Mitchell and Weather Report. So of course my dream bass would be
a fretless J-Bass. I already owned one of the best: my '66 J-Bass. The only tone I could
not get from my vintage Fender was the Fretless M-wah sound. I kept hoping somebody would design and market a pedal that would enable the fretted bass player to get that sound
on his regular bass. But nobody ever did... so I had to build me a fretless, and learn how to play it. And there's no loss in that adventure. ...unless I spent a lot of money on a bass that
was no good.
But I didn't... Ain't nothin' like the real thing, bay bee...
I named this bass Luretta, after a song by Townes Van Zandt.
And I chose the same neck as the fretted ones I was used to playing, to make the
transition a little easier. So my fingers found there way around without too much
cramping or stretching, and I only needed to be more precise in my finger placement.
Playing a fretted bass allows the player to be a little sloppy, which was another of old
Leo's brilliant ideas. His original "Precision Bass" was one of the best musical ideas of
the 20th century... as well as being the best musical instrument name of those times.
...Lay your finger down between the frets, and your note is Precise...
Players of the doghouse bass could appreciate this concept.
And since the Fender dimensions are now available for other makers to use
with proper licensing, we now get to design our own guitars, as if the designers
and engineers who work for Fender and Gibson didn't know their business,
and we needed to do it better.
This actually is not true... the designers and engineers and luthiers and craftsmen
who work for the big guitar companies actually do know their business. The only
reason for us to be doing these projects is the FACT that we CAN do it. Lucky us,
we have the resources and the motive and the opportunity to execute a project like
this. So let's go for it, I say. Create your dream guitar, because no one else can get
every detail the way you want it.
But most guitarists never do this. They just buy a Strat and play it, or they
by a Les Paul and play it. And they make music to the best of their ability and
the guitar is like a springboard, enabling the music and allowing the player to
fly free. So there's nothing wrong with the "standard" guitars. We only make our own because we want to. And we can. Or because we have a dream tone in our heads,
or we have a dream look that we want to create. And why not, I say.
Beautiful work. Impressive!