Piecing together a strat vs. buying a good one

[ubertar]

Japanese and Korean Squiers are really good, especially the Japanese ones from the 80s. I've got an E series MIJ Squier strat that plays and sounds great, totally stock. Got for $80 from a guy who had set the action so low it was unplayable. But my favorite guitar is an SQ series MIJ Squier Bullet. The headstock is tele style and the neck is fantastic. The body is nice too. Someone had replaced one of the pups with a USA Fender, and I did the same with the other two. The MIJ Bullets can be had for around $250 on ebay, last I checked. You'll probably want to upgrade the pups, but otherwise it's an outstanding guitar.

[Craig]

I had an experience last weekend related to this topic. At an outdoor flea market someone had two 80's era guitars sitting against their table, both of them were in bad shape. Nearly every piece of metal hardware was rusted, plastic cracked...they looked like they had either been in a flood and never dried properly or had been in a very damp basement or outdoor building for years, the level of rust and corrosion was that obvious.

One was a Hondo, which I wouldn't have wanted anyway, but the other was an 80's Fernandes Strat copy, one of the post-lawsuit models with the pseudo-Fender altered headstock. The color was surf green, and the asking price was 50 bucks for each guitar. I looked at it for a few minutes, and honestly it was junk. The fretboard (rosewood) was bleached out and coming up off of the neck, again as if it had been underwater. The nut was cracked and half missing, the tuning pegs were just fine, though. Pickups were rusted on the bobbins, pickguard OK, back plate cracked and mostly missing, paint job maybe a 6.5 out of ten as there were a few dings and bubbles.

What worried me was the level of wear on the parts...and whether it was a good, solid body blank to use as the foundation for a project Strat.

I didn't buy the Fernandes, but I'm wondering now if I passed up a good body to work with and build up a custom Strat. These 80's Fernandes Strats were pretty good, just ask Billie Joe Armstrong! But the cost of piecing something usable together with this body seemed to outweigh the value of the finished guitar.

[0xeneye]

I buy stuff off ebay, but not a guitar or a neck. that is the physical interface you have with a guitar, and i think you absolutely HAVE TO play a guitar before liking it.

But i pieced together a 90 frenandes strat once with upgrades - seymour duncan pickups and a feiten nut.

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I got an amazing deal on one of those squier "classic vibe" telecasters, swapped out the pickups with some Rio Grande tallboys and now I have a pretty badass tele for under $400 total.

I do plan to put a better neck on it at some point.

What others have been saying is true, though -you need to try out a few (or a bunch) of 'em and find a good one that stays in tune, doesn't have sharp fret edges, etc.

[minorkeylee]

Japanese "Fender" or "Squire" branded Strats from the mid eighties thru early nineties are, in my opinion, BAD ASS. You can still find them somewhat cheap, but the secret is out and the prices are on the rise. I have a 1986 E series "Fender" MIJ. Best. Guitar. Ever. Some folks are of the opinion that the wood and craftsmanship of these models are equal to or superior to many eras of the American strat. I concur. If anything, the wiring is a bit cheap compared to the American counterparts, but that's about it. In the end....its all about the wood. The Japanese had some KILLER batches of wood to make guitars from back then.

I've watched my particular model of MIJ Fender Strat increase in value about 60% in the last 6 years. Should have bought a backup when I had a chance...

[mertmo]

I agree with all of the above advice.
If you're going to buy a Fender, regardless of where it was made, you have to sit and
play a bunch of them. Bottom line, they are bolted together from parts. Some of
them come together well and some of them don't. One good indicator in my
experience is, take a look at the highest fret dot inlay. Looking straight at the front
of the guitar, right above the neck pickup. Is it perfectly centered between the two
middle strings? Or is it offset to one side...? The Fenders that "sing" usually have
a perfectly centered neck. In my experience anyway. Mainly, when you are sitting
there in the store playing guitar after guitar, you should pay attention to which ones
sound the best acoustically. Don't plug any of them into an amp at first, just listen
to the sound they make by themselves in the room. That will make it very obvious
which ones sing and which ones don't.

I had two MIM Fenders that I bought using those simple guidelines and both were
fantastic guitars. Actually, make that two six strings and three (!) different MIM
Jazz basses. All were great. Only have one of the basses nowadays.

I built a custom Telecaster with a Strat neck several years ago. Bought the body and
the neck (MIM) off ebay. Parts from Allparts, and Duncan humbuckers. Just felt like
taking a chance and building something. It turned out so well, better than I deserved!
Great guitar, super solid. Never goes out of tune, sounds awesome.

Also just picked up a "crafted in Japan" Jaguar special edition, with Gibson style
stop tailpiece and two humbuckers. Yowza, it's totally badass!

Fenders are cool because they are all just parts guitars basically. That means
that they are inconsistent as hell. But if you embrace that, you can enjoy buying
one, or building one.

Good luck!

[mikeyc]

When I refinished my Squier strat last year I put a Fender sticker on the headstock. But since I'm not attempting to fool anyone it doesn't say "stratocaster." It says "plastercaster."

Got pics? I've always wanted to create a double neck MIM Fender bass (strung the same/no pickup differences, a la Derek Smalls) and call it the Plastercaster.


OT:
I've found plenty of MIM Fenders (Strats and Teles alike) that are just awesome. I'd start there and tweak to taste. GFS are cool pups, and they have pickguards already cut for just about any config you want--cheap.

[ashcat_lt]

GFS is great on several levels. I've always heard good things about their pickups, and I own 4 of ther l'il killers. I do have a problem with one of these - it developed a short at the point where the wires leave the pickup which I'm still working up the courage to try to fix.

The pickguard I got from them is not comparable with my Squire strat body. Screw holes are slightly off (I've got it half-assed right now), the cut for the neck pocket is too shallow (half-assed with a steak knife) and the placement of the "middle tone" pot doesn't give enough room in the cavity for the rotary switch I'm using. A smallish pot would probably fit there, but it doesn't help me. Also, the l'il killers are a tiny bit bigger and more rectangular than standard SCs, so the pickup holes need to be modified as well.

[calaverasgrandes]

After all inst that what Clapton, Entwhitle etc did to get their ideal axes? piece together the good parts?
I'd check out Craigslsit. There are much better deals on CL for frnders/squires. Then get some parts off of 'bay to spruce it up.
My personal is a Peavey strat knock off, but with upgraded locking tuners and a nice set of pickups. One day I'll fiddle with the pots and caps but for now it is adequate for my inadequate guitaring.

[-3db]

Here's the Tele I put together myself. I painted it myself too. Used thin nitrocellulose. It sounds and plays great

[@?,*???&?]

I bought my $.99 cent strat on ebay. It was Chinese. The neck was unplayable. I ordered a custom maple neck from some guy in Illinois that cost $29. My strat cost me $29.99.

Sounds just like a Strat too, go figure! Of course there are myriad tone combinations with Strats and I went purely 'Chinese Stock' with this, but when a band trundles in with loads of humbuckers, it's a good single-coil overdubbing alternative

[rolandk]

I've had much better luck with MIA Fenders and would look for a used American Standard. Last time I went through this was a few years ago. Planned on getting an MIM Jazz bass as a backup. Played a bunch at GC and meh. Saw they had a used MIA and it was like buttah. It cost almost twice as much but totally worth the investment.

[@?,*???&?]

I've had much better luck with MIA Fenders and would look for a used American Standard. Last time I went through this was a few years ago. Planned on getting an MIM Jazz bass as a backup. Played a bunch at GC and meh. Saw they had a used MIA and it was like buttah. It cost almost twice as much but totally worth the investment.

Pshaww. One can't beat the finish of a crudely painted Chinese strat!

[Nick Sevilla]

Hi,

I just had my friend Autumn Turkel, finish painting my MIM strat body.

It has been chambered by Tom Kelley, and he will now finish building it.

Cheers



http://nicksevilla.com/music/ART-Strat-2010.jpg