I'm new to this guitar thing.  I've been using a borrowed Squier Standard Telly to practice with.  My routine has been justinguitar, rocksmith, practicing transitioning between D,A, and E, as well as D,C, and G, and the pentatonic scale.  I do it in the evenings while sitting on the couch while the wife watches forensic files or Bones.  (Practicing guitar at these times helps me not drool on myself...)

Soooo, instead of buying a used MIM Strat at GC for about $340, I decided to build my own strat...


So, I have a pile of true Fender parts.  I have a neck that I have $10 net in to.  I have a strat body from an off-brand.  I soldered up my pickguard and tuners.

The cheap neck was worth it, as it let me practice reaming out the tuner holes, and mounting the American Standard tuners.  Picked up a WD / Licensed by Fender neck, and am very happy with it.

Here is where it gets squirreley.  To drill holes for a vintage-style tremolo, you mount the neck, and measure 25.25" from the nut.  You ensure the trem is centered, mark the 6 holes, drill the 6 holes and, in theory, your trem block should drop right in to the hole.

My trem hole is 1/8" too far from the nut.  If I would've used the stew-mac template, I'd have ended up with my 25.25" holes at about 25.375", and my saddles at about 25.675"!

I'm not going to lambaste the guitar body manufacturer yet.  I sent them pics of the body and the measurement.  I offered to retake the pic using a set of digital calipers.  If they email me back tomorrow and make it right, I'll repost here that _____ company made it right.


Random thoughts:

I am about $450 in to this thing.  More than I wanted to be, or planned to be.

I could have had a used MIM, or a nice Squier strat for much less.

I do have some handyman skills, as well as some woodworking skills.  However true luthier work requires specialized tools and templates.  I eyeballed it and used a straight edge to align and install the tuners.  If I would have done it correctly, it would have cost me $40 for a jig/template.  

It will NEVER be worth what I have in it (Unless I become famous....)

It has been fun, it will be MY creation when it is done.

It isn't really "building" a guitar.  It is assembling a guitar.  If you want to see real luthier work, check out CMJohnson's builds.  

UPDATED random thoughts (7/17):

- Do not hurry.  

- Squier claws and Fender claws mounting holes do not line up.  You need to fill the squier ones, then redrill for Fender.  What did I do?  Drilled out the fender claw to make it use the Squier holes.   It works, but it could slide L or R.

- Squier COULD have routed more out of their body for the pots.  They remove enough wood that their cheap tiny pots fit.  The CTS pots "fit", but they could have benefitted from me chasing the inside of the body with a router to remove  the generous overspray and some wood.  Once again, don't hurry.

- It turned out really nice. But man, I really wanted that orange body...

- I have a pile of Squier parts, extra parts, etc to sell on eBay, so I can recoup some of my cost.

You get more out of the building process and you'll know that guitar inside and out at least.  I would've gotten the pre-drilled body and neck but that's just me.  I never built any of my guitars, only messed with changing pickups and pots.  Get some pics up, would be nice to see the progress.

Should have let the Mexicans do all the hard work.

I have built a few with my son. They have turned out great. I use a laser to mount the bridge/tail to make sure the strings line up with the correct scale. Intonation is spot on and stays in tune. Not hard, just measure more than three times to be accurate.

Honestly we all have to start somewhere.  I was  doing that in junior high school and made some mistakes, that's how you learn brother.  Post some photos and maybe we can help you out.

Most ebay builders and licensed body builders drill all the bridge holes.  I have assembled multiple guitars but have never drilled my own bridge holes, too easy to be off and then your guitar will never intonate.  As far as the assembly versus building thing, you can spend more time on a proper finish (nitro) than luthiers spend on scratch builds.

We all have guitars like this, our personal Moby Dick-- mine is a 1951-style P bass clone using parts from Warmoth, but built as a five string. It's huge and heavy and is going to sound monster, but it has taken ten years and considerable resources to find someone who could custom-make the pickup. For some reason the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop wouldn't even return one of three years' worth of emailed questions-- even one of their licensed artists couldn't get them to even just say "No"-- very disappointing. Turns out Nordstrand has them as a catalog item, so someone else must have had the same idea--

Warmoth is local to me, and I know no one is perfect but I've never had any issues whatever with their product, and their necks are first rate. (I've been playing bass since 1966.) I really miss their will-call office, but I also understand the pressures of commerce.

UPDATE:  Math solved the problem.  Yes, the tremolo (Vibrato) oval hole is 1/8" too far from the nut.  If I would've used the stewmac template to drill the 6 holes, it would have been too far away from the nut to intonate.  I COULD have put 1/8" longer screws on the saddles to lengthen the intonation adjustment, but I'd rather have it be right.

Body is on its way back to the vendor.  We had an "agree to disagree" moment;  I said it was 1/8" out of spec, he said, "You might have to sand 1/8" out of the front lip of the trem pocket."  I said, "The bottom of the bridge will then fall in to the hole."  He said, "There are always minor adjustments on all guitars... Never had this complaint before,...."

Waiting to see if I get a full refund back on my credit card before posting pics, tying the vendor to the pics, posting the YT video of the measurements, etc.  Yes, you can certainly figure it out from reading the thread, and past posts about this project.  However, I am not going to post the proverbial "Bandsaw to the AR lower" without giving them a chance.

So, now I needed a body, and I am woefully over budget....


Solution, with pics to follow when I get off the chromebook...)

Went to a pawn shop, picked up a mint (sans the strings that felt like barbed wire)  Squier SE with a CXS serial number for $68 out the door.  (Full size strat body from the "quality"  (Insert eyeroll gif here) Chinese
factory.)

Lamented for about 45 minutes of chopping up a working guitar.

Chopped up working guitar.

Made the 4 neck holes bigger in the body, so the threads of the neck screws don't engage the body (Only the neck.)



Marked and drilled the neck.

Mounted the neck. Actually used a quality neck compared to the $22 aliexpress/ebay pos one...



Mounted the MIM  (Made for mexican strat) Bridge.

Mounted the pickguard that I soldered up.  Fixed the cold joint for the 1 ground before installing...



Completed rough setup.  

Played it with too high of an action for 30 minutes.  (Almost imitated the the 3rd line of the Bryan Adams song "Summer of '69"...)

Lowered the saddles.



Gold.  Now all I need to do is stick with it and learn to play.

Got my Swamp Ash Body last week

3 pc.

USACG
$79 sale
based on a '52 blackguard Tele

so far..........

and some David Allen Colt 51 pickups
(50% off)

I built a Carvin kit about a dozen years ago and have another kit sitting a box in the closet.

Building guitars is an addiction.    

One that I really, really enjoy!

That looks great. I would love to build one someday.

Still playing it.  Still learning.   Using one of those Vox headphone amps.  I listen to a song through the input, and play along.

I feel like I am still fighting it.  Fret ends are razors on this WD neck.  I'm thinking of adding up my costs of all the parts, subtracting 20%, selling it, and buying a used MIM.  

It was fun to build and stare at, but, unless you are a trained luthier, let the MIM factory do the hard stuff.

Really depends on the quality of the parts and your willingness to work on it, but I've built probably 8 or 9 over the years and they've all worked out very well. To the point where they're really all I own other than acoustics.

I used Stewmac parts a lot, because they're consistent and high quality and the support was awesome if I ever had any issues.

I've done some parts-casters out of junky stuff and fought it more than it was worth given how good the imported stuff is anymore. Only reason to build nowadays is if you wanna try  your hand at it or make something very custom or personal.

Building diddley bows and cigar box guitars got me into actually trying to learn to play...
Now the bows and cbg collect dust and my fender and les Paul get all the finger time.

End project looks nice.



How is rocksmith? 
I'e debated getting it for the 360.

It looks nice, but just doesn't feel "right".  Perhaps I am messing up by picking up every used MIM strat, playing it, and saying, "This feels nicer than mine...".


Rocksmith?  Meh.  I've been playing some of the songs.  I do the lessons.  It feels more like Guitar Hero than a guitar teaching tool.  The notes are either upside down (As compared to tab), or they are like tab, and I can't figure out where to put my fingers on the fly.  It feels more like memorization than a tool to teach how to play guitar.

Gotta say though, Guitartricks.com 's lessons are great.  Easy to digest, in a logical order, good review, good pace for a non-artistic person like me.

EDIT:  My partscaster is for sale on a few online venues.  (If I say which, I am fairly certain that is against the CoC...)  I will break even, and have $ left over after buying a used MIM.

One needs to be careful in doing this.  The reason is cheap manufacturers don't take the time to fit a neck tightly into the pocket.  Instead, they rely on the screws to engage both body and neck to minimize the neck moving around in an oversized pocket.

Even USA manufacturers are doing this.  Compare a Fender USA guitar to a Kiesel BO one.  Not looking at the back, you'll swear the Kiesel is a thru-body neck because the fit is that good.  The Fender will obviously be a BO no matter which way one is viewing from.