The true cost of piecing together an electric guitar (a.k.a. DIY)
Do you really save money by doing this?
I'll answer this question right up front and then explain why.
No, you don't. You will always spend less buying a complete guitar vs. piecing one together.
For example, the Dean EVO XM at the time I write this sells for as low as $99 brand new. And that's not even the cheapest I've seen. There are even some that sell for under $65 new.
Were you to piece together every single part you need, there's basically no way to put it all together for that cheap.
I'm not saying the ultra-cheap guitars are good. But I am saying you can't beat the price if you put a guitar together from new parts yourself - with emphasis on the word new.
But let's take another route, the mid-priced guitar. Specifically the Fender Standard Stratocaster that's made in Mexico.
You can buy a real-deal body and neck separately if you want to. And while it would appear that you can save a ton of money piecing together a Fender that way, you really can't. When you factor in the plastics, the pickups, the tuners, the bridge, the strap buttons, in the end you're paying the same price if not more than just outright buying a complete Fender Stratocaster guitar new.
Where you really save your money...
...is with new replacement necks.
I've said before and I'll say again that the #1 thing that makes or breaks a guitar is the neck. If the neck is good (and by that I mean it's straight, frets are good, nut is good, tuners are good), you've got a good guitar. Anything else can be fixed easily as long as you've got that good neck to start with.
If you're going to piece together a guitar to save some cash, buy the body used. With a Fender Stratocaster or Fender Telecaster this is stupidly easy to do. You can either buy the body itself or an entire used guitar since you're going to junk the neck anyway.
After that, just buy a Fender neck.
What about Squier?
This is not-so friendly when it comes to piecing a guitar together because ordinarily you cannot mix-and-match Fender and Squier parts.
For example, a common upgrade Fender Stratocaster owners do is install a high mass bridge block. These don't fit Squier Strats because the Squier Strat has a slim profile body; this results in the block installing correctly, but then physically sticking out the back side of the guitar, making it worthless.
When buying Squier, always buy new. Given that Fender uses several Asian companies to build Squier guitars, you can't trust that a neck from one Squier Strat model will fit another. For example, there is no guarantee an Indonesian-made neck on a Vintage Modified series will fit on a China-made Classic Vibe body. None whatsoever. Again, when buying Squier, always buy new and always buy the entire guitar. Trust me, you'll save yourself a lot of headaches.
What about Epiphone?
I wouldn't piece together any Epiphone guitar nor a Gibson for the reason it's probably true the guitar you want here has a glued-in neck. This means you cannot buy the body and neck separately.
Piecing together a guitar is pretty much only those that use bolt-on necks. And that means Fender Strats and Teles.
Why is Fender so piece-together friendly?
Because it's standardized as long as you follow one rule: Always buy Mexico or American made. If you want to save cash, buy the Mexico versions.
If you want to install things like a bridge block upgrade, tuner upgrades and so on, everything fits. The measurements on the MX and USA made Fenders are what third party manufacturers use when making their parts.
I think - but am not 100% certain on this - that any Fender Strat or Tele made from 2000 to present has kept the same measurements, presuming Standard models and no special editions. Same string spacing, same tuner hole diameter, same screw pattern for pick guards and bridges, and so on.
In other words, if the third party/aftermarket part states "fits Fender", they are specifically talking about MX/USA made Standard models from 2000 to present.
What can you expect to spend on a used-body/new-neck Fender?
This obviously varies.
On the low end, the absolute lowest you could go would probably be $350. You'd really have to cut some corners to get the price down that much for a complete guitar, but it can be done.
Realistically speaking, you're probably going to be hovering around $450 to $500, depending on the parts you use, and whether you can score a used guitar body for cheap or not.
Here's a simple example of part cost. This is stupid, but totally true.
Arguably, the best-of-the-best output jack you can put on an electric guitar is one made by Switchcraft. You never ever see these things except on very high-priced electrics. But as you'll notice, the part itself really isn't expensive at all, and in fact the one most Strat owners go with sells for under 3 bucks! However, if this part were put into a production electric guitar sold in a guitar store, oh yes, you'd pay a pretty penny just to get it.
I mention the Switchcraft output jack because it's not necessarily how much you spend, but moreover how good of a product you're installing into your guitar.
There are really good pickup sets for 50 bucks. And there are also really crappy pickup sets that sell for $300. The same can be said for tuners, bridges, string saddles, and so on. Shop wisely.
Again, $450-$500 total is probably what you'll be looking at spending. But bear in mind what you get in the end will probably be the equivalent of a $1,500 guitar.
Is it worth it?
The answer to that question means you have to answer this one: Would you consider spending the time it takes to do this worth it?
You will be spending time looking for parts, finding the best deals for stuff, getting the best parts you can without spending too much, etc.. If you think that's a fun project, then sure, go right ahead and do it.
Guitar of the week #83 - Sterling by Music Man StingRay SR50
This is a nice blend of different guitar designs that for many is the just-right combo they've been looking for.
Combine a Strat (shape and vibrato system), Jazzmaster (offset "lean") and a Les Paul (12-inch fingerboard radius, pickups and controls), and you get something like the StingRay SR50.
The StingRay is a good guitar and always has been. It takes what is arguably the best features of guitars before it and puts it all together quite nicely. You truly do get a very good instrument that has everything where it counts.
I'd say this guitar is best for people that, said honestly, hate Strats and Les Pauls, but want something with a traditional feel so they're not forced to play Ibanez electrics with their super-thin necks.
What would have ruined this guitar is if it were the same thing the Music Man StringRay II was in the late 1970s, which is where this guitar draws its main inspiration from. That guitar, while having more switchgear and tonal options, was a design I don't believe players today would take to. The SR50 on the other hand has a much more simplified control layout and is a ready-to-go player's guitar.
In other words, this is one of those instances where modern design changes to the guitar helped it quite a bit. The SR50 is very approachable, easy to set up and easy-to-play, which is what any guitar player wants.
What happens if you don't clean your guitar?
You may have heard of some famous players who never clean their guitars and are totally okay with that.
What would happen if you never cleaned your guitar? I'll tell you.
Before I tell you, a question answered:
What guitars can withstand not being cleaned the most?
Answer: A 1-piece maple neck Squier guitar such as the Vintage Modified '51 or an Affinity Telecaster with 1-piece maple neck option.
As for why those very specific guitars can handle the dirt and grime the most, there are three main reasons.
Reason 1: Poly everywhere. Both the body and neck are coated either in polyurethane or polyester. This is a totally over-engineered way of finishing a guitar. Finish types like this will dull but never check (as in not crack nor peel nor chip on their own).
Reason 2: Sealed neck. The 1-piece maple neck on a Squier has a rather thick coating of poly on both the front and back. It will never turn gray nor turn green, and as just mentioned, it's an over-engineered finish. In addition, the sealant on the maple can withstand an absolutely ridiculous amount of gunk and grime and still be playable whereas rosewood cannot.
Reason 3: No vibrato system. Less moving parts = longer lasting instrument.
Now as for Fender guitars, the bodies will last but the 1-piece maple option won't. The coating used on the back is a satin urethane and the front coating is a by-design (due to player demand) thinner coat. Of what, specifically? That I don't know, but it is a decidedly thinner sealant compared to a Squier neck.
What happens on Fender 1-piece maple necks is that you start to see staining on the fingerboard after a while. And yes, that is totally normal. It may take a few years or a few decades depending on how much the guitar is played, but it will happen. It is considered a good thing and a cool look when a maple fingerboard stains these days due to player wear.
How often do I clean guitars I play regularly?
Not that often, to be honest.
I play Jazzmaster guitars, and presently they all (regardless of model) come with maple necks that have rosewood fingerboards.
Ordinarily, I will give the guitar a dry wipe-down with a polish cloth and that's pretty much all that's needed. On the Squier Jazzmaster, the body is polyurethane coated, so when it starts getting seriously full of gunk, I just use paper towels and Windex.
Does paper towels and Windex scratch the finish? Yes, it will make tiny scratches. Do I care? No. All I'll looking to do with a wet wash is to clear the gunk. Windex is safe to use on poly finishes and doesn't harm the plastic pick guard, knobs, switchgear or any metal components.
I don't bother cleaning the fingerboard unless it really needs it. And I rarely clean the back of the neck, because every time I do, I have to re-work my finger oils into the neck just to get it feeling right again.
Now when it comes to nitrocellulose lacquer finish guitars, I treat that very differently compared to poly.
I rarely wet-wash nitro because the damn stuff scratches so easily. The easiest nitro-safe stuff is Virtuoso cleaner and polish. Other guys use carnauba wax because it's safe on nitro (Meguiar's brand seems to be the go-to choice for guys that use this stuff on guitar finishes).
My way of wet-washing nitro is using a lightly damp polish cloth that has water misted on to it from a spray bottle. True, this does not bring out the best shine, but it is safe for use on the finish and scratches it the least. Otherwise, I just dry-wipe using a soft polish cloth and that pretty much works.
To note, there is absolutely no damned way to clean nitro without scratching it. It will scratch, it's gonna happen and there's nothing you can do about it other than minimize the effect as much as you can until the finish starts checking (where at that point you don't care about scratches since the checking looks cool).
What happens if you clean nothing on an electric guitar?
If all you ever do is change the strings and never clean the instrument, this is what happens.
Body
Whether poly or nitro, gunk will appear, mostly in the forearm area since that's where you physically touch the instrument most. For really filthy guitars a "dirt stripe" may appear in that forearm area.
Pick guard (if exists)
No matter what color it is, it will become full of gunk and look nasty, but that's about it.
Pickups
The worst that can happen here is that the adjustment height screws tarnish, then rust, then have gunk caked on over that rust, possibly making them unusable.
Bridge
The bridge itself will work fine, but if you have saddles with individual screws for height adjustment (such as on Strats and Teles), those screws will, like the pickup screws, tarnish, rust, get caked up with gunk and possibly become unusable.
Knobs and switchgear
Gunk will get into these and eventually cause a "scratchy" sound and/or stop working properly.
Neck: Frets
In the worst case scenario, you'll see green (yes, as in mold) frets on the "dusty end" of the neck.
Neck: Fingerboard
On sealed maple you'll see green/gray crud pile up. On rosewood it's the same but worse because you're pushing that gunk into the open grain every time you play the guitar.
Neck: Nut
The worst that happens here is that the slots get clogged up with crud and will cause tuning instability eventually.
Neck: Tuners
Nothing really much happens here. Tuners that never get cleaned really don't perform any worse than ones that get cleaned regularly. What makes a tuner fail is if the lubrication dries up on the gears, which ordinarily happens just from it not being used for an extended period of time.
How do you clean a really, really filthy guitar?
If the guitar is vintage and has nitro on it, use the Virtuoso stuff mentioned above for the body and neck.
If the guitar has poly on both the body and neck, how you clean it is as follows:
To do an absolute top-to-bottom cleaning for a guitar that's been really neglected, the best option is to slowly take the whole thing apart because there's probably years of gunk hiding everywhere.
Using a Squier Strat as an example, what I would personally do is take off the strings and dismantle most of the guitar. I'd leave the tuners installed and leave the electronics installed in the pick guard, but everything else comes off - including the neck itself.
I know I would find gunk where the bridge sat, under the pick guard, under the plate in the back and in the neck pocket area, so I'd just clean all that as best I could.
If the guitar had one of those really grimy necks with green frets and loads of gunk on the fingerboard, my way of cleaning would depend on fingerboard material.
If the neck was 1-piece sealed maple, I'd run over it with a toothbrush (yes, the poly coat on the maple can totally handle it) and Windex, then polish the frets after that with 0000 steel wool, being sure to avoid hitting the wood with it while polishing. The 0000 is the lightest grade there is and basically feels like cloth. I'd use that specifically to take off the least amount of metal from the fret wire.
If the neck had a rosewood fingerboard, I'd have to tackle that differently. I'd be dealing with an open grain slab of wood with gunk buried deep in it.
What some recommend to attempt to remove grime from a rosewood board is the use of 0000 steel wool. The board is lightly rubbed dry to remove the worst of the grime, then a light coat of fingerboard oil is applied afterward. The recommended stuff to use is Gerlitz Guitar Honey.
To some, it seems to make more sense to use a mild degreaser (such as a diluted solution of Dawn dish soap and water) to get grime off rosewood, but you run the risk of sealing the wood when you do that - even if just using plain soapy water. Remember, a rosewood fingerboard is an open grain slab of wood. While it's perfectly fine to tackle maple with pretty much anything because it's sealed, rosewood isn't so it has to be handled differently.
As for the guitar nut, Windex and dental floss cleans that up pretty good.
Concerning plastics, Windex and paper towels.
Concerning metal components (bridge, knobs and tuners), again, Windex and paper towels.
Your biggest annoyance would be the rosewood fretboard because of the open grain nature of it. That and the frets since you have to polish those one by one using the steel wool (I suggest taping up the wood so you don't hit it when polishing). But for the rest, Windex and paper towels works just fine since it's all poly coated, plastic or metal.
Can you get mirror-like shine back from a poly-coated guitar body?
This is a bit of a loaded question because it depends how heavy or light the guitar manufacturer sprayed on the poly coat originally.
In theory, you should be able to simply buff a poly body to a mirror-like shine using just about any cheap buffer...
...but I honestly would not bother simply for the reason it will be insanely difficult buffing the entire body.
At best, you will be able to get only the front and back of the body back to a mirror-like shine again. But as for where the neck pocket curves are, eh... not really. You're free to try if you want, but it probably won't work.
It is actually easier to purposely create a "uniform dulling" of the finish. How? With the 0000 steel wool. Instead of attempting to recreate a mirror-like shine, you're going in the complete opposite direction and creating a uniform dull gloss.
What's the advantage of doing this? Better to have a uniform look across the body than to have one part dulled, one part shiny, one part sorta-shiny and so on.
Uniform dulling is something you do by hand, so you will be able to "dull out" every single part of the body evenly. And being 0000 steel wool is so light, it is highly unlikely you'll break through the poly down to the paint.
Using the steel wool for uniform dulling isn't "relic'ing" the guitar. Rather, it's just a way of getting a poly finish to look even without refinishing the body.
Do you have to take everything out of the body before doing this? Yes. The neck has to come off and all the electronics taken out so you can do the job right.
In the end, you'll be left with an even look. A bit of a "weathered poly" look, so to speak. And yeah, it looks cool. More of a "woody" appearance overall, even on solid-color painted guitar bodies.
Is it safe to keep a dirty guitar?
This is The Big Question. And the answer is this:
Yes - if the guitar is played regularly.
What makes a guitar screw up and break faster than anything else is not playing it. A guitar that is played often operates just fine no matter how filthy it gets. It's when the guitar sits in a corner or in its case that it stands the most chance of being damaged.
Remember, guitars are machines. And machines run best when used regularly.
The best guitar picks I've used
I've used many guitar picks over the years, and here are the ones that proved to be the best.
First is the current pick I use the most, Fender California Clear in medium thickness. This pick has an amazing strike to it and has the most attack out of any pick I've used to date. Not only do I get more resonance out of each strike, but acoustically this pick is loud. And that's a good thing.
Second is a pick many other players know, the Dunlop Tortex in .88 size. I have both the green and pitch black version. This pick has the best "memory", which is to say it wears the same way every time. I've found the Tortex to be very predictable. To see the wear on the pick better, it's advisable to not use the pitch black versions just so you can view the pick tip more easily.
Third is also a pick many players know, the Fender 351 in medium thickness. These things wear down easily, but there's just something that makes you keep using them over and over. I have noticed that the thickness and texture is different between colors. Slight difference, but noticeable. My preference is the "Ocean Turquoise" version.
Fourth is a pick many players have never tried, the Gibson Standard in heavy thickness. What makes these things great to use is that they are just slightly smaller and slightly rounder than a Fender 351. For some, the 351 is just a tiny bit too wide. When you want something just a little bit smaller but only a little bit, that's what makes the Gibson Standard so great. In my experience, I've also noticed the Gibson pick has much better memory than the Fender pick does and lasts a lot longer (at least for the Heavy thickness).
What are the worst guitar picks I've used?
There are 3 that come to mind that I absolutely will not use.
First is the Fender Steel Pick. Now I will totally admit that it looks cool. It really does. But the problem with it along with any other pick made of metal is that it acts as a fret when you play. Lots of squeaking noises. It's also a total string-wrecker. While true the pick never wears out, it will develop little chip marks over time that literally cut the unwound strings.
Second is the Dunlop Gator Grip. A lot of guitar players love this pick because of its super-grippy "delrex" material. The Tortex has "delrin", but when you want as-grippy-as-possible, delrex is it. You can sweat buckets on that pick and it will never slip out of your fingers. That's a really nice feature, but the delrex material irritates my thumb something awful to the point of being sore after just a few minutes of play; that's why I can't stand the thing.
Third is any pick with 1 or more holes in it, such as Clayton HexPicks. There's a hexagonal hole through the center of every one of those. Some love these things. I can't stand them. I like my picks to be one solid piece.
Guitar of the week #82 - Epiphone Les Paul Custom PRO Koa
This is an Epi LP with some fancy duds.
The Epiphone Les Paul Custom PRO Koa is, as the name states directly, a "PRO" model, so it has the upgraded hardware. Push/pull coil split, premium grade Grover tuners, upgraded toggle switch, graph tech nut, bound body and neck and so on. PRO isn't just title-only with Epiphone. You really do get some seriously good hardware when that word is in the model name.
A Les Paul made from koa species wood - even for an Epiphone - will make any Gibson Les Paul owner jealous because it looks so good. Ordinarily, you see koa as a premium wood option for acoustic guitars, but every now and then you'll see a solid-body electric made from it, and this is one of them.
Because this is also a Les Paul Custom model, you get the cool split diamond inlay on the headstock.
My only complaint is the gold hardware. I personally don't like it. But I do admit it sets off the koa wood very nicely, so I'll give this one a pass.
This LP is obviously a limited run, so grab one while you can.