Buying vs. building a guitar
A real-deal guitar Stratocaster body by Fender is something that you can buy right now if you wanted.
But should you?
Well, before we get into that, let's answer The Big Question up front:
Do you save money by building a guitar yourself from ready-made parts?
Answer: Yes and no.
No, if you want "everything Fender".
Before even before installing pickups, after purchase of the body and a Fender-branded neck, you've almost spent 400 bucks.
Yes, if you don't buy Fender-branded stuff.
An unfinished (meaning unpainted) Strat body can be had for under 60 bucks. A neck can be had for 35 bucks. A loaded (meaning all controls, wiring and pickups) pick guard can be had for under 25 bucks.
BUT...
...it's still cheaper to buy a complete cheap guitar, and then using basic tools and low-cost upgrades to spruce it up.
Examples of what I mean by "basic tools"
- 0000 steel wool - The lightest/finest grade steel wool you can buy. Good for fret polishing and other minor things where only the smallest amount of metal filing is required.
- Fret leveling kit - Not luthier-grade, but cheap and easy to work with.
- Fret file crowning tool - This one is luthier-grade. You'll get a small amount of sticker shock when you see the price just for this one tool, but it can save you hundreds of dollars compared to paying a guy to do the work.
Examples of what I mean by "low-cost upgrades"
- Fender Tex-Mex Strat pickup set - Well south of $100. Not hum-canceling, but a great pickup set regardless.
- 3-pack of CTS 250k pots (audio taper) - Very easy upgrade, and cheap. Comes with the appropriate washers and nuts, which is nice.
- Copper shielding tape - Not so much an upgrade, but rather just common sense to use it. The 10-foot roll I have linked is all you need. That will easily cover an entire Strat pick guard underside, the pickup cavities and control area, and even the rear cavity if you wanted to shield that too (not that you need to.)
The tools matter more than the upgrades do
With properly leveled/crowned/polished frets, you can make even the crappiest Strat or any other kind of electric guitar play like a dream.
What matters most on a solid-body electric is the neck. If the neck isn't good, the guitar is bad, plain and simple. As long as the neck feels good in the hand, has a truss rod that works properly and a fingerboard with properly leveled/finished frets, it can be made to play great without any need to do advanced guitar building/reconditioning stuff. Before even thinking about upgrading electronics, get that neck playing great first.
On a final note, for any fret work you do, try it on a throwaway guitar first where you're allowed to make mistakes. Get the absolute cheapest electric you can find and work on that first before working on your main guitar. Along with a fret job it will probably also need a new nut (it's cheap), but that's okay because it's worth it to learn how to do nut replacement along with fret work.
What does "student guitar" mean?
Sometimes you will see a guitar labeled as being "student." What does that mean?
A Squier Bullet Strat could be qualified as a "student" guitar; there are two reasons why it would be labeled as such.
- Low price.
- Slightly smaller than "full" size.
Where did student-size electric guitars start?
While there have been many guitar makers that have offered student-size electrics, the company best known for it is Fender.
As the electric guitar exploded in popularity in the 1950s and on into the 1960s, Fender decided to offer a few electric models that were smaller, purposely priced cheaper and had only the simplest electronics.
An example of this is the Fender Music Master.
The Music Master was a dirt simple 3/4 scale guitar. Some came with two pickups, but many just had one. Scale lengths came in short scale 24.0-inch or really short 22.5-inch.
These were marketed as beginner guitars. Small, cheap and affordable.
Is the Music Master just a simpler version of a Mustang?
Basically, yes. The Mustang (still available new today in Squier and in Fender flavors), has a split pick guard with metal covering for the knob controls and a vibrato system, while the Music Master had just a single-piece guard and no vibrato system.
Were there ever 22.5-inch scale Mustangs?
Yes. Fender did make a handful of Mustangs with the super-short 22.5-inch scale, although I personally wouldn't own one because that's very itty-bitty.
How does student size relate to a Stratocaster shape?
This is where things get interesting.
A student-size Stratocaster shape guitar is not 3/4 size, but rather 7/8 size.
In plain English, that means the body and only the body is slightly slimmer.
As far as I'm aware, all Squier Stratocaster guitars have a 7/8 body, and this is the primary reason why tremolo blocks from an full-size Strat bridge system will not fit correctly and stick out from the back of the body.
The neck however is almost exactly the same size as an full-size Strat. Same 9.5-inch fingerboard radius, same modern C shape, same 25.5-inch scale length. The only thing that's truly smaller is the nut width (only when compared to USA Strats, since Squier Vintage Modified and Mexico-made Fender Strats have the same nut width.)
Are slim-profile Squier bodies truly student guitars?
Only in the respect that they're low-priced.
Today's student guitars don't follow the original 3/4 sizing that the Music Master did. In addition, you get the same full electronics capability that the full-size Strats do, whereas originally you didn't.
What is a "true" student-size guitar?
The Squier Mini. That guitar has a 22.75-inch scale length and is "hardtail" (no vibrato system.) That's a small guitar made for people with short arms and small hands.
So yes, Fender still does make a true student-sized guitar. It just happens to be a Squier brand in a Strat shape instead of the Mustang shape, and simply labeled as Mini, as in miniature.
Is a 7/8 size a "kid's guitar?"
Absolutely not.
The Squier Mini is a true kid's guitar. But something like the Squier Vintage Modified Stratocaster? That's an adult-size guitar.
To say a 7/8 body is "for kids" is like saying 17-inch wheels on a car are "training wheels" compared to 18-inch when they're obviously not.
Reality check: Many Strat players prefer the 7/8 body size
This is something I mentioned before but will bring it up again.
If a guitarist has been playing Squier Strats for a while, then "upgrades" to a Fender Strat, there is the very likely possibility he or she will hate the feel of the full-size Strat body.
It's not that the full-size body will weigh significantly more than the 7/8, but the added thickness can be uncomfortable.
In seated position, if you notice a full-size Strat profile "digs" into your body more, or if when playing standing the body seems to slide around more in a way that just doesn't feel right, chances are you actually like the 7/8 size better simply because that's what you're used to.
Guitar players that discover they prefer the 7/8 size Strat body are both delighted and disgusted at the same time.
The delight comes from the fact that their preferred body shape is from a brand that's very affordable.
The disgust comes from the fact they know there is no Fender Strat that exists they will ever be able to truly enjoy - unless they spend major cash on a Fender Custom Shop build and specifically instruct the shop to use a 7/8 body shape and fabricate a custom short tremolo block that will fit in it.
This begs the question: Should Fender build a 7/8 size Strat?
I think they should. Not an American nor a Mexico model, but a China-made model. There are already China-made full-size Fender Strats like the Modern Player Series (and yes, that is absolutely a full-size Strat). I don't think it would be too difficult to introduce a Fender-branded 7/8-size Strat. Just call it the Stratocaster "S" model, with S meaning slim or student.
I figure it like this. If Fender made a 7/8 Strat that's Fender-branded, it should be marketed as a "high-end student guitar" of sorts. All the good Fender bits and bobs, just in a slightly smaller body size with low pricing. A China-made Strat in that flavor would fit the bill quite nicely. Have it as a street price of around $350 to $375 (slightly below Modern Player) and it would be a winner and sell well. I'm sure of it.
Is it required to bend notes when playing a guitar solo?
There's the mystical belief that in order for a guitar solo to sound good, you must bend notes.
Wrong.
Note bending is a staple of electric guitar solos. However, it has never been required to do so. One can perform a guitar solo using nothing but notes played "straight." Or, better yet, skip the solo entirely.
What a lot of guitar players don't seem to understand is that most people don't like the sound of a bent guitar note. To a non-musician, it almost sounds like a wounded animal crying in agony, especially if you don't bend the note right and end up being off-key.
If you must bend notes however, here's a few tips.
Master the single semitone bend first
Everyone starts with the two-semitone bend. Don't. Single semitone bends are a whole lot easier. Start with those first.
If you require a 2-semitone bend, just move up a fret at the appropriate time and bend from there to get the note.
Know your string metals and cores
I've mentioned this before but will mention it again.
Strings with a hexagonal core (e.g. D'Addario) will always be tougher to bend compared to round-core (e.g. certain DR string models) because a hex-core is a stiffer string when tuned to pitch. If you keep trying to bend stiff strings, you will not only not hit the note, but probably damage your fingers and also snap strings often.
Also, the more nickel is in the string, the easier it is to bend. Strings labeled as "pure nickel" like Fender Original 150 are the bendy-friendly kind. You lose treble by using more nickel, the strings will go dead quickly, and sometimes they go out-of-tune more often, but they bend a lot easier.
Flatter fingerboards are more bendy-friendly
The rounder a fingerboard is, the more you encounter what's known as fretting out.
If you're all about the bends, you'll get along a lot better with a 12-inch-or-greater fingerboard radius. If the number is lower than 12, such as Fender 9.5-inch or vintage 7.25-inch, you will fret out. A lot. It doesn't matter how well your neck bow and string height is set up. Rounder fingerboards just fret out. There's nothing wrong with that; it's just the nature of the way they play.
Yes, there are certain Fender and Squier models that do have 12-inch fingerboards. The Squier J5 Telecaster for example does have a such a radius.
On the Gibson/Epiphone side of things, all of their guitars unless stated otherwise have 12-inch-or-flatter fingerboards.
Try solos without bends
Again, remember, most people don't like the sound of a bent guitar note. The more you can solo without semitone bends, the more pleasing to the ear your solo will be.
How to become a famous guitar player using just the internet
I guess the first thing to ask here is this: Do you want to be an e-famous guitar player?
No, you don't.
Every e-famous guitar player you know on the internet gains their e-fame in one of two ways.
- Mentioning a brand name.
- Playing a cover song.
The most famous guitar player YouTube channels you know of gained their e-fame from one of those two or both.
It is totally true that guitar playing ability has absolutely nothing to do with how e-famous a guitarist is. None at all. It has everything to do with words and phrases that people are searching for, and having YouTube videos found from said specific search words and phrases.
The brand name way
Something you'll notice is that guitar stores grab a lot of YouTube views. Why? Because they have famous brand names of guitars as the titles of videos, and are constantly putting out new videos of guitars people want to hear.
If for example you worked in a guitar store, like Guitar Center, you could probably make several hundred video reviews just from the store's inventory without having to spend a dime - if the manager allowed it, of course.
The cover song way
Easy enough to understand. You post a cover song to YouTube, people search for that song, find your video and you get known that way - assuming your video doesn't get removed by the copyright system YouTube uses.
Does being an e-famous guitar player matter?
No.
Something you'll notice about e-famous guitar players is that whenever they try to sell original songs, it always falls flat. And the reason for that is because that's not what the guitar player crowd wants. They want to hear stuff about reviewing guitars and covering songs. When things stray outside of that, it just doesn't work.
If an e-famous guitar player releases songs, there is flash-in-the-pan sales and then sales drop off a cliff because being an e-famous guitar player never gets you anywhere.
What does get you somewhere is being a topical songwriter.
Topical songwriting defined
I'm sure you've seen some YouTube videos where some guy or some girl posts a song, the song is really stupid, but it gains millions of views real fast.
Some believe it's marketing that makes this happen. That's sometimes true. But other times it's because the guy or girl who posted the song found something topical that a lot of people resonated with, and it struck gold.
Topical basically means "significant to the moment".
For example, the video game Grand Theft Auto V was released on 17 September 2013, and a whole ton of "funny" YouTube videos were released a few weeks later about it. At the time, the game was still very hot, so of course those videos grabbed tons of views. Now they barely get any views at all.
You do not have to be a gamer in order to get e-famous with a song. Just post song about a hot-at-the-moment game, and the views will come.
All you have to do is keep up with the news, and if you spot a hot-button story that's gaining steam where a lot of people are talking about it right now, you quickly put a song together as fast as you can and release it to YouTube. If you're the early bird that gets the worm, you stand a very good chance of raking in lots of views for the right reason, that being for a song and not as a guitar player.
Again, being an e-famous guitar player gets you nowhere
It's songs that are remembered and not guitar playing ability. You probably don't work in a guitar store, and don't do cover songs since they're yanked from YouTube so easily, so how do you get e-famous? Be a topical songwriter.
The great thing about topical songwriting is that the songs basically write themselves, and all you have to do for a video is make a slideshow.
On a final note, here's a warning. Sometimes topical songs can backfire on you badly. If for example you write a song about something political and/or religious, it can resonate with the audience the wrong way because you tried to be funny, it didn't work and backfired in the worst way possible.
If you go the topical route, yes you can get e-famous quick, but be choosy as to what you write songs about.
on using email in 2014 and beyond
Email may be old, but it's still the best way to get a message from A to B on the internet.
Popularity vs. Technology
Traditional email is a messaging technology while social media like Facebook and Twitter isn't. Those places are flavor-of-the-moment web sites that can at any time fall out of favor with the masses and become ghost towns. Just ask anyone that used to use MySpace or LiveJournal.
You can think of email the same way as SMS (text messaging) on a phone. SMS is a messaging technology, just like email. It is not owned exclusively by anyone. It does not rely on one central place just to work. It does not rely on popularity to remain in existence. Email shares all of those traits, and that's good.
Social media relies 100% on popularity just to exist. That's bad. Really bad.
It's not all about the web no matter how many say it is
Email (POP3/IMAP4,) SMS/MMS and IRC is the stuff we have available to us as far as widely used non-web-based messaging is concerned.
Everything else, meaning forums, comment areas and social media, is all web-based. Some believe that the future of all internet communications will be web-based, but I don't buy into that.
Internet communications that have survived the test of time thus far have been non-web-based, that being email/texting/chat. As for web-based communications stuff? It has no guarantee of any staying power. Web sites go up and down, and web browsers update too often and keep changing too much crap for anyone to keep up with it.
The web will survive, and of that I have no doubt, but as for it being a primary communications engine? That's where I have serious doubt.
Email/texting/chat can all be used with zero graphics, as in no binary data. All text, no images, no video. Text alone is the fastest, easiest and cheapest way to electronically communicate. Web-based is about shoving as much crap at you as possible and calling it "innovative," when the plain fact of the matter is that animations and glittery graphics do nothing but get in the f--king way of the message you're trying to read.
I say it's "not all about the web" because the web is inherently graphical. What matters in internet communications most is the text, and the best text communications is the kind that absolutely does not require a web browser to use it.
Email is old, but it still works better than anything else
The old stuff is still the best stuff for internet messaging.
You might think that I'm pining for the days of how the internet used to be, and that if it's not old, it's not worth using.
Not really.
I still use email because nothing has come along that's proven to be any better.
Take SMS, for example. That was developed in the early 1980s and the first SMS message was sent in 1992. Yes, really. And nobody complains that SMS is old, even though it's ancient in the way it works. Nothing has come along that's proven to be better than SMS for phone-to-phone messaging.
Similarly, nothing has come along that's proven to be better than email for computer-to-computer internet messaging.