xoso
Senior Stratmaster
Mozz asked about buying a particular body today for a project and I got to wondering why we builds Partscasters. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve built a few myself but occasionally question the logic. These are perhaps the most common reasons:
Cost
Not really a good reason at all. OK, if you absolutely HAVE to have a guitar built out of American parts you might be able to build yourself a Partscaster Strat from genuine parts cheaper than buying an American Standard, but actually there won’t be much in it. Could you build a partscaster cheaper than buying a second hand American Standard? Almost definitely not! Notice I’m talking American Strats here. Unless you’ve found most of your parts in a skip I refuse to believe you can build a quality Mexican partscaster cheaper than you can buy new in the shops (and certainly not second hand). I don’t want to get into the whole MIA vs MIM debate again because we’re all sick of it but suffice to say one of the very few reasons I can accept for buying MIA instead of MIM is that American Strats hold their value better (having said that I could sell my classic Players today for more than I paid for them 5 years ago). A partscaster guitar is always going to be a partscaster and valued as such so from an investment point of view it’s a waste of money buying American parts for a partscaster. Essentially then I would say if your reason for building a partscaster guitar is to save money, stop and do your calculations again.
Unique Features
I could be persuaded to go along with this one but with the vast range of strat models and variations offered by Fender today it’s difficult to believe they don’t offer something to suit virtually any taste. But yeah if you absolutely cannot find the feature set you want and building your own seems to be the only option, maybe you should go for it. But wait - Let’s go back to cost again and examine that. My last project was a P90 loaded tele with a rosewood body with maple cap. Absolutely gorgeous body and very unique. I had no intention of building another tele (my third) but I could just see this body in transluscent cherry red and decided to blow the budget and put the best of everything on it. I did that and the bills quickly added up to over $1500 and all I had for that at that point was a box of bits. Yes the finished guitar is fantastic and unique but for that sort of money I could have had something built for my by Ron Kirn that was no doubt even more fantastic and every bit as unique.
Fun
This one you can’t really argue with. Everyone should build at least one Partscaster in their lives just to be able to hold something THEY have built. It also gives you a much better insight into how a guitar works so you are better equipped to set up and mod your other guitars. But my advice is to approach it as a fun project and nothing more. Remember it will always be a partscaster and limited in value so don’t be as stupid as me and throw a ton of money at the best possible parts. Set out to build yourself a workhorse and just have fun.
Cost
Not really a good reason at all. OK, if you absolutely HAVE to have a guitar built out of American parts you might be able to build yourself a Partscaster Strat from genuine parts cheaper than buying an American Standard, but actually there won’t be much in it. Could you build a partscaster cheaper than buying a second hand American Standard? Almost definitely not! Notice I’m talking American Strats here. Unless you’ve found most of your parts in a skip I refuse to believe you can build a quality Mexican partscaster cheaper than you can buy new in the shops (and certainly not second hand). I don’t want to get into the whole MIA vs MIM debate again because we’re all sick of it but suffice to say one of the very few reasons I can accept for buying MIA instead of MIM is that American Strats hold their value better (having said that I could sell my classic Players today for more than I paid for them 5 years ago). A partscaster guitar is always going to be a partscaster and valued as such so from an investment point of view it’s a waste of money buying American parts for a partscaster. Essentially then I would say if your reason for building a partscaster guitar is to save money, stop and do your calculations again.
Unique Features
I could be persuaded to go along with this one but with the vast range of strat models and variations offered by Fender today it’s difficult to believe they don’t offer something to suit virtually any taste. But yeah if you absolutely cannot find the feature set you want and building your own seems to be the only option, maybe you should go for it. But wait - Let’s go back to cost again and examine that. My last project was a P90 loaded tele with a rosewood body with maple cap. Absolutely gorgeous body and very unique. I had no intention of building another tele (my third) but I could just see this body in transluscent cherry red and decided to blow the budget and put the best of everything on it. I did that and the bills quickly added up to over $1500 and all I had for that at that point was a box of bits. Yes the finished guitar is fantastic and unique but for that sort of money I could have had something built for my by Ron Kirn that was no doubt even more fantastic and every bit as unique.
Fun
This one you can’t really argue with. Everyone should build at least one Partscaster in their lives just to be able to hold something THEY have built. It also gives you a much better insight into how a guitar works so you are better equipped to set up and mod your other guitars. But my advice is to approach it as a fun project and nothing more. Remember it will always be a partscaster and limited in value so don’t be as stupid as me and throw a ton of money at the best possible parts. Set out to build yourself a workhorse and just have fun.