is building your own guitar really worth it?

[nick b]

hey guys, i was thinking about building my next guitar by compiling all the pieces and stuff. but when i began to look, i realized that it was alot more expensive than i thought it'd be. i mean, for the body i was looking at, its 250 dollars, and then the neck is another 180, then i'd have to buy all the electronics and such, so im guessing i'd run about 700-800 dollars if not more for the guitar i'd want to build. so, my question is, is it really worth it to spend that much money on a custom, self-made guitar, or would it be better just to buy a 700-800 dollar mass produced guitar?

[disposed hero]

Depends. If you can do it. In the end its totally rewarding and worth it if you do it good. Its cool beacause its one of a kind.

[Bluesaholic]

If you're building a guitar just to save money it's not worth it, but if you're building because you can't find a mass produced guitar with all the specifications you want, then it's totally worth it.

[Exothermia]

There's no reason to spend $250 on a body. A brand new warmoth or whatever body, perhaps, but it seems foolish to me to spend $250 on an unfinished body when you could buy a solid-wood body in new condition on ebay that's already painted for less.

A good neck could cost you $180. If it does, and you end up spending $250 on a body, that's only $430 dollars. You're telling me you're going to spend $400 on electronics?

If you don't want to spend $700-800 then don't. You can build a guitar from all new parts with good electronics for much less than that.

[iam2phat]

Yeah, exothermia has a point, even if you're building a three pick-up guitar with coil tap, you can get all the electronics for about $200 on guitar fetish.

[Santah]

$250 for a body? You need to look harder, I can get bodies for $100 AUS, so Americans should be able to find them for even cheaper. I think I worked it out that it would cost me about $300-$400 AUS to get a strat or tele up and running (with good parts).

but yeah, I dont think you should be thinking about building your own guitar based on cost. If all you want is to save money then I'd buy a budget guitar (like a squire or epiphone etc) and upgrade it.

[Munga]

Guitar building is only worth it if you are going to build a $1500+ guitar.


Alec

[killerkiwi]

yes it is. But its expensive!!

[mikeo2]

You should be able to put it together for much less than that. I spent around $500 for new neck & body AND hardware & electronics (everything) for my strat. I highly recommend building--its a very cool experience and you get exactly what you want.

[eexplorer505]

well if your gonna kept playing guitar for the rest of your life more so than i could say. if your just a hobbyist ie play other peoples songs and write your own simple songs. now if your gonna want a guitar that fits what exactly you want ie string spacing matching your fingers and a body that has the sound you want and wieght and feel make it but be ready to spend quite some time depending how custom you get

[mishmannah]

I'm planning to build a guitar from a kit next time I come into some money....

You can buy cheapo crappy old strats off Ebay and mod them, having a go at perhaps putting on a new finish...refretting..you could also have a go at modding the pups at a relatively cheap price too, if you are keen to REALLY look for some good deals...there's so much you can learn from modding a Strat or something...electronics, simple carpentry skills, design...

I think guitar builds take time in planning than in actual physical work, if you haven't got the money now, just do research on the web with regards to guitar build..when you get round to making one, you'll probably be more prepared and enjoy it more...

Don't talk yerself out of it, I think sometime in a guitarists life there is a stage where you start thinking of making yer own...

[martinedwards]

It's a cheaper hobby than paragliding or motor racing.

My acoustic Les paul cost me £60 to make, but then I built from scratch and got all the wood very cheap

In the end its totally rewarding and worth it if you do it good. Its cool beacause its one of a kind

OHHHHHH yes!!!!

[Stray Dog]

If you get things cheap, its DEFINATELY worth it.

Get a body off ebay. Just search for "gutiar body" you will get countless strat bodies, sometimes teles and ibanez-style ones as well, and sometime bolt-on les pauls or archtop bodies if your real lucky. You can get these real cheap and refinish them.. as long as they aren't made of plywood, you're alright! Necks are a little harder to find, but you can still get them cheap if you look around. You might want to refret them though, but that doesn't cost much.

And thanks to www.guitarfetish.com, you can get all your hardware and electronics really cheap, and also insanely cheap yet really good pickups too.

Its possible to do it cheap, in which case its real fun and worth it!

[JacksonMIA]

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/rht08408/DSC00849.jpg
$50 initial cost.

+$450 worth of good parts - Seymour Duncan pickups, Switchcraft jack, Planet Waves locking tuners, black hardware throughout (very little was actually necessary, but I wanted to change the look quite a bit).

+ labor. If you figure up what I normally make for an hour, this becomes quite expensive. This is the point where it becomes "not worth it." You have to decide if the experience and fun is worth the money. It usually is, but that's the only way building a guitar will be "worth it."

Finished product:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/rht08408/DSC01354.jpg

It sure was worth it to me.

[pagodas_fiesta]

You have to decide if the experience and fun is worth the money. It usually is, but that's the only way building a guitar will be "worth it."

Bingo! (btw nice job)
I spent a good number of hours not building my own guitar, but completely redoing my Ibanez. I have since stopped playing guitar but I still have it and even though it is currently stringless and essentially useless to me, I am proud of my efforts and even as a room ornament it was "worth it".

[D|s]

id say its worth the money&time spent.

when building a guitar, you are definetely going to learn much more about the guitar in itself. the design and calculations to get stuff exactly into place. in my case it really has made me appreciate any guitaar structure and has solidified me as a player.

however, y not find wood and cut out the shape yourself instead of buying it off hand? i found it very cheap that way! you can always have a carpenter cut it out and usualy dont charge much.

my guitar, almost ready has cost me roughly $300-$350 in all.
i just have to finish it.
take a look at my thread in this section :)

[Puddlegum66]

It's definately worth it. I took an older Jackson with a warped neck, that was given to me. Stripped the paint, routed it for a HSH pup config, had a pro paint job(my old roomie worked for Chrysler) bought an Ibanez neck from ebay, new pups, new electronics, and got it all put together. The biggest expense was the setup with a bone nut and the initial wiring job. That was 150. The rest of the parts ran me another 200 or so. If I would've wired it myself, and now I know how to, I would've save myself 75 bucks.

It's definately worth it. I absolutely love my frankenstrat. I play it more then my other guitars. Plus, it just seems to feel better then 99% of all the other guitars I've played.