My problem with these guitars is that I think the Harley Benton equivalent with a decent setup and pickup change could be as good if not better.
I bought a Mexican made Vintera RoadWorn Strat and when it took the neck off therefore extra hols drilledeverywhere, like they had trouble getting it to fit, the string runs didn’t line up with the bridge saddles or the fretboard. And that cost £999. It went straight back.
My American build strat is perfectly constructed. I’d rather save and buy the ‘better’ guitar or buy cheap and intend to upgrade bits.

My used Mexican Strat (£120 in ~1996) is my best performing asset (as long as you don’t look at the hundreds of pounds I’ve ploughed into it getting it nice).

How much timber is there in a guitar, really? The cost of wood must be peanuts in relation to a whole guitar, surely? I’d be surprised if there was £20 of timber in a custom shop strat. Maybe I’m way off.

I have no clue on the raw cost of timber (I do know it is rocketing) but a CS will have someone picking out the timber, drying it, checking for warping etc, before you even start the build process. You’re buying labour

How much timber is there in a guitar, really?

With the caveat that this is someone adding their own margin on, plus will not have the economy of scale of fender/ squier/ gibson/ epiphone

Lets say a Strat/ Tele type using mid-priced woods

£56 https://shop.exotichardwoods.co.uk/alder-three-piece-body-blank.html

£50 https://shop.exotichardwoods.co.uk/birdseye-maple-guitar-neck-blank-type-f-medium-figure.html

£18 https://shop.exotichardwoods.co.uk/birds-eye-maple-guitar-fingerboard-strong-figure.html

That’s £124 for that

For a Les Paul Type

£150 https://shop.exotichardwoods.co.uk/honduras-mahogany-single-piece-body-blank.html

£52 https://shop.exotichardwoods.co.uk/african-mahogany-guitar-neck-blank-type-f.html

£14 https://shop.exotichardwoods.co.uk/indian-rosewood-guitar-fingerboard-grade-aaa.html

Total of £216

Then all the additional parts plus man hours.

The Anderton’s guys did a great tour of the US Fender factory where you see all the work involved from standard stuff right up to custom shop

More music.
Unless you where there in 198y watching The Tube it is hard to imagine the impact of Stanley Jordan.
He really made us aware of the possibilities oftwo handed tapping in a jazz vein. A real ‘drooped my bacon sarnie’ moment.

Yes the alder and maple timbers for my self build Tele cost about what Boarding Bob said. Then pickups, bridge, tuners, nut, fret wire, truss rod, strings, paint…
The parts cost more than a Squier and if I add the tuition cost, more than a basic Fender. Add my own time and we’re in American player territory.
It’s not perfect but I love playing it and can’t walk past it without picking it up. If I’d bought instead the Ultra I tried and fell in love with while figuring out what I wanted to build I’d be £1800 down and being a bit meh about it by now.

edhornby
You’re buying labour

Yep, and that labour costs at every stage, from selecting woods to QC.

My two ‘nicest’ and most expensive instruments are a Japanese Limited Collection Strat and a Genesis RG550

The Strat has more expensive components (Alder vs Basswood, Rosewood vs Maple, nitro finish, USA pickups etc) but cost twice as much as the Ibanez.
But……it has a (very minor) small paint flaw and the two piece body is badly matched (not fussed, adds character, one of the reasons I chose it).
It’s a lovely guitar.

But the Ibanez had more care taken over it.
It feels and plays like it was made by perfectionists.

I doubt I will ever own something so obviously crafted with care.

Sue’s Japanese Pink Paisley Tele is the same, as is her Faith acoustic.
Both genuinely, honestly, completely flawless.
They have both been subjected to dog’s abuse and both play better than they did when they were new.

Wonderful, perfectly made, exceptional guitars are out there.

FWIW she bought the Tele from Guitars4U (stupid name, lovely bloke) and the Faith from Paul at Pro Solo in Burnley – a small shop, but he chooses his stock carefully and he sets up every guitar to the customer’s preference.

Bugger. Thanks to looking at all these Teles I’ve just bought a Miami Blue Am Pro II Tele to go with the Strat.

I have seen Fender custom shops in lots of different guitar shops and there a massive difference in each level guitar to guitar

Take a look at GAKs custom shops v’s Coda – might be made in the same place but are radically different quality

You just have to play as many as you can buy the one that speaks to you and that you can afford

Same for all guitars really

Put in an order with Guitarfetish in the states for some pickups.
A set of gold humbucker sized P90s to replace the Pearly Gates in this:

Always found them a little muddy.

And a white coloured higher output quarter pound-esque bridge pickup for my strat.
The SD pickup is great, but the fact it was black was annoying me and you can’t get white covers for them.

Always had great results with GFS pickups.

And wit this, then all my guitars will be “finished”.
Other than needing a neck pickup ring for my Tokai Les Paul which I can’t find a good one anywhere..

I found a US seller on line doing these 65 vintage Fender branded pick ups ready planted into the scratch plate. Turned a very nice Mex Strat into a very Hendrixy sounding Mex Strat. Quite original combo too with the reddish tortoise shell plate and maple neck.

Such shiny Strats! Love em all.

Just been playing my Tele. First I’ve ever owned. They are a bit loveable aren’t they? 😀

Just been playing my Tele. First I’ve ever owned. They are a bit loveable aren’t they?

They certainly are, so playable and versatile. If I could only own one guitar, it would definitely be a Fender Telecaster. Here’s mine

Its the pedal steel bend I’m loving. Pretty much impossible on a trem equipped Strat.

Great colour Tele there.

Late post but my amazing gf got me a vintera modified Jazzmaster for Xmas. I’m in love with it

Nice. That was the colour of my Vintera Strat but with a maple board.

Thanks, I forgot to mention there’s some patchy flaming on the neck

Bonus points for that. Shame no-one else gets to see it much other than the drummer.

Wow, that’s lovely – the neck especially. I’m starting to wonder if I’m a Jazzmaster kind of guy, I seem to be playing it (Squier CV) quite a bit. I’d like to try a Jag for a good while to compare, though.

Just joining (late) to the Tele love-in above 😁

Here’s mine, though it’s a partscaster, and has an HB in the neck position.

Some other guitar pics too, just because.

Nooooooo…..! Move those poor guitars (especially the acoustics) away from the radiator! You really need to minimise the temperature changes they undergo. Keeping them next to a radiator means they will experience quick changes in temperature and humidity, which can cause all kind of problems, which in the case of the acoustics can cause cracking of the thin timbers in the guitar top.

Nooooooo…..! Move those poor guitars (especially the acoustics) away from the radiator

Fret ye not! I’m not an idiot (well not in this instance anyway)
The radiator is permanently turned off 😉

The room is pretty stable temperature and humidity wise due to its position in the house, but I use a little electric radiator on the other side of the room if heating is needed.

Fret ye not!

We’re guitarists. Fretting is what we do.

We’re guitarists. Fretting is what we do.

Badum-tish.

Sorry, just practicing my drumming.

I’ve had a tour round the Custom Shop and it’s very impressive. They have their own separate wood selection and dedicated luthiers. There’ll be some variation between guitars, but not that much. Much of what they do is completely bespoke – even if it’s for a run of guitars. The ‘shopping list’ of options you get is enormous – fret size, about 20 different stock neck shapes, edge radius for Teles, or 50s/60s body profiles for Strats… My pal who works there says that one of the hardest issues they have is keeping the ‘NOS’ stuff from getting dinged as much of what they make is a relic to some degree, so keeping the pristine ones pristine and making sure they don’t get knocked in a rack is a hard job…

The US vs Mexican vs Squier levels are measurable in raw materials – US guitars are two or three piece bodies, Mexican ones are often four or five. For a US guitar to be ‘US’ it has to have its bridge, tuners, pickups all made in the US, whereas the Mexican ones can have a far-eastern-assembled scratchplate bolted in and other OEM stuff. Fender USA still has the original bridge stamping machines from the fifties(!) – It’s a great place to visit if you get the chance…

Let’s see if I can get this to work… Nope, that’s why I don’t do the internet here…
Some photos here: https://imgur.com/gallery/ouIRiEF

a different take. An ex-colleague of mine, brilliant physicist (certainly in his time did the definitive temperature measurements), with a rare ability to communicate his science, and as I’ve just learned, also a guitarist in his spare time. His blog is an interesting take on various subjects, not least the pandemic, but the latest edition is ‘how guitar strings work’

And it’s surprisingly scientific

The Physics of Guitar Strings

Interesting read.
Maybe he can me if I should top load my Tele bridge or go through body. And why…

OK. One month on with the Kemper and I can’t find a fault with it still.
There are a huge range of amp models freely available for it and it is so simple to understand.
4 effect blocks before the amp and cab and four after. Plus two loops.
I bought 3 amp packs as well as the factory supplied material and I am still blown away.
The Morgan amp profiles from Michael Britt are stunning, as ate the Dumble, Grammatico and a huge bunch of Febder, Marshall and basically ever amp ever.
What is interesting is finding I sort a favourite clean amp, a great edge of breakup amp and a couple of higher gain amps and a few weirder ones and then add the awesome effects before and after the amp block or put pedals in front. I have about 1300 amp profiles available and suddenly I have favourites, just like they are physical amps.
The Morgan and Matchless plus Bassman, Twin and Marshalls are there. All the other slots I leave empty and just tweak them.
So like the real world, but for amps you can’t afford to buy.

On the subject of the physics of guitars / strings and other factors that influence tone (E.g. ‘tonewood’), here’s a cool video where some guy runs some strings between two workbenches. It sounds basically identical to the guitar.

(But NB the huge difference when he changed the cheap kit guitar pickups for Seymour Duncans).

That was very enjoyable, thanks for posting.

I prefer the smoother sound of Yamaha engines on my air guitar rig.

That was an ace video. Not that handy for touring… 🙂

Most old lap steel slide guitars are made of shonky old wood, even MDF in some cases, it just needs to be rigid enough to not move at all when strung up and have enough bite to screw the bridge and tuners in. They still sound great…

I’ve just ordered an Ivison Dakota, fairly confident that this will be my last guitar purchase

Looking forward to a delivery in 6 months or so

I’ve just ordered an Ivison Dakota

This is the first I’ve heard of them, but they look lovely. It’s impressive how it looks like a Firebird even though it’s completely the wrong shape. Spendy, though!

Got a back in stock email from Fender (EU) for the 68 Custom Vibro Champ. Surely can’t be long before my one comes into stock with the shop.

Looking forwards to being able to play with an amp volume set @ >3 and the neighbours still speaking to me…

If anyone fancies a ‘68 Custom’ Princeton I know of one soon to be coming up secondhand 😉😗

TSpendy, though!

I’m concentrating on the looks lovely, sounds great, plays great bit TBF

Acknowledge you could get a really nice guitar for the 10% deposit I’ve just paid 🙂

That looks stunning. What colour did you go with?

Looking forwards to being able to play with an amp volume set @ >3 and the neighbours still speaking to me…

Have you actually tried one? I haven’t played the new one but I grew up playing my dad’s 1979 Vibrochamp and it was insanely loud for a 5 watt amp. Even in a detached house I couldn’t turn it up past 3 or 4.

My latest Marshall Origin amp has an internal power reduction feature that takes the power from 20 watts to 5 watts or down to 1 watt.

On the 1 watt setting, I can play my strat at full volume without bothering anyone too much but as soon as I plug my Les Paul in, I have to wind the volume down to less than half way. No way I can crank the 5 watt setting on any guitar at home and the 20 watt would probably blow the windows out.

I recently bought a Bugera Power Soak attenuator so I can get the cranked tones of the 5 & 20 watt settings without bothering the missus, dog or the neighbours. It’s been a great investment.

https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Bugera-Power-Soak-Passive-100-Watt-Guitar-Amp-Power-Attenuator