What's the spec of your Partscaster (and why)?

p90fool

http://i64.tinypic.com/2dbue1j.jpg

The Tele is a second hand alder body I picked up in the mid 80s, with an '81 USA Fender Bullet neck I bought new, SD Broadcaster bridge pickup and handwound '82 Kent Armstrong Strat pickup. I've been using all those parts on different guitars for decades, but when they all ended up together as the best-sounding combination I sold all my other Teles straight away. 

The Strat is/was an Olympic White US alder body I stripped back to bare wood and floor waxed last month, an AVRI loaded scratchplate with a couple of minor mods, an NOS 1982 CBS Strat neck blagged from a friend of mine whose parents' music shop went bust in '84, and a Wudtone bridge with US vintage mounting screws but Mexican saddle spacing, to avoid the strings-falling-off-the-fingerboard vintage Strat problem. 

I sold my 1963 Strat his summer because I genuinely prefer this one - it can sound lively and/or rowdy, and what the hell, I'm a sucker for those CBS headstocks. 

I know everyone says their own guitars are great, but in 40 years I've never played a better (for me) Tele, Strat or Les Paul than those I've ended up with. 

It's actually not too wild a claim, it's been a long evolutionary journey and a big learning curve about what works best for me - lots of players may pick up my guitars and find them ordinary or even awkward. 

springhead

Mine was just to scratch the itch of putting a guitar together, whilst quite fancying having a tele.  So done on a small budget.  Started off as someone elses hombrew relic project from eBay for £60 - complete body, missing the neck.  It's now like Triggers broom - pretty much everything apart from body has changed, and I've re-profiled that to get the shape a bit more accurate.

So:

Body = 3 piece pine!
Finish = Wudtone (I stripped the original thick yellow poly, and hence discovered the 3 piece pine) then refinished it.
Neck = Fender licenced Mighty Mite
Hardware = Wilkinson Deluxe vintage style tuners.  No name bridge with brass saddles, replacing the top loader it came with.  Drilling the holes through the body and fitting the ferrules was interesting!
Electrics = Iron gear Tele bridge pick up and mini humbucker neck.
4-way switch, for usual 3 plus series which works well.  Push-pull pots for neck coil tap and out of phase - which does a passable Peter Green tone, which was a bonus.

It's nice to play, has a versatile range of tones, didn't break the bank and I learnt lots of new things on the way.

thegummy

I don't have one but just last night I was "window shopping" on northwest guitars seeing what I'd build.

Would be a Daphne blue Strat with 7.25 inch radius, hard tail and with vintage voiced pickups. The reason would be to have a guitar optimised purely for rhythm playing (and because Daphne blue is lovely).

Would also have position 3 be bridge and neck.

cpcompany

TTony said:

And finally ...

Body & neck by GSP.
P'ups by Oil City.

I wanted to do something a bit different, rather than another thinline Tele, so  I messed around a bit with the pickups and switching options.    Both p'ups are tapped via push/push pots, and the mini-toggle is a blower (IIRC).

Does it still sound like a Tele?  No, it just sounds like me

Genuinely one of the nicest looking guitars I've ever seen. I shall be copying that if and when I do my own partscaster.

stimpsonslostson

stickyfiddle said:

Tele / Cabronita

Body is ash, but semi-hollow like a 72 thinline, but without the f-hole because that would look a bit odd on a La Cab.
Neck is from USACG and is absolutely HUGE. Rosewood board over quartersawn maple with stainless 6105 (narrow/tall) frets. Basically trying to go closer to the Duo-Jet thing than a regular Cabronita Tele, while still obviosuly being a Tele.

I don't know if it's the quartersawn-ness or the hollowness, or the baseball bat size of the neck, or just a great pairing of neck & body where they resonate nicely together, but it absolutely *sings* acoustically. 

Classic/Classic+
Pots are BKP-special order CTS 550k, which I like as much for their low torque than the value & taper

Bridge is a Callaham hardtail (this was the test-bed before ordering the Callaham for the Strat above)Pickups are TV 
Tuners are locking Schallers with pearl buttons. I went for pearl as a minor nod toward John Mayer's black strat, but mostly cos they're pretty. Might switch for non-locking ones at some point, just to take away the smidge of neck dive it has (the heavy neck & hollow body sound great but ergonomically it's slightly annoying)

And credit to @WezV for the finish. Nitro body (checking courtesy of January 2013's snow) and his patented (not actually patented) tru-oil slurry neck finish. It's almost 5 years old and still fantastic.

Good lord!
http://www.pokergaming.cz/Users/radazatl/Img/Randy_Marsh_covered_in_ectoplasm.jpg

DrBob

guitarfishbay said:

I have a Strat.

Body - Fender US Special 3 tone sunburst, because it was available second hand and already finished

Neck - northwest guitars satin maple neck with maple board, because it is satin and fairly standard (it’s slightly thicker than s tyical Fender standard C)

Bridge - Wilkinson 6 saddle with modern saddles, because I rest my hand on the bridge a lot and prefer the feel to bent saddles.

Tuners - Black ones from Northwest guitars, because they’re cheap and black, they work fine.

Electronics - single H guard with EMG 81 and a volume pot, because that’s what I needed to play the songs and nothing extra.

So slick and purposeful 

Stuckfast

Mine was put together by a previous owner, it's a Tokai Goldstar body and electrics with a Warmoth neck. It was cheap on eBay and it works just fine so I see n reason to change anything!

Teyeplayer

Lightweight Korina body from Guitarbuild -because it had cool grain and I hadn’t a Korina guitar.
10radius modern c maple allparts neck -because it was close to the tele I was retiring.
Both nitro finished by @lonestar of this parish beacause I like a light relic job as I’ll be less fussed by the inevitable prangs and dings of gigging if it’s already worn in.
Pickups are @Alegree cirrostratus tele pickups because they sound fantastic, lovely clarity.
Cts pots, Bakelite guard etc.

Edit: couple of bits I forgot to mention:
Kluson deluxe tuners because they look cool and for the extra £15 on the price of a clone set it seemed silly not to go for them. 
Aged hardware thanks to @gavin_axecaster because they fit the builds appearance.
Gotoh bigsby bridge that I aged -this is a part I still may change, has the advantage that should I fancy adding a b5 I can, reduced mass though might be the source of it being a slightly microphonic plate.

iseverynamegone

My 2 Hentor sportscasters put together over the years. 


Body - Fender MIM Alder 
Neck - GSP basses Maple / Ebony
Pup - Oil City Nighter Fender MIM single coils
Bridge - NFT Floyd Rose 

why? Because it makes playing along to Moving Pictures a dream. 

Holds tune very well and the Neck is awesome. 

https://imgur.com/gallery/nEH5Z


Body - Fender MIM Alder 
Neck - Fender MIM Maple / RW
Pup - early 80s Bill Lawrence L500XL Fender MIM simgle coils
Bridge - locking Floyd Rose

why ? Because it makes playing along to Grace Under Pressure a dream. 


https://imgur.com/gallery/YRqfl

TTBZ

Mines like a budget version of @guitarfishbay !

No pics to hand at the minute but it's nothing to look at really. Squier neck, stripped and oiled body from my first ever guitar (jim harley strat copy), hipshot tuners, wilkinson bridge, SD custom 5 bridge pickup and one of the volume knobs off my old LP. If the neck was a bit thicker it'd actually be an ok backup guitar. I love the simplicity and its pretty comfy. I plan on eventually swapping the neck and body for something a bit better but then it won't really be the same guitar. 

GoldenEraGuitars

Wolfetone said:

proggy said:

Wolfetone said:

What is the exact spec of your Tele Partscaster and why?

Body=Swamp Ash one piece (sustain)
Neck=Quarter sawn maple, compound 10"-13", vintage frets, double action truss (stable for low action)
Hardware=All Gotoh, 18:1 machines, chromed  brass modern style bridge (sustain and stability)
Electrics=Scatter wound hand made pickups, 6.5kohms bridge/7.5kohms neck (just because they're hand wound)
Finish=Nitro neck/spray can body (next job - proper paint)
Action= On the deck with very little rattle

I play all bluesy stuff and all pentatonic. I play with a very light touch so can have everything set  close and low.

Did you spray the body yourself?

It actually looks really good, especially with that tort guard. Nice.

Yes but I want a professional finish in the same colour

Where abouts are you based? Got any close ups of the finish?

John_A

stimpsonslostson said:

  

That is lovely!!

Kebabkid

stickyfiddle said:

Tele / Cabronita

Body is ash, but semi-hollow like a 72 thinline, but without the f-hole because that would look a bit odd on a La Cab.
Neck is from USACG and is absolutely HUGE. Rosewood board over quartersawn maple with stainless 6105 (narrow/tall) frets. Basically trying to go closer to the Duo-Jet thing than a regular Cabronita Tele, while still obviosuly being a Tele.

I don't know if it's the quartersawn-ness or the hollowness, or the baseball bat size of the neck, or just a great pairing of neck & body where they resonate nicely together, but it absolutely *sings* acoustically. 

Classic/Classic+
Pots are BKP-special order CTS 550k, which I like as much for their low torque than the value & taper

Bridge is a Callaham hardtail (this was the test-bed before ordering the Callaham for the Strat above)Pickups are TV 
Tuners are locking Schallers with pearl buttons. I went for pearl as a minor nod toward John Mayer's black strat, but mostly cos they're pretty. Might switch for non-locking ones at some point, just to take away the smidge of neck dive it has (the heavy neck & hollow body sound great but ergonomically it's slightly annoying)

And credit to @WezV for the finish. Nitro body (checking courtesy of January 2013's snow) and his patented (not actually patented) tru-oil slurry neck finish. It's almost 5 years old and still fantastic.

That's just delicious!

Kebabkid

Mine started life, or at least when I acquired it used, as an MIM Black Strat, Maple neck, 3 X Gold Lace Sensors on a white scratchplate. Some of the MX serial number had been poorly erased and there was a fag burn on the headstock (no prizes for guessing what the original owner was trying to achieve).

All my work was done by Charlie Chandler and first off, I replaced the pickups. The Lace Sensors were spanky but quite sterile. I put in Fralin Blues with baseplates in the neck and middle positions (reverse wound) and a Seymour Duncan Little '59 in the bridge. The sound improved and it turned the guitar into a more versatile beast. The Fralins were quacky but had a little more output and girth and worked better with fx and overdrive and paired up really well with the Little 59.

To this day, I still don't like the look of the Little '59 against the other pickups (drastically different design and different shade of white) but it works and I'm a fan of the pickup. It''s an earlier version that was cloth/taped-bound and didn't have the full plastic casing - some think there's a difference between the two. This HB also differs as whilst it gives a good, strong HB lead tone, it seems to impart something of a single coil character.

Electrics - I went with Callaham cryogenics and I had the 2nd tone wired in just for the bridge pickup as I think that's more useful.

Trem/bridge - Callaham again and I believe this was probably the most significant and noticeable improvement to the guitar (in a good way) and it transformed it into a zingy piece. Set up well, there was enough travel in the trem to have some fun with it and it stayed relatively in tune, providing you didn't go absolutely nuts with it. It was an improvement over the Fender unit.

A pearloid scratchplate was also added but that was later replaced with an aged white one, which looked better.

After a while, I wasn't happy with the neck and traded it for a Fender CP 22 fret rosewood one, which I also preferred the look of. This also had a 12" radius and facilitated easier string bending. I kept the tuners from the original neck and put them on this one but at some point, I plan to put some vintage-looking locking tuners on this.

So, all that's left of the original is the body and tuners but I have a Fender Robert Cray that's nice and has a better neck and is also a hardtail and so I'm toying with cutting and chopping the 2 Strats to make one definitive one