How To - Your First Partscaster

Jalapeno · September 2013

OK - hit me with your wisdom ....

digitalscream · September 2013

Careful about neck pocket dimensions. My Squier Strat body, for example, is 57mm...but all the Mighty Mite necks are 55.5mm. Kinda makes a mess of things.

jd0272 · September 2013

Get a Humidity app on yer phone.

NEVER EVER EVER spray nitrocellulose lacquer in anything over 55% humidity.

And NEVER EVER EVER spray in a hurry just cause the % is finally 'in range', cause you'll fck it up, and have to painstakingly strip the bstad back.

Which is what I did last week.

jd0272 · September 2013

If you buy a body and neck from different suppliers, order the neck undrilled. I had to plug my lovely Musikraft neck holes as they were a fraction of a fraction out from the excellent body I got from member GSPBasses. My own fault.

jd0272 · September 2013

If buying costly tuners, make sure the diameter of the tuners matches the diameter of the holes in the headstock.

jd0272 · September 2013

Think outside the box. For example, if leaning towards a Blackguard Tele build, don't pay £50+ for a repro Bakelite scratchplate. Go on Evilbay, and a lovely man thousands of miles away will post you 2 pieces of Bakelite so you can make 2 guards, for approx £20.

jd0272 · September 2013

If you decide to 'age' metal stuff with etchant solution, Vaseline is your friend.

If the parts are threaded, for example a metal Tele knob, fill the screw hole with Vaseline, so the threads dont get etched.

If yer ageing Fender type Klusons, warm the Vaseline in a pan of hot water, get one of those baby medicine syringes, and inject the Vaseline into the wee holes in the tuner before it gets etchanted. I haven't quite worked out how to get the Vaseline out mind.

jd0272 · September 2013

If yer using wood that needs pore filled, get somebody else to do it, cause it's a right pain in the cock.

jd0272 · September 2013

Try homegrown UK pickups, excellent value for money.

Don't buy shit pickups.

Jalapeno · September 2013

Keep it coming - hows about videos, DVD and book recommends ?

jd0272 · September 2013

Always have alcohol in the house (preferably beer AND spirits), and if you smoke, a full pack, for when you make a stupid stupid mistake that yer cat could've avoided had you let yer cat do it.

jd0272 · September 2013

Buy a shed.

Best thing the wife's ever bought me.

I can store my 4x12's in it, do all manner of guitar related things in it with me tools, and sit on me chair in it, and have a stiff bourbon and a JPS black when I fck something up.

It's also useful when the Mrs is watching X-FactorPopIdolBritiain'sGotTalentDancingOnIceFatBirdsPoppingBabiesOutOfTheirFanniesOnTellyShitAboutVampiresAndGeordieFcknShore.

jd0272 · September 2013

It doesn't have to be expensive to be good/fit for purpose.

jd0272 · September 2013

Learn to use it, BEFORE you use it. Scraps of wood are your friend.

jd0272 · September 2013

Have good sex with your significant other on a regular basis, then she won't bitch her tits at you when you're sitting in your shed mourning the fck up you've just made with yer router.

Or just buy her shoes/boots/clothes.(You will need to make the effort to find out and write down somewhere her shoe size, waist size, dress size, and bust size however. You can write this in pencil on the inside of your shed).

jd0272 · September 2013

You WILL need more money than you think you need.

DrBob · September 2013

Inane t hing to say but measure not twice but three/four times probably go away have a fag/coffee & come back before drilling key things like neck holes & trem holes.

I'm currently looking at a Nitro finished Musikraft Strat body loaded with a Callaham trem which I bought for a pretty sweetheart price.
Except that when fitting the trem the previous owner drilled the trem holes on the p*** so much so that you can see the trem cavity in front of the plate where the tremolo arm goes in. It's fixable and even with the extra work I got very high quality parts for the price i paid but it is annoying

jd0272 · September 2013

Jalapeno said:

Keep it coming - hows about videos, DVD and book recommends ?

I think the Forums are the best learning resource going. Here, TDPRI, and My Les Paul do for me. TDPRI (Telecaster Dicussion Pages Reissue) and My Les Paul have excellent Luthier/Build sections. (MLP especially).

Megii · September 2013

I would echo what digitalscream says re the neck fit. The parts builds I've done have all used bodies from www.guitarbuild.co.uk - Phil there is able to make you a body with the neck pocket exactly matched to the neck dimensions. On my current build, I took him up on this, and posted the neck to him. When he posted the new body (plus my neck) back to me, the fit is absolutely perfect, really impressive.

Other things I can think of - do your research re all the parts and hardware you will be using - there are supposedly standard dimensions for certain things, but in practice there is massive variation. Stuff like pickup pole spacings, pickup depth (some pickups are too deep to fit in the routings on a vintage style strat body for example) saddle spacings, mounting hole positions, could go on... Really just do everything you can to ensure that all the bits you buy will work together - I think it makes the actual building of the guitar so much easier and better.

Unless you have a suitable drill press, get a body which has the neck bolt holes, also any string-thru body holes, pre-drilled. These need to be absolutely straight and accurate, and that's impossible to achieve with a hand-held drill.

In general, what works for me is not to be in a hurry - I accept from the outset that the build will take me a fair amount of my time, and last for a couple of months at least. Be fussy about the details - imo this can make the difference in terms of getting a great quality, impressive result.

jd0272 · September 2013

Google is your friend.

BUT!!!!!!!!! Be very careful what you watch on Youtube, there are some proper fckn idiots out there who reckon they know what they're doing, but clearly don't.

Megii · September 2013

Yep, there are idiots on Youtube, agree with that, but also some good advice too.

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How To - Your First Partscaster

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