Parts for a...partscaster?

[Flying machine]

I'm tempted to try and put together some sort of homebrew partscaster (or whatever emerges) as I have a set of matched Bareknuckle SCs sitting around. I've seen some really lovely guitars put together and it makes me want to join in! I'd really like a very pippy birdseye maple neck, or some sort of similarly interesting and beautiful wood. Whilst I'm happy enough with finishing a body, I know that I can't do the neck and will have to buy a bolt on, which I would like to have a really tactile satin finish. I've been looking at ebay and have seen the occasional Fender neck come up, but it would be nice to get something more interesting and other suppliers seem to use what looks to be a fairly thick (and presumably sticky feeling) high gloss finish. Can anybody suggest anything please?

Also, please do post up any pictures and projects that are inspiring!

[languagetimothy]

Assume you looked at Northwest guitars website? They do all the bits you will need to build a guitar including an unfinished alder strat body. I haven’t used them for neck or bodies but I think I bought a strat loaded pickguard from them (was several years ago) put them in a god knows what body and added a Fender Mex neck. Painted the body myself with some nitro and gave it some abuse with blunt objects… it’s been gigged often and it’s pretty good through my Twin.

I’m tempted with their sunburst tele custom body as have a neck and other bits…

[singlecoil]

This will give you a satin clear finish

https://www.rapidpaints.co.uk/products/pro-xl-sati...

[Flying machine]

Thank you both, that's really helpful. I had looked at the Northwest guitars website. That strat looks great - my plan was to buy a random start body and neck, but I'm a little unsure if they'll fit well and work together without fettling, which might translate into a terribly playing guitar. The obvious advantage of buying fender bodies and necks is that they should play nicely together, but I may as well by a standard US strat and modify it, and I quite fancy trying something a bit different and more involving to construct - probably a bad idea!

I've seen some amazing birdseye maple necks in the states, which I'm really tempted to order along with a random ebay special body. One thing that is putting me off is that the necks I'm looking at have a truss rod adjuster at the body end of the neck ala classic strats. I've always had adjusters at the head end as the other looks like a bit of a nuisance to adjust unless I can ask for a wheel to be installed if done to order, a bit like some of the fender USA necks.

Any horror stories about unknown necks and bodies not fitting together properly?

[singlecoil]

I've come across a good many guitar bodies and necks that didn't really work well together, from all sorts of sources.

Usually the necks fit the bodies ok, but they sometimes don't line up very well with the bridge. If I'm assembling a guitar and the holes for the bridge haven't already been drilled I will fit the neck first, find the centreline and position the bridge to suit. Cotton thread is very useful for this, when I think the bridge is in the right place I'll stretch the cotton along the 6th string path and make sure it's not getting to near the edge of the fingerboard, then do the same for the 1st string path.

If you need to adjust the pitch angle of the neck I suggest cutting shims from thin plastic, then drilling holes in them to align with the neck to body screws, place the required number of shims located on the screws, that way they won't move while you are doing up the screws. I've seen all sorts of shims in neck cavities, usually bits of fag packet (NFG because it compresses) or guitar picks.

Doable but a bit fiddly.

[Ekona]

When I put together my Partscaster I bought quality electrics from various places, a decent looking neck from eBay, and then a random body that was on offer from GuitarBuild. I did the electrics myself, then took the body and neck to a local setup place to put it together and mount their supplied hardware to my spec as I wasn't feeling confident enough to do that myself (and tbh that was never something that interested me). I then took the guitar back and did all the painting, put it back together and gave it back to them for one quick setup and it was good to go.

Obviously not as ultimately satisfying as doing it all yourself, but at least I knew it would all work and most importantly feel right.

[oddball1313]

Charles guitars sell some nice aged hardware (metal and plastic) if you’re after a vintage look