Cheap way to build a guitar

  • Thread starter Thread starter Geo
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Yup....for sure! I have gotten some hard to find parts from the in the past as well. They are known for years by many around here. You can get some decent parts from them. It's like a legal chop shop!

As far as building, you mean putting together a guitar that someone else built?
Building a guitar is something entirely different and it is on a whole other level. People buying pre-made kits are not building. They are assembling. Again, there is nothing at all wrong with that, either. It's fun!
You just aren't building a guitar. Someone else did that for you.

I have been completing my Luthier's course since January and I quickly learned the difference!
A friend of mine got one of those kits from Solo music and showed me, "look, I built a guitar! "
I just smiled and said nicely done. Then he proceeded to ask me to level, dress and clean the fret ends for him. That was after I set the neck correctly for him.

I'm really not into building guitars but I really enjoy repairing/modifying them but this course have given me so many neat ideas and knowledge that I did not have before, not to mention a nice extra income in retirement that I was not expecting. I figured the best way to understand is to go right into how things are made and it sure was the right decision. I've been working on them since I started playing as a young kid but even I still have many tricks and techniques that I have learned now.
 
I am almost in the same boat, without the actual Luthier course.

Building necks and finishing guitars is the only thing I farm out. I don't have the time or equipment to do those kinds of things.
 
Geo said:
I am almost in the same boat, without the actual Luthier course.

Building necks and finishing guitars is the only thing I farm out. I don't have the time or equipment to do those kinds of things.
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Trust me....I am the same. I have some of the tools for that kind of work but like you, I don't want to invest in all of it. I have everything I need for repairing and some fabrication but not for building from scratch or painting and finishing. I'd do the partscaster thing as well if I wasn't doing this course.
 
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Stratosphere is awesome. There is a lot of awesome stuff out there. Anyone with access to a cnc machine can put out accurate parts these days.
Staining is my favorite part so I usually get unfinished bodies, but if I wanted a painted one I would definitely go stratosphere
 
Back in the late 1990's, Victor Litz used to sell Kramer guitar bodies, necks, Floyd Roses w/ Kramer logos and tuners w/ the Kramer logos.
They were surprisingly very good with no flaws at all .
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Then some guy on the old Kramer forum, gave Ed Roman a call about Victor Litz's purchases of old Kramer guitar parts .... so Ed Roman bought out the whole Kitten Cabootal of the necks, bodies, tuners, Floyd Roses and other Kramer goods .

Before that, you could buy an unfinished body for $ 25.00, a finished one for $ 35 to $ 40.00, necks for $45.00 .

And in true Ed Roman fashion, bodies are now $ 150.00 to $ 200.00, necks are through the roofs too .
 
Diary of a Axeman said:
Back in the late 1990's, Victor Litz used to sell Kramer guitar bodies, necks, Floyd Roses w/ Kramer logos and tuners w/ the Kramer logos.
They were surprisingly very good with no flaws at all .
View attachment 193603View attachment 193606

Then some guy on the old Kramer forum, gave Ed Roman a call about Victor Litz's purchases of old Kramer guitar parts .... so Ed Roman bought out the whole Kitten Cabootal of the necks, bodies, tuners, Floyd Roses and other Kramer goods .

Before that, you could buy an unfinished body for $ 25.00, a finished one for $ 35 to $ 40.00, necks for $45.00 .

And in true Ed Roman fashion, bodies are now $ 150.00 to $ 200.00, necks are through the roofs too .
Click to expand...
I have about 6 old Kramer Pacers, a Music Yo 1984 and an 80's Stagemaster. Oh, and 2 Kramer Acoustics, a Ferrington and an Explorer shaped one, I forgot the name of it.
 
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