Anyone ever built or modded a tele from some of these ebay parts?

V

VonBonfire

Well-known member
I must've crashed through a tan pants portal thanks to my old lady buying a tele and @mentoneman talking about Danny Gatton and tele tones so I started looking at cheap teles for a couch axe and then tele parts on ebay. Some of the links are probably too long so I'll avoid posting them but I'm seeing decent looking unsanded unfinished pine thinline bodies starting at $50 and pretty nice looking flamed maple and solid rosewood necks outta China for around $100. I'm guessing they aren't paying for licensing ala Warmoth plus using slave labor but even one of the tele bodies was under $150 advertising it as made to order in Texas. What gives?

Any experiences with this stuff? Not really worried about necks needing fret levels, nuts, or basics like that. I just don't want to get a hockey stick or a body with a geeked neck pocket if I went down this road....
 
japetus said:
Find a classic vibe tele for cheap, throw a couple pickups you dig in it and be done.
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I thought about that but a build would help me sharpen some of my mostly non-existent luthiery skills. Thinline classic vibes are about $500 and made of a wood called nyatoah or something, which didn't sound that appealing. I want a thinline cause all my other guitars have f-holes in them plus I like the idea of choosing all the parts, spending a few more bucks over the course of time, and having something better. I did it before with a strat and Fender n warmoth parts and it worked out well.
 
NeubyWanKaneuby said:
You should look for a kit. Some cheap ones here, and if you eff it up somehow, you're not out much.

https://www.leojaymz.com/search/cid/99.html
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I'm good at paint work and am fairly handy mechanically. I've put together a strat before using parts. I would rather buy parts and put them together myself and if necessary, have a luthier cut the nut and do a fret dressing. Have a look at a couple of these if you are inclined. Huge links but not sure how to fix that. It's to ebay parts.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2273495411...Y1sFQdn15inD9VQhUxsYngYTI=|tkp:Bk9SR9SR7-HJZw

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3583778280...lp:2332490&itmmeta=01KS8C41H8R1E70PFTDPW4FXSR
 
I've honestly thought about selling off my expensive stuff and just building a bunch of kits for fun. I was going to buy this Jem kit and see how well it works. I watched a video of a guy building the same kit and it turned out alright for being so little investment

https://www.leojaymz.com/goods-14.html.
 
NeubyWanKaneuby said:
I've honestly thought about selling off my expensive stuff and just building a bunch of kits for fun. I was going to buy this Jem kit and see how well it works. I watched a video of a guy building the same kit and it turned out alright for being so little investment

https://www.leojaymz.com/goods-14.html.
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That doesn't look bad at all. Not really my cup of tea guitar-wise but the basic layout seems decent. I'm just looking for something I can play on the couch at home or at jams so I don't need to be bringing my gigging axe to the luthier for fret dressing every year. Eventually I'll probably figure out how to do it myself or just move to stainless frets but that's a ways down the line. Plus, slapping together my own I get to choose all the accessories, pickups, tuners, etc. A little more money but a lot more guitar than just a classic vibe IMO. That's how I did my final Fender strat and it was CS quality for about $1500 in warmoth neck, klein pickups, fender body, and a GG&G case. Pretty sure I could spend half of that if those ebay parts are of reasonable quality...
 
VonBonfire said:
That doesn't look bad at all. Not really my cup of tea guitar-wise but the basic layout seems decent. I'm just looking for something I can play on the couch at home or at jams so I don't need to be bringing my gigging axe to the luthier for fret dressing every year. Eventually I'll probably figure out how to do it myself or just move to stainless frets but that's a ways down the line. Plus, slapping together my own I get to choose all the accessories, pickups, tuners, etc. A little more money but a lot more guitar than just a classic vibe IMO. That's how I did my final Fender strat and it was CS quality for about $1500 in warmoth neck, klein pickups, fender body, and a GG&G case. Pretty sure I could spend half of that if those ebay parts are of reasonable quality...
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Those bodies and necks on ebay looked really good. I'd think you'd have some good bones if their QC is on point.
 
NeubyWanKaneuby said:
Those bodies and necks on ebay looked really good. I'd think you'd have some good bones if their QC is on point.
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The chinese neck seller has about 120 sales and 100% feedback and the price seems like it's worth a gamble. I did find some canadian neck makers on reverb that were selling flamed necks for under $300 and there are other sources on ebay in the $200 range, even for solid rosewood.

I was pricing out a Warmoth neck of similar figured woods just for fun and the price is always north of $500. When I ordered a 3a birdseye from them in 2012 it was $500 and over four months of waiting for a finished neck...
 
VonBonfire said:
The chinese neck seller has about 120 sales and 100% feedback and the price seems like it's worth a gamble. I did find some canadian neck makers on reverb that were selling flamed necks for under $300 and there are other sources on ebay in the $200 range, even for solid rosewood.

I was pricing out a Warmoth neck of similar figured woods just for fun and the price is always north of $500. When I ordered a 3a birdseye from them in 2012 it was $500 and over four months of waiting for a finished neck...
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That was my pricing experience with Warmoth, which is why I bought the MIJ Strat I have now. By the time I got done building one, I'd have spent more than the MIJ one cost me.
 
NeubyWanKaneuby said:
That was my pricing experience with Warmoth, which is why I bought the MIJ Strat I have now. By the time I got done building one, I'd have spent more than the MIJ one cost me.
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I will say the neck I received was of outstanding quality and so was warmoth customer service. I sold the whole guitar for a little more than I had into the neck 😬 and learned my lesson never to dump too much dough into a partscaster unless you plan on keeping it forever. I guess at the time I did, but things changed and it was just sitting around in a case waiting to be stolen out of the trailer so I lost my ass instead.:LOL:
 
I'm looking for cheap stuff to learn on. Once I have some actual skills, I'll be more inclined to spend a bit more.
 
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