For me this Is so true! Call me crazy, i would never change my partscaster for a custom shop either. Why? Because I LOVE IT SOOO MUTCH! As i would never change my wife with any top model worldwide. Because i love her!
As a tradesman across multiple disciplines, i appreciate all the pro tips. It takes years to learn all these types of techniques without a pro sharing what they learned the hard way. Even in my apprenticeships, i rarely had journeymen so willing to help a newb make professional choices
A friend of mine taught a soldering course for the USAF. I took his class, and one major takeaway, briefly addressed in this video during the jack plate install, is to ALWAYS crimp your wire for a solder joint. Make a good mechanical connection, then flux and solder as per normal. The likelihood of a cold solder joint (not shiney when cooled) goes down considerably, and it will help you manage gilding everything together while soldering....as often we wish for a 3rd hand. Also, tinning your wire and the connection point gelp make professional results. Merely flux and put a dab of solder on each connection before you connect them
This is the best THE BEST video tutorial on building a guitar on TH-cam. The Most educational and informative video on TH-cam. And trust me I have seen many guitar builds.
@@stewmac hi I'm trying to build a telecaster and the neck I'm buying does not have the holes in it what size drill bit do I need for the neck holes and also what size drill bit to put the pick guard .... The body I'm buying only has the cutouts for the electronics and also holes where the strings goes through in the back . can let me know what drill bits I would need. And if I can I would send a picture of the body. ?
This video is a complete course on not only building a partscaster or kit but also setting up any guitar. Very detailed and easy to follow! This this is pure gold!
I've built dozens of partscasters thus far and I was enthralled by this video. It's always fun to brush up on the essentials and even pick up a few new ways of doing things as well. Great content as always.
This has to be the BEST guitar build/setup video I have ever watched. Clear explanations and demonstrations, chapters for each step, loads of "tips" for getting around potential problems. Great job StewMac! 👍👍👍
StewMac produced videos are so pleasing to watch. First I thought it was the way Dan Erlewine spoke. But I noticed that all the people who appear in StewMac videos have this very pleasing to the ear way of speaking. So props to the Dans and also to the producers, especially the editor. You make the best videos, and I really enjoyed the music for the "Wiring the control plate" section.
Back in the day of paper cataloges I called stewmac with questions. I asked to speak with Dan and believe it or not he picked up. He was a gentleman and patiently answered my questions. He is one cool guy without the ego. That was back in the 1980's. I am still at it and still appreciate people like Dan.
I'm currently modding a Tele (everything except the body and neck), and this video was THE MOST detailed I've seen... I'm out of words... Just awesome! Thank you!
Thank you for this very comprehensive guide! This is the final nudge I needed to finally buy a DIY tele kit with confidence! I just hope your pharmaceuticals sales haven't suffered too much while you were focusing on guitars
Wow, and then Dan shows up. I learned from his books. Thanks for all the tips. I started building electric guitars when I was a kid. 1973 I was 14. The body shop at the local Chevy dealer painted my bodies. Fenders were easy to assemble. Your methods and techniques have a lot more finesse then the way we used to do it. Thank you for the lesson. Excellent video.
We like them too, they take a lot longer to make though. We have several more in our queue, as well as a few projects that will be multi part series. 😎
Start to finish. No dull moments. Even though the actual wiring for the pick ups selection were not shown (trade secret), one can get the feel of how it is to do wiring on a guitar. It is very satisfying. Once the guitar was plugged in and works, so precious.
Man, you just cant dislike this awesome video. So completed! He even makes examples of worst scenarios we may meet to teach us how to deal with. Thank you sir!
Viewed this video and was very impressed in several ways. The man in the video spoke very clearly and precisely. The assembly was nicely done and the results were fantastic.
This is very cool! I've never built one and am getting excited about doing it. Appreciate you guys spending the the time to produce this. The editing was long and tedious on something this length. That's what I do for a living and appreciate the job you guys did on shooting, producing and editing. Its very well done. Kudos! Thanks for making this.
Did you do it? :) I have found that working on guitars/basses you need to have a similar approach like in kit model building, kind of. It's a mixture of woodworking and model building approaches and skills.
I recently tried my first time at guitar modding with a complete hardware refresh and this video came in handy! I now have a p90 strat with a tune-o-matic. Love this video 👍👍
I don't know If I will ever make a guitar by myself, but what I do know is that I learned so much about and electric guitar from this vedio, the parts, the alignments, the connection all that was a great stuff!
I’ve searched for days to find a video like this, thank you! I’ve got all the parts in the post for my very first project next week. Nervous and excited all at the same time!!
thanks for doing this step by step video, it answers so many of those little questions i have never seen answered in guitar build videos before. extremely helpful. now i feel confident to start my own oartacaster build.
Thank you so much for all the info!! What a great video!! So i just turned 40, and I played for a year or so as a teen then my immature impatience took over. Now I’ve got back into playing guitar and it’s been so much fun and has been great for the soul/well being! Videos like this and all the other amazing guitar/gear channels on TH-cam have made this round of playing guitar so much more user friendly and informative!! I just received a seafoam green bullet Tele today and I’m going to do my first partscaster (HotRodcaster) 😜 and this video will help immensely!!! Thanks again for all the great videos and Info all you guys share!
That was the most informative guitar build and set-up video I have ever watched. I have a frankencaster... looks like a 70's strat (with a drop-dead gorgeous 2 tone sunburst body and a very less than average maple neck with the big 70's headstock) but it has no identifying marks whatsoever. I've owned it for 36 years (actually it was my first guitar!). After gathering dust for a very long time I decided to have a go at making it into a nice guitar... electrical clean-up, neck relief, fret leveling and filing the sharp edges, action, intonation, and it's already way better than it ever was before. I can't swap the neck out for a nice new one sadly as the neck pocket on the body is non-standard. Nothing will fit apart from the one its got. So new pickups next... and maybe a refret and take the laquer off the fretboard while I'm at it. Now I've watched your video I may have another go at the neck relief and action... Thank you!
Oh great…I’m already so time poor … and yet you have enthused me so much that I have to add a partscaster to my workload. I thought this video would offer me nothing new. How wrong I was. Excellent. Excellent. Excellent.
I've been planning to build my next guitar, and this has been the video I've seen with lots of great tips on issues that I hadn't considered before. I particularly appreciated the segment on electronics, which is the part that is scaring me the most. Great video, Thanks!
Around 23:23 when you put the screw into the body the hole should be a tight clearance hole. If there are enough threads in the body that hold the screws very tightly, then the neck will not be correctly fastened to the body.
There's so much good information I hadn't even considered in this video and so much I didn't know. I had 2 buillds turn into 3 and then 4 because I kept swapping out parts or didn't want nice hardware gathering dust, and didn't plan ahead. I finally decided to do a baritone offset tele, a early 60s strat, a strat modded to the gills and a more conventional tele (with specs to be determined).
Excellent video you do everything I do on my build except I use copper shield inside the pickup cavities and the control cavity and I use a puretone output jack. You are very informative and you built a very beautiful guitar
I'm in the process of building a Stew Mac kit. I've finished the neck (fretwork, finish, tuner installation) and am working on the wiring. I'm replacing all the guts (new pots, pickups, output jack, and toggle switch). I had to shave the pickguard to get the bridge humbucker to fit since it has a chrome cover vs the original which was uncovered. So it's solder and test components, stain the body, and assemble. Looking forward to completion!
When I assembled a baritone Jazzmaster partscaster I was hooked. Did a 2000s jazz bass body with a sadowsky preamp and 70’s jazz neck from allparts. Beats anything off the assembly line!
Watching this back over a second time. Originally it was just an interesting video but this time I’ve finished a Strat body and neck and am ready to build
Stewmac for president(s)!! Just love these videos! I have started to build my first guitar, a telecaster, and went in here to get more education and information about different things. Now I can finish my guitar with confidence. SNUG is my new word to use when I build guitars from now on! THANKS as always! Robert Sweden
Great video post by Dan Petrzelka and StewMac. The only thing I would add is: 1. Bundle all the parts and weigh the assemblage. That way if you can route under the pickguard area to reduce weight. 2. Copper foil cover the routing (bottom and sides) and the underside of the pickguard. Make sure all the foil is electrically connected by leaving little tabs for contact and add a soldered copper ground wire connected to ground. This assures hum cancellation.
Amazing video with all the chapters - it's been thirty years or more since I built/modified a guitar. I really want to build a custom Tele and modify two of my Strats this video will be invaluable ✌️👍💜😊
Only side note I'd toss in there, which someone else may already have said, is to test your pickups and connections before setting all the screws. By plugging in the guitar and lightly tapping on the pickups. I've done a few mods and switched guts on a few guitars, it is a huge pain to have to unscrew the pickguard when you find something is not right after having put it all back together! This video was awesome and perfect timing as I have been thinking on building a partcaster.... Thanks for showing how it's done!
What sucks more is when it works before you screw it all in and then it doesn't work once you get that last screw installed 🤣 It happened on my Tele. I guess the switch cavity was too shallow for the 4 way switch I installed. If I backed the top switch plate screw out by 1 turn, it worked fine 🤣👍 I bought a router base for my Dremel so I could route the cavity deeper for the switch but I never did. That screw is still 1 turn loose lol
I have no interest in building a guitar. I have no idea how I got here - but MAN did I love this video. From beginning to end I really felt like I learned a lot and you spoke to me as an absolute know nothing and I know you are speaking to others who know things. Thank you.
Excellent video! You inspired me to build my own Tele! 🤗 I am filling my shopping cart @ Stew Mac while I watch this video. Yes, a 3-saddle bridge is more challenging to intonate than a modern 6-saddle. But, the three-saddle design allows the "partner string" on the shared saddle to resonate when the other string on that saddle is plucked. This contributes to that "Tele-twang" we all know and love! 🤗
My Stratocaster is only the second one I've owned. The first was a Selder, and this second one started as a Squier Bullet I bought in a thrift shop in Japan. At that point I had only been playing guitar about four months but I've been a musician since I was eight. There are just as many options on a sax, but I never got into customizing the vintage tenor probably because it was a top of the line instrument when I bought it, so it was more about what I could mess up rather than what I could upgrade. But the Squier, every part could be changed out, and over the next two years I changed everything but the body. In the beginning I was determined to make it 100% Fender, Made in the USA parts, but that very quickly changed as I learned. I'm originally a ski and bicycle mechanic, so I already had some skills. But guitars are a whole other set of tools. First thing I did was change the tuning machines to Fender locking tuners. I think when you don't know which one is best, choose the standard, but I also wanted those Fender logos on everything at first. This is when I first learned everything on a Squier is 2mm smaller, so I had to ream the holes and also add two more little holes for the posts that hold them in place. This wasn't all that different from skis, but I was still nervous about it, made a big mess, fixed the mess the same as I would do on skis, and finally got them in. Next I changed the nut and bridge saddles to GraphTech. So already I had three sets of part that weren't made in the USA, but I got over it because all the parts were top of the line, which was my real goal. All in all, I spent over a thousand dollars on parts, and probably a few hundred on tools. Many of the parts are Fender, but far from all of them. My guitar has parts from about ten different countries. When you DIY it you can really nuance the tone. A lot of people think it's all about the pickups, but that's absolute nonsense. If that were true, then you could put Stratocaster pickups in a Les Paul and it would sound like a Stratocaster. That's obviously wrong. Every part matters. Eliminating pot metal for example, and getting a quality roasted maple neck that's a bit wider were both huge differences. I changed the block, switched out the claw and springs in the back to big brass ones, and those made obvious differences in tone, as did literally everything else. Even fresh strings sound different (mine are 10 to 52 and it makes a very big difference). On a sax, even the lacquer and the material the mouthpiece is made of makes a difference, so this was obvious to me. I leveled and crowned the frets, rolled the edges, and most importantly have played the crap out of this thing. Any instrument, if it's well played, and played a lot, that's way better than a fresh from the factory instrument. Especially if it's you who put that wear and tear on it, it's custom. The last thing I did was change the neck plate to one which says 'Fender, Corona, California' not because I wanted to fake it, but because that's what inspired me to build an even better guitar than I could order from the Custom Shop.
It's always satisfying to watch a build. About 18 years ago I did one of those really cheap ebay Strat kits with an unfinished body and neck, and the neck was just a paddle, but with the tuners drilled - as was the bridge and the neck bolt holes. I used Re-Ranch nitro in Fiesta Red. It didn't turn out too bad. I only wanted it for wall art, but the body looks so good, is fairly light, and I don't have a red Strat, so just a few days ago, I swapped out the cheap electronics for some nice innards w/ Fender Fat 50s and from another guitar. For now, I polished the frets, it's got a good setup and it obviously is a drastic improvement. Next will be a nice neck. Will be interested to see where it ends up in the pecking order of my 'too many Strats' collection. Anyway, doing your own build is really satisfying, just plain fun, and reminds you of the true genius of Leo Fender - the inter-changeability of basically everything! So far ahead of its time. Just amazing. All this being said, you still never know what it's going to end up as. Some guitars just have that "it" factor that are greater than the sum of their parts. As I just heard Satch say, "lots of 50s Fenders and guitars like '59 Les Pauls sucked.". CNC changed the game forever.
Agreed - but more importantly, just avoid using steel wool around electric guitars and you don't have to worry about any ferrous metals attaching to the pickup magnets.
I love to build my own partscasters because the guitar has everything that I want and dont want. When installing the string ferrels I use a small rubber mallot,that way no damage to the ferrel the finish or the body occurs. My partscasters are my favorite guitars by far,they have that special feel that cannot be obtained by buying a "shelf guitar". Great video👍
Your choice of riffs is right down my alley! I really appreciated the Three Dog Night stuff. I stopped in to check out RS Guitarworks not even looking to buy anything but ended up putting a down payment on a KV silver sparkle slab so waiting like a kid at Christmas
16:34 A trick I use for sizing drill bits is to use a small piece of scrap wood, drive the screw in without drilling a hole, then take your bit and finger press it into the screw hole. The correct bit will have minimal resistance without wobbling when set all the way into the hole.
You’ll never love a guitar more than a partscaster you assembled yourself !
I have a lot of partcasters but I love my firefly G3 copy the best it plays like butter. Action is so low.
I have 3 I've put together my favorite guitars
For me this Is so true! Call me crazy, i would never change my
partscaster for a custom shop either. Why? Because I LOVE IT SOOO MUTCH! As i would never change my wife with any top model worldwide. Because i love her!
I fully agree. Love mine.
Just finished my first and I already have it in my will to be buried with it.
As a tradesman across multiple disciplines, i appreciate all the pro tips. It takes years to learn all these types of techniques without a pro sharing what they learned the hard way. Even in my apprenticeships, i rarely had journeymen so willing to help a newb make professional choices
A friend of mine taught a soldering course for the USAF. I took his class, and one major takeaway, briefly addressed in this video during the jack plate install, is to ALWAYS crimp your wire for a solder joint. Make a good mechanical connection, then flux and solder as per normal. The likelihood of a cold solder joint (not shiney when cooled) goes down considerably, and it will help you manage gilding everything together while soldering....as often we wish for a 3rd hand. Also, tinning your wire and the connection point gelp make professional results. Merely flux and put a dab of solder on each connection before you connect them
Buy a quality set of "helping hands". You'll have up to 6 extra hands.
This is the best THE BEST video tutorial on building a guitar on TH-cam. The Most educational and informative video on TH-cam. And trust me I have seen many guitar builds.
Really appreciate the way they show how to make some of the tools with inexpensive materials instead of just pushing more products. Much respect.
Best tutorial for a guitarbuild out there!
Built my parts caster over 20 years ago with Stew Mac parts still my favorite.
SO glad to hear it!
The timing of this video couldn't be more perfect! I'm working on a parts caster right now!
Killer! Good luck with your build! Hope this video can be of help.
Me too!
@@stewmac hi I'm trying to build a telecaster and the neck I'm buying does not have the holes in it what size drill bit do I need for the neck holes and also what size drill bit to put the pick guard .... The body I'm buying only has the cutouts for the electronics and also holes where the strings goes through in the back . can let me know what drill bits I would need. And if I can I would send a picture of the body. ?
This video is a complete course on not only building a partscaster or kit but also setting up any guitar. Very detailed and easy to follow! This this is pure gold!
Thank you, so happy you found it useful
I've built dozens of partscasters thus far and I was enthralled by this video. It's always fun to brush up on the essentials and even pick up a few new ways of doing things as well. Great content as always.
Glad you enjoyed it!
in
as someone who has experience in building partcaster, could you tell me, is it possible to build a les paul junior dc with a strat neck?
I don't think instructional videos get any better than this. 10/10. THANK YOU!
thank you
This is by far the best video on guitar building I have ever watched!
Thank you!
What a create quality video. Dan, you’re a natural teacher. This is how you get the telecaster you really want.
This has to be the BEST guitar build/setup video I have ever watched. Clear explanations and demonstrations, chapters for each step, loads of "tips" for getting around potential problems. Great job StewMac! 👍👍👍
Thanks! Glad it was helpful!
I've been building and repairing guitars for over 20 years and I will say, this is a great video! Very thorough!
Every single guitar player should watch this video. So good !!! Kudos to this guy!! I stopped missing Dan for a while 😁
This is without a doubt one of the best setup videos ever made. Kudos Stew Mac. Great tools, great videos.
Glad you liked it! Thanks for the comment.
StewMac produced videos are so pleasing to watch. First I thought it was the way Dan Erlewine spoke. But I noticed that all the people who appear in StewMac videos have this very pleasing to the ear way of speaking. So props to the Dans and also to the producers, especially the editor. You make the best videos, and I really enjoyed the music for the "Wiring the control plate" section.
Thanks so much. We really appreciate your comment! We try to put a lot of love into these videos. Cheers!
Back in the day of paper cataloges I called stewmac with questions. I asked to speak with Dan and believe it or not he picked up. He was a gentleman and patiently answered my questions. He is one cool guy without the ego. That was back in the 1980's. I am still at it and still appreciate people like Dan.
Couldn't believe I watched the whole vid in one sitting, this was a great video
I'm currently modding a Tele (everything except the body and neck), and this video was THE MOST detailed I've seen... I'm out of words... Just awesome! Thank you!
That’s awesome! So glad it helped!
This is the way to show how to do things....clear as clear water. Great demo video indeed !!!!
Thank you for this very comprehensive guide! This is the final nudge I needed to finally buy a DIY tele kit with confidence!
I just hope your pharmaceuticals sales haven't suffered too much while you were focusing on guitars
Wow, and then Dan shows up.
I learned from his books.
Thanks for all the tips.
I started building electric guitars when I was a kid. 1973 I was 14. The body shop at the local Chevy dealer painted my bodies. Fenders were easy to assemble. Your methods and techniques have a lot more finesse then the way we used to do it. Thank you for the lesson. Excellent video.
I absolutely love these longer videos! Please do more! Thank you StewMac!
We like them too, they take a lot longer to make though. We have several more in our queue, as well as a few projects that will be multi part series. 😎
@@stewmac 🤟😝🤟❤️🎸
Start to finish. No dull moments. Even though the actual wiring for the pick ups selection were not shown (trade secret), one can get the feel of how it is to do wiring on a guitar.
It is very satisfying. Once the guitar was plugged in and works, so precious.
This is the best instructional video I have ever seen. You make me want to build my own partscaster and I dont even need one. Thanks
best solder job I've seen done in many a year
Man, you just cant dislike this awesome video. So completed! He even makes examples of worst scenarios we may meet to teach us how to deal with. Thank you sir!
I love how excited he gets about guitars!
Good work.
Finally someone who can solder and uses good quality tools.
keep it up thanks.
This is the most informative build video on the tube.
He’s so passionate about luthiery.
Really enjoyed the video!
Thanks!
Viewed this video and was very impressed in several ways. The man in the video spoke very clearly and precisely. The assembly was nicely done and the results were fantastic.
Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it!
Great instructional video with a fantastic host. What a beautiful guitar. Thanks!
This is very cool! I've never built one and am getting excited about doing it. Appreciate you guys spending the the time to produce this. The editing was long and tedious on something this length. That's what I do for a living and appreciate the job you guys did on shooting, producing and editing. Its very well done. Kudos! Thanks for making this.
Really appreciate the feedback! It definitely takes some hours making it happen, as you know, but it's also a ton of fun. Good luck on your build!
Did you do it? :)
I have found that working on guitars/basses you need to have a similar approach like in kit model building, kind of. It's a mixture of woodworking and model building approaches and skills.
@@janneboman8573 not yet. Been really busy with work. Soon!
Reverse engineer a stratocaster
Fantastic video! I just finished my partscaster tele yesterday! The StewMac videos with the Driftwood guys helped me refinish the body!
Huge congrats to you! We're so glad these series have been helpful resources. Enjoy your new tele!
I recently tried my first time at guitar modding with a complete hardware refresh and this video came in handy! I now have a p90 strat with a tune-o-matic. Love this video 👍👍
I don't know If I will ever make a guitar by myself, but what I do know is that I learned so much about and electric guitar from this vedio, the parts, the alignments, the connection all that was a great stuff!
I’ve searched for days to find a video like this, thank you! I’ve got all the parts in the post for my very first project next week. Nervous and excited all at the same time!!
I was just about to built a complete telecaster myself, and this was just the video I needed!! THANK YOU SO MUCH
Killer! Hope it can be of use to you. Good luck with your tele build!
@@stewmac thanks a lot! already started with the neck, going for a matt black finish. hope my vision checks out!
I have 3 guitars, 2 are "Fenders" and they came out great! I started building them to get the specs I wanted and am glad I took the plunge.
thanks for doing this step by step video, it answers so many of those little questions i have never seen answered in guitar build videos before. extremely helpful. now i feel confident to start my own oartacaster build.
Awesome! Best of luck with your build!
Been loving these in depth long form tutorials you guys have been putting out lately
Thanks.
That was an hour and ten minutes of pure joy . An incredibly well produced and thought out build video...
Thank you so much for all the info!! What a great video!! So i just turned 40, and I played for a year or so as a teen then my immature impatience took over. Now I’ve got back into playing guitar and it’s been so much fun and has been great for the soul/well being! Videos like this and all the other amazing guitar/gear channels on TH-cam have made this round of playing guitar so much more user friendly and informative!! I just received a seafoam green bullet Tele today and I’m going to do my first partscaster (HotRodcaster) 😜 and this video will help immensely!!! Thanks again for all the great videos and Info all you guys share!
most educational video ever. Especially the setup is the most valliuable for me.
this is the best video about putting a parts caster guitar everybody should watch this video
Thanks so much! Really appreciate that.
That was the most informative guitar build and set-up video I have ever watched. I have a frankencaster... looks like a 70's strat (with a drop-dead gorgeous 2 tone sunburst body and a very less than average maple neck with the big 70's headstock) but it has no identifying marks whatsoever. I've owned it for 36 years (actually it was my first guitar!). After gathering dust for a very long time I decided to have a go at making it into a nice guitar... electrical clean-up, neck relief, fret leveling and filing the sharp edges, action, intonation, and it's already way better than it ever was before. I can't swap the neck out for a nice new one sadly as the neck pocket on the body is non-standard. Nothing will fit apart from the one its got. So new pickups next... and maybe a refret and take the laquer off the fretboard while I'm at it. Now I've watched your video I may have another go at the neck relief and action... Thank you!
Oh great…I’m already so time poor … and yet you have enthused me so much that I have to add a partscaster to my workload.
I thought this video would offer me nothing new. How wrong I was. Excellent. Excellent. Excellent.
I've been planning to build my next guitar, and this has been the video I've seen with lots of great tips on issues that I hadn't considered before. I particularly appreciated the segment on electronics, which is the part that is scaring me the most. Great video, Thanks!
what an amazing presentation
this is what I've been needing for my Stewmac Telecaster kit I've been putting off building
You make that wiring look so clean and easy. Kudos!
Thank you.
Seriously. That wiring was a work of art. 🤯
@@Snowness thank you, I do try to take my time making the layouts clean and beautiful.
Around 23:23 when you put the screw into the body the hole should be a tight clearance hole. If there are enough threads in the body that hold the screws very tightly, then the neck will not be correctly fastened to the body.
There's so much good information I hadn't even considered in this video and so much I didn't know. I had 2 buillds turn into 3 and then 4 because I kept swapping out parts or didn't want nice hardware gathering dust, and didn't plan ahead. I finally decided to do a baritone offset tele, a early 60s strat, a strat modded to the gills and a more conventional tele (with specs to be determined).
Thanks for an awesome video. Super informative and very well presented!
Excellent video you do everything I do on my build except I use copper shield inside the pickup cavities and the control cavity and I use a puretone output jack. You are very informative and you built a very beautiful guitar
I'm in the process of building a Stew Mac kit. I've finished the neck (fretwork, finish, tuner installation) and am working on the wiring. I'm replacing all the guts (new pots, pickups, output jack, and toggle switch). I had to shave the pickguard to get the bridge humbucker to fit since it has a chrome cover vs the original which was uncovered. So it's solder and test components, stain the body, and assemble. Looking forward to completion!
Sounds awesome! Good luck with the rest of the build!
@@stewmac thanks!
Great looking Tele!!! and Dan Erlewine is so cool!!!, stay up until the end guys!!
I didn't know I could ever watch the entire video.That was great information.
When I assembled a baritone Jazzmaster partscaster I was hooked. Did a 2000s jazz bass body with a sadowsky preamp and 70’s jazz neck from allparts. Beats anything off the assembly line!
Watching this back over a second time. Originally it was just an interesting video but this time I’ve finished a Strat body and neck and am ready to build
One day when I have a workspace large enough.. I will come back to this video haha. But it's fun to watch anyway. Very informative
Dude. You the Bob Ross of guitars. So calming 😌 😆
This is so relaxing and cool. Partscasters are so rewarding.
Stewmac for president(s)!! Just love these videos! I have started to build my first guitar, a telecaster, and went in here to get more education and information about different things. Now I can finish my guitar with confidence. SNUG is my new word to use when I build guitars from now on! THANKS as always!
Robert
Sweden
What an amazing Video of the technique in building a Partscaster! Applause, Applause 👏 👏 👏 Congratulations 🎉
Wow, what a video. This must have taken a tonne of work. Thanks for making this for us!
Great video post by Dan Petrzelka and StewMac. The only thing I would add is:
1. Bundle all the parts and weigh the assemblage. That way if you can route under the pickguard area to reduce weight.
2. Copper foil cover the routing (bottom and sides) and the underside of the pickguard. Make sure all the foil is electrically connected by leaving little tabs for contact and add a soldered copper ground wire connected to ground. This assures hum cancellation.
One of the most interesting and informative vids I've seen on TH-cam. Loved it!!
Amazing video with all the chapters - it's been thirty years or more since I built/modified a guitar. I really want to build a custom Tele and modify two of my Strats this video will be invaluable ✌️👍💜😊
That's great! Good luck and have fun!
@@stewmac 😊💜👍✌️
Wow! I was riveted to the screen the entire time! Just amazing!😊
Thank you
LOL I am at 22 minutes and totally hooked on this vid.
most detailed and informative video. Thank you very much, sir.
On the fence on doing my own build, this pushed me over. Great job.
Go for it! It's such a fun project.
Fantastic! Definitly gonna built a partcaster following precisely your instructions. Thanks a lot for this masterwork of video!
Only side note I'd toss in there, which someone else may already have said, is to test your pickups and connections before setting all the screws. By plugging in the guitar and lightly tapping on the pickups. I've done a few mods and switched guts on a few guitars, it is a huge pain to have to unscrew the pickguard when you find something is not right after having put it all back together! This video was awesome and perfect timing as I have been thinking on building a partcaster.... Thanks for showing how it's done!
What sucks more is when it works before you screw it all in and then it doesn't work once you get that last screw installed 🤣
It happened on my Tele. I guess the switch cavity was too shallow for the 4 way switch I installed. If I backed the top switch plate screw out by 1 turn, it worked fine 🤣👍
I bought a router base for my Dremel so I could route the cavity deeper for the switch but I never did. That screw is still 1 turn loose lol
I have no interest in building a guitar. I have no idea how I got here - but MAN did I love this video. From beginning to end I really felt like I learned a lot and you spoke to me as an absolute know nothing and I know you are speaking to others who know things. Thank you.
Wow, thanks! Glad you found your way here 😊
Excellent video! You inspired me to build my own Tele! 🤗
I am filling my shopping cart @ Stew Mac while I watch this video.
Yes, a 3-saddle bridge is more challenging to intonate than a modern 6-saddle.
But, the three-saddle design allows the "partner string" on the shared saddle to resonate when the other string on that saddle is plucked. This contributes to that "Tele-twang" we all know and love! 🤗
Bloody brilliant loads of help and tips I would not have thought of. I’m building my first tele parts caster at the moment so thank you very much 😄
Great guide, I have some experience with partscasters but I didn't know some of your tricks
Nice and snug! :D Your soldering job was awesome, might guess you did this once before. And you're such a nice person, i enjoyed every minute of it.
This is an absolutely top video. I definitely want to make a partscaster now. 🙏
My Stratocaster is only the second one I've owned. The first was a Selder, and this second one started as a Squier Bullet I bought in a thrift shop in Japan.
At that point I had only been playing guitar about four months but I've been a musician since I was eight. There are just as many options on a sax, but I never got into customizing the vintage tenor probably because it was a top of the line instrument when I bought it, so it was more about what I could mess up rather than what I could upgrade. But the Squier, every part could be changed out, and over the next two years I changed everything but the body.
In the beginning I was determined to make it 100% Fender, Made in the USA parts, but that very quickly changed as I learned.
I'm originally a ski and bicycle mechanic, so I already had some skills. But guitars are a whole other set of tools.
First thing I did was change the tuning machines to Fender locking tuners. I think when you don't know which one is best, choose the standard, but I also wanted those Fender logos on everything at first. This is when I first learned everything on a Squier is 2mm smaller, so I had to ream the holes and also add two more little holes for the posts that hold them in place. This wasn't all that different from skis, but I was still nervous about it, made a big mess, fixed the mess the same as I would do on skis, and finally got them in.
Next I changed the nut and bridge saddles to GraphTech. So already I had three sets of part that weren't made in the USA, but I got over it because all the parts were top of the line, which was my real goal.
All in all, I spent over a thousand dollars on parts, and probably a few hundred on tools. Many of the parts are Fender, but far from all of them. My guitar has parts from about ten different countries.
When you DIY it you can really nuance the tone. A lot of people think it's all about the pickups, but that's absolute nonsense. If that were true, then you could put Stratocaster pickups in a Les Paul and it would sound like a Stratocaster. That's obviously wrong. Every part matters. Eliminating pot metal for example, and getting a quality roasted maple neck that's a bit wider were both huge differences. I changed the block, switched out the claw and springs in the back to big brass ones, and those made obvious differences in tone, as did literally everything else. Even fresh strings sound different (mine are 10 to 52 and it makes a very big difference). On a sax, even the lacquer and the material the mouthpiece is made of makes a difference, so this was obvious to me.
I leveled and crowned the frets, rolled the edges, and most importantly have played the crap out of this thing. Any instrument, if it's well played, and played a lot, that's way better than a fresh from the factory instrument. Especially if it's you who put that wear and tear on it, it's custom.
The last thing I did was change the neck plate to one which says 'Fender, Corona, California' not because I wanted to fake it, but because that's what inspired me to build an even better guitar than I could order from the Custom Shop.
It's always satisfying to watch a build. About 18 years ago I did one of those really cheap ebay Strat kits with an unfinished body and neck, and the neck was just a paddle, but with the tuners drilled - as was the bridge and the neck bolt holes. I used Re-Ranch nitro in Fiesta Red. It didn't turn out too bad. I only wanted it for wall art, but the body looks so good, is fairly light, and I don't have a red Strat, so just a few days ago, I swapped out the cheap electronics for some nice innards w/ Fender Fat 50s and from another guitar. For now, I polished the frets, it's got a good setup and it obviously is a drastic improvement. Next will be a nice neck. Will be interested to see where it ends up in the pecking order of my 'too many Strats' collection.
Anyway, doing your own build is really satisfying, just plain fun, and reminds you of the true genius of Leo Fender - the inter-changeability of basically everything! So far ahead of its time. Just amazing.
All this being said, you still never know what it's going to end up as. Some guitars just have that "it" factor that are greater than the sum of their parts. As I just heard Satch say, "lots of 50s Fenders and guitars like '59 Les Pauls sucked.". CNC changed the game forever.
Thanks for a great video! I would just tape up the pickups if I do any work to avoid iron filings on the magnets.
Agreed - but more importantly, just avoid using steel wool around electric guitars and you don't have to worry about any ferrous metals attaching to the pickup magnets.
I love to build my own partscasters because the guitar has everything that I want and dont want. When installing the string ferrels I use a small rubber mallot,that way no damage to the ferrel the finish or the body occurs. My partscasters are my favorite guitars by far,they have that special feel that cannot be obtained by buying a "shelf guitar". Great video👍
This video was amazing! Like Bob Vila on this old house! Hopeni can find one on a strat!
Fantastic video …superbly produced … thankyou very much!
Your choice of riffs is right down my alley! I really appreciated the Three Dog Night stuff. I stopped in to check out RS Guitarworks not even looking to buy anything but ended up putting a down payment on a KV silver sparkle slab so waiting like a kid at Christmas
This guitar is a gem!
Outstanding Video. Such a sweet build thanks.
I'll never forget the day I got that one figured . By accident it was lol. 1978. Thanks for the memory man!!🙂
Great video! Your instructions and pro tips were outstanding! Encouraged me to be try to do my own setups…the right way!
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you for the help Hassan
That control plate was done so clean 🤌🤌
Looks and sounds amazing
16:34 A trick I use for sizing drill bits is to use a small piece of scrap wood, drive the screw in without drilling a hole, then take your bit and finger press it into the screw hole. The correct bit will have minimal resistance without wobbling when set all the way into the hole.
Great tips. Set-up especially. Funky build. Really thought you were going to “relic” the paint after choosing the “aged” hardware.😅
man this video is GOLD thank you!