Vintage guitar people in here, por favor.

485 Views 11 Replies 6 Participants Last post by FatassLX, Sep 12, 2009

Slowhand

Discussion Starter · Sep 3, 2009

Finally decided to pony up the cash for a decent electric guitar. Looking at '62 Jazzmasters, reproduction Jazzmasters, Thinline Telecasters and maybe even a Strat here and there. I've decided to throw a bit of a frankenguitar together myself so I'm looking for a resource on bodies and necks. I know what I want, I'm just looking for a place to locate them.

Does anyone here have a "hookup", a buddy or a shop that you've dealt with a lot in the past that has a decent selection of parts? I've found a few stores on ebay that have stashes of reproduction and vintage bodies but they all want well above what I'd call fair value for the pieces.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I'm ready to get this project going but I'm also not just going to throw lewd amounts of money at it.

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SuperWho?

· #2 · Sep 3, 2009

I used to buy parts at Zoo Music, but I don't know if they still sell bodies, haven't been there in a few years. But stewmac has everything you could ever need. The parts are good quality, I built a tele about 8 years ago with a lot of their parts, it sounded great, I used the texas specials for a killer tone.

http://www.stewmac.com/

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Slowhand

Discussion Starter · #3 · Sep 3, 2009

SuperWho? said:
I used to buy parts at Zoo Music, but I don't know if they still sell bodies, haven't been there in a few years. But stewmac has everything you could ever need. The parts are good quality, I built a tele about 8 years ago with a lot of their parts, it sounded great, I used the texas specials for a killer tone.

http://www.stewmac.com/

Thanks man. If I throw together a Thinline then I'll probably order from there; I've got no problem buying a repro body, I'm just always concerned about the quality especially on a semi-hollow guitar.

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MotoMan

· #4 · Sep 3, 2009

If you're looking for parts and don't want to spend a bunch of money on Fender parts then I'd suggest looking at the Mighty Mite parts. I've built 2 guitars and 3 basses from these parts alone. If you check ebay you can typically find them at a pretty decent price. If you need a local shop I'd recommend Texas Guitar Workshop, www.texasguitarworkshop.com. I've heard Zoo Music does a nice job as well, just never been there.

EDIT: http://www.mightymite.com/Homepage.html

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Slowhand

Discussion Starter · #5 · Sep 4, 2009

MotoMan said:
If you're looking for parts and don't want to spend a bunch of money on Fender parts then I'd suggest looking at the Mighty Mite parts. I've built 2 guitars and 3 basses from these parts alone. If you check ebay you can typically find them at a pretty decent price. If you need a local shop I'd recommend Texas Guitar Workshop, www.texasguitarworkshop.com. I've heard Zoo Music does a nice job as well, just never been there.

EDIT: http://www.mightymite.com/Homepage.html

I'm looking for authentic Fender parts that have been disassembled from a complete guitar, but I'll look into that. Thanks.

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MotoMan

· #6 · Sep 4, 2009

Slowhand said:
I'm looking for authentic Fender parts that have been disassembled from a complete guitar, but I'll look into that. Thanks.

I'll get in touch with a few guitar builders I know but more then likely you're going to pay top dollar for the authentic parts. I'd recommend checking out pawn shops and estate sales though, I know numerous guitarists that have come across great deals.

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Shaun

· #7 · Sep 4, 2009

kelly @ action sound will have everything you could possibly need, he used to be located right off i20 in liberty city but had to move cause they sold the land out from under him. i believe he is set up in big sandy.. ill see if i can dig up a number for you, he has a ton of vintage shit laying around, you wouldnt believe some of the stuff he has stashed away.

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Slowhand

Discussion Starter · #8 · Sep 4, 2009

MotoMan said:
I'll get in touch with a few guitar builders I know but more then likely you're going to pay top dollar for the authentic parts. I'd recommend checking out pawn shops and estate sales though, I know numerous guitarists that have come across great deals.

Yeah, I know. I've thrown a few together before using repro parts and they were decent little guitars for what I had in them. I'm just going a little different route this time, trying to piece something together that I'll hold on to for a very long time.

I'm running down to Austin this weekend and I've already got a few shops to run by that should have what I'm looking for.

Here's what I think I'm going to be building.

It's a '62 Jazzmaster body in Olympic White (not sure if I'm going vintage Fender or Japanese Reproduction Fender) with a white pickguard which, front what I can tell, was never a factory offered color scheme so I photoshopped up what it will look like.

Probably will go with P-90's or maybe even a PRS soapbar setup.

The other idea I'm going with as of now is a Robert Cray Artist Series body that I tracked down that I'm going to throw an SRV Artist Series neck onto with Robert Cray signature pickups or maybe some Texas Specials.

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Futurama

· #9 · Sep 4, 2009

ive got a 61 les paul sg. perfect shape.

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SuperWho?

· #10 · Sep 4, 2009

Slowhand said:
It's a '62 Jazzmaster body in Olympic White (not sure if I'm going vintage Fender or Japanese Reproduction Fender) with a white pickguard which, front what I can tell, was never a factory offered color scheme so I photoshopped up what it will look like.

Probably will go with P-90's or maybe even a PRS soapbar setup.

The other idea I'm going with as of now is a Robert Cray Artist Series body that I tracked down that I'm going to throw an SRV Artist Series neck onto with Robert Cray signature pickups or maybe some Texas Specials.

Whatever you do, do not use that bridge. They are notorious for not holding tune.

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Slowhand

Discussion Starter · #11 · Sep 4, 2009

SuperWho? said:
Whatever you do, do not use that bridge. They are notorious for not holding tune.

A buddy of mine pointed that out to me when we were looking around a few weeks ago. I'll start with a buzzstop and see if that doesn't help. If it doesn't I'm going to try either a bridge off of a Mustang or one of the reproduction Jazzmaster bridges, which Fender claims has fixed the issue.

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FatassLX

· #12 · Sep 12, 2009

Get a mustang bridge. I'd like to have a jaguar, I like the one fender just released, candy apple with a bound neck and block inlays.

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