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Parts bass build - but is it cost effective?

#21
The thing to consider is, thousands of companies make Fender compatible hardware and electronics, so they can always be upgraded. Spend your cash on a well made neck and body, Fender or otherwise, and you can tinker with the rest forever. I think the Warmouth parts are comparable in quality to Fender, though maybe not much cheaper. If I ever put together another parts bass, I'll probably buy a Warmouth neck and shop the hell out of everything else. It's like a treasure hunt out there. I built my Jazz parts bass pre-internet (1986-87), if you can believe that, a hell of a lot easier to find parts these days!
 
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#22
TheDepths said:
Hi Sidecar,

Many thanks for the links, looks like bad news for my bank account!
Click to expand...

Is it really? For reference, I'm getting a '51 Precision body with nitro finish for €199, a genuine Fender '51 RI neck for the same, plus a kit with all body-related hardware (pick guard, bridge, knobs, electronics cover, etc., without pickup, and without tuners) for €99. Add €19 for shipping, and it still seems very OK to me. Alright I have to score a pickup and tuners, but still.
Or do you mean it's bad news because you start buying right away?

best
sidecar
 
#23
I can't help you with your second question about the taxes - I have no experience with that.

I have built a couple of FrankenFender/Squiers from parts I bought from the Stratosphere because the color and feature combinations I wanted do not exist in any of the production models. It cost me a little more to buy the necks I wanted to pair with the bodies I wanted, but when I was all done I got exactly what I wanted. Unlike with some of the other posters, the Stratosphere's customer service people responded to my e-mails promptly and completely and the parts I ordered were sent and received on time. I will probably buy more parts from them.

Perhaps to some the Stratosphere's prices seem high but here in Hawaii we're used to paying more for EVERYTHING.
 
#24
The stratosphere seems to cater to the"got to have that" niche who are spendy by nature. It's easy to tell by all the stray necks and bodies that sell here on the classifieds that someone wants a certain neck on another body or vice versa for whatever reason.They don't cater to the form follows function crowd, that's for sure.
 
#25
Building parts basses is most cost effective if you buy used and stop paying attention to brand fetishization. I buy MIM necks, decent pickups, standard bridges and tuners and then I mate them all with whatever affordable body appeals to me. My last bass build used an old Hondo body for $25.00. How many people would know that by looking at it? My most expensive bass build was about $400. My last band recorded an album with a bass made out of $180 worth of Fender/Squier parts.
 
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#26
MrSidecar said:
Is it really? For reference, I'm getting a '51 Precision body with nitro finish for €199, a genuine Fender '51 RI neck for the same, plus a kit with all body-related hardware (pick guard, bridge, knobs, electronics cover, etc., without pickup, and without tuners) for €99. Add €19 for shipping, and it still seems very OK to me. Alright I have to score a pickup and tuners, but still.
Or do you mean it's bad news because you start buying right away?

best
sidecar
Click to expand...

I meant it looks like at some point my bank account is going to take a beating and I'm going to have a nice new bass haha
 
#27
w
bolophonic said:
Building parts basses is most cost effective if you buy used and stop paying attention to brand fetishization. I buy MIM necks, decent pickups, standard bridges and tuners and then I mate them all with whatever affordable body appeals to me. My last bass build used an old Hondo body for $25.00. How many people would know that by looking at it? My most expensive bass build was about $400. My last band recorded an album with a bass made out of $180 worth of Fender/Squier parts.
Click to expand...

Funny you mentioned that, I just did the same thing! My band recorded an album where I was playing a $180 part's P bass for the whole thing.

It's made of Squier parts, but has a MIM pickup and upgraded wiring harness. The thing feels and sounds fantastic. The neck actually is from 2001 and it has a big thick piece of rosewood on it. It's much thicker than on newer MIM or Squier bass necks usually.
 
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#28
Antisyzygy said:
w


Funny you mentioned that, I just did the same thing! My band recorded an albumn where I was playing a 180$ red part's P bass for the whole thing.

It's made of Squier parts, but has a MIM pickup and upgraded wiring harness. The thing feels and sounds fantastic.
Click to expand...

Heck yeah! Ours was a Squier body, a Mighty Mite neck and Highway One pickups and harness. I love the TB classifieds.
 
#29
bholder said:
FWIW, I just unsubscribed from Stratosphere because (in my humble opinion) they're such a ripoff. I got taken once by them on an eBay auction, never again.
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I had a bad experience with them too, FWIW.

It seems every time I start pricing a parts bass, using The Stratosphere or any supplier, the parts and labor always add up to more than if I had just bought the same thing pre-assembled from the manufacturer. Of course, I'm stateside, so I can't speak for overseas prices.

I think those suppliers are great for when you need just one specific hard-to-find component for your bass. Otherwise, well, it's not my thing.

I have put together parts basses, but they included options no manufacturer was offering. And I would only get about 50% of my investment back if I tried to sell any of them.
 
#30
This is my first parts build. Exact specs to my 74 Fender P. Except urethane finish instead of nitro. Total cost: $650
 

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#31
comatosedragon said:
A little off topic, but related to bholder's post above:

I have built my own custom PCs for years, and enjoy the fact that I know exactly what is going in, and exactly what I can expect as results. Not entirley cost effective 100% of the time, but I find the learning experience and the end result of being able to use something everyday that you yourself built (or at least put together) worth the negligable price difference. (plus, there are always bragging rights)

I know they are different industries, but as I am just now getting to the point where I would like to build my own bass, I plan to take the same principles and way of thinking with me as I begin the planning stages of my first bass.
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It's not a bad comparison except that building your own top notch gaming PC will cost much less than an Alienware. Building a P bass out of MIA parts will put you in the same ballpark as buying one of the shelf.
I'm a PC tech by trade and I tried building and selling gaming PCs a few years ago and my profit margin was very small.
 
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#33
AltGrendel said:
I've found that the only advantage of a parts bass is that you know exactly what the materials went into it's construction and how to fix any issue that may come up. It's a fun thing to do but don't expect it to save you much, if any, money.
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I agree with this completely. If the feature you want are available in an existing model or (even better) a commonly available used model..... then just buy that. If you obsess over having a certain color and neck type combo that's hard to find, particular pickup, or other features that would cost a lot to upgrade, then maybe consider a parts build. But be prepared to be committed to it as it will never be worth more than the sum of its used parts. With that said, when I have found good deals on parts I have come out decent building fender style parts guitars. It helps to be willing to doing the body / neck finish yourself.
I have bought from stratosphere a few times. Selection and accuracy of listed parts is awesome. I trust them. Prices aren't fantastic, they are buying new guitars and trying to maximize their margin after all.
 
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#35
bassbully said:
Plenty of places out the to get Fender parts without using Stratosphere. Remember a parts bass resale is usually not good and in most case you lose money.
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I highly doubt I would lose much on my P5. I have less into it than a stock off the shelf P5 and I know I could sell it for more than a stocks one. It is numbers matching ( neck and body are the same year) that no one would know is a parts bass.
 
#40
I bought an American Select Precision flamed maple neck and an American Standard Jaguar bass body from Stratosphere this past summer. I wanted an American Jaguar bass with a maple neck and they don't make such an animal. I love the neck on my American Select P-bass, so I ordered a neck and body and put together exactly what I wanted.
 
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