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I had thought of piecing one together, then I ended up using the neck on a Jazzmaster body, gave it to somebody...these things happen with bolt on necks in my house...
Anyway, I am again considering a Strat style. Requirements are a trem, 5 way switching, and a neck and middle single coil...after that, it's wide open...
These look cool:
Ibanez AZ Essentials Electric Guitar Mint Green | Musician's Friend
What else is there? Does not need to be Fender or Squier, sub $500 is great...this will not be my main guitar by any stretch, and will likely spend a lot of time in a classroom...
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03-21-2024 03:36 PM
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Take a look at Sire. I think their clones are widely regarded as being superior to the offerings from Fender in the same price bracket. We just bought a sub-$400 Sire Marcus Miller V3 (Fender Jazz Bass clone) and it was set-up perfectly out of the box. Looks like Sire makes some Larry Carlton S-types in a few different formats and price brackets.
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I would just look for something that has a neck profile I like and anticipate doing a bit of work to round off the fretboard and fret ends. For that reason (and others) I’d go with a rosewood board.
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Can't go wrong with a Squier Classic Vibe; new they're under $450, and used they can be found for considerably less than that. A little nicer would be a used Fender Player (MIM) strat (better pickups and more robust hardware); lots of used ones for $450-500.
Welcome to the Dark Side.
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I found this strat on sweetwater's marketplace a few months ago, for a student. It's a killer guitar for the price, I wanted to keep it. He is really happy.
Link.
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Yamaha Pacifica range are top notch
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Have a look at Edwards, they make fabulous guitars and basses
I bought one Strat-like for my son and wanted to keep it ! Much better than my "old" Squier MIJ (1992 or so) which is not bad.
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Easiest choice of a new guitar, with minimal shopping, would IMO be a Squier.
Classic Vibe '60s model available either HSS or SSS, $449/$429, small headstock. poplar body
Classic Vibe '70s model available either HSS or SSS, $429, large headstock, poplar body
Fingerboard can be maple or indian laurel, depending on variant and finish color
and several other models going down to $200 or so.
Other things being equal Sire would be worth a look, but I've read reports that the necks are on the narrow side. This would causes me to skip them in the name of easier shopping for a commodity item.
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Just put a Bigsby on yer Tele
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Since it's a skinny 1 5/8" neck, profile is really important. Everything else is like legos.. easily swapped.
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Sorry that I was unable to follow your citation, but which of the above is "a skinny 1 5/8 [inch] neck" guitar that you're referring to?
Originally Posted by Spook410
Last edited by dconeill; 03-21-2024 at 05:58 PM.
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Funny guy here. Peter C is a funny guy! Originally Posted by Peter C
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PRS Silver Sky SE. $595.
SE Silver Sky w/Rosewood '23
– Dave's Guitar Shop
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Ok here’s def what I’d do, in fact will be doing it sometime this year.
Get parts from Guitar Fetish and put it together. You can get plug-n-play pickups so no soldering required.
I was VERY impressed with the body and neck of the Tele I put together. Top notch quality. The wiring harness is very convenient as well.
As far as pickups, that’s always to taste. I found the basic Tele pickups to be vintage ‘50’s sounding, which was fine. If it were for me, not for a fund-raiser, I might have upgraded the neck pickup a bit.
I spent $250 for the parts and enjoyed putting it together.
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Have to say, I can't do a Silver Sky. I'm already gray haired and overweight, a PRS would just be too much.
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You sure you need a citation for typical Stratocaster neck width? Originally Posted by dconeill
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Well, yes, since a perusal of the Fender online catalog shows that 1 5/8" (1.625", 41.3 mm) seems to be the nut width for only a small portion of the models on offer. Originally Posted by Spook410
So maybe you could claim that 1 5/8" nut width is the "traditional" nut width on 50s strats, or the nut width on selected specialty models, or the nut width on certain artist-endorsed models. But to me "typical" means that at least 50% +1 of all Strats sold have that nut width, which doesn't appear to be the case, at least not for new Strats available for purchase now.
The narrower nut is certainly not the case for the inexpensive Strats the OP was asking about. I looked at about 10 of the catalog pages for Squier Strats, and they all listed nut width at 1.650" or 42 mm, which is wider than 1 5/8". I did not look at all of the Squier Strat webpages, and I have no access to sales figures, so I can't claim certain knowledge. But the trend appears to be toward a slightly wider nut than you asserted. I would suggest that a couple more words to clarify your assertion might have been helpful.
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I haven't played the others, but I sometimes gig with a Yamaha Pacifica 012. Mine has a lil 59 in the neck position and replacement tuners (had those when I bought it used). I also had to replace the switch. Neck is so thin that most people probably wouldn't like it. I think a genuine Fender sounds better, but the Yamaha can sound very, very good.
Overall, I think they may have cheaped out on the hardware, but the body and neck seem great.
This is the one that sold a few years ago for $179 including an amp, a cable, a strap and a book.
Radius is 12 or 14, which I like better than the genuine Fender 7.5 or 9 something.
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Ahh.. citations.. assertions.. clarity.. yes.. I see. Originally Posted by dconeill
Fender standardized around 42mm some years back. That's about 1/40" difference (1 5/8 vs 1.65).
On the other hand, there's all the old stuff that's 1 5/8" (B width marked on the neck). And then there's some current stuff (e.g Musicman Cutlass (strat), among others, still at 1.625" and half the Yamaha Pacifica line that's 41mm. Others Pacifica's run 42 mm.)
Thing is.. 42mm is skinny just like 1 5/8" is. So, you need to make sure you like the profile.
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I have some nice strats for you at $500. Trem or hardtail?
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Honestly Jeff in that budget why not just get a used MIM Fender? Classic design and sound. Anything you dislike or are intentionally trying to avoid about Fender?
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It's John Mayer and the PRS headstock, innit? Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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No, not at all. I'm just more like "It doesn't HAVE to say Fender on it." Originally Posted by omphalopsychos
That's definitely a route I'd be willing to go.
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