GuitarFetish Factory Sale Build

NileshHansjee · 2013-03-10T14:19:02+00:00

A while back (before I registered here), someone posted about GuitarFetish's factory sale... Basically they bought over a factory and sold the contents for pretty cheap. Building my own guitar/bass is something I've wanted to do since I first started playing way back when. So I picked up a body and neck a while back and started accumulating the other bits and bobs. Anyway, I've finally completed the build and thought I'd share. First things first: I apologise for the camera-phone pics: I was originally going to tweet the build and then decided that I didn't want to bomb the timelines of my 39 followers and two bots with random pics that wouldn't mean much to most of them. I also really wish I had read singemonkey's blog on how to photograph your guitar (housed in the "How To" section of this forum) before I started snapping away. Secondly, the pedant in me wishes to make it clear that this isn't so much a "build" as an "assembly" since I had no part in actually making any of the major components. I try to keep said pedant in a cage, 'cos let's face it: no-one likes a smart-ar$e. The components: Body: I'm guessing it's basswood, but I'm not really sure. They sent me the wrong body when I ordered the first time around - they gave me credit for the value + shipping and let me keep the mistake as an apology for the inconvenience. A similar body to my original order turned up, so I scooped it. Neck: Bolt-on, 5-pc maple, with bound rosewood fretboard. It was marked as condition 3, meaning it needed more than just a clean-up, but other than a little gouge in the fingerboard in the first fret (that I barely notice when playing) and the lack of a nut, I can't see too much wrong with it. Bridge: Gotoh T-o-M (StewMac) Pickups: Tonerider Generators Electronics: Two pickup wiring kit (StewMac); Free-way (6-way) switch (StewMac) Tuners: Wilkinson EZ-lok (GuitarFetish) Nut: Black lo-friction polycarbonate (GuitarFetish) Other hardware: Stewmac

NileshHansjee

And there you have it.

I started some time in December and finished it up last month sometime.
It took me a while to put together mainly because I had quite a bit on my plate at the time - work, board exams, Chili Peppers, etc. - but I'm really pleased with how it came out.
It's not perfect; however this was more of a "can I do it?" project than a "am I likely to take on the world with my cheap guitars?" effort.

The guitar is surprisingly resonant; neck is really comfortable; the pickups are amazing - it's such a pity that Andre has had to stop his Tonerider distribution.
I reckon I was lucky with the parts I bought that I had no major drama during the build.

If you think I missed out anything on this thread (other than decent pics), let me know.

:goodtimes:

Chocklit_Thunda

Nice! I was thinking of grabbing some of the factory stuff from then but decided to do my own bodies
But two guitars for probably less than the price of one in the shops? That's a win!
What did you do with the accidental axe? Same high output pickups or did you go a different direction? Vintage wound PAF's perhaps?

Norman86

really cool "assembly" ?
i love the colour! well done!

Kalcium

Nice job! It really looks like a great axe and you did a great job fixing all the little issues. Seems like you ended up with quite a nice guitar in the end!
May I ask how much it cost you in total for the body, neck, and hardware (other than pickups) which you would have bought from guitarfetish, I assume the tuners, ferules, nut, bridge and wiring came from there too? Also with getting the wrong body did they just let you have that extra one for free?

NileshHansjee

Thanks guys.

@Chocklit_Thunda: I still haven't started with the Accidental Axe - first step is to strip that ugly green/brown finish. Looks like a nice maple cap underneath... I was planning on putting humbucker-housed P90's in it - was actually going to start a thread asking fellow forumites for advice in this regard.
I'm looking forward to seeing your build; I know you've done quite a lot of research into the pickups and I can't wait to see the finished product ?

@Kalcium: I budgeted R3,500 for the whole lot (pickups included) and came in at about R3,800 after shipping and customs. The bridge, ferrules, neck screws, wiring kit and switch were from StewMac; total cost of about R1,014 + shipping of R155 + customs of R200 odd (I think).
Body and neck were R1,037 including shipping from GuitarFetish; Tuners, jackplate, nut and trussrod & cavity covers (all from GuitarFetish) totaled R455. I can't remember what the customs on the GuitarFetish stuff was, I assume somewhere around R300.
I had a little costing/spec sheet somewhere on my home PC; I'll post the whole breakdown this evening if I can find it.

GuitarFetish let me keep the body for free - I reckon it would've cost them more to ship it back to them than what the body was worth. They also messed up the order for the tuners - I wound up with five tuners with the butterbean knobs and one with the hexagonal effort ??? They shipped a whole new set and let me keep the original set as well. I just need to pick up a cheap set of tuners to transplant the machine heads onto the free set.
I have to say the customer service was brilliant on both occasions - sure, they made a mistake (twice), but the general tone of the communications with them was that they were mortified at letting a valued customer down...

Kalcium

Great to hear they're so good with their customer service! I know I have ordered from guitarfetish in the past but never had an issue with what I received, its good to know they're willing to fix things when they do go wrong though.

NileshHansjee

Ok, so I found the spreadsheet were I detailed the costs and specs of the build - didn't upgrade it for duties and seem to have misplaced the bills.

Excuse the poor formatting - I suck at tables...

Part Description Source Price (ZAR)
Body Factory Sale GuitarFetish 299.98
Neck Factory Sale GuitarFetish 216.58
Tuners Wilkinson EZ Lok GuitarFetish 241.15
Covers and plates, nut No-name brand GuitarFetish 61.14
Pickups Tonerider Generators customshop.co.za 700.00
Bridge Gotoh T-o-M StewMac 181.37
Switch Free-way switch StewMac 177.48
Strap pins Grover Straplock StewMac 129.52
Wiring kit 2-pickup, lever switch StewMac 228.04
Ferrules & Screws, knobs No-name brand StewMac 264.76

Shipping - body and neck 645.57
Shipping - pickups 75.00
Shipping - Other GuitarFetish 142.37
Shipping - StewMac 155.40

Total Cost (excl. import duties) 3,546.40

So not too far off my initial budget. Only import duties let me down ☹

Kalcium

The shipping from stewmac was actually pretty much on point with guitarfetish, i always thought it was more...i must go shopping ?

NileshHansjee

It all depends on *ahem* the size of the package - shipping for the neck and body was more than the combined cost of the two items.
The former auditor in me looks at the cost of the parts as R140 shipping on an order of R300 compared to R155 on a grand's worth of goods.
I stand corrected, but I think StewMac charges for shipping based on weight while GuitarFetish work on dimensions of parcel.

I ordered a bunch of parts from GuitarFetish (pickups, bridges, tuners) for a cousin's builds in December - shipping was $86 on an order of $310

Unfortunately the Rand is in a cr@p state at the moment - great for our exports, not so great for imports... However, I don't see it strengthening against the dollar any time soon (*feeble attempt at reverse psychology on local and international markets to encourage massive Rand recovery*)

Kush

Awesome post Nilesh, thanks!

DDR4LYF

That is super cool! Thanks for sharing!! Enjoy the fruit of your labours!

Nicholas-L

Looking awesome :goodtimes: Enjoy it.

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