Jacques_nasi
Hi guys,
Does anyone know where I can buy guitar parts like necks, bodies, machine heads and hardware online in SA? I've got a couple of loose guitar pieces lying around that I want to assemble, but i still need a lot of hardware, Cheap as possible because most of these guitars won't be played much but used more for decorations and stuff
cheers!!!! ?
arjunmenon
Hi Jacques,
I'm not sure if you can get that sorta stuff online from an SA based co. But if you're based in Cape Town, there's a guy in Edgemead (Northern suburbs) who sells USA import strat necks and pre-cavitied bodies. I can get his number for you, if you're interested.
And you could also ask Alan, the luthier on the forum, if he can point you in the right direction.
Cheers
Arjun
Mr-M
Online is the only way I've found that sort of stuff. Instead of StewMac which everone would normally suggest, check out www.guitarfetish.com
Really good prices and quality parts. Get's more expensive by the day with the way the rand is going south at the moment though...
Otherwise try Andy McGibbon's in JHB: 011 886 9591 or our good mate and resident luthier Alan, when he comes back (seems to be away at the moment).
AlanRatcliffe
No-one is doing parts online locally. Very few are doing anything at all online. Parts - there's just not enough available locally to make an online parts store a valid proposition. What you find in shops tends to be expensive compared to US sites. I use a variety of sites. Guitar Fetish is great for their low cost stuff, but most of their hardware is fairly low quality. Their "GFS pickups are very good for the money.
I use a lot of sites, but mostly: www.stewmac.com, www.lmii.com, www.guitarfetish.com, www.mojotone.com, www.usacustomguitars.com, www.acmeguitarworks.com, www.rsguitarworks.net, www.specialtyguitars.com - they all have their strength and weaknesses.
It might be a good idea to put a list together of what you need and what your budget is, then I can recommend from there. There is no real way to go cheap on bodies and necks - by it's very nature, guitar necks and bodies are upgrades, so tend to be good quality (or at least overpriced). Some guys have found cheaper parts on Ebay.
Manfred-Klose
Go try www.Stewmac.com, they are pretty awesome, i used them before, takes about 3 weeks to arive at your postal address.
AlanRatcliffe
Yes, you can ship via courier - I've never used it, but it's possible.
Customs duties are charged when they arrive in SA, and you pay when you receive them - usually COD. However, if you live in an out of the way town (like I do), the courier company will use a third party courier and these often do not do COD, so DHL will contact you directly for payment before the item is delivered.
Musical instrument spares are zero-rated for customs duties, but the receiver still charges VAT and there is usually a clearance fee on too. I usually figure 15% of the invoice total (including shipping) when I get stuff via post and am pretty close. Some courier companies like FedEx have a flat clearance fee of R100 or so, which makes ordering one small item via courier expensive.
iSammy
I've managed to find a place in Cape Town that stocks most parts, im not sure about there grade of quality yet though
as iv just started building my first guitar.. They go by the name Terry Distributors (www.terryd.co.za)
Anybodys opinion on using a moulded Carbon Fibre truss rod?
Gearhead
Well there's carbon fibre and then there's carbon fibre... The fibre density differs between the different ways of making these things.
If you're talking about a round solid rod and nothing more, these tend to be cheaper than other shapes because they have many different uses outside guitars. The trouble is in building them into a neck so they're snug fit.
The square ones are easier but still not easy. You will need either a routing guide with sideways adjustment or a guide and the exact right router bit. Alternatively, you can laminate the square rod in with a layer of the exact same thickness (in which case a thicknesser would be really really useful).
Regardless of the way you glue the thing in, take care when cutting. The stuff chips and breaks down into very very sharp needles. Use very sharp tooling and figure out a way to keep the stuff away from your body.
Final thing to consider is what kind of guiter you make the neck for and what you expect of the truss rod. Electrics usually have adjustable truss rods which enables the owner of the guitar to change string gauge and adjust the neck to suit. Modern steel string acoustics have the same thing whereas nylon stringed instruments have none since the string tension is so much lower. The older steel string acoustics and some budget guitars have a fixed rod which will pose restrictions on the strings you can put on without having a very low or very high action or just buzz in certain areas. The smaller rods are ideally used as stiffeners side by side with a steel adjustable double-acting truss rod, which will enable you to have the best of both worlds: the open sound of the carbon and the adjustability of steel.
AlanRatcliffe
iSammy wrote
Anybodys opinion on using a moulded Carbon Fibre truss rod?
They come as reinforcing rods rather than adjustable truss rods. Usually used in a pair
in conjunction with a truss rod on multi string basses - particularly those with thinner necks. They will brighten up the tone of a neck quite a bit as they are very stiff.
Vigier guitars are one exception. They use carbon fibre reinforcement in the form of a CF
laminate running right through the neck:
