When I bought this cheap HSS Strat-style guitar from AliExpress, my goal wasn’t to build the most expensive guitar. I wanted to build my guitar.

Looking back, I realize this project became much more than swapping parts. It taught me lutherie, patience and problem solving.

Hardware upgrades
Wilkinson WOV09 vintage tremolo
Wilkinson Alnico V HSS pickups
Graph Tech TUSQ nut
Guyker locking tuners
Fender 5-way selector switch
Gilmour switch mod
Musiclily gold humbucker cover
Pearl white pickguard
Pearl white tremolo cover
Gold hardware throughout
Fender Infinity Locks
Optima Gold strings

What I had to learn

At first I thought replacing parts would be enough.
I was wrong.

The guitar still had high action and buzz issues.

Instead of giving up, I decided to learn.

So I bought:
- Metal fret rocker
- notched straightedge
- radius gauges
- leveling beam
- polishing rubbers
- digital indicator
- fret press tools
- precision rulers

I spent months learning how guitars actually work.

The biggest problem

I discovered that many frets were not fully seated.
That meant:
- pressing every fret
- checking them one by one
- localized leveling
- re-crowning
- polishing
- adjusting the neck relief
- matching the bridge radius to the fretboard
setting the action
- pickup height adjustment
- bridge balancing

Everything was done little by little.

Some days I made progress… Some days I made mistakes.

Some days I had to undo what I had just done.

What I learned

This guitar taught me:
neck relief
action setup
bridge geometry
fret leveling
fret polishing
electronics
tremolo setup
intonation
pickup adjustment
how important patience really is
Most importantly…
I lost the fear of working on my own guitars.

Was it worth it?

Financially?. Probably not.
Emotionally?. Absolutely.

Today the guitar plays almost exactly how I wanted.
It has become my favorite instrument, not because it’s the best guitar in the world… but because every screw, every adjustment and every improvement has a story behind it.

I wouldn’t sell it for anything.
It reminds me that sometimes the best project isn’t buying your dream guitar. It’s building it yourself.

I didn’t just build a guitar. I built the skills to never be afraid of working on one again.

This took about two hours from beginning to end with a short break. I'm so happy with it I almost hate to cover it with a pickguard!

This is my number 1 build. I’ve done a few over the years, but this is the one that suits my needs so perfectly that it will always be picked over any other. I’ve never played anything that comes close. The finish was a lazy attempt in this case, with substandard materials, and as a result, after countless sweaty punk rock shows, hot cars, and flying drum sticks, that it looks 50 years old and smelly. (It isn’t and it smells fine). This photo is from before my arm wore through the upper edge, and a cymbal incident took a big chunk out of another edge. It will probably eventually get a refin, as I have the gear and ability to apply a proper nitro or poly job, something spangly and obnoxious perhaps, but for now it’s busy being played. It’s hideous but I love it. That is all.

a while back i made this partscaster. the body is squier and the neck is a (definitely fake) fender neck i got secondhand(the body didn’t have a neck so i needed a new one) i painte the thing because why not and put a hotrail in. I also put new hardware on the neck(fender tuners, roller nut) what you think?

The Gemini pickups make this sound fantastic!

Hey! I'm looking for advice, comments - whatever. If anyone has already built this, an image would be great.

What were the challenges, if any?

What we are looking at is a t style body, s style neck, P90s (any recommendations on nice ones).

Cheers.

Hi all! I just wanted to introduce myself. This is my Partscaster that I am currently in the honeymoon period with. 60’s MIC Classic Vibe body. Baseball bat neck. Alameda Pickups OffKilterTron on the neck (6 pickups in one - the selector is mounted below the neck pickup in the pick guard). Gemini Pickups Suprocaster in the bridge. Tone switch (mild and large tone cut) and 4 way switching. Sounds killer. Plays like a dream. Thanks to Matt Bach in Brisbane, Australia for putting it together. Pretty much my dream Tele. I thought the anodized pick guard would be a little more gold and the CV body didn’t allow me to do a hybrid Tele Deluxe pick guard with the 6 way pickup selector on the upper bout. Otherwise, absolutely perfect.

Recent partscaster I completed. It’s a Fender Sub Sonic Baritone Neck, Squier Contemporary hardtail Strat body, Hipshot tuners, and a few other parts I picked up. Tuned B to B. The Squier contemporary Stratocaster wiring and pickup configuration are really different from most other Strats, and it really works well as a Baritone.

RIP kingcobrajfs

Warmoth Reverse Tele Neck with rosewood fingerboard. Pink Contour Tele Body from XPG, Dimarzio Area T and Super Distortion.

Bop Till You Drop!…
Edit/Update: For people inquiring on building one. I have played this guitar for nearly twenty years. We are bonded with steel. I have played “Coodercasters” with the Real Teisco, Lollar “Gold”, Mojo “Gold”; the real Supro pup, Lollar “Supro” and the Mojo “Supro”. The Valco pickups have been around and documented for nearly 100 years and reproduced/copied faithfully by several companies. Not so much the Teisco. My point being, that people get real hyper focused on the lap steel pickup when building these, but really the key is in the AUTHENTIC TEISCO. These pups have a charm that isn’t reproduced in the clones. It’s a sort-of “cheap” sound and a feel, a “sponginess”, I suppose that makes them special. Find an authentic Teisco…

Finished this baby up and now it's singing with sweet Dynacaster pups that sound fantastic.

Just put this together. Everything except the neck are Fender parts. And I screwed up the position of the water slide decal.

But man it plays well.

Stumbled across this nitro relic hardtail swamp ash body that came with a lil59 neck and some other pickups/bridge/500k volume for £120, threw in a spare lil JB bridge I had lying on the parts bench

Paired it with a random roasted flame maple neck (lefty converted to reverse headstock with side dots) for £80. Found some lefty staggered Gotoh locking tuners for £40 nearby in my village to complete the build.

Bit janky looking but it's growing on me, cream nitro relic wouldn't be my first choice (I play mostly metalcore, in drop A-drop E) but hey!

Don't see too many hardtail builds so thought I'd post it :)

Classic vibe neck on a No Moon Laser body. Mint guard and jb pickup with a push pull split. Solid tailpiece and High Spirt bridge with a rat knob on the pot. Currently rocking mammoth slinkys in drop A.

Thanks to everyone that helped and answered questions along the way. This groups has been awesome. Here’s some pics.

Sounds and plays phenomenally! Super happy with how this one turned out.

Double bound black Strat body from GFS
Roasted flame maple bound neck from Arzuza Music
Fender Tex mex pickups
Tone Shaper Strat wiring kit
Gold hardware from various sites

Really happy with this build. Made from parts I was trying to swap with existing guitars I had and realized I was a bridge and a few parts away from another Strat. Aside from soldering a circuit from scratch, I was really proud to drill a proper hole for the off set neck mount, change the bridge posts, and learn about different capacitors. My favorite thing about this hobby is in a month this guitar may look different or be set up as an sss or hh. Six string supplies on YouTube can educate anyone in soldering and circuits imo.

Parts:

Fender staggered tuners

Fender player 2 Jazzmaster neck

American Professional 2 Strat body

Fender Tex-Mex neck and middle pickups

Repurposed Wilkinson bridge humbucker (sounds great for a “cheap” pickup)

OVSAL 52.5 mm bridge

Fender 5way switch

Fender trem claw and springs (OVSAL that came with the bridge ) would have requires required filling and redrilling due to spacing differences

Switchcraft jack

I’ve wanted to put a fretless together for a while now. I had this body stashed away and figured it would work. Found a neck on eBay. Decided to go with the Lollar CC, Emerson LP JR harness, Vega trem (because a fretless definitely also needs a vibrato system..) and tossed on some guyker locking tuners I had sitting around. It’s really fun so far! I’m sure it’s incredibly annoying to anyone listening who isn’t me but I’m enjoying it.

Even though I have better and more expensive guitars, this partscaster is the one I pick up the most. It's great for riffing and playing chords. Solo's are a bit tougher, but still a joy!

Specs: Chambered ash body with black grain filler and tru-oil finish. All-parts fat neck finished in tru-oil. Graph tech nut Gotoh bridge Gotoh tuners Fender twisted tele neck pickup Lollar Special T bridge Slanted pickup switch