With CNC being so much cheaper nowadays, it's cheaper than ever to build a nice guitar on your own.

Good for you brother! I have been telling people that for 20 years. I was on stage for 24 years prior to that and finally got tired of paying those/these outrageous prices for guitars that can now be made in China for a few dollars (i.e Harley Benton $169.00, Firefly $179.00 etc... However, I'd still rather build my own as the strat is the easiest and most rewarding guitar build ever... LEO knew what he was doing. In the last 7 years have made over twenty parts casters. I only use alder or ash and paint and relic them myself to look just like their Custom Shop counter part or whatever I want. My most expensive build was around $1100.00 and that's because the pick ups were and are impossible to get (unless you buy a $6,000.00 Custom Shop Strat with them in it...uh, no thanks). The only thing I disagree with you on in this segment, is about the Neck. To me the neck is as important as the right pups, so I never use Mighty Mite because they are nothing like the soft V neck that I can get directly from Fender (Mighty Mite necks are a lot thinner as well). However, even with the Fender Classic Player 50's neck (made in Mexico $299.00 "Soft V" profile and 9.5"-radius) my builds with all the upgrades are still usually under 1k and they sound and look fantastic. I have also used Warmoth and All Parts necks and they are both pretty good as well. So yeah I am with YOU! Build your own, and save a bundle, and have a lot of fun in the process. Just my 2 cents worth. Peace

I have a Squier Stratocaster Standard that I put a Tusk nut, Fender locking tuners and an aged pearl pick guard on. Bought the guitar for $230 Canadian with Alnico 3 pickups and the rest for not much added on. The tuners were most expensive at $80 Canadian, while the Tusk nut was about $10 and the pick guard about $15. It is a fine guitar and accepts all the standard dimension Fender parts, and looks absolutely superb. Can't beat that with a stick. 😉

You're fret job looks better than the job they do on the 1400 dollar models coming out of Mexico. Awesome man.

I did a similar project about three months ago- bought the body and loaded pickguard from Stratosphere and a Mighty Mite with a compound radius. Buying that neck from Fender by itself would have been more than my total investment in that guitar. Genuine Player Series body, Fender locking tuners, player series SSS loaded pg, and my total investment was about 600. It’s easily my favorite guitar ever.

i have to admit, my OCD dispenser was on overload at 13:00 looking at that brand new body being laid out on a mat covered with metal and wood shavings. Great job. Very motivational.

I remember when MIM strats were $399.99 at GuitarCenter. The cost has gotten out of control for a midrange guitars.

Shawn I went on eBay. And I got my cart full of gold hardware a choice of necks and the whole lot either made by Fender or allowed by Fender For about 480 Australian dollars. Which our dollar isn't worth your dollar After watching your video I'm buying this añd building my own Strat friend. Thankyou for your video. Helped a heap.

This was my plan as well, but then i found someone selling their upgraded Squire. Fender licensed neck, Seymoure bridge pup and a couple alnico 2 and a custom pick-guard for under $300. I felt cheated that I didn't get my hands dirty, but when I play that guitar the feeling goes away! Thanks for the vids. You are fast becoming my favorite "shop" guy!

I can't own a stock Fender guitar, Made in USA, MIM whatever, they never satisfy me. Always hot-rodded my Fenders, and just built a next-level partscaster during the pandemic. Hell yeah, roll your own, you'll like them much more this way. Nice sounding H-S-S! That's what I'm about to finish up in the next week. My new pups arrived yesterday. Went a little bananas on budget this time but, it's been a blast, building a guitar with my son. Great channel, keep rockin' brother! Tele-time lol.

the best part about doing this is the assembly which is fun and almost therapeutic

That pre-wired pickguard that you showed first is from The Stratosphere. They sell on eBay, Reverb and have their own website. You can find some really good hardware, bodies and necks there. That's one of the first places I check.

I remember buying mim strats for 325.00 all day long!! I guess I'm old! Lol! Thanks!

I got this Japanese made 1960-1965? Handmade solid wood electric guitar without the neck or neck plate and bolts. I put it back together and used a Maple neck with ebony fretboard and tusk nut. Fixed the bad ground and now it’s setup to scream and buddy she has got lungs! Marshall said she can play High Voltage RnR all nite long!

I've built several nice Strats for around $300 by buying used parts on Craigslist and Reverb. I recently bought a practically new 2021 MIM neck, locking tuners, and neck plate for $190. I bought the body (loaded) on CL as well for $120. And get this...the body was loaded with Seymour Duncan SSL-1's and a Wilkinson bridge! It just takes a little patience.

I used to buy vintage guitars for under $200... gone are the days...!

Partscasters have been around since the day Leo put the first Telecaster together. The original Telecasters and Stratocasters were shipped unassembled. You may not mind but many folks won't be happy unless that headstock says 'Fender'. You can get genuine Fender Necks for about 100$ more than that mighty mite. Most folks don't have fret dressing tools, nut files or a neck sanding beam. I enjoyed how you show how easy it can be to level the frets. I would advise folks to watch a few videos on crowning and rounding the ends though. You did not have to cut that nut? That's a surprise. Usually your going to have to cut the nut slots too and those mighty mites are plastic, so they have to be replaced (so are the Chinese Squiers and MiM necks for the most part). I agree though for folks with the know how and the gumption a partscaster is where its at. I personally would spend for the Fender neck and wire the pickguard myself with some Wilde pickups or Dimarzios. I would also spring the 16 bucks for a Graphtech TUSQ Nut. Overall my version would cost about 125 bucks more than yours but would say Fender on the headstock.

Another guitars the last thing I need, but here I am, building one 🥲

Love it man. Your style of imparting information is down to earth and somehow managed to bypass my no-learning filter! Thank you.

I was skeptical if I would take this video seriously -- but having watched it I really enjoyed it. I have been playing guitar for 52+ years but had never assembled a guitar until 2021. I put together 1 partscaster with mainly Guitar Fetish parts and built 7 kits in the last 2 months. So what I am planning to do at this point is similar things to you -- assembling partscasters but with extra features so I just love what you did. Very cool! Keep up the great work!

I remember buying my first MIM Strat for $280 in 1999. Stock, 3 single coils, black with a maple board. I ended up with 4 more. Best guitars the money back then and I played the hell out of them and used them for everything. I have a Player Series Strat now. I miss the old MIM standard strats and teles.

Nice to see someone enjoys this type of work and craftsmanship

My son's name is Sean. Fine Irish name. Very nice strat. You had her screamin'!

Awesome video! Great DIY part video too for someone who is into it! I had a Squier CV for $350 that was phenomenal but started getting stripped screws and eventually gave it away. Got the Fender Player (which at $800 new is an investment) used for $550 and it's worth the additional accoutrements and higher metal quality they add in to the Squier. It basically is a 2017 Am Std in drag, so a lifetime instrument!

Mexico Strats were in the $300 range in the 00s.

I honestly don't know how many of the big name manufacturers can keep justifying their prices to their user base. Like so many have said, the CNC machine doesn't care what country it's running in. Great video!

Great job man and nice to hear someone not banging on about how much you need locking tuners

Build it for 500 plus the time put into it, and when you sell it it will worth 200. Buy the MIM one for 600 now, and it will worth 800 in 2 years.

So $500 in parts plus $300 in labor and you have a players Strat 😂 so Fender pricing is very fair

Had to evacuate my building due to a fire once. Grabbed my old MIM strat. Great guitars.

Nice job! You ended up with a sweet 'Strat', much better than the 'Players' I am certain. I played professionally for over 35 years and was also a 'Fender' factory authorized guitar tech as well. I bought several MIM Stratocasters for $399, changed out the pickups on some and toured with them. Last year, like you, I was going to purchase a new MIM Fender, but a Tele. I was floored when I saw the price tag...$749!!! I bit my tongue and ordered it. The Fender Player Telecaster with Pau Ferro Fingerboard was absolute crap! The frets still had deep file teeth marks, the Pau Ferro fingerboard was extremely dry, grainy, crude and rough. The red finish was dull. Nothing like the MIM Fenders I bought 10-15 years ago that were excellent instruments with a little tweaking. I sent the Players Tele back and will never buy another!

I made a partscaster, craiglslist special, take off vintage tele pups, pick guard and bridge, early 90's MIK squire strat neck with tuners still on, tele 3 piece ash body without any routing/drilling, bought the other parts(plate,pots, switch, cap, jack mount, strap buttons) had a 40 year old jack lying around. cost 180 total, another $16 on color dye and 2 cans spray lacquer. basically a fender tele except body, which is same wood. worked out well

I remember when they were $399.00 all day long. Found one NOS too, a 2010 that I bought in 2015. New ones were $599.00, I paid $399.00. The price it was when it was new in 2010. \m/ My son and I also have a few parts casters we built. It can be a great value if you are able to do a little work.

It wasn’t too awful long ago the MIM standards were $399. I think the Am. Standard was about $700-$800 then but every brand of guitar has seemed to go up in price. I’ve bought a few Mexican Fenders used for $250-$300 and used them for a platform to mod. I have a couple that I actually prefer to my US made Strat, it’s a great way to get a guitar that is exactly what you like. I’ve built parts Strats too like this and they’re great as well for the same reason, you can end up with a guitar that’s exactly what you like. The only way to get one from the factory with all your likes would be a custom order and you can build 10 parts Strats for the price of a custom shop special order.

I did the same thing sold my perfect 2002 Fender MIM American Strat last year and for alot less than I thought they were worth ,anytime I see 1 I just shake my head ,but this is right up my alley and have a small guitar repair shop so this is a no brainer for me thanks man

Love that beautiful cat scratch jam at 4:35. Sounds just like an authentic Rollin Stone top 100 ax player had played it.

Oh man this is great! I know what project to pursue next!

It's about time you treat yourself to something. And That you exactly want to your liking. And happy b-day. Mine is 4/27/71.

Nice build Sean. I usually buy a donor guitar to get most of my parts. As long as there is no major fret wear it's as simple as levelling a new neck. A friend gifted me a scratchplate loaded with the EMG Gilmour pups. I installed it in a Samick Strat (Sunburst body with nice Flamed Maple neck). Upgraded bridge with full steel block. Brass Saddles & Nut. Replacement scratchplate with Bridge Single Coil in reverse (Hendrix) position. Added a battery compartment for convenience. Job done (and it's epic!). Your demo of 5 different Strat tones didn't come across very well via KZfaq. The sound compression etc. on uploading may have affected it. There was minimal (if any) tone difference in each of the switch positions. Clean tone might have been better to demo this. Otherwise, great build video. Rock On Dude!

I learned about this some time ago and was shocked to realize you can kit out a 2500 strat or tele for like 750-1000 bucks. Like with all the bells and whistles. Take some sand paper and gravel with a rubber mallet to the finish and bam you have yourself a master built 10,000 custom shop fender for less than 1/10 the price. Haha

The two pin tuners are actually a pain to drill the holes for if you’re a perfectionist and want it dead straight... you either gotta be really careful, get a guide tool to do it perfectly, or I recommend using vintage style tuners because the hardware automatically lines them up, you can’t mess it up! On my last strat build I used kluson locking vintage style tuners, they’re locking and they look fantastic!

I have three guitars with Mighty Mite necks, and one of them is absolutely my favorite strat type guitar. I also used the Fender standard tuners like you did, but I installed Seymours rather than standard pickups.

I am the Ghost Of Leo Fender and I approve this video!

It's worth any price you put on it. Your the master guitar maker. Thank you for posting these 2 videos. I sure needed this today. It makes me proud to be an American.

I did what you did but I went Dutch and used leftover parts from music stores and Craigslist for junk guitars and eBay for vintage guitars for parts. And for about $99 loaded pick guard and $22 neck and $100 body and the hardware $10 neck plate and $7 strap pegs $239 approximately I built a custom Jack Daniels old #7 label matte black finish and maple neck the only genuine fender parts are the electronics and pick guard. It’s a Telecaster!

Your giving me a bad idea Sean! I have a friend about 5 miles away that's a licensed Fender parts dealer. Grrrr , get outta my head , get outta my head! Damn it man 😖👍 PEACE from Southwest Michigan!!! 🐉💀👽🎸🎶🎵🧠

New favorite channel. I picked up a MIM Tele from a guy who took a brand new guitar and tried doing a relic job on it. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen and several other guitar techs agree that they’ve never seen nothing like it. I paid $300 for it and I’ve bought a few parts already. I figure I’ve got a $200 budget to fix it.

Could you build a Rickenbacker 620/12 for us? Seriously though, fantastic video and great sounding instrument you put together. I especially enjoyed watching the masterful way you prepared the neck. I imagine the thing plays as smooth as silk, certainly sounds like it. Cheers from the Land Down Under.

The question I have to ask myself is though since you build and everybody always ask you if your guitars are fenders why not build you what you want. I love the Marshall plexi. No way in hell am I going to spend that kind of money on it When I build tube amps... Not complaining it's a great video.

I build my own too. I am lucky to have a great pickup builder near by that can supply me with an upgrade pickup to get the sound I am looking for. I love to do painting and staining so I use another guy with a CNC machine to cut out my bodies. I have 2 going through right now that I have been holding back on and I am now in my new shop and getting cranked back up!

WOW! a brilliant sound for a great price, well done Sir and thanks for sharing and very best from NZ!

Educational and entertaining video. Amazing how inexpensive guitar parts can be on eBay. $20 bridge. The bridge and tuners are on my Highway One.

Holy smokes Sean. Now that's crazy.

I paid $350 for a Mexican Strat back when they just started making them in Mexico!

Thank you for this. Ill stop looking for a cheap guitar now and start putting together my own

I have a Made in Mexico Fiesta Red reissue’52 Tele, sweet tone, 7.25 neck everything is perfect, the neck is the 50’s ball bat and setup was great out of the gig bag. I just filed a couple of frets that were high. And light tap of the mallet and it is perfect. The Electronics are great. I restrung it with some Di’Marzio 10s and tuned it to E flat. The action is crazy good, the nut was cut perfectly and even at E flat with.010s no buzz. That’s my number 1.

The mex starts are diff now , I know, but I bought one that was a high end mex model back around 2001-2. Cherry sunburst. Maple fretboard. I had to order it. It was utter trash. I build and mod guitars as well and do work for other folks frequently. I wasnt nearly as skilled then, but I could do a set up and fret level and polish. I put American Fender Texas specials, a mid-boost tone pot on the bridge and neck. The pickups were smoking. The body was 3pcs on a translucent cherry sb finish😮‍💨. The body was mishaped more than Noname ali baba/wish $69 special. Thick in spots. Thin in others. Trem was crap but I lock and or block one out anyway. Neck in a humidity and temp controlled environment wouldn't stay in one shape more than 2 days. The maple felt super green. The mex standard then was btwn 289-349. This finish made it an "upgrade model" 🙄. It was over 500 before tax then wo a bag or case, of course. The pickups were fantastic. In fact, those pickups and the finish being appealing to average folks who didn't know better were the only reason I was ever able to get rid of the hunk of crap. I was seriously bitter. Still am I suppose. Likewise, I hated the mex strat stigma with fender stamped on it. It was a prevalent bias at the time. I've had a LOT of great squiers that were as f good or better. Until the last woman I bought a house for made my all but 3 out of 16 mostly american guitars and 2 amps, a hot rodded Traynor(my baby😢) and an ac15 disappear around 2011, I had moved out of the foreign market. I am now up to 32 guitars, mostly modded or built lower price teles and strats and I love them. I will NEVER GIVE 800-1300 for a mexender. It's madness. The squier 40th anniversary flat finished with roasted maple teles are the best guitars I've touched in ages. The EARTS are beyond fabulous too but if you're not experienced at modifying guitars I wouldn't recommend them unless u plan on leaving them stock. Love your channel and I agree wholeheartedly with the vast majority of your opinions on guitars. God Bless.

I bought a $35 body and neck on C/L, trashed. Turned out to be a 1986 KOREAN SQUIRE Bullet. I stripped the Fiesta red and found a two-piece matched the (maple) neck body(probably ash). All Fender parts rebuild, Gen4 SSS new pots, $200 USA Tremolo, dress the neck..."made it awesome." Pinto to a Ferrari.

I'm doing this next. I got a great deal on a new 2020 Vintera Modified 50s Strat and couldn't pass it up. 200 off list price. Would never drop the list price on it though. You rock dude.

Hey man liked the video. I am an avid collector of mainly classical, acoustic, and electric guitars probably have 140 playable guitars and 10 to 15 unplayable in different states. I am so cheap that I hate to pay retail and for that matter usually do not buy new unless somethings majorly messed up with it. Anyways I like your approach and thus why I am going to follow to see where it leads. I was sort of a purist in that I would like to replace parts with original parts and not really upgrade too much well that has changed because I like the 3s style pickups opposed to the humbucker in the bridge. Yes mainly strat type guitars. I found a Squier Strat at a pawn shop for $120 and put on a loaded pickguard from Amazon with Alnico 5's and man this things sounds just like a American Fender Strat. I go to Music Go Round to play the really expensive type instruments to get a feel for what I am shooting for and I pick all the brains at the store for juicy info you know. Well I could start my own channel but enjoy others for now but basically a self taught luthier because of me not wanting to pay full price for stuff and so having to buy broken or mishandled guitars. I've done a few neck sets, bridge replacements glue up and sand and level, fret work, pretty much tried it all mostly successful. If you run out of ideas for a video hit me up and I will help you out for stuff I would like to see. I am a collector mostly so go off others for info. I like the fact that you tell your viewers what you setting is on the amp to get different tones. I like mainly clean tone with a little reverb then I will throw some distortion on for effect thats about it like a boss equalizer, nano big muff and rat switched out depending my mood. Keep up the good work and I 'll be watchin for more.

I just grabbed a body from the same seller than you got yours, only mine is Surf Green. The paint job is FLAWLESS! Super excited to use it for my build!

I like the idea of a personalized guitar, make what you want, the sky's the limit.

Thanks for making me laugh, you made it and the first thing people ask "Is it a Fender?" 🧡 your videos!

Gotta admit , you made an excellent point: You can save a nice chunk w/a little incentive to build it w/parts. FENDER knows it's all about the brand name that keeps the sales coming .

I gave up and started assembling partscasters years ago. Although honestly some of the import Fender pickups sound as good as the handwound boutique stuff. Tex-Mex and Texas Specials are great, IMO and you can find them on sale for $60/set.

From Leo: There is no more mystery, there is no more magic. Everyone one knows how to set up a guitar so it plays good. A little adjustment so it plays good, and add some good electronics, and you are there. By $600 the law of diminishing returns hits hard. Most people are just buying bragging rights above that level. .

Yes, but don't forget to add on a box of luthier tools!

Hey Shawn, good video (you kinda forgot to price out the the back plate, the strap locks and the neck plate...unless I missed something...oh well). Anyway, for the most part you are right on the money, it is a lot cheaper and more rewarding to build your own. I started painting my own guitars about twenty years ago with great satisfaction with the end results and after a few years I started painting and building. At first, I started with using only Fender parts...but found that I could use other parts which were most times better and cheaper than Fender i,e. Wilkinson tremolo bridge with a steel block instead of zinc ($33.63 on ebay free shipping), Ash or alder strat style body (guitar fetish or sometimes ebay $79.99/$18.00 shipping) the neck at stratosphere (Fender lic Allparts chunky neck $109.00...I usually sand it down to a mid sixties C or a soft V shape) the pickups are usually Tonerider alnico 11 classic blues $99.00 a set or Fender 59 reissue $149.99 or even those cheap Hot Texas Blues pups at the stratosphere ($33.99/10.00 shipping a set) and I use only Vintage style tuners any kind is o.k. (ebay or Guitarfetish from $24.00 to $44.00) The rest of the parts are picked up on Guitarfetish or e-bay except the wiring harness which I make from scratch and usually only costs me around $10.00 to twenty dollars (and that's with cloth wiring an oak Grigsby selector switch and orange drop caps. To be fair you can get a decent harness on ebay for around $35.00 to $75.00 depending on what you want. I prefer to build my own. However, I still come in around $390.00 to $550.00 depending on the paint or pickups. Anyway, my point is (and yours I believe) why in the world should anyone pay those jacked op prices that Fender and the rest are charging? We shouldn't. Many have said of my builds (and I agree) that they are equal to anything coming out of the custom shop (I have great pics). I have played many, many Fender custom shop guitars and have been disappointed in most of them (save one or two). Though they look pretty they usually don't play well or even feel like the quality that goes into my own. So I say build your own...they may not be great in the beginning, but keep at and one day they will be...and for a lot less money THAT'S FOR SURE.

Dude. Hope all is well. Been watching but not as vocal in comments. Hope your good and congrats on the well deserved growth!!!

Thanks for the cool and informative video here. Also, it's neat to see you radius the neck and use that little stew mac tool to check. I have had that tool floating around in a box for about a decade now, and didn't know how to actually use it until today.

Great video man! Nice build and thanks for giving us the price breakdown. Happy birthday!

I got my '20 Player strat on reverb for $550 mint, all the plastics and stickers still on it. The deals are out there but I consider myself very lucky. That being said I love to build parts guitars and you did a great job!

I love how you edited the tuning bit. That there was funny!

Whoa... Solid build... You got a lot more value on that neck with your tune up vs. playing in that neck... Happy birthday 🎉🎉🎉

Just for clarification the genuine Fender "American" machinehead tuners are actually Taiwanese made by a company called Ping, the same make and model are also on the Mexican Standards and Player series too

Awesome. I would love to make one but no more room for another guitar. Would you be able to do the same with a Gibson les Paul? I'd love to see how that works

Good video, and good effort. But if someone doesnt have your skills, theres a risk of screwing it up. I went out and bought a Squire Classic Vibe 50's Strat, and it is by far the best guitar that I have owned, awesome tones and without being plugged in, its acoustic sound is great (personally, I like guitars that make a 'good noise' without being plugged in). Cost me $350 brand spanking new.

I will definitely be using rougher grit paper on my feet jobs. Because of everything I see I use really fine but it takes forever. Thanks

I got my 2012 american standard strat for 750 last year. But i really wanna build a backup. This is a good idea

Just bought a Roadhouse Strat. The parts are made in the US but assembled in Mexico. Turns out the Roadhouse Strat is in short supply. I had to buy the color off the wall. 1080.00 out the door. I like my music store (Chicago Music here in Tucson AZ, they help me.) I realize the store needs to make a profit. 95% of the time I am paying full retail. Sometimes if I have the cash,fully,( I have purchased a Martin D16E and a Yamaha FGX5 and my amp from them also) I negotiate a better deal. The store needs a profit. Profit is not a dirty word. I ask if the strat bodies with the cutout are available (Eric Johnson model) I would like to do build with one of those bodies. Tucson has a 8.7% sales tax.

This is very inspiring video and I'm def looking into building my next tele guitar.

I got my 89 MIM Strat for about 350 brand new . Yours is nice N "Stratty " Enjoy the Strat, happy early birthday Sean.....SCAR MY GUITAR.

Happy Birthday, Sean! Nice fiddle! It's crazy that the old MIM price points have now shifted to China while the old USA price points have shifted to Mexico (custom shop excluded).

As a 17 year old who hasn’t had a real fender yet I would’ve probably bought a used mim strat just to get that magic name on the headstock lmao. I’ve been looking for just a solid black strat with a maple board to mod into a David Gilmore type vibe but it’s getting pretty expensive to find ones in good condition and so I’ve been looking for good bodies and necks but I would really prefer an actual fender neck because I would feel weird about putting the decal on the licensed neck. And sure you can find a cheap squier to ravage for parts but I’ve modded two affinity’s and it’s a pain in the ass to not have the full thickness body it really limits what you can do. specifically if you want a legit trem block it’s too big, and I found out the hardway that a standard rotary switch doesn’t fit in the affinity body because the routing isn’t as deep due to the thinner body so when I was 15 I thought it’d be a good idea to bust out the ole hammer and chisel cuz I obviously didn’t have a router and I ended up blowing out the back of the guitar so now I have a back plate covering up my mistakes but hey the damn switch fit lmao

Great build and great tone. I prefer Yamaha RGX or Pacifica's. They take great care with their guitars and need little to upgrade. Finally had to upgrade my 420S. JB1 in the bridge and 59 in the neck. Got it fret dressed and pleked. Plays better than a San Dimas or an expensive strat. Great tone. And i agree whole heartedly. Won't ever pay big bucks for crap name brand.

its a total of 460 dollars + Labour Charges, which would total around 1500 dollars sean. Kits are available for purchase, but its the knowhow of putting em together that really takes the cake. Even if I buy a kit full of genuine parts and put em together, it probably wouldnt feel nearly as good as the one you or some other pro put together.

You did a great badass fretjob man.an made it look super easy.i know it's tricky when I first started but I'm getting way better at it finally after a few years of study

Hey man I can't help but notice you used 80 grit sandpaper. Try something really realty fine. Like 600 or 1000 it's all you need and much easier to polish out.

Always love this channel. Gotta find a replacement neck for my MIM strat since I don't have the ability to do some refret job.

Thats a beautiful maple neck you ended up with too. Very pretty grain. Cool video

I've bought 3 Mighty Mite necks in the past. One was crooked and MM wouldn't replace it. A second one had the skunk stripe slowly come out resultin constant relef adjustment. The third one is fine. All three required fret leveling. I finally bought a made in Mexico Fender neck that needed nothing. I've also use Warmoth and they are really good. Those tuners are made overseas....but I love them...I have them on 6 or 7 of my guitars. I do add a swith or pull pot to add the front pickup to give 7 positions....cheap mod. You have a nice build but I would have used a real Fender neck.

Cool video. I have never done guitar work beyond changing pickups, pots, etc. I can set up a guitar with intonation and string height, etc, so this seems totally doable. Thanks for posting it and I love the sunburst color you picked out. I like the lighter color sunburst myself. I think Ebay is in my future very soon...Thanks. Phil NYC Area

I didn’t know you could build a strat with fender parts for so cheap

Well that sucks everyone must have watched your show here I figured I’d make a strat for her first guitar, now I’m no guitar building genius but you make it look do able so I went on eBay to get her a black Stratocaster body and they are all 250 bucks now and the ones that are not are made in and shipping from China, I don’t do China buys. So I guess I’m back to square one.

I’ve said this a million times: 1500$ guitar budget= A US Strat or 500$ Strat that you do a little work on & 1000$ for lessons.

I died when you picked up the neck then pulled it out!!

Great video Shawn, thanks for the content my friend keep up the great work. I enjoy your charisma packed presentation, makes the videos seamless amigo.

Cool video. Appreciate the craftsmanship. Keep on rocking.

I bought a sonic blue Fender Tex Mex strat (MIM) in 1997 for $269.99 on clearance (they were discontinuing the model, to be replaced with the Jimmie Vaughan Tex Mex strat). I still have it and will never sell it. Strat prices are outrageous now!

The damndest guitar in my collection is Silvertone Strat made of plywood with a pretty tri burst and a great neck. It was really ugly when I got it the frets were green. But it cleaned up nice. No sprout, straight neck. 9.5 radius good tuners, but I took the strings off of course. The neck was straight and the frets were good no rock and the nut was bone and cut right. But the pots were typical dime sized but pulling the pickguard all of the soldering was good on both ends and it had shielding paint. No ID on the pickups just positioning. The bridge was a trem block and it had some weight to it. I don’t have the bar for it so I locked it down, D’Marxios 10s tuned to E flat. Hooked it up and it sounds great. I was surprised low action intonation was easy no buzz and it sounded like a good Strat. I play it occasionally and it seems better than it should be. I should replace the junk pots and get some good pickups. But I just play it around the house. Don’t judge a book by its cover it came in a wooden case. I gave $10 for it, all it took was some elbow grease and a set of strings. It not the best, but I can change the pots and pickups and who knows. It sounds good enough though my old Peavey Rage, lol