Maybe You Can Build a BETTER Guitar Than the Fender Custom Shop

This video is cool, but I’m not sure how the finished product can necessarily be considered better than a custom shop… unless price is the main consideration here.

$ 500.00 for the neck????????? how stupid

Thanks Landon. Every guitar gets put together by somebody. It's not by a wizard or magician. There is no magic those big $$ buy. Just great parts that work well together and are assembled with care and experience.

you skipped GROUNDING the bridge

It isn't better than a custom shop but it's still very nice.

What happened with the string tree guide? it dissappeared!!!!!!!

do they make this obisdian wire for nashville teles?

The neck used in the video alone, costs more than my whole guitar.

this video really makes me wanna build a mustang but i got no clue where to get the parts for that

I mean beautiful guitar but you used all fender parts would’ve been more fun to make a better guitar but at a cheaper price tag that’s at least 1500 bucks worth of stuff lol

I actually just built a Telecaster after being inspired by your videos. Here's how I kitted it out:
- Fender Sonic Blue body
- Fender satin roasted maple neck with rosewood fretboard
- Fender Parchment pickguard
- Twisted Tele pickups
- Mojotone solderless wiring harness
- Fender locking tuners
- Wilkinson compensated bridge

It came out beautifully and I love how it plays.

I enjoyed those stop motion picture segments even though they were an advertisement.

Love your voice. You make great videos.

Sorry, but you didn't build a guitar, you assembled one. That's perfectly okay, but there IS a difference. I submit that you cannot build a better guitar than any custom shop unless you have the same tools, fixtures, and jigs, and access to the same raw materials. I like what you've done, I'm just saying your TITLE is highly misleading.

I had to endure an Olay skin cream ad before getting to the good Landon stuff. Man those algorithms just dont get basic demographics right😂
Lake Placid mmmmmdreamy
who cares how it sounds it's so cool looking......
maybe I will buy some skin cream now for my Mom....😂❤
Yeah, never gonna happen.

Just spray some white paint over the chrome cover on the neck pickup and try to sell to a Tom de long fan for 2000 as a sleeper guitar haha 😂

Tools, i see only one.

I bought a Donner Thinline Telecaster copy. It came with a gig bag, tools, cable, and strap. After adjusting it and playing it for a while, I'll decide if anything needs to be changed. It could be a perfect starting place for modifications.

So far, the pickups are fine as they are. The electronic controls all work without any crackling noise. This seems to only need a setup. It won't sound like your awesome sounding Partscaster, because it is a dual humbucker guitar. I love it. It might be my best ever bang for the buck new instrument purchase.

You said a strat and now your doing a tele?

Sounds 👍
Could maybe get a better player to showcase the guitar.

maybe it just needs time to wear the new frets in but i kinda hate how it sounds. my partcaster strat i bought also has this problem, and for some reason i just can’t click with it, same w/ this tele in the vid. still, i really enjoyed watching u make it, ur a cool dude, hard to find a guitar page that isn’t run by the most bland human alive 👍

I thought this was how to build your own. Most people will buy necks are bodies "without" holes. Just putting in a few screws doesn't need a whole video. Most DiY'ers can't afford 1500.00 for parts. That's why they build themselves. You can make a great guitar for 500 or less, even cheaper for a decent player, you need a video for that. Anyway thanks I appreciate your channel for other things.

It sounds kinda clinky to me, I like your semi hollow way better. You probably don't play this much do you? Not worth the effort or money imo. Teles are not always better. This is one of those times.

The action is too low.

This is a great video. Might want to zoom out a tiny bit to better frame your head in the talking head shots

Word of warning - pickups are a lot more fragile than many think. I'd be cautious about buying 2nd hand

you didn't build anything..you assembled a pre fashioned set-- you screwed together an ikea set-- Let's slow down a bit

Should been telling us some. War stories ,

$500 just for the neck?!!!

By build you meant assemble

taught myself to solder with heaps of f!@# ups now this easy as shit comes along🤣🤣🤣🤣F!@# soldering its very over rated😆

Screwing the neck to the body just so it looks like a guitar probably isn't the most sensible order to do things. If you have to do any work on the headstock, like pressing bushes in or drilling screw holes, do you really want a big heavy guitar body hanging off it?

I built a telecaster about 2 years ago and it feels better and plays better than almost any telecaster I've ever picked up before

Do not cut nut until you measure~~~~~~~~!!!!!!!

Thanks Landon. I love this "hiding in plain sight" "just a Mexi Tele" angle. No doubt monetarily it costs more in comparison to an actual Vintera Road Worn, but yours is all dialled in, exactly to your specs, WITHOUT the drama of buying and selling a ton of parts and what not. And there's also the time factor.
Bravo.

.009s? Rubber bands.

love the jumpscare intro landon

I’ve built a few parts casters and only use bee’s wax on the screws. Better tone than other synthetic waxes plus it allows the screws to breath inside the wood

Landon! SOS! 911! I need your help. I finished a strat build, with one major issue! I can't get the second plastic film layer off the damn pickguard. I know it's there. It's mocking me, but I cannot get it. To make matters worse, I just clipped my fingernails. I don't want to just leave it, because the original owner of my 2003 Fender Strat Jr. Did that and I'm still dealing with the consequences.

Peel it off for me, please. Help, somehow.

Nice... why don't you schield the different cavities with copper tape or conductive painting ?

Im certain that is a good guitar but you invested way too much money in it.

I want to learn to play guitar so bad but I am getting to old to learn and I am a lefty. Where I live in Canada lefty guitars are crazy expensive. The guitar i want to learn to play on is a Fender Stratocaster. I would love to get just that one guitar and that would be a Candy Apple Red Fender Stratocaster. The way I see it is Fender is the best. It would be on my bucket list but I was in a work injury in 2013 that has left me on permanent disability. So I would never be able to afford one. I just about bought a used one but when someone offered the guy $50.00 more then me, he sold it to the other guy. I was so disappointed and angry that I did not have that extra $50.00. Oh well maybe in the Life after this life. I even looked on sweetwater and they only have 2 left handed Squires. My dream is going to stay a dream with these prices. It really is a shame that everything is so expensive. Plus I have to think about the USA to Canadian exchange which really makes this a dream I will go down with.

Naw man why not a six saddle???

Enjoy your gear reviews and your sense of humor.

Ummm ok, the problem here is , you are using lower quality parts than a cs.
So a cs uses better fret wire, finish, wood, hand wound pickups, a proper soldered wiring. Much better fretwork. And a few other things.
I know what it takes to get to that level…
I am not criticizing a partscaster, my #1 guitar, and the best tele I have ever owned is a partscaster.
And I also own a custom shop.
The point is , you assembled a guitar, you did a good job at it,
The weight is very good for that level of parts.
But custom shop? No that’s delusional.
A out of the box American original, or American vintage is much closer in both built quality, and materials.
About the best fender does off the shop floor.
The weak area are the pickups.
But drop some Ron Ellis , or similar level pickups.
A plek, and you can beat a CS in tonality, and be on par with playability.
Just keeping the truth here, because the truth should matter.
And should matter more than a catchphrase, for views.
Just saying.

Why not glue the neck as well as screw it?

How did you like the Obsidian controls?....is the "rolloff" on the pots a nice gradual roll?

I love building Partcasters. Its such a fun experience, you learn a lot, and u can build a highly personalized instrument. I highly recommend it.
One thing im curious about though. Every Fender Neck i have bought were not pre slotted, just slightly grooved so you dont have to figure out the string spacing. Im curious if the Fender Worn neck is different, or if Sweetwater slotted the nut for him before sending it out.

I love the idea of building a guitar to my very own specifications. My nocaster began life as a vintera II nocaster, I liked the neck but felt the paint was far too glossy so I ordered a body designed by mjt who builds some amazing nitro finish bodies. I then installed lollar special t’s, and a Bakelite pickguard and boom, I have my favorite guitar that I’ve ever owned.